PORTALS

Here we will look at the characteristics and benefits of some of the personal information portals that are available online.
===For the personal information page- I would recommend netvibes or iGoogle but if you are looking for something more suited to the educational environment then definitely check out tabUp and LiveBinders. These are great tools for keeping track of everything at school.===

http://www.netvibes.com/en

Netvibes is a personal information portal. It is set up like iGoogle and you can personalize your page in the same way. You can create your own personal dashboard and focus on looking at the things on the web you want to see first. Something that is different about Netvibes is that you can publish your personal page which means you can share the information with others. For me, I like the style and format of Netvibes better than iGoogle. The colors are more attractive and the page has more visual appeal. Netvibes has over 180,000 different widgets to add to your personal page. When you create you page, it has a more personal feel to it than some of the others- you can really make your page your own with Netvibes.



http://www.google.com/ig

Allows you to create your own person web page that can hold all of your favorite links in one place. You have the option of making this your homepage too. With iGoogle, you can't share your page with anyone so it truly just belongs to you. What's nice about using iGoogle is that Google has so much to offer. It's nice to have everything under one place and in formats similar to each other. iGoogle is clearly a popular choice since it is backed by Google- the all-powerful source of knowledge on the Internet but it isn't your only option. I like iGoogle because it is familiar and like I mentioned before it is just one of the many ways you can use Google to your advantage. However, I do wish it was more visually appealing. With a personal information page, you are bombarded with information. It is important that what you see is pleasing to the eye. iGoogle definitely needs to work on making the pages more attractive without looking cheap.

http://www.groovle.com/

Groovle is another option for your personal information pages. The set up is again similar to Netvibes and iGoogle because you have control over what you se on your page. Here you have the option of choosing a page that has already been set up for you or you can create your own. Groovle is actually powered by Google so you will be using one of the most popular search engines (and the best in my opinion). ;) Groovle is similar to Netvibes in that there is more of a focus on making the page you create more eye-appealing.

http://www.tabup.com/

"Solve your communication problems" tabUp is a free website geared toward group leaders. This is an online meeting place for groups so that all discussions and important notes can be saved on the Web and accessed from anywhere. tabUp is like having an online assistant to keep you and your group organized. You can receive updates through your email when new posts are made to the group discussion. Your group discussion page can be public or private and signing up is free. There are also applications available for you and the group members to talk using their multimedia communication tool.

I think this would be a great tool for group projects or even content team or multidisciplinary teams at school. It would be a great way to keep everyone updated on what is going on. This site is different from the first three since it is more of a communication tool among a group and not so much a tool for you to keep track of what you like to read about on the Internet.



http://livebinders.com/

Here is another great resource for working with a group or for just projects in general. LiveBinders is an online binder for all your organizational needs. LiveBinders makes it easy to collect and store your information on the Web. It's free to sign up and you can share your binder by pasting the url where others could have access to it. I think teachers need to get rid of those huge, heavy, and obtrusive file cabinets and start thinking in terms of online storage like LiveBinders. Though it would take some time to get everything where you want it, it would be so much easier to have access to all your materials online.

Here is a great example of a LiveBinder and its information on figurative language- http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=39604

http://fastseek.co.uk/

GloTouch is another personal information page that is similar to iGoogle and others like it. Here is a quick comparison of GloTouch and others like it: http://fastseek.co.uk/comparison.php Basically, GloTouch gives you more choice and authority over your page and how it looks. You can also chat with friends online and use your preference of search engine.