Blog : Collaboration and File Sharing Tools

Tool: Snagit

Website: www.techsmith.com/snagit.html

Rating: 

Snagit is a screenshot program that captures video display and audio output. Originally for the Microsoft Windows operating systems, recent versions have also been available for Mac OS, but with fewer features. Snagit is available in English, German, Korean, and Japanese versions. Snagit replaces the print screen function with additional features. Newer versions allow batch capture of embedded items such as links, pictures, and multimedia. The user can set parameters and keyboard shortcuts to capture particular types of data, which are stored in a folder called “Catalog” by default. Snagit can also follow links in web pages, capturing the specified data from the linked pages.

Usage

Snagit can be used to:
Capture key moments from a webinar to reference them later or share with colleagues.
Grade assignments and narrate feedback. You can take an image capture of an electronic assignment then add extra space to the capture to allow you to make notes in the margins.
Create engaging video lessons for your students and narrate them as you go.
Build engaging handouts

Reviews

TopTen Reviews rated the software 4/4 in all categories, the review highlighted the capture quality, ease of use, and support.  CNET rated the software 8/10, mentioning the ability to take screenshots of entire web pages, but pointed out weaknesses including a poor wizard and fewer output file formats than competitors. About.com is also very positive, awarding 5/5 and pointing out the ease of use, comprehensive features, and multiple views, but they stated that text entry in the Snagit Editor is slow, lagging behind as text is typed in the edit box.

Tool Evaluation

Tool: Google Docs

Website: www.google.com/docs

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Google Docs is a web-based application in which documents and spreadsheets can be created, edited and stored online for free. It is a convenient, cheap, and compatible method of creating and accessing files as they can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection, thus making collaboration a simple and efficient process.

Usage

Google Docs can be used to create and share docs, spreadsheets and presentations – individually or collaboratively. Google docs is part of a comprehensive package of online applications offered by and associated with Google that includes other applications such as google slides and google sheets. Google docs is compatible with most presentation and word processing applications and lends itself to collaborative projects in which there are multiple authors working from geographically diverse locations. Users have control over who sees their work and all participants who can subsequently see the document are privy to see who and when specific alterations were made.  As a Mobile and Digital E-learning tool, Google Docs has three web apps, one that works offline and two other mobile apps for Android and iOS. These apps are compatible with Microsoft Office file formats. The Pricing for this tool varies. Users can get 15Gb of storage and all features for free or 1.70 euro/month for 100Gb storage, 9 euro/month for 1TB and up to 30TB for 260euro/month.

Review

Google Docs enables you to create, share, back up and export a wide range of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and drawings.

Tool Evaluation

Tool: Yammer

Website: www.yammer.com

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Yammer is Microsoft’s Enterprise Private Social Networking platform that has become a popular social collaboration and knowledge sharing platform both in businesses and education.

Usage

Yammer’s functionality in fostering collaboration and discussion has made it a popular choice in the context of training and education. Yammer brings together students, content, conversation, and educational data in a single convenient location. Yammer offers you an intelligent and efficient way to connect with the information and people that you need to get things done, and their mobile app allows you to keep on top of what’s going on, even when you’re on the go! Some ways Yammer can be used:
-Collaborate and share ideas together in real time, no matter where you are.
-Keep Informed: Stay on top of conversations, files, and projects
-Talk with Groups: Discover what’s happening in your Groups and share your input
-Your Mobile Inbox: See your most important Yammer conversations and prioritize your work
-Share Photos: Snap a pic and easily share it with others
-Get Push Notifications: Stay notified of important activity right when it happens. Yammer Enterprise and Office 365 are engineered to work well together. Foster open team collaboration by using Yammer to bring your work together in one place.
Any organization can use Yammer for free, and many educational institutions have jumped on the Yammer train. Yammer is a social network much like Twitter or Facebook, but it differs in a couple of key ways. First, not everyone can join Yammer. You have to have an email address associated with a company or institution to join the network, thus there are no extraneous postings that are unrelated to the people who you work with professionally. Yammer has a great user interface and offers a very useful mobile app. The user community is also especially valuable if expert assistance is needed.

Review

Yammers offers the ability to create a private group, chat with various members, and see who is online. Live feeds, the use of polls, the announcements feature, the embedding of articles, and the response features to postings are also other ways of engaging on this social networking site.

Tool Evaluation

Tool: Trello

Website: www.trello.com

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Trello is a web-based tool that allows people to collaborate and helps them to organize their projects using the Kanban paradigm. This project management application allows its users to know the current status of their projects in one glance.

Usage

Its simple interface makes it ease to use for any size of projects. Trello is visually appealing and quite intuitive so new users can take advantage of it soon after they start to use it. Trello is a tool available for free but you can enjoy some additional features by upgrading your account to Trello Gold for an amount of $5 per month or $45 per year. Moreover, for every person who you invite and gets to join Trello you will receive one free month of Trello Gold, up to one year

Review

As Trello is a web-based tool it can be accessed from anywhere as long as an internet connection is available. Moreover, if you wish you can download their app for iPhone/iPad, Android device and Kindle Fire.

With Trello you can manage your projects using different boards which are made up of lists representing a workflow. Then, you can add cards to those boards containing useful information as checklists or due dates. Furthermore, you can share this information with your teammates and chat with them.

Tool Evaluation

Tool: Slide Share

Website: www.slideshare.net

Rating: 

Slide Share is a web application. It provides a slide hosting service where users can upload files. These files can be public or private depending on which is the need. This application was acquired by LinkedIn in 2012.

Usage

It is easy to learn and use, due it is similar to other presentation tools. However, many users complain that it does not have any ease to develop collaborative presentations. Due to it is a web application, it is easy to share and send to many people which are one of its best advantages.
Review
Slideshare is free and it does not have any premium version. During approximately four years, Slide Share had a premium version. This version was deleted and all its features were moved to the free version. As a web tool, SlideShare has a really easy access since its only requirement is to be registered in SlideShare, LinkedIn or Facebook. However, this tool cannot be accessed unless you have an Internet connection. In addition, SlideShare can be accessed from an android or windows phone device due to its app. With SlideShare you can create online presentations that can be displayed in many browsers. SlideShare can share your slides by email and social networks (e.g. Facebook). SlideShare allows users to download presentation in many formats such as ppt, pptx, pdf, doc, docx, mp4, mov, etc.

Tool Evaluation

Tool: Slack

Website: www.slack.com

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Slack was designed to be a powerful communication tool to aid team collaboration. Its main use is to provide a platform for volumes of communication between a large team or classroom of individuals. Because communication on this scale can become unmanageable and inefficient this tool can be used to ensure that communications happen all in one place and can be segmented by creating Channels for various topics. Educators can assign users to as many (or as few) channels as they need in order to keep topics visible to the class members who want to see any individual topic.

Usage

Slack communications is a simple and dynamic tool to use. Slack offers such as integration with services students and teachers use every day such as drop box, it allows for the fast and easy searching of posts from users at any time through specific filtering, it allows for private or one to one group communication regarding sensitive subjects that are specific for one user and finally it is accessible on the go via the app. Slack offers a free version for small groups as well as two different premium versions. The first one, called standard version, cost 5.70euros per month. The second one, called plus version, cost 11 euros per month.

 Tool Evaluation

Tool: One Note

Website: www.onenote.com

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Microsoft OneNote is a king of digital notebook developed by Microsoft Corporation, designed for information gathering and multi-user collaboration.

Usage

OneNote enables the user to gather notes drawings, screen clippings and audio commentaries. The notes can by organized using notebooks, sections and tags. The text in the notes can be handwritten or typed and have different format (bold, italicize, underline, highlight, indent). Notes’ reviewing and updating is possible on different devices thanks to synchronization and storing notes in the cloud (e.g OneDrive). Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network. Microsoft OneNote is included with the Microsoft Office suite.

Review

OneNote is available on devices with Android, iOS and Windows Phone or via browser. Creation of the account is required to start using the tool. User can create notes without Internet, however for synchronization and backup services the Internet connection is required. With OneNote user can create different types of notes, which can be stored “in the cloud” and available on various devices like mobile phones, iPad’s, computers. From the application user can share and publish notes on e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. The notes can be stored on Onedrive or Dropbox. It’s compatible other Microsofr Office applications, e.g. with Word, Excel.

Tool Evaluation

Tool: Evernote

Website: www.evernote.com

Rating: 

Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for note-taking and archiving. The tool is oriented on gathering, tagging and analysing any kind of data, stored in the cloud and available from your local machine or mobile devices. Evernote offers four level of the software: basic, plus, premium and business. The basic one is for free. The others have extended list of features and require to pay for this facilities (plus – 50zł per year; premium – 90zł per year; business -360zł per year).

Usage

Users can create notes as a piece of formattable text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten “ink” note. On supported operating systems,  Evernote allows users to store and edit notes on their local machine. However, for synchronization and backup services the Internet connection is required.

Review

Evernote is available on many operating system platforms including OS X, iOS, Chrome OS, Android, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, BlackBerry 10, and webOS. Usage the tool on mobile phones or tablets is available by dedicated app. The access from the computer to the application might be done by a browser. To use the tool the account is required. User can create the Evernote profile or integrate it with e.g. Facebook, Twitter. User can create different type of notes, store them and share with other. Users with Internet access and an Evernote account can also have their notes automatically synchronised with a master copy held on Evernote’s servers. This approach lets users access and edit their data across multiple machines and operating system platforms. However, notes stored on Evernote servers are not encrypted.

Tool Evaluation

Tool: Dropbox

Website: www.dropbox.com

Rating: 

You can use it to store and sync documents and files across computers, tablets, and smart phones. Dropbox is a freemium service. The free personal account starts you out with 2GB of space. You can earn more free space through referrals (an additional 500MB for every friend who joins, up to 16GB) and other actions. Paid personal plans, collectively named Dropbox Pro, start at $9.99 per month or $99 per year for 100GB of space. Prices go up as you increase the storage allotment: $19.99 per month for 200GB (or $199 annually when paying upfront), and $49.99 per month for 500GB (or $499 annually). The price for Business accounts varies based on the number of employees: It starts at $15 per month per user, with a minimum of 5 users, making $75 per month the minimum..”

Usage

Dropbox is a well-implemented, cloud-based, automatic, file-syncing service that has an excellent array of apps for various operating systems. You can easily install Dropbox on virtually any computer and mobile device you own to have instant access to all your files. Dropbox is a file-syncing and storage service which automatically syncs your files everywhere, so they’re available on any Internet-connected machine where you’ve installed Dropbox or that has a Web browser

Review

Using Dropbox as an educator is very useful as a platform for managing your own material and making it more readily accessible. It is also very useful for students especially in the context of working in a group as it makes file sharing and collaborating very easy. Overall it is a very simple efficient and useful tool.

Tool Evaluation

Tool: Padlet

Website: www.padlet.com

Rating: 

Padlet, previously known as Wall wisher, is an online noticeboard, which means it can be used for making announcements, keeping notes and online brainstorming. One can create a Padlet board for free (http://padlet.com/wall/kv6tdwvnygl7). Premium options also available include: Padlet Backpack for schools, Padlet Briefcase for businesses and a Padlet Jetpack for individuals

Usage

Padlet is a great way to get people interacting in formal training through using their smart devices in the classroom. Padlet can be used by students and teachers to post notes on a common page. The notes posted by teachers and students can contain links, videos, images and document files. When registered with Padlet, one can create as many “walls” or online notice boards as you like. These walls can be set to private or public, with each wall having separate privacy settings. This can facilitate teacher collaboration in a subject department, which is not accessible by students. Private walls can be created with a password to access them, or by limiting access to registered users, with specified emails. As the creator of a wall, teachers can moderate all notes before they appear and privacy settings can be adjusted at any time. Padlet is great for group research. In essence, the tool is like a corkboard that allows students to share their ideas with each other thereby encouraging creativity.  Using it in a classroom setting, teachers can facilitate greater participation and motivate students to be creative.

Review

Users do not need to sign up to use Padlet, though it is recommended that teachers using it in a classroom setting would do so, in order to edit a wall, moderate posts and collate all class walls into one management screen. Teachers can also choose to set a notification to receive an email whenever a student posts to the teacher’s wall. Padlet is device-neutral, as it works on any internet-enabled device, including PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone. Another benefit is that no software or apps need to be downloaded or installed – it can be used immediately by anyone with internet access.  The “Padlet’s” or noticeboards created can also be exported as images, pdfs, excels or csv’s.

Tool Evaluation