The current technology in most classrooms allows students to collaborate in ways never possible just a few years ago.  At this point, most students have grown up with technology (the iPod hit stores in 2001, & the iPhone 2007).  They are used to communicating via social media, and are probably more comfortable sharing their thoughts digitally too.   (Students should still be encouraged to talk and interact with each other without technology.)  The following tools will help integrate technology in a way to foster rich collaboration between students.  The goal of integrating technology in the classroom is to provide students experiences that would not be possible without the technology.   

Padlet is a modern day cork board.  Instead of having students come to the front of the class and posting a slip of paper to the board, they can do it from their desk and share it with the entire class.  This can be a great tool for those that like to have a "parking lot" where students "park" their questions during a lesson.  During the lesson, the teacher can view the Padlet and gauge the lesson based on the questions being asked.  This also prevents the the student that strives to get a discussion off-topic.  It will also save the teacher hundreds if not thousands of post-it notes.

Helpful hint:  Padlet can sync with Google Classroom and allows the author of each post to be recorded.  This helps prevent any student from posting inappropriate comments.