Have you ever heard of a Collaborative Learning Environment?

  Many of us have tried to get our students to learn together and learn from each other, yet many of us have yet to take advantage of the technology that makes this even more possible.  Collaborative Learning Environments allow students to make connections to those outside of their classroom, whether it's authors, scientists or other students across the world.  Through the many options available students can pool their resources to access the best opportunities for learning.

  This last year I was introduced to one such Collaborative Learning Environment called Edmodo.  This website allows teachers to connect to students by uploading assignments, managing discussions and more.  I have yet to use this resource with my students but am excited by its potential.  Just this last year the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio was the winner of our state's Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award.  Through Edmodo students have been connecting with this book in ways that cannot be replicated in the classroom.  I would like to use this resource this year at my school, particularly in the upper grades where students are already working in literature circles to discuss their books.  This would allow the students to make connections with their peers outside of school and give them more opportunities to have deeper discussions while in class.  I would recommend this resource to schools who want to work on embedding technology into the curriculum as this is an available avenue to allow students and teachers to make connections easily and effortlessly.  The biggest challenge will be setting up your classroom database of students and the training for logging in.  Please visit my Diigo links below to find more about this project as well as using Edmodo in your classroom.