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another excellent mind mapping application that is platform independent. This allows you to collaborate online in the creation of a mind map

Spinscape is not only a great tool as a graphic organizer to find, organize, and share information, but it also allows for real time collaboration with peers from around the world. I like this website over other similar sites because you can add text, images, or graphics to expand on the information provided within the graphic organizer.

Description: A visual collaboration tool for collaborating with others online. Why better: Allows collaborative team work synchronously and asynchronously.

Webspiration allows the user to create various forms of mindmaps with unlimited design features. The website allows users to work individually or collaboratively online. It also gives you the opportunity to visualize your ideas creatively. All work can also be downloaded and printed if needed. I chose this site because it is very user friendly and can keep the learners interested with its hands-on capabilities.

This site allows you to create custom graphic organizers. There are many templates and lots of clip art to choose from. I like this site because you can upload your graphic organizer as a word document or save it to a web page that others can access.

* Webspiration allows a teacher to create a free Webspiration classroom. The site allows users to create collaborative mind maps that lend themselves to generative learning.

For those of you familiar with the software Inspiration, this is a web version with some of the same options. This is a mind mapping tool that helps you "capture ideas, organize information, collaborate and share your work, and create diagrams.

Webspiration is a teacher friendly site that contains a vast array of graphic organizers, diagrams, writing organizers and many others. This site is typically used in grades 5-12. With many options, students and/or teacher are able to find an organizer that suits their project or essay. This site is easy to use and is effective in assisting students in independently developing their graphic organizer. 

Webspiration offers collaboration and graphic organizer software for classroom or professional use. Webspiration has free subscriptions available as well as subscriptions for purchase. I found it to be easy to use and share.

This website is a hosting service that allows you to create pages, edit pages and collaborate with people. It provides a wonderful opportunity for students to create projects and get feedback from others. Documents, pictures, graphics and videos can be upload to the site. I chose this site because it was very user friendly with some Office features.

Wikispaces allows users to collaborate online. Features include embedding files and videos, invitations to members, and restrictions for access and editing. Wikis support the principles of generative and essential learning. The collaboration that occurs through the use of a wiki creates an engaging learning environment for participants to process the material they are learning. Wikis are easier to use for collaborative efforts.

o Wikispaces provides a space where learners can collaborate while developing a final product to demonstrate understanding. Pictures, videos, documents, and just about anything can be added to the site. Cognitive processing is at its best with this tool as learners create knowledge together from the material they have studied. o Extremely easy to use especially with the update where the teacher can create a class code to share with students so they can join the class from any wiki account.

This website utilizes pictures, video or any type of work that can be uploaded to the site by a teacher or a student. Participants are able to provide written, voice or video comments about the posted artifact. This is a collaborative, student-centered site that promotes cognitive processing of information. This artifact represents what Mayer (2009) calls dual coding, including both textual and visual components. The students have the opportunity to respond in a variety of ways to the instruction which promotes higher level thinking skills. I plan to create my own Voice Thread using our own student writing.

VoiceThread allows its users to create a slideshow presentation using images and/or video components. Once the presentation has been designed and ready to share, it can be embedded onto any webpage. This allows for easier access to its users and viewers. This particular online presentation program was much easier to use and access than many of the other programs that I viewed. It also allows for collaboration among classmates and instructors, by permitting others to comment on each photo through text, audio, or video.

VoiceThread is a collaborative tool that allows users to upload media and engage in dialogue. Users can provide commentary on the media that is presented through typing or voice recording. An additional feature of VoiceThread allows users to draw with a pen as a way of highlighting while they are talking. The administrator has options to block participants' responses from each other before revealing all the comments for viewing. This website supports essential and generative learning because participants are given the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to transfer knowledge gained.

Brief description of what it allows you to do and how it can be used for essential or generative learning: This site is awesome for creating mindmaps using a software that runs on multiple platforms and is adjustable when viewed. The most notable function is the collaboration function that allows the sharing or co-creating of a mindmap. This organizer can be completed by the audience member pertaining to the presentation material in a manner that makes sense to them. Brief explanation of why you found this site to be better than others you found (e.g., more effective, creates better products, easier to use, and so on): I have used this with my students and received positive feedback. I have even used it for some Walden assignments and feel it is user friendly and designed to promote collaboration.

A free, web-based graphic organizer. It is easy to use and share. I am using this as a way to organize the workshop and provide a visual for the teachers to have and understand the goals/timeline of the training.

Bubble.us is an online mind map that allows users to collaborate on brainstorming. Users can share their mindmap with others and provide access to read or edit. As content is added the mindmap takes on a new shape and cells can be color coded. Another feature of bubbl.us is for users to import work that has been saved on their computer or embed their mindmap. Bubbl.us can be used for pre-training which supports essential learning. I found this site to be more useful for collaborativebrainstorming .

This online mind mapping software allows mobile access. Mindmeister allows real-time brainstorming and offline mode. Offline work is synced to online maps when you go back online

* MindMeister is an online mind mapping and brainstorming website used to create multiple kinds of graphic organizers. The template library provides many different kinds of examples that provide curriculum activities for essential or generative learning including prioritizing information, extending understanding of important concepts, project planning, drawing conclusions, making connections to other ideas, and making inferences.
* I found MindMeister to be better than other online graphic organizer websites due to the ease of use, variety of templates available, and it is free to create up to three maps at a time.

o Mindmeister is a mind mapping and online collaboration tool that allows learners to organize their thoughts by creating mind maps. A group of learners can collaborate on a single mind map to come up with a final product, and they can do so in real time. They can add text, graphics, links, notes, etc. to fully develop and present their ideas. In addition, learners can save final product in various formats to embed them in their projects. The interaction learners have with the content to organize it into a visual representation (as supported by Mindmeister) is the perfect example of generative processing or using cognitive processes to make sense of the material (Mayer, 2009). For English Language Learners, this tool allows learners to show what they understand even when they may not have enough English to write a paper on a particular concept/topic. o The site is easy to use and creates a clean and organized product. Some mapping programs can yield such complex products that are very hard to follow. In addition, I enjoy the ability to work offline because teachers and students alike might not always have internet handy. Finally, this is one of the few programs available not only for pc, but also for mobile and tablet.

Robin Good developed a mind map of the best online collaboration tools from 2009 using mindmeister.com. Each item on this mind map is linked to the website for the collaborative tool. Enjoy!!! This is the best set of resources in one place I have found.

Prezi is a web-based presentation tool using a map layout and zooming to show contextual relationships.

What it is: Prezi is an online presentation software that allows collaboration among multiple users to create unique multimedia presentations. Why it's better: Instead of a traditional slide presentation, Prezi provides a platform to create presentations that are as creative as each individual user. Images, sounds, videos, and text can all be mixed together to create the most effective presentation possible.

Prezi is a presentation tool that can either be created online or offline. It offers collaboration among users and has zoom features to highlight information. Presentations can be viewed from a desktop, iPad, or iPhone. One way that Prezi can be used for essential learning is to segment a presentation to make it learner-paced. This website offers a better product for keeping learners engaged.

Google docs is a great way to merge existing documents, with the ability to create and organize documents online. It is better than a lot of other options because it is free, and transfers across computer platforms.

Google docs is a web based productivity platform that allows the creation of documents, spreadsheets, diagrams and forms. Multiple users can access files simultaneously, allow for collaboration.

Google has a ton of free resources that have the same functionality as Powerpoint or Keynote. One of the great components of Google Docs is the ability to collaborate with others through real time chat or make comments/revisions to a document. For a presentation, Google Docs has a presentation tool that is easy to use, free, and accessible from any location with an internet connection. Although the presentations are not flashy, they help teachers incorporate multimedia into their instruction and make the technology accessible for all of their students.

Whiteboard is a tool that allows users to collaborate on the creation of documents. One user can create a whiteboard and upload an original piece of text. They can then invite other users to come to that whiteboard to help revise that text. In my workshop in particular, since the assessment activity is the creation of a group lesson plan using one of the Web 2.0 tools I share with them, Whiteboard can be used by participants to collaboratively create the lesson plan. 

Google Presentations, while not the most sophisticated of online presentation formats, makes up for its simpler approach in its ability to be shared and collaborated upon in extraordinary ways. It is easily used for students to demonstrate their understanding and integration of presented material. What stands out, is its ability to be utilized in Google+ Hangouts for instant presentation and collaboration. It can also be easily embedded and shared across multiple social platforms and blogs. Finally, with the prevalence of students with gMail accounts, most students already have this just waiting for them at their fingertips.

* Brief Description: Allows you to create graphic organizers and templates that can be shared with others.  People can access shared templates and make a copy of it.  People can also collaborate in real time to create templates and graphic organizers. * Brief Explanation: I find it easy to use and like the real time collaboration features as well as the ability to easily share and embed.  

Microsoft's Office 365 is offered free for schools and allows teachers and students to collaborate in innovative ways.  The program comes bundled with email, instant messaging, video conferencing, calendar and document sharing along with virtual storage. Learners can use Microsoft's Office 365 to collaborate asynchronously on group projects using SharePoint to promote knowledge construction and find meaning as they solve problems. Since Microsoft's Office 365 promotes active learning, I will use this program as one of the three artifacts for my multimedia workshop on flipped classroom instruction. 

Zoho Show is an online presentation tool. It has clipart and pre-built themes for users to create their presentations. It is user friendly, simple drag-n drop feature.

The free presentation software allows teachers to insert text, images, video, spreadsheet data, and audio. Users can cut and paste in video clips from any website. The presentations shared online through collaboration. \nWhy this one: Teachers create and share numerous instructional presentations strengthen essential learning and collaborative planning. \n

Creating presentation could not get any easer with ZOHO. This tool is free and has the ability for users to create and present from remote locations. Your presentations can be accessed and edited from any PC connected to the internet. The tool is great for collaboration and has the capabilities of embedding data in Wiki pages or blogs.