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A good overview, with keyboard shortcuts, for using comments in google docs.

Using the commenting feature of Google Documents is a good way to create a record of classroom conversations about an article that you have shared with your students. Using the commenting feature is also a good way to have the conversation about an article occur entirely online.

"Vibby is a new service for breaking YouTube videos into segments and inserting comments into those segments. To segment a YouTube video on Vibby simply grab the URL for the video and paste into the Vibby editor. Once inserted into Vibby you can highlight a segment on the video timeline. Vibby then play only the sections you've highlighted. Click on a highlighted section to add a comment to it. Videos edited through Vibby can be shared via email, social media, or embedded into a blog or website."

View Pure is a great way to show YouTube clips in class without all the on-screen clutter and dodgy comments. I've written about ViewPure in the past, but the site has had a revamp and is worth another blog post! Basically you go to ViewPure website, enter the URL of a YouTube video, or do a search, and it then displays the video on a class-friendly page without any of the on-screen clutter. ViewPure removes all comments, ads, and related videos, allowing videos to be watched without distractions, or more likely, without "inappropriate content". Read more http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2014/08/viewpure-watch-youtube-videos-without-clutter/

"Easily Annotate Videos VideoAnt is a web-based video annotation tool for mobile and desktop devices. Use VideoAnt to add annotations, or comments, to web-hosted videos. VideoAnt-annotated videos are called "Ants". Organized Ant Farm Create a user account to create and save collections of Ants. Authenticated users can manage their Ants from their account dashboard, otherwise known as their "Ant Farm". Export Options Export your annotations in a variety of data formats. You can even embed your Ants on a personal website, learning management system, or anywhere HTML is allowed."

"Votesy is a free social crowdsourcing voting platform and community. Users can create a text, image, or video-based poll and receive votes and comments to see which choice is the crowd favourite. Sign up now, it's free and easy."

Many things about Blogger make it a popular choice for middle school and high school classroom blogs. It's easy to create a blog on Blogger, all back end maintenance is done for you by Google, and if your school uses Google Apps for Education it can be added to the list of services your students can access with their Google Apps for Education accounts. There is one thing that can't be done easily and that is moderate students' posts (not comments, posts) before they go live on your classroom blog. But if you have students post via email then you can moderate the posts before they go live.

If you are looking for web tools to create video lessons or platforms to help you flip your classroom , the tools below are probably what you need.

"iAnnotate is a previously premium app (it used to cost $9.99) turned free. Since undergoing a makeover on Android earlier this year the app has dropped not just the hefty price tag but the cluttered interface also. The app offers a clean space giving documents room to breath - and room for any on-page scribbles and comments to be made!"

"ViewPure is absolutely an excellent tool for teachers and students. It allows you to watch YouTube videos in a clean and distraction-free interface. All the distractive features such as ads, related videos, and comments are removed providing students with an ideal environment for watching educational videos. Inappropriate content accompanying YouTube videos lead many teachers to shun away from incorporating YouTube videos in their instruction but with ViewPure this is no longer a problem and teachers are able to provide students with an enhanced YouTube experience with the minimum distraction possible. We said minimum because some ads are integrated with YouTube videos and ViewPure can not remove them."

NowComment makes it easy to have rich, engaging discussions of online documents no matter how large (or small) your class or collaboration group.