Trailfire

Dear Mr. Administrator,

I would like to take a few minutes of your time and tell you about a new piece of technology that I learned about in my graduate class on technology. This program is called Trailfire and is a web based tool designed to help guide students on the study of a simple question or concept.

Trailfire is a very unique tool because once the teacher decides on the concept to be studied then the teacher can surf the web and find important websites before assigning the project to the students. The teacher can then put notes on the website so that students may quickly identify important content that resides in the webpage. The student can then access a link to the next website that the teacher wants the students to review.

This tool would be very useful in our schools because it allows students to interact with the world wide web, but at the same time be guided by a teacher so that students may stay focused on their assignment. This also makes learning more efficient because students do not have to sift through unimportant information, because the note authored by the teacher directs them to the relevant material on the website.

This is a nice tool to use because it is student centered and teacher controlled. Students are able to interact on their own, but the teacher establishes the parameters of the research that the students are carrying out.

Here,http://trailfire.com/aberry/trailview/39357), is an example of a Trailfire project over cheetahs that I worked with in my graduate class. I hope you will be able to review this and meet with me regarding any questions you may have about this tool.

Thanks,

Michael Turner