Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:08:48 GMT

Internet news and video are at the center of the 2008 Presidential race, giving voters--particularly young voters---lots of opportunities to see and hear and discuss the candidates. Here is an idea to consider:

Imagine a college course, "The Internet and Presidential Politics". Imagine that you are the professor of this class. Imagine that you ask members of your class to participate in the following experiment:

During the first week of class, each student personally invests two one-half-hour periods surfing the web. Students are asked to find material that might be of interest to the class as a whole, and might be relevant to the topic of the class.

The students click a special bookmarklet to capture pages. A simple click saves each contribution into a collective list fed by the selections of a hundred students! These selections are exhibited, most-recent-at-top, in an infinite scrolling list on a public web site.

After posting their contributions, students read through the listings and pick out three of most personal interest. In class and sections, students what moved them about their particular choices.

This exercise is hosted at OPML Workstation. The professor creates a "target folio" and writes a first paragraph to introduce the topic. The professor sets the access control to allow visitors to comment/edit the page. This is done with one click in the Writer, as the page is created. The entire time required is minimal.

Students are asked to visit the folio page. It is hosted at opmlworkstation.com/browse/theinternetandpresidentialpolitics

At the top of the page, just under the title, there is a drag-and-drop "Bookit" tag. Students drag this into their browser toolbar and it becomes a "bookmarklet." As they subsequently surf the web, clicking the bookmarklet posts page references to the chosen folio.

Note, the bookmarklet is simple but powerful. Highlighted selections of text on the page are captured and posted. Comments can be added. YouTube or Google Video is automatically grabbed and is displayed.

Imagine the velocity of contributions that could be achieved with a dozen students, or a hundred! Lots of fun to see what is posted to the shared feed!

Let us know when you try this!

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