Thing #17 Explore Web 2.0 Award Winning Apps

I am so impressed with Myra's class. After exploring various award winning Web 2.0 applications, I think that she has picked the most user friendly and useful applications for us to learn!

I tried using Yelp to see if the city guides and reviews would be helpful for a 6th grade social studies unit at our school. It was geared for the tourist vs. any real educational city information. Then I tried using Rollyo. This site allows you to build your own search engine. I personally prefer the del.icio.us account that Myra introduced us to earlier in this class. With the del.icio.us account you mark your favorite sites through this Internet tool vs. just adding favorites to every computer that you use.

Next I explored Farecast. This site offers free predictions on the possibility that fares will rise, or wait to purchase your ticket because fares will drop. You can set up fare alerts or get predictions to Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean! I think that a lot of people would use this application for their family vacation plans or a college student flying back and forth for winter and spring breaks, etc. This tool seemed user friendly and fun!

Swivel was another fun Web 2.0 tool. This site had endless charts and graphs in all kinds of designs. This site could be useful to students working with a lot of data.

Newsvine hooked you up to all of the top newspapers and headlines in the United States. It also gave you the local weather for your city! This site would be useful to students who needed a quick way to stay on top of current events.

Medstory is the Web 2.0 tool that I will demonstrate at our next class. Our health class and some of the science classes are always doing research on various health issues. It is hard to keep up with current nonfiction books, so the Internet seems to be the most up to date source of information for the students to use. This site complements www.WebMd.com that the students use a lot for their projects at our school. Medstory has you search a topic, then breaks that down into 8 different headings with numerous listings under each heading to refine your search.

This was a fun Thing #17 to explore!