Portaportal and flexibly learning new tools

Even if you have specialized webpage authoring software like Dreamweaver or Frontpage on your computer, know how to use it, and have FTP or other “uploading” access configured to a webserver– Getting content online with these “web 1.0” tools can be a needless hassle for many purposes compared to web 2.0 tools like wikis. I have been using a wiki since I started my new job in Oklahoma as the AT&T state education advocate in June, sharing all the workshop curriculum and seminar resources I’m creating with other teachers around Oklahoma and the planet. That website is http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com.

This evening I discovered a new website useful for creating web-based hotlists of Internet resources called Portaportal. Bob Sprankle has created a Portaportal site for web 2.0 workshop recently, which not only demonstrates the utility of this site but also shares some good links to educators using the read/write web.

Portals are getting increasingly common these days, especially for free webmail users. Yahoo’s personalized portal “My Yahoo” (my.yahoo.com) and Google’s Home Portal are both examples. Once you have registered with each site, you can create customized “channel content” with a layout you specify. There are canned layout elements as well as elements which can be completely customized. The idea of a “portal” is to create a customized user-interface with links and content you frequently want to see and utilize.

Portaportal looks interesting because it provides an attractive way to create organized categories of links to web resources. I still like using wikis like pbwiki and wikispaces, but Portaportal looks ideal for applications which are exclusively hotlists and don’t contain additional text or image content.

I suppose there are some people who might say, “Good grief, how many of these web 2.0 tools are we supposed to learn and know about?” The answer, of course, is that there is not a defined answer– but the more you are able to navigate and use web-based tools, the more relevant your digital skill-set will be today and in the future. I know several “dyed in the wool” Eudora users who are bound and determined to never switch their email interface. There is not anything wrong with that– but I do think that dynamic change will continue to define the future of computing and information exchange in general. Being able to utilize new and different tools is not just something fun to do as a teacher and a learner– it is actually an essential activity for developing the flexible digital literacy skills required by the information environment as well as the workforce of today and tomorrow.

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On this day..

• Applying STEM Skills with Robotic Sphero Balls (Donor’s Choose Project) – 2014
• Teens use Facebook primarily for private purposes – 2010
• Different Purposes for Using of Digital Tools to Teach Literacy in the College Classroom by Richard Beach – 2010
• Social Media Counter updated for September 2010 – 2010
• Standalone WiFi Skype Phones and Rocket Scientists – 2009
• Critical for Ning site administrators to address spam – 2009
• Visual Tapestry – Flight – 2009
• Visually exploring earth with Panoramio – 2008
• Seeking the elusive “inbox zero” – 2007
• Universities banning Skype – 2006