At the same time as lots of Web 2.0 aps are being “mashed” and morphed, so too are many being stripped back to the bare minimum. Some time back we reported on barewiki, (which seems to have morphed into OttoWiki), which is a stripped back wiki. (Another interesting variant is Wiki on a Stick which is a wiki that can live on your memory stick.)
Now comes a couple of new “stripped back” options. Twitter has become all the rage for instant communication gratification, though I am not that sure it suits my more ponderous keyboard style, (I must admit to still having big problems with the SMS on the mobile).
Next via Judy O’Connell comes reference to the ultimate, (?) in stripped back blogging, Tumblr, (don’t you love how the ‘er’ is morphing into an ‘r’ ending?). Makes you wonder where it will all end?
Another “interesting” development in our shrinking, or should that be “flattening” world is WiZiQ. At WiZiQ teachers can sign up to provide online tuition at a price or for free. Alternatively students can use the service to locate teachers that can provide educational services in their area of need. An interesting development indeed though it does beg the question as to the quality of the service provided and any consequent guarantees of “success”, (whatever that is defined as).
On a quick flick through it is interesting to see how many teacher members are situated in the sub-continent. Without being a great forecaster, one can foresee many more similar tutoring portals opening up all over the place and perhaps an educational system may also come on board before too long to keep it “in house”.
John, a great overview of some of these ’stripped back’ tools…and yes, I do agree with your last point about global access to tutoring! The ground is really shifting under our digital feet