Thing 17: Online productivity

I tried a couple of these tools: Bubbl.us and Flashcardddb. Both of them were a little disappointing.

Bubbl.us worked well, but it was more limited than I would have liked. For me, a big part of brainstorming tools is the ability to use different organization styles. I looked around this site and found that it was adequate for organizational chart models, but not for any other organization models. Maybe this is asking too much, but when it comes to brainstorming, this tool is more like marching in line than a blank pallette where I could play with ideas and really develop them. That said, I will also keep this in mind as a resource to help students organize their ideas for writing before outlining. It could provide some utility despite its limitations.

The flashcard program I looked at was also a bit limited. I like the fact that users can put together card sets based on simple text files, but I've seen better tools for keeping track of scores and progress. The card sets that were available online were also pretty limited. I looked in the English and the public ones were pretty limited. I prefer one called Anki. It provides the practice and recordkeeping that flashcarddb does not.