I love the cloud.

I love the freedom that online files give me to organize documents, share documents, and to collaborate with my students and peers.

But without a doubt, collaboration is the primary reason I value online learning. I love the flexibility that it gives to working with others. Collaboration is such a critical component of the NETS(Standard 2 – see below), and I find that the cloud allows my students and peers to improve on the face-to-face collaboration, taking it further to completion. The classroom discussion and collaboration is a great way to learn, but in the past, I found it difficult to enable collaboration outside of school. The cloud is so useful now because it allows this group learning to move beyond the classroom, and it allows each student to contribute in their own way and time.

NETS Standards

This week I had my journalism students work in pairs, scanning student newspapers around the world and completing a document recording their discoveries about newspapers and their topics. By having them use Google docs, I was able to ensure that each student was on task the entire time, and then able to complete the task later.

Last year, when my students created a poster around our class novel, they were able to complete all the pre-writing via Google docs. The collaboration of this meant that the text was edited, proofed and revised by several members of the group, improving its quality.

My appreciation for the cloud was made more real last week when my paper project ran into trouble. In my journalism class last week, I had each group work together on one piece of paper to write down their plans for their newspaper. I find that collaboration around a piece of paper leads to better more dialogue and interaction, as well as providing some physical interaction for my hyperactive middle school kids. But one week later, one-third of those groups could not locate their paper! One other group also suffered because the holder of the paper was absent from school. Had I used the cloud for this project, I would not have had this problem. But I also would not have had the interaction that occurred in the classroom.

So how do I get both? I have decided that if my students complete work on paper that will be used later by the entire group for reference or study, I will make sure that they transfer their notes onto the cloud.

Nets Standard 2

2. Communication and Collaboration

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students: