There is a great Comic company with an app for iOS and Android, as well as for Google Chrome, and Adobe Air (which places an app on your desktop of any computer used. They have a great interface - all the access apps sync one with another. You can read the comics, rate them, post threads with comments… If you like comic books, I highly recommend them. The company is called graphic.ly. They are moving from Boulder to San Francisco. Check them out!

Anyway, I am thinking of how I could set up something like this for my French students so they can post their projects, compositions, portfolios… and comment on each others work - all in French, of course.

What cool ideas are you thinking about? I would love to hear your ideas as well!

Cheers,
Don in Napa

Don,

First thanks for the info. I will look into the app you talked about. In answer to your question I can think of a couple ideas. It would really depend on age and how complex you want to get.

First just setting up a group wiki with each student being allowed to author and comment. Great thing about a wiki is you can have them create a portfolio and it can link and embed multiple documents. One I prefer is http://www.wikispaces.com (Be sure to get educational subscription.) You can also set it up as a closed community.

Another good closed community is http://www.kidblog.com  You can set it up and even monitor all activity approving before anything goes public.

I was also thinking about crocodoc. While I have not used it much it seems to have some great collaborative abilities for other to share and mark up on document. http://crocodoc.com/

I could also see glogster http://www.glogster.com/edu having some possibilities along with http:www.voicethread.com

Wishing you the best and again thanks,

Mike Gorman
http://www.21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Don -

Michael makes some really good suggestions for Web 2.0 tools! Wikispaces is a staple in my classroom. However, if you are looking for a system that will easily manage your discussions, allow students to upload documents and podcasts, and comment on posted work, you might want to check out Edmodo http://edmodo.com. It is a free, educational management system that has the look and feel of Facebook, but without the concerns of security issues. The tool also allows you to conduct online polls, tag links, create a course calendar, create assignments, and you can include parents! All you have to do is give them the class code and they can start commenting on student work, participate in discussions, and have access to pertinent information for your classroom. You can also connect with other classes from around the country that are using this tool.

Let us know what you think!

Thank you SO much for these great tips! I am excited to try it out. I think the kids will be very engaged in an forum where they can post their work and get comments from one another. I like the idea of being able to showcase student work to the community as well- ie, students, parents and invited guests and dignitaries of sundry sorts. That will be affirming as well. Add in an epal connection and we will be set to GO - yah! Your input is greatly appreciated - more to come.

Cheers, Don