007 Web Tools

We have had several requests in the past few months for tools that offer features similar to the discussion tools and file sharing available through Course Tools and Group Tools in Luminis and allow for participants who do not have an IWU login and password. We are currently experimenting with two of these web-based applications: Google Groups and Yahoo Groups. But before taking a look at features, I want to make it clear that these are not recommendations of the IT office and we can not guarantee their reliability, their continued support or even the fact that they will be freely available. And, of course, as with many web-based tools, advertising and promotional material are abundantly plentiful.

Google Groups

Many of you already have a Google account, and perhaps Gmail, and have played around with several of the Google services like Reader, Blogger, YouTube or Google Notebook. Google Groups offers many of the tools that are available via Luminis Course or Group Tools, e.g., discussions, file sharing and the ability to easily create and edit web pages. There are lots of management tools for inviting or adding members to the group and determining who can see, edit and delete resources. Each participate can choose how to be alerted when content is added to the group site, e.g., an email message every time something is added, a daily digest of activity or no email at all. It works very much like your Course Tool page with the added benefit of allowing participation from off-campus.

Yahoo Groups
Following on the traditions of Usenet groups, Yahoo Groups started as huge international discussion forums to share messages with thousands of folks all over the world. Usenet resembles bulletin board systems (BBS) in most respects, and is the precursor to the various web forums which are widely used today. Recent improvements have given you to ability to create restricted groups with many of the same features listed above. Yahoo Groups adds a few services more familiar to Luminis users, calendar, links, photos, and a couple of new features, database and polls, heretofore unavailable with our group tools.

We have created experimental groups with both services and would be happy to add any interested colleagues. We’d be happy to hear your thoughts on these tools and your recommendation on anything else you have found valuable for exchanging messages and sharing resources.

Tags: google groups, group tools, yahoo groups

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 11:50 am and is filed under Web Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.