Communication and Collaboration
in the Digital Age
ISSUE ORIENTED
By Anita McAnear
Anita McAnear is
L&L’s acquisitions
editor and national
program chair for
ISTE’s conference and
exposition. A former
middle school math
and language arts
teacher, McAnear
has been with ISTE
since 1983.
W hat does communication and coll- aboration mean in the digital age? We have so many ways to communicate with other people that I find myself constantly thinking about the best way to reach a
particular person or group. Should I email, text,
tweet, Facebook message, Skype, or send a meeting request? I know if I want to hear back from
my younger daughter that I had better text her.
When should I just pick up the phone and call
or get up and walk over to someone’s desk?
The same is true for collaboration tools. We
have Google Docs, wikis, Ning groups, Facebook, Google+, and numerous other tools to
choose from. In this issue, Shelly Terrell dis-cusses how to embed free widgets and tools to
turn your wiki into a virtual classroom where
students can contribute from anywhere with an
internet connection and in the medium of their
choice (see page 34).
Video is one of many powerful media for
students to share their learning. Shooting and
editing video files or combining still images and
adding voiceovers is fast becoming a required
skill for many jobs. Author Laurie Campbell
provides many ideas for getting young students
started by using the video cameras on mobile
devices, such as iPods. She covers all the curriculum areas and provides implementation
tips on page 30.
Tasha Candela asked students in her web de-
sign class to create a website from scratch for
a local bowling alley. Much like the real world,
students collaborated in pairs to develop con-
cepts, put their site-building skills to work, and
present a finalized website to the owner of the
lanes. Creating collaborative opportunities like
this is the hallmark of the teaching profession
and a great way to build communication skills
(see page 40).
