Collaboraive+Writing+Tools

Collaborative writing tools allow individuals to write together, typically in an online environment. Visit the websites below and choose one you believe to be the best; write your choice in the chart column labeled review (for example, if you believe Google Docs is the best choose the row in the Review column that coincides with it). Be sure and include your name with the review and the reason you have chosen the particular tool. Note: you may choose one that someone else has selected just be sure and space between the entries and support your chooice. Please see my example and choice below.

After visiting the collaborative writing sites, respond to the sentence starter below with a post to this page:

1. Writing collaboratively is a good/bad (your pick) idea because. ..
Emily Hughes' choice: The Zoho Writer is my choice for a collaborative writing tool. I like the fact that it is most like a Microsoft Word document. I also like that each person can choose a color to use for editing. The fact that it is available offline is helpful. I do not like the fact that students would have to enter an email account to login. This would be a problem if I was doing this with 5th grades at school. As far as using this with other teachers this would be effective. || Lorena Chambers' favorite choice also- Writeboard is a web-based free writing and editing tool. You can use this tool the same way you would use a word processor. It can be used for business letters, essays, perfecting articles, cover letters, refining text, and writing songs, poems, or short stories. The differences in the word processor and this tool are Writeboard is sharable, allows you to save every edit, and most specifically collaborate with others. Unlike a Word document that is stored on one computer you can access your work from any computer. My favorite asset about the tool is nothing is lost or deleted. Every time you save an edit, a new version is created and linked in the sidebar. The users to benefit from this tool would be businesses, students, and teachers. __Joel Powers"s choice__-What made this site stand out for me was the its ability to save all versions of a document. Many of them allow for collaboration on many types of documents. Many are free and useful for individual and whole-class situations.This was the one I preferred because of the saving of different versions. __Tracy Bain's Choice__- Writing collaboratively is a good Writeboard idea because it is free and easy to use. This was simple to get started by naming the page, assigning it a password, and entering my email address. It allows a class to write together and saves the document. The activity can be saved and worked on at a later date. __Vanessa Cannon's Choice-__This tool is great for students to work on stories, reports, and other project at home with a partner. Students can both access the project on their own computer to edit when needed. This is a nice tool for teachers to collaboratively work on their lesson too! || Jessica Gooch's Choice- Google Docs allows a user to create and add a presentation, spreadsheet, document, etc. In Google Docs you can manage those who can view the document. People who are invited to look at the document can modify the document. Google Docs can be accessed from anywhere that has access to the internet. One way I have used Google Docs in the classroom is to keep up with student work. In the middle school that I recently taught in we used Google Docs to see who owed work between the different classes. I could see what a student owed in another class and if the student have free time in my class then I could get him/her started on that assignment. It helped maximize time. //**Eva Dodson's Choice-Writing collaboratively is a good idea because it allows you to have several eyes and opinions on your writing.**// I like the sites where you write collaboratively but changes are noted in different colors and you can choose whether or not to accept any changes made you YOUR writing. I also love LOVE LOVE Google Docs. I was introduced to this near the end of my Associates Degree and wish I had known about it sooner. Unfortunately, it isn't a site where you can be notified of changes BEFORE they are made by others. I love that you can open it from any computer with internet access. I also love that you can share it with others and have them interact and give you feedback/opinions on changes that need to be made and edit comments. This has been so helpful to me, especially before I bought a jump drive. The only downside is if there is no internet, you cannot access your files. The other downside, like Rhonda said, is that you cannot highlight or see the changes that others make to your document. Recently I had more trouble getting into Google to even USE my GoogleDocs but the Docs itself worked fine. I really like Jessica's idea of using it for student's in class-I hadn't thought of branching out like that! Travis Little's Choice - I am a huge fan of Google Docs. In my early career (2 yrs) I was an accountant and I relied heavily on this tool to look at documents on my phone when I was away from the office. I liked the fact I could see docs on my blackberry and then make some corrections as they were needed. I also liked that I could use Google Docs and leave my flashdrive at home which was one less thing for me to keep up with. I think the apps to use GoogleDocs on your phone is not as good as it should be (in comparrison to a laptop) but I believe the program is seeing improvements on a constant basis. The only downfall I see is that it requires the internet as Eva noted earlier in hers. ||
 * || =Collaborative Writing Tools= || =Review= ||
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Zoho.JPG]] || Zoho Writer || Alisha Thompson's choice - The Zoho writer is user friendly especially if you are familiar with Microsoft Word documents. Zoho offers all your documents available online and offline as well. You can have open chats with collegues while editing and viewing documents. The sign-up with Zoho also comes with free apps that allow you to create spreadsheets, online presentation creator and enables net meetings.
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Writeboard.JPG]] || Write Board || Jessica Knox's choice- Writeboard is a really neat webtool. It is a free program where anyone (teachers, students, songwriters, poets, etc.) can sign up and type in documents. After a document is typed it, they can easily invite people to view and edit their document simply by entering the person's email address. The one really neat thing I found was it sends you an update when your document has been edited. Also if you do not like the editing and want to go back to the previous version...it is super simple, just click it! I feel that collaborative writing tools are a great way to tie technology into the literacy classroom (it is also just a great resources for teachers too!).
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Google_Docs.JPG]] || Google Docs || Rhonda Kerr's choice- Google Docs is a free web program (cloud based) that allows you to create, edit, and collaborate on documents. You can create documents in Google Docs, upload or email them. Unfortunately, users can not be notified of changes made by other users and users are not able to highlight or see the changes made by others.
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Type_with_me.JPG width="164" height="96"]] || Type With Me || Dr. Comer's choice. This tool is easy to use and allows individuals to write collaboratively and conduct a live chat. Beyond that, each person taking part can choose their own color so that all involved recognize who has made comments or edited the piece. ||
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Writing_Collaboratively_1.JPG]] || Social Text ||  ||
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Writing_Collaboratively_4.JPG]] || Synchro Edit ||  ||
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Writing_Collaboratively_2.JPG]] || Quick Topic ||  ||
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Writing_Collaboratively_3.JPG]] || Edit Grid ||  ||
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Writing_Collaboratively_5.JPG]] || Please Review || Melissa Killian's choice-Please Review is a program that you can upload different files for editing, such as Word, PDF, or PowerPoint files without having to download any other software. It allows several people to do parallel editing and also allows offline editing. The same document is used for all editors to see. By using this same file, the editors can see what has been edited and post comments/suggestions for the author. The author can even upload a complete file but put restrictions on what parts are to be edited. When the editors are finished, the author is able to look at all of the corrections and either accept or reject what has been done to the article. The only major drawback is that the program is not free. ||
 * [[image:teachingoflanguagearts/Writing_Collaboratively_7.JPG width="216" height="81"]] || Sync In || Vickie Cederoth's choice - Sync.in is a web-based word processor that allows people to collaborate in real-time. The note text is synchronized as you type, so that everyone viewing the page sees the same text. New users can be invited to participate by using the share feature. Any information that is entered is continuously being saved and each user has a different text color for what they type. There is also a Time Slider view that allows you to visit the document later to see how it progressed. This is a great way to collaborate between individuals for meeting notes, brainstorming, project planning, training, etc. There is a free version and also a pro-version available. The pro-version requires a monthly fee and has some extra features. However, the free version would probably be sufficient for most users. ||