Technology+Toolbox

= Technology Tool Box = =**Criteria**= I chose the following criteria to use to evaluate each of the Web 2.0 tools.


 * 1) **Usability/Accessibility**: Is this appropriate for college-level students and their widely-varying level of tech skills? Is it easily available for download, distribution or use? What is the learning curve?
 * 2) **Instructional Worth:** Does this tool add value and strength to my curriculum? Beyond being fun and engaging, does it provide strong backup of skills or knowledge? Does it add to a student-centered experience? Will this aid in my students retention?
 * 3) **Cost:** At the college level – especially community college – students are strapped for money and the state is reducing funding all the time, leaving very little for classroom purchases by the instructor or department. Optimally, the cost needs to be free or very, very inexpensive.
 * 4) **Safety & Security:** Does this tool operate safely, protecting students and hardware from potential threats? Is it easily corruptible by malware? Does it operate in an environment that is safe for the student?

=**Evaluation**=


 * Browser**
 * **Firefox** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **3** || Firefox is simple to use, gives you the option of auto text-entry, and is easily customizable with different backgrounds. It does crash periodically. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **4** || Because it is easy to use and can be customized for each user, Firefox is quite valuable to instruction and could be used on a daily basis. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **3** || Security can be customized from low to very high, depending on the need. Firefox can be configured to be safe, but it can also easily be overridden by a student. Automatically scans for viruses. ||


 * Aggregator**
 * **Google Reader** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **5** || Super easy to use – just add feeds to your favorite or must useful blogs and news feeds by copying and pasting the web address. You can also search for feeds based on your interests or topics. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **4** || Students could easily use this to remember relevant web sites in research, - which for a research-based English class could be very useful. Teachers can use this to provide links at-a-glance of useful information and sites to their students. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **5** || Password protected. Secure site. ||


 * Social Bookmarking**
 * **Pinterest** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **5** || Very user friendly. New users are taken step by step through the sign up process and can sign in using their Facebook account if they have one. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **5** || Pinterest is a virtual pinboard, so it’s very convenient to pin useful sites or ideas to the site and go back later to revisit these ideas. Additionally, you can search for inspiration or ideas based on topics. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **4** || Password protected and secure within the site, but when you click on other people’s “pins” you are redirected to the source, which can be a volatile or completely unsafe. ||


 * Internet Search**
 * **Google** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **5** || Easy to use and navigate. A clean, simple page feels uncluttered. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **5** || Very useful to students doing academic or general research. Google allows custom and tailored searches where results can be limited to certain criteria. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **4** || It’s fairly safe, although results can certainly lead to inappropriate sites. At the college level, however, this is not too much of a concern. ||


 * WebStart**
 * **Prototpage** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **4** || Super easy to start and use – very small learning curve and engaging with bright colors and a variety of widgets. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **4** || Students and teachers could use this to build their own pages and contents, which could be useful in group project or personal project situations. ||
 * Cost || **4** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **5** || The site is password protected, and pages can be built without publishing publically so that anyone using it can be confident in the content before letting it out in the world. ||


 * Weblogs**
 * **Blogger** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **5** || Very easy to sign up; you can log in with your Google account if you have one. Selecting a theme is easy and getting a page up and running can be accomplished in just a few minutes. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **4** || This could be useful for students or small groups in a classroom situation. Integrated with Google account so very easy to access and use with other Google instructional tools. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free. ||
 * Safety & Security || **4** || Password protected. Several security features. Comments can be moderated before publishing to ensure to spammers. ||


 * Wikispace**
 * **Wikispaces** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **4** || Wikispaces is fairly easy to set up and use, although some features – such as integrating with other wikis – can be complicated at first. Site is a bit clunky and cluttered at times. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **4** || I like Wikispaces and can see using it in a classroom, but the administration and setup would have to be very, very organized in order to ensure a clean, streamlined set of classroom and student wikis. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **5** || Password protected. Can limit access to members or selected people. ||


 * Web-Based Word Processing**
 * **Google Docs** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **4** || User friendly and easy to use. Saves files in PDF format for easy reading. Can be opened from anywhere. The interface is similar to many standard word-processing programs, making the learning curve pretty small. It can be slow and seize up with longer documents. Integrated with other Google apps. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **5** || Very useful in the classroom, especially for collaborative projects and documents. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **5** || Password protected and very secure. Users have total control over their documents and can share them publically, keep them private, or invite others to collaborate on them. ||


 * Web-Based Spreadsheets and Databases**
 * **Google Docs** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **5** || So easy to use. Any student with prior MS Office experience would be comfortable with this format. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **5** || Useful for many classes, although in my own classes I don’t see needed spreadsheets and databases so much. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **5** || Password protected and very secure. Users have total control over their documents and can share them publically, keep them private, or invite others to collaborate on them. ||


 * Creative Writing**
 * **FictionPress.com** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **2** || I found this tool to be a total pain. Difficult to navigate and use. A huge learning curve for very little reward. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **1** || I think that the benefits this tool offers are far outweighed by the negatives. Other tools that are easier to use could accomplish the same thing without the frustration. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || **5** || Password protected. ||


 * Assessment**
 * **Angel Assessment Builder** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **3** || A strong assessment builder that allows you to store questions in a databank for easy access later. The “building” of assessments is unnecessarily complex. ||
 * Instructional Worth || **5** || Awesome in that it gives student immediate feedback and grades tests and quizzes for me, which I love. However, for the longer essay-questions, I still can grade them myself. Lots of question and test types available. ||
 * Cost || **1** || Free for me, but costs the school a ton of money. Not portable, so I cannot take the tests with me if I leave to go to another school. ||
 * Safety & Security || 4 || Password protected. Secure website. ||


 * Podcasting**
 * **Audacity** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **3** || It’s okay, but a bit difficult to navigate. Probably more complex than the average student needs. ||
 * Instructional Worth || 2 || For my own students, I think a more media-rich alternative would prove to be more useful. Limiting to voice only is, well – limiting. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || 4 || Download. Very safe. ||


 * Screencasting**
 * **Screenr** ||
 * **Criteria** || **Rating** || **Comments** ||
 * Usability/Accessibility || **5** || Very user friendly – online based, so all recording is done in an online environment. Works quickly and easily, and videos are automatically stored on the screenr server, although they can quickly be uploaded to youtube as well. Recording time limited to 5 minutes, which is a good thing. Provides code for embedding, and works with all platforms including iOs. ||
 * Instructional Worth || 4 || Students could easily use this to incorporate into a multimedia project. ||
 * Cost || **5** || Free ||
 * Safety & Security || 4 || Password protected and very secure. Nobody has access to your videos unless you make them public. ||