First the good news, I am now a teacher and expert at the Montessori School Potsdam. After a year of testing, I am now responsible for the digital technologies at this school next to my work in the FabLab.
In several courses, I made an introduction for students and course teachers in some tools (which we use) for collaborative documentation and their use in the classroom. One example is Etherpad. I started using this software sevral years ago in my own project-groups . This software is open source and can be installed as a server on almost any hardware.
There are some free accessable Online-Pad Server like :
In my class are between 10 and 20 students, all write simultaneously in the pad. you can track the discussion with a time-slider button. In the 6 weeks project courses a specific pad will be used as a general documentation tool.
Example (only in German) :
http://piratepad.net/my7A7pH2kQ
One Topic in the current course is the installation of the etherpad on the Rapberry Pi and use it as a mobile local documentation server. The big advantage is also that any device can be used for Etherpad for instance Smartphones or Tablets.
Furthermore, I am looking for extensions to easily integrate such as images and videos in such a system.
Experiences :
- the students are happy to use their own devices in the classroom. (We want to introduce a mixed BYOD in our school this year. 95% of my students have android or ios powered smartphone)
- there is a testing period in the beginning with fun filled discussions in the pad.
- then slowly forms a structure in the text working groups were created.
some links :
(1) http://jasontbedell.com/using-etherpad-in-the-classroom
(2) http://de.slideshare.net/jamieromance/etherpad-energizing-and-engaging-c...