Group+B+6-B-1

=Home > Group B Workspace > Learning Activity 6-B-1: Explore Read/Write Web Tools=

Our task:
 * Description of the Tool/Service (use the descriptions in Key Info as a model)
 * Educational Examples or Potential Educational Uses
 * How To Get Started


 * Description of Tool **


 * Dashboards** or "homepages" are nothing new, but what they can do and how well they can do it has changed quite a bit since they were introduced long ago. Internet users can create a web-based dashboard, such as Netvibes, and share it with others by making it public.

In short, a dashboard is a homepage that organizes a user's everyday online experience. A dashboard can present **on one page** (with tabs) everything a user needs on a daily basis--email, calendar, weather, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, RSS news feeds, web pages, and a variety of widgets. Again, dashboards have been around a while, but now they are more functional and can be shared in a web 2.0 way.

If you've ever found yourself trying to navigate between a number of pages or tabs all open at once in your browser, a dashboard can really simplify things for you.

Below are two screen shots of mine. On the main page ("General" tab), I have weather, radio, calendar, several RSS news feeds, a to do list, my blog, email, Facebook, Craig's List search, and a links manager. There are many more widgets from which to choose.





**Educational Uses**

One simple use for Netvibes is to keep up with professional reading. Here is a link to and a screen shot of a public Netvibes page on higher education: [|Netvibes Higher Ed]



Another example from a **tech teacher** in Canada: Netvibes Example

This is an example of a **librarian's** use of Netvibes: [|Librarian's Netvibe]

Yet another use of Netvibes from the The Unquiet Librarian involves **literature circles**: [|Netvibes literature circles]

Here is an example from an **economics** teacher: [|Welker's Wikinomics] He has tabs for a page of blogs he follows, his own blog, and his students' blogged answers to question prompts, etc.

According to an article on U Tech Tips, Jason Welder writes: "I've grown accustomed to reading my favorite blogs and news sites right in my Netvibes page; but I’ve always wished there was a way to give my students access to the dozens of great econ blogs I read without walking them through the rather complicated and confusing process of copying and pasting dozens of URLs into their own individual account pages. Now, I can create one page //for// them, a “universe” that I get to design and fully customize, where they can go to read anything and everything I decide is important enough to put there."

In the article "**Netvibes at the Elementary Education Level,**" Purdue University's website makes the following point: "In this [Netvibes] educational setting, teachers will be able to create pages for students to do all their work on. Teachers can have all the necessary websites for students to do research. Teachers will be able to put all sorts of news websites and informational websites needed."

A teacher could create a public (or password protected) classroom page for students and/or parents. It is a simple way to publish a web page that can keep current on information--journal articles, news feeds, Internet radio broadcasts/podcasts, and all sorts of social media. A teacher could upload classroom vids, student artwork, assignments, links to news about current events and so on.

= **Getting Started** =

Click here to get started in minutes. Take the tour and then register for a page of your own. For anyone nervous about sharing so much information, it is possible to have a private Netvibes dashboard; once you have created your account and become more comfortable, you may feel more willing to share publicly.