Panda Smith shared an online educational tool with me today called Jog the Web. It provides a slide show, step by step approach of taking viewers through Web sites allowing the author to annotate and ask guiding questions for each Web page. The viewers can reply posting their comments and/or ask questions. As a WebQuest designer, I find myself wishing for the opportunity to “be with” my students to ask questions and guide them as they read linked sites from my WebQuests. While I provide scaffolding via questions to be answered they are not so specific to each Web site or its individual pages. Jog the Web provides the further scaffolding opportunity that I am looking for.
The students with stronger research skills and more adept at answering complex questions can skip the steps thus supporting the differentiated nature of WebQuests. Now by using the Jog the Web designed tracks within my WebQuests, I have a much more precise way to differentiate the multiple pathways students can take in doing their research.
Outside of WebQuests, Jog the Web provides a nice way to create short learning tasks along the lines of Web scavenger hunts. To get a feel for the potential of this tool, check out the 21st Century Skills track created by Elizabeth Holmes.
And if you are familiar with Jog the Web, what are some ways you are using it?
