Online Collaborative Environments are a broad term for web based sites that allow users to communicate and share work. It can be a new way to extend the intensity of what is going on in your class rooms.
Basically I see these types of tools or services broken up into two types:
| Asynchronous (anytime) | Synchronous (simultaneous) | |
| Text | Chat (MSN Messenger / AOL Instant Messenger) | |
| Text or voice in sequence | Discussion Board / Forum such as: Blackboard, First Class, Officezilla, Moodle |
Phone based Conferencing (Voice over IP- Skype, Gizmo Project) |
| Groupware - Calendar Scheduling | ||
| Multi-tool Environments | Moodle | Wimba or Yugma |