The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

In trying to assess the tools we used in this class, I found that in most cases, it is completely subjective. Some people liked this tool best, others liked that tool instead, etc., etc.. However, I will give my personal ratings on these tools - as I see their usefulness.

Moodle is a good tool for organizing and setting up an online way of keeping track of everything for your classroom. It does however, have it’s little difficulties, in my opinion. The layout is a bit busy, confusing the student sometimes, and can make things hard to find. Another drawback is the cost. I’m sorry, but teachers pay for enough stuff from their own pocket, this should not be one of them. I give it a rating of 3 stars out of 5 ***.



RCampus, on the other hand, is much simpler to set up, has customizable pages, and just looks better. It also offers a separate homepage for each student, that they can set up with a variety of backgrounds, and layout options. It took 30 minutes to set up six classes, 3 assignments - with grading rubrics, and build the teacher’s personal web page. I WILL be using this program in the classroom! I give it a solid 5 stars *****!


For a web browser, Firefox has a lot going for it. It is somewhat secure, it has a variety of skins you can put on it, quite a number of add-on applications to expand the usefulness of the browser, and it is pretty fast as browsers go. I give Firefox a rating of 4 out of 5 stars ****.


Safari may not have all the bells and whistles that Firefox does, but it’s features are very good. It is a very secure browser, with a good intuitive interface. I still say that Safari is much faster than Firefox, even though the latter has increased it’s speed tremendously in the last couple of years. Though Safari does not have a list of add-ons in it’s own separate pull-down menu, the add-ons are there, just integrated into the browser program with each update. I would rate it as a 5 stars out of 5 *****.


Whoever came up with social bookmarking is a genius! The del.icio.us website is extremely easy to use, and gives one the ability to cut research time tremendously by browsing other people’s bookmarks. By simply typing in a tag in the search area, the student, or teacher, is able to find all the results in my bookmarks, my network’s bookmarks, or all the results in the del.icio.us website. I think Delicious deserves 5 of 5 *****!


Speaking of social networking, I found a place where you can set up your own social network at Ning.com. I have joined several groups already pertaining to my personal interests, and am amazed at the simplicity and ease of use. I give it 4 stars out of 5 ****.


One of the first online accounts we had to sign up for in the class, was a Gmail account, by Google. Google has come on strong with a complete suite of applications that all work from the same sign-in. Gmail is a great online based email client that offers a number of backgrounds, chat within your email, and video chat as well. The complete suite of apps include such things as:

A solid, well featured word processing program, a spreadsheet app., and a presentation app., and Google’s Blogger application is pretty good, with an easy to use format, and different layouts, not to mention Google groups, Google video, iGoogle, Google calendar, page creator, Google Reader, and Picasa. For a free set of online applications, available from any computer that is connected to the internet, anywhere, this suite holds it’s own in the usefulness category. I would give it a 4 out of 5 **** stars.


If Google’s Blogger is a good basic online blog application, the Wordpress.com would have to be described as a blog on steroids. It has quite a large selection of available layouts, from the basic, to the fun, to the very professional. It is very easy to use, and has a long list of available features that make it effortless to post your next blog in style. It is incredibly simple, straightforward, and simple to add slide shows, videos, and link to other sites. This site could be used for a wide range of purposes, and has the layouts to facilitate an uncomplicated setup. I rate this one at an easy 5 *****!


Last, but definitely not the least, is Slide.com. A useful tool for many different applications in the classroom, this online slideshow program makes any presentation better! A breeze to use, it will add that extra dimension to your website, blog, or lesson plan. I have to give this one a good 4 out of 5 **** stars.