Collaborative technology

Every day we collaborate - with our families, our friends, our students, our neighbors, our co-workers.  We talk and we talk.  Wikipedia defines collaboration as "The action of working with someone to produce or create something".  Sometimes our collaboration seems more meaningful than others - we create an assessment for our grade level, we create a new idea to try in our classroom, we create a friendship by talking to a neighbor.  Then we add the technology part in and somehow I stuttered.  What is amazing is that I view blogs, search items on the internet, post my political comments, watch a video to show me something, and the list goes on and on.  I even see my own children collaborating online with Facebook and Pinterest.  But somehow, I still stutter or stumble to figure out how to use this for my little second graders.  They seem so small and so young and their fingers don't fit on the keyboard.  They don't know how to type.
 
Then I remembered myself telling my students our classroom motto- "You never know what you can do until you try."  Am I walking the talk?  So, now I rewind and look at the websites for collaborative technology with a fresh set of eyes.  Someone has to teach them these tools.  If I look at these sites and say - what can we do as a whole class or what can they do in a group format with assistance.  Now all of sudden, I can find new ways to add this to my classroom.

1.  Voice thread can be used in a second grade classroom in January to have a student read and record themselves.  I would post it to voice thread and then allow other students to come and listen to the book and make comments about the book.  It would open up a great discussion and post feedback to the student reading the book.  Also, it would be a great opportunity to extend my gifted learners and at the same time help my lower readers by having a book read aloud to them while they follow along.

2. ePals   is a perfect sight for many things in second grade.  We can learn about other cultures in other continents, see rocks and minerals from other parts of the world, and gain writing skills along the way.

3. Skype is another great place for learning in second grade.  Our class can learn from so many amazing authors, scientists, and historians about our world and never have the expense of leaving our class. 

Just because their fingers are too small to type doesn't mean they can't collaborate.  At some point, each child needs the first exposure to a new technology.  At some point, the teacher needs to stretch beyond their comfort zone and look at things with a fresh new set of eyes.