SimplyBox

If you’re a teacher looking for great resources to improve the quality of your teaching, help you integrate technology into the classroom, or spice up your lesson plans visit Instructify. I did last week and read a blog entry by Jerry Swiatek on SimplyBox. This technology is an easy way for teachers to organize online material for student learning.

When I taught high school English, one of my favorite units to teach and design was around war literature and poetry. I would often teach some of the World War I poets, such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, along with more contemporary war literature, such as Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried. One of my main goals teaching and reading these works was for students (and me) to experience how artists make use of language, memory and artistic representation to make sense of trauma, tragedy and the inexpressible.

I often asked students to use the internet to research the poets and authors. They gathered interviews, personal correspondence, and criticism to share with the class. After discussing these materials and reading the primary works, I would usually ask students to research and write about other lesser known war poets or authors, perhaps of the Vietnam era or even our current one. Even though students (and me) seemed excited by this material, I was often disappointed with the quality of resources that students found on the internet. I had not taught them to separate the pearls from the chaff.

My students’ experience with this unit would have been much more productive had I known about SimplyBox, a technology that allows users to search the internet and “box” or categorize relevant material that can be accessed by other users (students) via a weblink. For example, I could have created a Tim O’Brien “box” and populated it with reputable online materials such as criticism or commentary on The Things They Carried, author interviews, and other relevant material. Once resources are boxed, users can post comments and reactions. Students can use this feature to create a commonplace to share reflections and ongoing interpretations of the material (sort of like a wiki). Click here for an example of what a box might look like.

I don’t think technology will ever replace good teaching and good preparation, but SimplyBox can be a great resource to introduce students to internet research. It also provides a great commonplace for students to reflect, be critical, and learn from each other as they prepare for presentations or other more finished products of learning.