For the purpose of this assignment we were all responsible for finding, using and evaluating a web 2.0 tool of our choosing. I looked through the seemingly endless list of tools and finally found something that I as well as my students could use on a daily basis. Since my class is strictly online, my students need to be able to collaborate in a way that promotes cohesion and productivity so I think that by using Ubidesk, my students can come together and work as a collaborative group.
Ubidesk is free to use and it closely resembles the popular Googledocs format. It includes a discussion board for communication, a place to upload documents that can be edited and commented on by the members and a way to organize group projects through visual graphs and charts. I was able to upload a word document, then go through and edit it, highlight sections and add side notes that would be useful for other members in my group.
The ease of use that comes with this free tool is well beyond anything that I would have expected. I was able to do everything I needed to do without freezes, crashes, errors or hang ups during my time in the site. The best thing about this tool is the fact that anyone can create an account in about 2 minutes and be ready to go in about 5. It is easy to invite group members to the site and even easier to work with them.
The only downside to this tool is the fact that most of us have google id's that enable us to use the Googledocs site. Knowing that Ubidesk does the same thing as Googledocs, I don't see it being used as much as it could have been before Googledocs. Too bad for the Ubidesk team who obviously spent a lot of time making this a great web 2.0 tool.
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