Collaborative Technologies
and PLNs
New Literacies for the 21st Century Teacher
Laura Nicosia, PhD
Montclair State University
English Department

Welcome to
NJCTE @ MSU

Who is here today?
K-5 Educator
6-8 Language Arts Educator
Secondary English Educator
Please stand if you are:
Technology Coordinator
Supervisor & Administrator
Media Specialist
Higher Education Faculty

Raise your hand if you use
Facebook/MySpace
Blogs
Linked-in
Microblogging Sites (Twitter/Plurk/Jaiku)
Second Life
Skype
Social Networking or Bookmarking sites (de.lici.ous/
Stumbleupon/Furl/Flickr)
Wikis

Some sites I use regularly
Diigo Second Life
Google Docs Slideshare
Ning Twitter
Plurk Wikispaces

In today’s session
I’ll introduce you to a few of my favorite collaborative sites.
Diigo
Google Docs
Ning
Wikis

Diigo
http://
www.youtube
.com/watch?
v=0RvAkTuL
02A

With Diigo you can
annotate & highlight
articles as you read
them. These
notations will remain
there now--and later.
That’s pretty cool
already. But...you can
also SEND those
articles as emails
and/or as urls.

When you sign up with Diigo
you download a tool bar menu

You can bookmark texts
save & organize them on a web-hosted site

Highlight & comment ON the text

Share the article with
others--with your notes!

They share back

This is an effective tool for:
Writers
Researchers
Teachers
Students
How might YOU use such a tool?

Sometimes--you
need to write
with someone
to collaborate
on a report, a
document or
So, how an article.
could you go
about doing
that?

You
+ Me
I use Google Docs

You’ll need to open a Google Account
Free
Easy
Loaded with functionality
Here’s your Google tool and menu bar

1. More
2. Google Books
3. Google Scholar
4. Google Documents

Create a new document with one click
Share it by inviting collaborators

This is a document I created for a
summer NJCH Workshop
Documents are stored on the web
and appear as in “Page Layout”

This is the
Content Menu
It shows all items owned by
or opened by me
It holds folders that I either
create or upload
It indicates who I’m sharing
documents with and how
many documents for which
we are collaborating.

Here’s a resource on “15 ways
to Use Google Docs in Your
Class”, written by Tom Barrett:
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dhn2vcv5_8323t58h3ft

Sometimes, my colleagues
and I want to upload videos,
collaborate and perhaps even
have fun. What then?

Ning

With Ning you can:
Upload profile pictures or avatars
Upload videos, documents or urls
Start & moderate discussion forums
Create groups
Create FAQ pages
Post & monitor blogs
Invite members

This is the site I created for our English Ed program

It’s easy to navigate and to manage:
You invite people by email
You promote the site
Upload pictures
from CCL sites
You can Delete
your site

Here’s my
page I am the
Administrator
& Creator of
our network
of over 150
members. I
communicate
policies, job
openings &
events via
Ning.

My Methods of Teaching English
students are using Ning for
“virtual fieldwork.”
My Methods classes are paired with 2 English classes at a
public high school in Fredericksburg,VA.
They read the students’ writings (blogs, discussion
forums & mini-essays) and leave feed-back.
They ask critical thinking questions and try to provoke
the students to dig deeper for their responses.
They communicate with the classroom teacher—ask her
questions and suggest resources for her to use.

These are the 2 sites my classes use:

My students read the HS students’ discussions

The teacher sets these reminder directions:
We respond with thoughtful questions or comments:

My students offer “real time” responses
One of my
graduate
students
responded
with this
thoughtful
and
constructive
posting

This pilot has been exciting!
It’s a work-in-progress & we intend to
reflect and assess its benefits and
weaknesses at the end of the semester.
I’ll keep you posted...

Sometimes, I want
participants to be
site builders.

For instance, when I
offer
Professional
Development
courses &
training,
I usually
create a Wiki
for
participants

Wikis
Here’s OUR wiki for this session:
http://njctecollaborativetools.wikispaces.com/

Here’s what the Wiki looks like
upon its creation:
First, you choose a name
for your site.

Then you “Manage” your
Wiki to personalize it
Invite
Members
Change
colors &
images

Creating content for your Wiki is EASY!
Create your own icons
Create your page contents by this simple
“Edit This Page” button. The act of
creating content on the page is a simple
process of typing a Word document--as you
would with Word or Office

Here is the “Home” page
All you do is type...
Don’t forget to put “tags”

Members add content, too
Each member can
add a “New Page”
and “Edit Page” to
contribute content

You can even include
“Hot Links”
Use this
button to
insert a link
I want to
insert a link
to email me

What if you don’t
like or want the changes
a member makes?

You can “revert” easily
Simply use this button to view recent
changes, additions or modifications

Change using the
Content Manager
Reject changes
or revert to an
earlier version

Participants
can chat
using a basic
and easy to
use
Discussion
Board

I hope you enjoyed this
introduction to some
collaborative tools

Sites, urls & sources I
used in this preso:
www.Diigo.com
www.flickr.com
www.google.com
www.ning.com
www.wikispaces.com

Here are sites you will
enjoy exploring:
www.Plurk.com
www.Twitter.com
www.slideshare.com
www.teachertube.com
www.animoto.com

Thank you!
Laura Nicosia, Phd
English Department
Montclair State University
nicosiala@mail.montclair.edu