Free Digital Tools

Digital tools should enhance in-person learning rather than supplant it. The examples below focus on group learning, but could also be used for independent learning with an accountability partner. Group projects that are never finished are encouraged because they are more likely to produce civic engagement.

If you enjoy thinking about these ideas, explore the Hybrid Pedagogy website and the discussion below this list of tools.

• Geographic Mapping: ArcGIS Story Maps - For example, ask an group learning about cooperative ecosystems to create a map of businesses that does not already exist. Publish the tool and collect updates through a public Google Sheet.

• Knowledge Management: GitBook or Notion - For example, ask a group studying co-op law in a specific US state to create a wiki or guidebook for future learners. Include an invitation to contributors on the landing page. This site itself is built on GitBook, which allows it to be easily "forked" or copied and adapted by others.

• Choose Your Own Adventure: Arcade or Google Slides - For example, give a group authentic choices during their learning experience and see how the simulation plays out. Or give a group assignment where the participants create their own "choose your own adventure" scenario.

• Network Diagramming: Kumu and SumApp - For example, ask a group interested in creating or expanding a purpose-driven network to create a SumApp survey for network members. Sync the survey results with a social network diagram in Kumu so any new network members have a transparent view of the relationships and partnerships in the network from day one. These two tools are promoted by the Impact Network Toolkit for decentralized systems change.

• Discussion Spaces: Discord or Slack - For example, ask a group to start a peer learning community and publish an open invitation on a webpage that their target audience visits often. Try using pinned posts to create community agreements. For a game-like visual conferencing experience, try Gather. To practice consent decision making online, try hosting your group's discussions on the cooperatively owned Loomio app.

• Learning Platforms: Moodle or BuddyPress - For example, ask a group to create their own curriculum using an online Learning Management System. Moodle is a popular and inexpensive solution. BuddyPress is a popular plugin for creating social networks on WordPress websites. CUNY's OpenLab is one of the most successful examples of this learning modality. Mighty Networks is a community learning platform that prioritizes creator-ownership and can allow educators to more easily implement a business model around their coaching and group facilitation.

• Unlearning History: TimelineJS - For example, ask a group studying co-op history to create and publish an interactive timeline. For ongoing refinement, solicit corrections using an annotation tool like Hypothes.is.

• Video Creation: Flip or YouTube - For example, ask a group studying co-op awareness to create their final projects in a video format that can be easily disseminated online. For educators using the Google Classrooms platform, interactive questions can be added to videos.

• Visual Collaboration: Google Jamboard or Zoom Whiteboard - For example, ask an online cohort to collaborate live on an ownership model canvas or on nested circles in a sociocracy org chart. Both of these tools can be used during video calls and saved for future use. Canva is another popular tool for creating visuals of all kinds: flyers, social media posts, and diagrams.

• Surveys and Polls: Typeform or Google Forms - For example, ask a group studying feasibility to create and distribute a membership interest form. Consider using QR codes to create physical links to the form. Online petition tools like Change.org can be an excellent way to integrate civic participation into your learning topic.

Digital Critical Pedagogy Needs Cooperative Solutions

Digital tools have been a blessing and a curse for learners and educators. In many ways, they have made learning more accessible and equitable. As with all technologies, however, they have also created chokepoints and monopolistic practices. Worse yet, many of these technologies reinforce rather than reinvent the imbalanced power dynamics of conventional classrooms.

Here are some ways we could do better:

• Platform cooperatives - The platform co-op movement is new but full of potential. Any education-centered business can transition to member ownership. There are also many opportunities for startup ventures to disrupt monopolized markets. Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard and Google Classroom would better serve their users if their users democratically contributed to key decisions about those platforms. The open source Moodle platform has been a viable alternative for many years, but what lessons and values could the Moodle collaborative learn from cooperative developers?

• Co-budgeted peer learning - Peer learning is powerful, but skillful facilitation can also add a great deal of value to a learning experience. What would happen if we combined the funding rounds and shared pools of money used in models like Cobudget with democratically-run classrooms? Could learners pool small amounts of money to pay for facilitation? Would travel, childcare, and food be more accessible and overcome the gender and class imbalances that continue to plague education? Would the members' economic contributions motivate them and improve their learning outcomes?

• Consent-based workflows - What digital tools can we invent to streamline learning processes that require consent from all members? As we explore the potential of critical digital pedagogy, new patterns will emerge. For example, in the Let's Play Co-op 101 workshop experiment, the participants struggled to know when to read the next paragraph and when to avoid spoiling a surprise. We did the best we could with a platform (GitBook) that had limited interactivity (expandable boxes). What if there was an app or plugin that made it easier to create student-led, choose your own adventure instructions?

• Integrations - Consider the following features that are rarely seen together on the same app and imagine what may be possible if some or all of them were combined. If learning cannot truly be separated from doing, how could new tools blur that line?

  • Social network diagrams and circle-based interactives like the ones created on Kumu. Contrast these layouts with the hierarchical tree-based and text-based content found on most websites.

  • Consent decision making discussions and polls like those found on Loomio.

  • Shared visual collaboration features like virtual whiteboards and GIS maps.

  • Article publishing and digital petition tools that follow practices of solutions journalism. Contrast this with the comments section sometimes included below news articles.

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