The contest elicited many interesting, valuable sites. In order to judge the sites, a team of seven student volunteers each looked at about twenty sites. In this way, each site received multiple reviews. Each site (or app) was judged for ease of use, attractiveness of interface, navigation, content and how well it works. Multiple scores were averaged yielding a simple 1-10 total score for every site reviewed. Any score over 9.0 meant that several students judged the site to be very strong in all components.
In the creative category, a website, Colossal, submitted by Sarah Isusi was the winner. In Colossal's banner, "Art, Design and Visual Culture" are the identified interests of this site. There's excellent video content and spectacular photography. The Design section offers some very original ideas that might offer inspiration to artists of all stripes. Be sure to click the "More" prompt for a wide variety of site options.
In the technology category, Lynn Prosen's submission, Dropbox, was judged tops. There's nothing particularly new or noteworthy about Dropbox to its millions of users. But there is a very easy-to-use interface, consistent performance and the convenience of an ability to sync across multiple devices and platforms. Many of the student judges used Dropbox, and perhaps this skewed their judgements. But what they have come to learn is that Dropbox provides cloud storage for free (or inexpensively, depending on how much storage you want) and thus far has proven 100% dependable. Dropbox is more than a website; you can download an app on computers, phones or tablets and then your files are synced across all devises whenever an edit occurs. I use it. I'm a fan. It really does work very well. Below, a screenshot of my Dropbox.
In the news category, Fred Corona's app, Flipboard, was judged a winner. Flipboard is a news aggregator; it brings together articles of interest from diverse sources. It's very customizable. For instance, your Flipboard could gather articles (and video and audio content) on music, gaming, history and health. You might add social media networks like Facebook or Instagram. Another user might have completely different content in his or her version of Flipboard. Everyone user creates a new, individualized Flipboard.
Two other submissions were very similar to Flipboard. One is Zite. The other is Feedly. Both essentially do what Flipboard does. Obviously, with three unrelated submissions, this concept has some fans. It's worth checking Flipboard (or Zite or Feedly) to create your own custom "magazine."
In the news category, Joanna Hayes suggested the NY Times Learning Network. As the banner reminds us, it's all about "Teaching and Learning with the NY Times." The short articles are invariably stimulating and can easily provide starting points for discussions, creative projects or further research. This is a part of the NY Times not included in the paper version. But by navigating to the web page, you'll be rewarded with excellent content. I'll put in a pitch for the terrific infographics section included in the Learning Network. There's some great tips to using infographics in your classes, and exceptional content as well.
Congratulations to our four winners and thanks to everyone who took the time to submit. A full annotated list of submissions is posted and shared on OneDrive. And a special thanks to our student judges, members of the GSB Student IT group.
