I am ahead of the curve on this one. I have used JigZone for a number of years. When I was recovering form the damage to my spinal cord, my manual dexterity was virtually non-existent. I was looking for a way to improve my use of a mouse, so I thought moving the pieces of a virtual jigsaw puzzle would help. It did, though frankly, I’m still not very good. My construction times are horrible. I really don’t know if this is “socially relevant” in the Internet 2.0 way or not. But it is fun, diverting, and a little frustrating! I have had a thought (my but it’s lonesome up there). I may take one of those pictures I take of students, turn it into a jig saw puzzle and post it on my Ed-line site.
There are two other focused play sites show possibilities for use in my course. Quizlet is both collaborative and sharable. This could be quite useful in preparing for examinations. Of course, the students should do the work, not me. After some 32 years of teaching this material, I already know it. The site also allows for does it allow comments, discussions, and ratings.
The second possibility for use is iOutliner. I do not have students write formal papers but I do have them do research as if they were going to write a paper. This might be useful in showing how to organize information before writing anything. However, the learning curve of this site may be too much for the average student. I don’t want a technique like diagramming sentences in which the teacher became so bogged down in teaching the rules the usefulness of the activity was lost on the students. I not sure if this site has any of the criteria of social relevance of the Internet 2.0. Perhaps there are better sites along this out there in the cyber world.
Entries (RSS)