Have you ever considered the method you use to share important websites with your students? My experience informs me that the majority of instructors create a document that lists the various websites and their website address (aka URLs). This document is either given to the students as a printed handout or available as a download online, usually from within eClass (WebCT).
I think it is important that people are aware that there are a multitude of ways to transmit this information to your students that, in my opinion, are much more effective and add extra benefits for students and instructors alike.
First let me set-up the downsides a paper list of websites:
- A piece of paper is hard to file properly and have ready to access when I need it. When I am sitting at my computer planning a lesson 10 months later I have to remember where I filed that one piece of paper and look up a specific website. (not to mention how easy it is to lose a piece of paper).
- A document list of websites does not facilitate sharing. What if a fellow student mentions during class of another useful website. Your students must now transcribe all the website information on the given document.
- There is no easy way to share new websites or add new comments about the existing list of websites after the class has concluded. Sure students could email information to each, but now students are dealing with multiple locations of information that must be filed and organized.
- It is difficult to communicate how to navigate on a particular webpage using a document list. In my experience the key information about many websites is something like “be sure to click on the _______tab and then select the _____ link in the navigation bar”. This is hard to capture in a document list. Not to mention the fact that as soon as a website changes it’s navigation structure (which they often do) this previous information is irrelevant and confusing.
- A static document list cannot take into account when website addresses (URLs) change or particular resources move location within a website.
So guess what? There are ways to share websites with your students that counteract these pitfalls of a document list. If you are a U of A Education instructor, are interested in the various options and want advice on which will be the best fit for you I suggest you contact someone in Tech PD. We would be happy to consult with you.
However, I will also introduce you to my 2 favorite solutions:
Delicious.com is a social book
marking application. It works exactly like your Bookmarks or Favorites menu in your Internet browser (eg. Internet Explorer, Safari). However the bookmarked websites are stored in an online account as opposed to on your computer. Therefor you can access your list of bookmarked websites on ANY computer in the world. You can also share a selected list of these websites with others. Even better, you can create a class delicious account that can pull websites from your saved bookmarks. Most importantly delicious uses a method of multiple categorization called tagging. This will allow you and your students to create a constantly updating list of websites that can be sorted and organized based on individual preferences. This is hands-down the MOST useful computer tool I use in my life!
Diigo.com is also a social boo
kmarking tool. It has similar features to Delicious in the sharing and tagging of websites. However Diigo also allows you to add virtual sticky notes on top of webpages. Imagine the possibilities! You can add little notes about all the tips and tricks you know about navigating these websites. If you want to allow it, students can add their own sticky notes thus creating an ongoing and updating resource. And imagine the possibilities for assessment. You could ask your students to create their won Diigo accounts and have them annotate some websites based an any number of criteria ranging from reliability to applicability to interest, etc… And once the students share these annotated websites with each other they now have an organized list of websites with helpful annotation. Wow!
And so by implementing a Web 2.0 solution to website sharing you add the following functionality to your list of resources:
- A list that is always accessible online from any computer.
- A list which is cross-categorized for the students and that also can be futher categorized based on personal preferences.
- A list which can easily be shared amongst students as well as colleagues.
- A List than can be added to by yourself or your students (if you enable this) at anytime in the future.
- A list that can have comments and annotation added to it at anytime during the course or after, and these annotations can be made available to others if so desired.
- Annotation about navigation can be easily added to website information. If this navigation ever changes, editing the annotation will automatically update itself for all people sharing the list.
- If the address (URL) of a website or a web resources changes, all it takes is for one person in the sharing group to notice this and update the change. The list will now automatically update for all people sharing the list.
Welcome to the wonderful work of Web 2.0!
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