Session 11 - Online Collaboration Tools

Online collaboration tools can be plit into categories, much like social media. I like to think of them as:

• Whiteboard
• Mind Mapping
• File sharing
• Concept design 
• Project Management/Team Collaboration

Of course there are also tools that have multiple functions.

Whiteboards

This is exactly what it sounds like - a large whiteboard that you can share and collaborate with other people online. They are usually reasonably free-form so you can just start adding your information and/or drawing your ideas out. Team members are invited to join and share.

Realtime Board

https://realtimeboard.com/

Twiddla

http://www.twiddla.com/

Flockdraw

http://flockdraw.com/

Mind Mapping

Bubble.us

https://bubbl.us/

MindMup

https://www.mindmup.com

Mind 42

http://mind42.com/

File sharing/Document Sharing

The most popular of these would be

• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• OneDrive - Microsoft - integrates with Office Applications
• ZOHO

All of these applications allow you to store your files in the cloud and share and collaborate with others.

Concept Design

Trello

https://trello.com/

Invision

http://www.invisionapp.com/

Concept Board

http://conceptboard.com/

Framebench

http://www.framebench.com/

Project Management/Team Collaboration

There are heaps of Project management tools out there that allow you to collaborate on a project, schedule and allocate tasks and create To Do lists.

https://www.twoodo.com/

https://www.agreedo.com/index.html

https://www.wrike.com

https://www.hipchat.com

https://podio.com

Class Activity

Can you find any that I missed? Hint: Yes there are heaps!
Are there any that allow you to collaborate across devices (i.e. computer, tablet, phone or other mobile device)

Project Time

Now is your opportunity to organise your group for the class presentations. Frankston group(s) will be on the first week back after the break, so take the opportunity to get organised and decide on which tool you will be reviewing individually. Check with your classmates to make sure that you don't double up.

Graded Blog Activity

This is the last of your graded Blog Activities for this class. Get a group together and try 2 collaboration tools. In your blog your should indicate:

• What tools you used
• How easy they were to use
• What you get for free
• Would you continue to use or use again if you needed to collaborate.