I found a great website about netbooks and more called Learning in Hand. Learning in Hand is an educator’s resource for using some of the coolest technologies with students, written by Tony Vincent. Below Tony writes about netbooks.
Two trends in the world of technology are making a big splash in education: web applications and netbooks. These trends excite me because I’m all about easy, free, and cheap. There are many tasks that used to require software that you can now do from inside of your Web browser. These sites and services are called web applications. They are sometimes called webware because they are like software but stored on the Internet instead of on a computer’s hard drive. Web apps are great for students and teachers because they are usually free and do not require software to be installed. Because they run in a web browser, web apps are cross-platform, so it doesn’t matter if you are running Windows, Macintosh, or Linux operating systems. Because Web apps and their data are stored online, students and teachers can access the apps and data from anywhere (this is called cloud computing). Teachers and students can access web apps on any school computer and also their computers at home. Some web apps even give access on mobile devices. Another bonus: web apps tend to facilitate online sharing and collaboration.
Continue reading Tony’s thoughts on his website Learning in Hand, where you will also find a great list of web apps. Web applications are great sites to visit using a netbook. Information is stored online and you won’t have to install software.
Simple Spark, a directory for web applications, has over 9,900 web apps listed. Besides looking there, check out the list of links to the right. These are web applications I’ve recently bookmarked. Click here to see Tony’s complete list.
Creative Commons Licensed BY-NC-SA Tony Vincent, Inc.
