03.12-17+Screencast+Info.


 * Week 9 - Screencast - (30 points)**
 * ORGANIZING INFORMATION: Start Page Comparison**

SCREENCAST (20 points) I would like for you to explore the concept of organizing student research in a little more depth. You are going to try and get your students using a start page as a place to begin their day. A start page will bring together various streams of information that students can glance through to see what the current update is on topics of their interest. This is similar to the project you did earlier for your professional development with scoop.it and paper.li.

I would like you to **compare two applications** that could be used as start pages. I recommend that you use //YouTube// as a source for ideas because many/all of these possibilities have been discussed and promoted in that arena. Everyone will look at Symbaloo (http://www.symbaloo.com/) and compare it //any one// of the start pages discussed below. This screencast will be emphasizing the similarities and differences between the the start pages and whether the characteristics of Symbaloo or your other choice would best serve your students. If it would help, you might consider that you are trying do decide for a particular group of students who have a particular project that you are trying to help them organize information for. In fact, you might start off with that as your intro to give us context for your thought process in comparing the two. (12 March 2012).

Additional clarification: What you are doing is to educate me (and whoever else might be watching) as to which would be the most useful for classes I'm teaching (let's say I'm teaching world history and want to know which of these two would be the most helpful for unit on economics in sub-Shaharan African nations -- or whatever) by comparing the features of both. I don't think it would make much difference what theoretical classes you would choose in helping you with thinking about the positive and negative qualities of each.

I could make the example a little more concrete by saying...you (as the librarian) are presenting at a social studies department meeting two choices for start pages for class projects. Your screencast will help you in the presentation as you would be showing this and discussing at the same time. (17 March 2012)


 * "Portal & WebPage Starting Tools" (http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Portal+%26+WebPage+Starting+Tools)

Symbaloo has been getting a lot of discussion in the school library field which is the reason I want you to become familiar with it. You can choose any one other tool listed above (or if you have a favorite that is not listed by all means contact me to see if you can use it) to compare it to. The point of this exercise is to become familiar with the concept of a start page as an organizing tool and to be able to recommend to students one that you think will best meet their needs. In your screencast discuss the main characteristics of the two start pages and any advantages that one has over the other.

Keep in mind that **you are not reviewing these tools.** Because you made a screencast of them you have already decided that these would be good tools for students and staff members to use. Be sure to give us the information on HOW to create the components of the information dashboard and point out any issues are particularly useful for a student project or any potential pitfalls that could be avoided as well. What you are saying is, "here are two great start tools and here is what they can do."

WIKI ADDITIONS (10 points) This week I am going to suggest four additions to your wiki. Create a new page: Bookmarking. I would like you to look at four of the dominant methods students can bookmark their information and retrieve the information that they find on the Web. Delicious is very popular but has wobbled a bit as there was some discussion that its new owner was going to stop the service. It is still going strong and it is very popular.

You are having a smackdown of bookmarking tools. What are the features of these applications that distinguish one from the other and since you are going to recommend one of these for your students to use what will you base your recommendation on? They are all going to save bookmarks to the Web -- what other features do they bring to the table? Find reviews from other sources to help you make your decision. (12 March 2012)

Delicious: http://www.delicious.com/ Diigo: http://www.diigo.com/ Evernote: http://www.evernote.com/ Google Bookmarks https://www.google.com/bookmarks/l