Wednesday, October 13, 2010
BP9_Collanos
Collanos
Still on my quest to find a tool that will allow students to collaborate and communicate with each other, I ran across another program that does just that. Introducing Collanos, a Web 2.0 tool that allows people to communicate, file share, collaborate and be put into groups to work on assigned projects. Collanos is a peer to peer program, meaning all work is shared on each individual's computer where it can be downloaded to another's computer for easy modification. Since each file is stored on the individual's computer, it allows for one to work on the file while offline and not have to worry about having to be online, unlike other web based collaboration software. When the person connects online, the software automatically updates everything that was added to Collanos so everyone in the group will be up to date on files and discussions. Collanos installs on the user's computer and is a fairly small file that needs to be downloaded.
The interface for Collanos is pretty easy to use. Everything on the program has large icons that are self explanatory on what they do. Setup is very quick as well as it has a quick workspace creation tool that will have you making your specific workspace for your group in no time. The program comes free for the basic version of it, though there is a premium version that will cost money for more features, but the basic version pretty much has everything one would need to get student collaboration going well. One downside to this program though, is that everyone will need to download and create a user account for Collanos before they can be invited to another's group workspace. This can cause some issues due to making sure everyone downloads the program and sign up otherwise the program would be useless until that step is done. Collanos is a pretty intuitive collaboration software for those who want to have something installed locally and not use a web based collaboration tool. This is another definite useful tool for teachers who need that functionality without it costing a ton of money to implement.
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Kris, this is an outstanding tool! I was able to look over the site and the free aspect does cover almost everything an instructor would want to utilize in running moderate sized classes through the tool. The flow is fairly simple to grasp once you get into the program, but there is a bit more of a learning curve in this one than some of the others tools you have looked at and we’ve discussed. The large STOP sign on it for me though, as you mention, is that it requires a download and install by all participants. This might not seem like it would be an issue, but getting online students to read our own work on the portal itself sometimes presents a challenge – so I shudder to think at trying to get them to all remotely install and set this up without aid on hand. Good find though and something that might be of use with some reference podcasts on how to get it installed!
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