Bubbl.us is a simple, but effective graphic organizing tool whose effectiveness stems from its ease of use for quickly organizing information and ideas of any kind. It is extremely useful to both educators and students since its very nature is as an organization aid. Think of bits of information or ideas as puzzle pieces that fit together in many different ways. The goal of educators and students is to piece together and present many different factoids and ideas in both an organized and unique fashion—the most important aspect being the connections made between those factoids and ideas. Bubbl.us allows both students and educators to quickly create unique and well thought-out representations of various ideas and information.
Furthermore, those representations can be saved, presented, and shared with others in various formats and ways—giving both educators and students many ways to communicate their creations. They can be saved on the site itself for both individuals and groups to continue working on. They can be turned into images or posted on other web pages. They can be printed and projected easily to share with as many people as needed. Bubbl.us creates valuable opportunities to organize, create, share, and explore ideas, making it a valuable tool for both educators and students.
My experience exploring Bubbl.us has given me a few valuable insights on it and other web 2.0 tools in general. First, the simplicity of Bubbl.us never took away from its practicality; rather, that fact the tool was so easy to use made it more relevant and practical to use for its intended purpose. Thus, simplicity and directness are not detrimental qualities in a web 2.0 tool, but rather positive traits that make one more useful. Second, Bubbl.us is not flashy but still contains the ever-important quality of being a tool that allows for and encourages sharing and communication. Therefore, not all web 2.0 tools have to contain 'all the bells and whistles' and extra special features to be useful technologies for sharing.
Lastly, I explored and examined Bubble.us extensively so that I could use it, write about it, and create directions for it. I am not an expert on all things web 2.0, and neither did I have to be in order to make myself an expert on using a single web 2.0 tool. I will use the above lessons from my experience with Bubbl.us when evaluating, using, and explaining other web 2.0 tools in the future.
Bibliography
Concept Mapping as a Planning Tool. (2009). Online Teaching and Learning Resource Guide. Retrieved from http://www.vcu.edu/cte/resources/OTLRG/02_04_ConceptMapping.html
This article addressed how concept mapping was developed, in addition to explaining aspects of concept mapping and Bubbl.us that create distinct advantages for educators and students alike.
Johnston, Lisa. (2009). From Sticky Notes to Mind Maps: Visual Collaboration Environments. Sci-Tech News, 63(1), 20-22. Retrieved from http://jdc.jefferson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=scitechnews
This article asserts the general practicality of using online organization tools to take notes, record information, and draw connections to information and ideas, including specific advantages and disadvantages of Bubble.us and other similar tools.
Sawchuk, Peter. (2009, August 3). Bubbl.us: A Tool for Mind-Maps. Retrieved from http://assett.colorado.edu/post/570
This short article reflects on the general educational uses and benefits of Bubbl.us, as well as the types of learners that may benefit from the tool.
