tool_grid

There are many great Web 2.0 tools. As you’re thinking about a new project, you may wonder which of all these tools should you use. This grid should help you sort out how the tools are different and what the pros and cons are of each.

Primarily **public** || Teacher blog communicating notes, etc. to students Teacher blog communicating to parents and the community || Easy way to communicate on-going information Good for reflective writing Provides an authentic audience for writing || Requires dedication and time to write on an on-going basis (Blogs that aren’t very “active” won’t be read.) Not good for material that you want to organize in a way other than chronologically Need to monitor student comments (School-sponsored, student-administered blogs are problematic.) || Blogs should have a theme that spurs writing at least weekly. While readers can comment on blog posts, this is not the main focus of a blog. If your activity is meant to be highly interactive, another tool may be a better choice. || Primarily **public** || Anything you want to publish as a web page Class notes Online study guides Group student projects Book reviews or discussions Learning communities || Easy to edit and publish web content Can embed things like movies, slideshows, etc. Edits can be restricted to space members (requires log ins) || Simultaneous editing of the exact same content is problematic Possibility of vandalism, etc. (can revert changes, but may be time consuming) || Wikis are great for collaborative projects that you want many people to contribute to. (You can track who made which changes, but if that is of primary importance, other tools may provide more flexibility.) || Primarily **private** || Student writing assignments (individual or collaborative) Student journals Data collection Lab journals || Documents can be accessed from anywhere. Documents are private but can be shared. Good for student writing that teachers can comment on or grade online. || Doesn’t have all the advanced features of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint || Documents that are shared can be edited by everyone. (This is not generally a good way to distribute templates to students.) These documents are generally not publicly viewable, but can be shared with selected others. || Primarily **public** || Class discussions Homework help || Organized by topic Highly interactive People can participate when they want || Need to monitor student comments || Good for highly interactive discussions of class topics (better for this than blogs). || Primarily **public** || Live discussion outside of class time Review sessions Discussion of a live event such as a debate, news conference, etc. || Very engaging and highly interactive Somewhat limited application For students, requires online access at home and ability to “meet” at a specific time || Everyone has to be online at the same time. Safety/monitoring is difficult because broadcast is “live” || Good for “special event” type discussions || Can be **public** or **private** (but focus is not on public use) || Online courses Online resource “home base” for f2f course || Incorporates many different tools and resources types Very flexible Provides a “home base” || Individual tool features may be somewhat limited (However, you can || If you are using a variety of tools in conjunction with one course, Moodle may be a good “home base.” From Moodle, you can link to other resources. || Primarily **public** || Multimedia newsletters Internet radio shows  Student-produced multimedia presentations on a variety of topics || Highly engaging  Good for in-depth projects || Time-consuming to produce || Podcasts should include a series of episodes (not just a couple shows). ||
 * ** Tool ** || ** In a nutshell ** || ** Common educational uses ** || ** Strengths ** || ** Weaknesses ** || ** Important points ** ||
 * = Blogs = || An online journal, primarily authored by one person, published in installments over time in reverse chronological order
 * ** Wikis ** || A group of web pages that is easy for anyone to edit
 * ** Doc sharing (Google docs, etc.) ** || A way to create and share Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents online
 * ** Forums/ discussion boards (in Moodle or Google Groups) ** || An asynchronous online discussion
 * ** Chat rooms ** || A synchronous online discussion
 * ** Moodle ** || A course management system that includes aspects of many of the above, including teacher posts, resources, forums, chats, wikis, surveys, etc.
 * ** Podcasts ** || Audio, video, or other multimedia “shows” published with an RSS feed so that people can subscribe