In the last tech facilitator staff development, we were introduced to Mozilla Firefox, a highly customizable open source web browser. (Thanks, Joe, for the information: Firefox is really neat!) The idea was put forth that we could teach students how to use this browser as well so they could synchronize their Foxmarks Bookmarks and have their favorite links on multiple computers with Firefox.
My question is why aren’t we introducing our students to web-based solutions instead of constricting them to software? Web 2.0 has shown us that the Internet can be our new hard drive. We can archive our digital photo collections with Flickr; share our favorite links with del.icio.us; maintain our schedule with Google Calendar; and even store our files on Xdrive (5GB of free storage). By using these tools and others, you don’t need a USB key, net storage, or synchronized bookmarks in a web browser. You can store all your vital information online and access it on any computer with an Internet connection.
My proposal is set up every student with a personalized Google home page. Let’s show them how to add gadgets to their pages so they can have instant access to these tools on any computer. Let’s make their lives easier and reinforce those organizational skills we’re so fond of teaching for their lockers, notebooks, and bookbags. I’m waving the banner for web-based tools! What do you think?
I hear you, Lisa. There are pro’s and con’s—like with anything else. But I agree that free and open source web-based apps are the future. I might even go way out on a limb and suggest the $150 laptop with the Sugar OS will become a real option. But neither FOSS nor Sugar will be options if we restrict ourselves to a province, a platform, an OS. We really have to embrace global choices if we truly want to prepare students to adapt to an unpredictable future.
Two things you may want to investigate: Zoho (google it) and the John Seely Brown podcast on the Steve Hargadon site.
Although all of this is new to me, I am in agreement that web-based is a choice to persue. Allowing the students AND staff to have all of their documents, shortcuts, bookmarks, etc. accessible from the web seems to be a logical and cost-saving decision. However; I don’t think I could ever fully trust not having another source for back-up such as a USB key, etc..
GO RUAMIE!! Yeah, we can’t do without some kind of backup but it sure is nice to have the capability of saving to the web.