Trailfire


 * INTRODUCTION**

Trailfire is a Web tool that allows users to save a series of Web pages about some topic. The pages can be annotated with notes or questions, and the trail link can be shared with other users or students for their perusal. Trailfire provides an easy way for instructors to cull a cohesive set of resources about some topic much like you would do for a Webquest activity. The idea is students won't waste time searching the Internet for relevant information on a given topic, since you have gathered a focused set of resources on their behalf, leaving time for reflection, discussion, and thinking.

At this week's conference on new literacies, it is worth noting that Trailfire can not only be employed by teachers, but also by students. Teachers could easily task students with creating their own trails of resources, and clearly a literacy all 21st century students will need is the ability to identify and collect relevant Internet resources from the billions of pages available and discuss their relevance to a topic or question. Assignments could be relatively low-level, with students marking Web pages on some topic, and inserting questions for a partner or their peers to answer. You might call such trails, "peer quiz trails," to use in studying for a test. Alternatively, Trailfire assignments could be fairly high level, where you give students an inquiry problem such as "mark five legal decisions that are described on the Web that suggest racism by the U.S. Supreme Court and leave reflective annotations that suggest why you think certain decisions were racist." You might call such trails, "inquiry trails."


 * TRY BROWSING SOME SAMPLE TRAILS**

To get an idea for how Trailfire works, go ahead and browse some sample trails that have been created by others. You can view a sample trail I have created with four marks called "Historic Towns of Eastern NC" at: [] Click the link to the first mark on this trail (i.e., NCHS Historic Edenton), and then depending on the browser you are using, an existing trail can be viewed by either following the 1) arrows at the top of the browser window, or 2) the arrows in the trailfire window that is superimposed over the existing Web sites with your embedded annotations (Firefox only, see sample below). The trailfire window can be activated by looking for 3) the small caption icon.

I teach a technology integration class for teachers at NC State, and one project teachers complete is a Trailfire trail for their own K-12 class. The trails are all teacher-created rather than student-created, but the variety in the teachers' trails suggests a host of potential topics for trails. I selected the following samples because the teachers all went beyond simply annotating their selected Web pages to include either instructions for students to try out something on the page (e.g., take the quiz, do the simulation), or questions for students to answer from information found on the page. I think the best Trailfire trails include tasks for students while on a Web site, otherwise they might just browse aimlessly without ever picking up any information. If you use questions on your trails, and a student has a Trailfire account, they can leave comments or reflections/responses to questions directly on a trail mark, or they can click "email" and email a response to the teacher.

Kelly Glover, Trail for English/Language Arts students to accompany the reading of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe []

Lisa Johnson, Trail for Science students to learn about the role of space stations in science []

Earnestine Pollard, Trail for Business Education students to learn about the impact of technology on science and work []

Valerie Faulkner, Trail for pre-service Math Education teachers to understand current issues with mathematics research []

Alice Hager, Trail for Business Education students to learn about invention and inventors []

Karen Hughes, Trail for Business Education students to learn about alternative input devices []

Kathleen Mapson, Trail for pre-service teachers to reflect on the real meaning of 21st century teaching and learning []


 * TRY CREATING YOUR OWN TRAILS**

The following video provides an introduction to making a Trailfire trail--[]

1) Create a free account at [] The registration process will prompt you to download the Trailfire software (as shown below) which is just a plug-in for your Web browser that will allow you to save pages to Trailfire trails. You'll need to have either the Internet Explorer or Firefox Web browser to install this software/plug-in. If necessary, you can download Firefox from Mozilla at:[| http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/] For some reason, the Trailfire site only includes the toolbar download for Firefox, but you can download the toolbar for Internet Explorer from CNET at: []



2) Choose an educational topic that you teach or would like to teach someone about and find some Web sites that pertain to your topic. When you find a good site, click the icon on your browser menu bar to "add a trail mark." A window will pop-up asking you to enter three pieces of information. 1) If this is the first mark you've made, you'll need to give your trail a name as shown below. If this is not the first mark you've made, or if you have multiple trails, you'll need to select the pre-existing trail to which you wish to add this new mark. 2) Next, check to make sure the title of the Web resource you are saving is correct, or edit the title to say what you want. 3) Finally, add any annotations about the Web resource you've saved, or questions you would like trail users to answer when they visit this page.



3) Each trail you create generates two URLs. The first URL is called the "trail link" that takes users directly to the first page you have marked and your first annotation. The second URL is called the "trail summary" that first takes users to an overview page of all the marks you've saved. The top of a sample "trail summary" is shown below.

If you click "edit trail" on the trail summary page, you can add an overview statement for the entire trail such as its purpose or goals. If you don't add an overview statement, any annotation you created for your first mark will be displayed in its place.

If you click "share trail" on the trail summary page, you can indicate whether a trail you are creating is public or private, and you can indicate whether the trail you are creating can be edited by others or not. If you choose the option for others to edit your trail, known as a "wiki trail," others will be able to add marks to your trail. This is an interesting concept for a class project, if you would like all students to contribute marks to a common trail. The New Literacies Institute, for example, could have a "wiki trail" with participants contributing favorite links identified over a week's time, assuming participants had Trailfire accounts. There's a potential problem for schools--if you want students to make their own Trailfire trails or contribute to a wiki trail the teacher has started or comment on a trail the teacher has created, they will need their own Trailfire accounts.

If you would like a copy of this Web page, you can download the Microsoft Word version below: