-Different Perspectives- Students all have different personalities, outlooks and backgrounds that can provide a rich and rewarding group experience.

-Encourages creativity and critical thinking- Collaborative projects have the potential to provide students the opportunity to use both creativity and critical reasoning to solve problems and initiate new solutions. 

-May improve delivery times- Effective collaboration utilizing each individual’s strength and may improve on delivery time of projects and assignments.

Collaboration Issues:

-Confusion on roles and responsibility- Determining each individual’s responsibility toward the finished project can be confusing and lead to parts of a project not being completed.

-Level of work commitment may differ between team members- Work habits and timelines between students needs to be clear and consistent, or it could lead to one or two individuals carrying the bulk of the assignment.

-Different personalities-  This is related to work expectations of the students and the assignment of roles.  Students with different personalities could have difficulty working effectively together.

Jones, N. (2010).  Collaboration at work: A Look atthe Pros and Cons. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/office/collaboration/articles/73856.aspx

-Accountability-In order to make the learning process fair for each group member, methods for creating accountability, such as an individual project component.

-Evaluation-Students should have the opportunity to discuss and evaluate the effectiveness of their group at the individual and whole group level to assess strengths and weaknesses.

-Communication-Effective communication should be present at all times between group members in order to ensure that common learning goals are reached and each member can participate to the best of their ability in the group.

-Interdependence-Through effective collaborative learning, students should learn about the importance of working and learning as a community dependent on the contributions of each member.

Reference: Group work and collaborative learning: Best practices. (2012). Retrieved November 2, 2015, from http://www.gened.umd.edu/documents/GroupWork.pdf

http://lunchboxproject.wikispaces.com/ -The Lunchbox Project-this online platform allows students to learn about what students eat for lunch all around the world.

http://globalreadaloud.wikispaces.com/ -The Global ReadAloud Project-This collaborative project connects students on a global scale through a common book to read, discuss, and create projects with. 

All of these collaborative tools help students to gain a greater cultural awareness of different perspectives throughout the world.

Skype-  Allows users to interact with people across the globe in real time conversations and activities to support group learning.

Padlet- Encourages users to work together to create a tool to enhance projects.  Basic use allows for groups to post information in a virtual bulletin board.

Twitter-Create a hashtag specific for your project and all members of a team can share, create and encourage others in response to their project.

Wikispaces- Teachers can create a online classroom site that is private to its users.  This can be used for projects and collaborative writing activities.

HaikuLearning- Learning management system that allows for document sharing, assignment posts, grading and assessment feedback.

Edmodo- Learning management system that allows for content sharing, discussion boards and encourages parents, students and teachers to interact.

Walsh, K. (2014)  20 Fun Free Tools for an Interactive Classroom Collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.emergingedtech.com/2014/05/20-excellent-free-tools-for-interactive-collaboration-experiences-in-the-classroom/

- Help students develop independent learning skills.

-  Enforce students to take responsibility and accountability for their work.

- Prepare students to critical thinking and data analysis.

- Give students the confidence to tackle emerging technologies, and gain maximum advantage of these resources.