Erin's+review+of+Trailfire

The last cool tool session that I attended was Trailfire ([|trailfire.com]) presented by Dr. Kevin Oliver. Trailfires allows a teacher to bookmark websites and then connect them in a “trail” with notes that lead the instruction for students. A trailfire could be used in a wiki or WebQuest to limit where students go for information. One example was to use Trailfire to create a scavenger hunt for students to gather information.
 * Trailfire: **

I was intrigued by the possibilities of using Trailfire in a classroom. In a tenth grade world literature class, I would use Trailfire in a unit on Elie Wiesel’s //Night//. Where I would have students gather information from the linked sites about the author, WWII, Nazi Germany, and concentration camps to use for a project possibly creating a ThinkQuest. I might also use Trailfire in an eleventh grade English class that is studying //The Scarlet Letter// by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I would create a trail of websites about witchcraft, Puritanism, Puritans, Colonial America, and have students gather information to then create a final project such as designing a scavenger hunt.

Trailfire is a cool tool for limiting the online websites that students may access for information on a given assignment. It is teacher directed, but allows students to research with a direction. I will have my onine class create their own trailfire to analyze and synthesize the information they gather about effective presentations (see lesson plan)

I am overloaded with the possibilities that these five cool tools ([|ThinkQuest], [|Primary Access], [|Voice Thread], [|Notefish,] [|Trailfire]) could bring to a classroom. With the scaffolding method of TPACK and these five cool tools, teachers could truly use 21st Century skills of literacy and technology to teach their students in any content area to be global learners.