Name of Web 2.0 Application: Stumbleupon

URL: www.stumbleupon.com

Stumbleupon is a bookmarking/social website. Opening an account is simple and free. Users can indicate their interests using checkboxes, invite other users to be their friends, and indicate whether other uses can find/contact them using their email address. Once users create an account, they need to download the Stumbleupon tool bar for their browsers. As they view websites, they can click a thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon to indicate whether or not they like the site. They can visit their friends' pages to see the sites they have rated, blog about various topics, etc. The site also provides random sites, based on users' interest, to check out and rate.

I can envision a class opening an account to which all students have access. Students could rate websites on topics pertinent to the class. This would be a great long-term activity to teach students how to critically analyze websites. For each website students rated, they could use the blog to explain why the site was either good or bad.

An alternative set up would be for each student to have his/her own account, add their classmates as friends, and then blog individully. I don't like this idea quite as well because it reduces the chances that students will see what their classmates have done (a requirment to view other people's pages could be built into the assignment, however).