Participate Learning Unveils Collaboration, Collection Tools for Educators
Participate Learning, formerly
called appoLearning, has launched Collections, a new curation
and collaboration tool for educators.
Participate Learning's Collections feature lets teachers create a digital
folder of online educational resources, such as Web sites, apps and videos, and
organize them according to subject, unit, lesson, topic or other organizational
criteria. They can even add their own files from Dropbox, Google Drive or
other cloud storage services. Any resource with a Web address can be added to a
collection.
Teachers can then share their collections with colleagues and invite them to
discuss items in real time. They also have the option of building collaborative
collections on topics of shared interest.
The new Collections feature is distinct from Participate Learning's existing
Search feature, which provides teachers with a collection of online educational
resources curated by Participate Learning's team of educational experts. While
Participate Learning's search engine provides a vetted list of educational
sites, iOS and Android applications, YouTube and Vimeo videos and other
online resources, Collections lets teachers build and share their own curated
lists.
Collections are not included in Participate Learning's search results, but
items in Collections are publicly accessible. When teachers add items to their
collections, they can add titles and tags to help other teachers find those
items when browsing collections. Eventually, Participate Learning's team may
vett some of the resources in Collections for inclusion in Search.
According to information on the company's site, Participate Learning plans
to add more functionality to Collections in the coming weeks, including
"privacy controls, more rating and following options and many other
improvements."
Further information about Collections can be found on Participate Learning's
site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].