Teachers are loving Collaborize Classroom and we love them right back!

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The New York Times mentioned Collaborize Classroom as a tool for literature study groups in the article, “The Reach of Distance Learning.”

“I have found distance learning to be invaluable to the AP classes that I teach. In fact, I’m proud to say that my classroom is almost entirely paperless. Even our literature study groups are done online now by using Collaborize Classroom.”

The team from GOOD Magazine came out to our headquarters in Santa Rosa, CA to interview our CEO, Richard Lang, about what Collaborize Classroom is doing to create a more collaborative environment in the classroom.

“In my view, the future of learning has to blend down to the one obvious word, and that’s collaboration. No one of us knows as much as all of us. We refer to that as the “Wisdom of We.”  - Richard Lang

Educational Technology blog Edudemic just released their “100 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You” blog post and Collaborize Classroom made the 2011 list!

I love http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/. It takes students to the next level of thinking and writing!

Mashable named Collaborize Classroom as one of the alternatives for educators who want to use social media in the classroom in the article 5 Best Practices for Educators on Facebook.

Collaborize Classroom gives teachers four discussion format choices. Students can either agree or disagree with a statement, answer a multiple choice question, post responses, or have the choice between adding a new response or voting for someone else’s response. Teachers can add photos or videos to their prompts and all of the discussions take place on one class page.

Tech Messages, a site dedicated to the integration of technology into today’s K-12 classroom, wrote about Collaborize Classroom on their

Collaborize Classroom is a no frills CMS (classroom management system) also called LMS (learning management system).  It is easy to setup and add students (they can go to your page and request permission to join) and very easy to monitor the discussion.  If you are looking for a way to organize your class outside of school this could be very useful and a huge time saver. One of the best features for a teacher is the ability to see detailed participation reports which track student activity on the site.

We partnered with Dicovery Education for their DEN Fall Virtual Conference: Tech or Treat event and they blogged and tweeted about Collaborize Classroom.

Major thanks to our partner, @Collaborize for providing fantastic prizes for the #DENVirtCon and sharing their passion and knowledge today!

Edublogs wrote about how the Collaborize Classroom Topic Library is a A New Home For Blogging and Discussion Ideas.

Sometimes it can be helpful to search for blog post topic ideas or conversation starters, and Collaborize Classroom’s recently launched Topic Library is a great place to start!

Megan Ellis, a 7th grade English teacher blogged about an assignment she created using our online learning platform  - Collaborize Classroom Jury Assignment Project for The Outsiders.

Collaborize Classroom is, hands down, one of the greatest things to happen to my teaching. It’s reduced my paper-load significantly and has increased student participation and confidence. I love that students can read and comment on one another’s work and that their discussion starts at home between peers and then continues when they come into my classroom, rather than the conversation starting in the classroom with me and hopefully extending to the few students who are willing to speak up in front of their classmates.

Dr. Roland Rios (@drrios), the Director of Technology for the Fort Sam Houston Independent School District, wrote about Collaborize Classroom on his blog – Friday Freebie: Collaborize Classroom. One Heck of a Discussion Board Site!

Collaborize Classroom is an online discussion platform that’s free, easy-to-use, and very powerful. With Collaborize Classroom, setting up an account is extremely easy.

David Kapuler (aka @dkapuler) just discovered Collaborize Classroom and wrote about our online learning platform on his blog, Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero.

It looks to be an excellent tool for educators for creating a safe environment for students to hold discussions, blend learning, and even share resources.

Josh Stumpenhorst (aka @stumpteacher) from Stump The Teacher wrote about Collaborize Classroom‘s recent  collaboration on the #collaboreyes Project.

Yes, you heard correctly, the shades project lives on. Thanks to the generosity and collaboration of some great folks Collaborize Classroom we will be introducing the #collaboreyes project formerly known as #googleshades. The goal of the project will remain the same in that we want to see the world through the eyes of the kids living in it.

Mary Beth Hertz (aka @MBTeach), from Philly Teacher and a featured blogger on Edutopia provided tips on how to start the school year off right and included Collaborize Classroom.

Some Ideas for Implementation: Try out an online learning management tool to manage assignments and get your students interacting around content.

Arthur Preston (@artpreston), an educator and school leader and writer for Teacher’s Monthly featured Collaborize Classroom as the Free Tech Tool of the Week.

Effecting a true collaborative classroom is a paradigm shift for many teachers. It is a fact that many our schools are filled with pupils who spend many hours collaborating with each other through SMS, instant messaging services, Twitter and other online tools. While most of their online conversation is not about their academics (if only!), imagine if you could tap into that space and allow your pupils to share ideas, give peer reviews, comment on issues discussed in class and so on.

Warita Winbush, the Baton Rouge Online Learning Examiner wrote about the Collaborize Classroom Weekly Webinars put on by our Teacher Success Specialist Team.

The goal of the Collaborize Classroom webinars are to present best practices that will help teachers prepare for the fall semester and the incoming group of students. Learn how to save time, plan ahead and manage your discussion topics during back-to-school time.

Samantha Fecich (aka @SFecich) of Sam’s Cool Tools For The Classroom named Collaborize Classroom one of her cool tools.

Collaborize Classroom is a great free tool for online discussion, handouts, and discussions in and out of the classroom.

Kyle B. Pace (aka @kylepace) cited Collaborize Classroom as an effective and education friendly tool that can be used under the new legislation regarding social networking in Missouri schools.

If Facebook is not allowed in your district then perhaps another alternative could be… Collaborize Classroom… Very education friendly and allow teachers to create a secure environment to communicate with students and facilitate discussions, etc. outside of the regular school day.

Education World reviewed Collaborize Classroom on their website.

Collaborize Classroom takes the classroom model of the teacher dictating to the students and dramatically changes it, creating an open discussion. While time constraints and student personalities often make lively classroom discussions difficult, this site makes them a real-time reality.

I, Cringely recently talked about how the use of Collaborize Classroom could be beneficial in bringing a voice to some students in his post, The Flip Side of Cyber Bullying.

The idea behind Collaborize Classroom is simple. It is a structured conversation. Any participant can pose a question for discussion, eliciting responses from the group or taking a poll. You can look at it as a quiz or a test but grading doesn’t have to be a part of what’s essentially an online Socratic dialog.

One of the most important aspects of this tool, according to the teachers who like it, is that it has a social leveling function that brings students into the online conversation who might say little or nothing in the classroom. This is good.

Collaborize Classroom isn’t just for teachers who want to bring classroom discussions to an online environment, as Sarah J. Wilson (a homeschooling mom and the current editor of A Word from GHF) noted in her blog Organize your HomeSchool with Collaborize Classroom.

Collaborize Classroom easily lends itself to the homeschool environment. Whether you want to posit questions for your student to write about or you want to involve many students in discussions, voting, or collaboration, you can do it all.

Barry Ritholtz recently wrote about Collaborize Classroom on The Big Picture.

“Their flagship product, Collaborize Classroom, is a structured discussion tool with a significant Social Networking component.  It has caught fire in the classroom technology space, and has the potential to radically remake US education.”

Lisa Mims wrote about Collaborize Classroom on her blog, Diary of a Public School Teacher - Creating Critical Thinkers!

The coolest part for me was the discussion forum. You post questions, your students can vote and/or comment, they can even watch videos related to the topic, without leaving the site! You will get reports of the work each student is doing. Collaborize Classroom takes the results and creates a graph which is then shared with your students! And don’t worry about help, they have a wonderful support team who is willing to provide FREE professional development to teachers.

Edublogs — “The largest education community on the Internet” wrote about how you can set-up your own online space and use the Collaborize Classroom widget to ask questions on your own Edublog.

Like blogging, Collaborize Classroom makes it easy to have discussions online. And best of all, there is a widget that lets you embed questions and polls right into your blog!

Adam Bellow (aka @AdamBellow) featured Collaborize Classroom on his blog EduTecher.

Students and teachers can create discussions, comment or vote on ideas and in polls, and also access resources for the classroom. Teachers can also use the site to see the participation of the students and keep track of their involvement with the course, topic, or individual discussion/assignment.

Collaborize Classroom was featured as a “Shining Star” on Tech Talk America Radio Show.

The Shining Star: Our favorite by far is Collaborize Classroom. The site is useful for companies, organizations, and classrooms alike. The concept is shockingly simple. You have a bunch of people you want to communicate with whether its planning your brands next steps or finding out what your students thought of Dante’s journey through the circles of Hell. WeCollaborize gives you the tools to engage all of them… easily. It’s very hard to describe everything the service can offer, but if you’re a teacher, run a business, or work in a non-profit, we very strongly recommend you look into Collaborize Classroom.

Ez Tools for Teachers featured Collaborize Classroom, not one, but two times on their wiki featuring easy-to-use tools for teaching.

A place for teachers and students to communicate. The main focus of the service is to encourage all students to participate equally and have a safe place to express themselves. Student lesson reports let teachers know how is student is participating and performing. There are also several great tools for teachers including lesson plans and options to embed various documents and media.

Sheri Edwards (aka @grammasheri) commented on Collaborize Classroom during the Classroom 2.0 Live webinar on “How Online Discussions Can Transform Teaching.“

This is an education changer...

Alyssa Johnson, a Junior at UNI who majors in Early Childhood development just found our about Collaborize Classroom and felt compelled to write about our online learning platform on her blog.

Techie Lab Teacher wrote about Collaborize Classroom after watching the Classroom 2.0 Live Webinar

Warita Winbush the Baton Rouge Technology in Education Examiner featured Collaborize Classroom in her latest Edtech Examiner.com article.

“Teaching and and learning is a process that extends beyond the eight hour school day…  Collaborize Classroom makes such a connection even deeper by providing an online learning platform that allows teachers to extend the classroom to a private online learning community.”

Jolene Berg, the president of KERN CUE included Collaborize Classroom as one of her “Cool Finds” at the CUE 2011 Educational Technology Conference.

“I found a neat exhibit / website that helps you and your students collaborate.  It is called Collaborize Classroom. You can sign up for FREE!  It has many great functions to use with your students and your lessons.”

Clint Stephens (aka @clintstephens) from Clint’s Tech Integration Resources wrote about how easy Collaborize Classroom is to use in the classroom.

“Collaborize Classroom looks like a great tool to enable student engagement and interaction online around your classroom topics. What’s better, it looks much easier to use and navigate.”

Mathieu Reynolds from GRADUATING ON THE INSTALLMENT PLAN, featured Collaborize Classroom in his Pedagogical Tool Review: Collaborize Classroom.

“Social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook have value for creating collaborative spaces for continued discussion, but their popular use frightens some administrators into blocking their use in the classroom. In this regard, Collaborize Classroom may be a useful alternative for instructors because it represents a more private, dedicated space for directed discussion.”

Scholastic Corporation has partnered with Collaborize Classroom to offer free resources and our online learning platform to their network of teachers.

Do more with less. Allow your students to participate on their own time with an easy-to-use platform.

Simple K12 partnered with Collaborize Classroom for a webinar on How to Engage Students Online: Increase Participation and Improve Discussions.

“This webinar will support you in adopting a blended learning model that combines the best of both worlds: the benefits of in-class instruction with the flexibility of online discussions.”

Social Tech Pop wrote about Collaborize Classroom as one of the top startups of 2011.

“Students can continue to expand on classroom discussions and also interact with online lesson plans, allowing for deeper participation inside and outside the classroom.”

CUE, Inc featured Collaborize Classroom in their March newsletter under tips and tricks.

Richard Byrne (aka @rmbyrne) from Free Technology for Teachers wrote about our easy-to-use service for teachers and students.

“Collaborize Classroom offers an easy-to-use service for teachers and students. The participation and activity reports could prove to be very helpful and time-saving for teachers. “

Kristi Grande (aka @kristigrande) from Love of Learning Educational Services just wrote about how she will be using our online learning platform with her math students!

“Collaborize Classroom is an easy to use online discussion forum. I especially like the various ways you can post questions for class discussions.”

Heidi Siwak (aka @heidisiwak) from 21st Century Classroom wrote about how she recently introduced Collaborize Classroom into her classroom, in Social Media is the Game Changer.

“What astonishes me is the deep thinking that occurs when discussions continue on for days. Students reflect and develop reasoned arguments. The quiet voices are emerge. Students who fly under the radar now have a comfortable, risk-free space to articulate their ideas.”

If you have blogged about Collaborize Classroom, please let us know by tweeting us at @Collaborize!