A Note to the Administration (choose your tool)

Mr. X-
I am interested in installing a software called trailfire on the three internet ready computers in my classroom. As I know that we are trying to keep from cluttering our computers or getting viruses on them by avoiding downloads, I thought I would let you know what the software is and why I think it would be helpful in my classroom. Hopefully, you will see the utility of this software and allow me to install it into my room.

Trailfire is completely free software that can be downloaded from the web (http://trailfire.com/). This software is referred to as a “social bookmarking tool” because it allows its users to make groups of bookmarks to related sites under a single title. While this concept may seem confusing when put in words it is simply a way of keeping records - for example instead of looking in a shoe box for a receipt it might take a long time but if you had them organized by month of store in file folders it would be very simple. Thus, instead of searching a topic through search engines that bring up lots of stuff, you can narrow it down into a single “file folder” called a trail by using trail fire.

One of the neat features of this in the classroom is that you can narrow down the amount of inappropriate material students come upon on the internet while still letting them see a variety of sources on your research topic. It also prevents off-task time by not allowing students to have any excuse for stumbling upon websites not pertinent to their research. Additionally, the teacher (or whoever set up the trail) can tag questions, comments, or information which makes it’s a great way for students to do assignments on the web.

Not only is this tool great for the students but I can also use it for professional development by hooking into other science educator’s trails in which they have narrowed down sights they really like on the web. This reduces the need for other higher cost programs such as netrekker that also clusters sights together for educators. Check out this trail marked for 7th and 8th graders http://trailfire.com/mbeisch/trails/62753.

I know this concept is difficult to understand via this memo and would love to have the opportunity to show it to you should you be interested. I think after having seen it you will be very excited about the way it can revolutionize the way we use computers in the classroom. Just contact me if you or the whole faculty would be interested in seeing how to use this tool. Thanks for your consideration.