This week I am asking you to take a look at this article (it is accessed through the SU library) which is about Filamentality and Track Star. Track Star is another service, similar to Filamentality. As the article states, services like Track Star and Filamentality are most useful in classrooms which have Internet service, but where the teacher is short on the time/experience necessary to make a webpage from scratch.
The article explains that Track Star is a site that "allows teachers to organize and annotate Web sites for use in their classroom lessons." This list of Websites is called a "track" (hence the name) and it is visible to the students as they work on the questions which the teacher creates. Track Star sounds very simple (just like Filamentality). With Track Star, you just locate the Websites you want the students to use, register for an account, click "Make a New Track," enter the sites with annotations and then click "Submit Track." Track Star immediately turns what you have just entered into a webpage.
Of the five Filamentality formats, it seems most similar to Treasure Hunts (or Hotlists, if questions are not being asked) to me.
One thing I liked about Track Star is the option to revise someone else's Track. If, for instance, I am having third graders research mammals, and I go on to Track Star and find someone else's track that is very similar to what I want, I can just make a few revisions to their track and re-publish it (with authoring credit going to both the original author and myself).
I know that last week, we were mostly agreeing that Filamentality's five different options have quite a bit of overlap, and are a bit redundant with each other. After learning about Track Star (which only has one format), do you like the five options that Filamentality offers better? Or are there things you like better about Track Star?
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2 comments:
I agree that Track Star looks/sounds a lot like the Filamentality Treasure Hunts or Hotlists that you talked about last week. I think if I were already using the variety of Filamentality options I would just continue to develop Treasure Hunts and/or Hotlists rather than use a different version of the same thing. Plus, since Filamentality’s options are so overlapping, if I created a Hotlist and wanted to convert the information into a Treasure Hunt or other format, it would be easier just to do this all within Filamentality rather than re-populate my information into Track Star. I think that any of these resources have potential for use in the K-12 setting, but my focus as a TL would be to find the one that communicates the lesson the most effectively. Filamentality already does what Track Star does as well as provide a variety of other formats so I think I would stick with Filamentality.
Given a choice I would choose Track Star over filamentality. I found the extensive search options very useful. Track Stars single purpose is the purpose I would use it for. And another not so little thing to me is the more attractive and user friendly interface in my opinion of Track Star.
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