TokBox recently partnered with EtherPad to offer collaborative document creation accompanied by video conferencing. TokBox provides free video conferencing that can accomodate multiple users in each conference. EtherPad offers real-time document collaboration. Through the integration of EtherPad into TokBox users can talk about changes to a document while enacting those changes at the same time. This is a distinct improvement over document collaboration environments where users can only change a document, but cannot discuss the rationale for changes to a document.

To learn more about using TokBox and EtherPad together, watch the short video embedded below.

Applications for Education
The combined services of TokBox and EtherPad make it possible to edit documents and discuss those edits at the same time. This could be every useful for anyone that teaches online as teachers can explain to students the reasons for changes in a document. The TokBox and EtherPad combination could also be useful for students who are developing reports collaboratively.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Connecting Classrooms Through VoiceThread
Zoho Notebook for Web Research Organization
Teambox – A Collaborative Team Workspace