URL of the Tool: www.stumbleupon.com
Category of tool: Networking
Description: StumbleUpon is a Web 2.0 search engine. It is Web 2.0 because StumbleUpon's search algorithms are based on the user's profile, and on the user's interactions with other users. StumbleUpon can simply be used to find interesting websites, but it also enables users to recommend sites to be included in the StumbleUpon database, and to write reviews and share interesting websites with friends. The ability of "Stumblers" to give feedback on a webpage helps other Stumblers to navigate to webpages they are interested in.
Trial run:
I first tried stumbling with no search term, so the search was just based on my profile. I got the following results:
An emergency and disaster information service
Poster of Bertrand Russell with a quote.
What to do if you are first to make alien contact.
Why did the chicken cross the road? Answered by different philosophers
A poster of a Star Wars AT-AT (Imperial walker) telling an AT-ST (smaller walker) that it is its father.
I then tried a more specific, academic search. I used the keywords "hardy weinberg"
(a population genetics therorem). To see what useful, academic resources I could find, and I got:
Practice problems from the University of Texas (useful)
The wikipedia article on Hardy Weinberg (I didn't need help finding that!)
A webpage on this topic by Judith Stanhope of the Woodrow Wilson Biology Institute (useful)
Ask.com page on Hardy-Weinberg (another webpage I didn't need help finding)
A webpage with practice problems from Ohio State University (useful)
Then just to compare the academic search to a popular culture search, I searched using the keyword "superman" and got:
A painting of superman
A review of the comic book, Superman: War of the Supermen #1
Tips on how to play a Batman themed computer game
Video trailer of Superman vs. The Elite, a new animated movie
blog article on influence of Superman: Secret Origin comics series on the upcoming live action movie.
What do you need to know before using this tool? StumbleUpon is a very simple search engine. You don't even have to enter a keyword to search for if you have completed a profile indicating your interests.
What do you need to have before using this tool? StumbleUpon only requires an internet browser and a web connection.
How do you use this tool?
1. Create a login and password, or sign in through Facebook.
2. StumbleUpon will require you to choose a minimum number of interestes from a list, including such subjects and Philosophy, Science Fiction, Movies, etc.
3. Then you click the "Stumble!" button and a website related to the interests you indicated in your profile will appear within the StumbleUpon webpage.
4. If you wish, you can click that you like or dislike the page. You can also share it with others via Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Finally, you can post comments on the webpage for other "Stumblers" to see.
5. Whenever you wish, you can click "Stumble!" to look at another website. You past activity influences what websites StumbleUpon selects to present to you.
Example of an educational resource created with this tool: I found a webpage called The Scale of the Universe http://htwins.net/scale2/ that I thought was amazing, and very educational. I shared it on my Facebook account. I am not sure if it worked since I do not see it.
Please describe a scenario of how you might use this tool in a teaching environment: One possibility for using StumbleUpon in class would be to use it as a way to find interesting topics for students to cover in paper, presentation, poster, etc. I think that StumbleUpon would be best as a starting point for research, but to really seriously research a topic would require other tools, like Google or library databases.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using this tool in a teaching environment? I have a difficult time imagining StumbleUpon being very useful for a structured class assignment, unless the task is just to use StumbleUpon and report on what you learned (which would not be a bad thing). I think it is an excellent tool for a self-motivated learner to learn more about topics they are interested in (or possibly to waste time).
Would you recommend this Web 2.0 tool to others, or suggest that they explore a different tool?
This is a tough question that I went back and forth on. I was going to say this was fun but not very academically useful. However, I think StumbleUpon is useful in that the search process itself would engage a student's curiosity better than most or all other serach engines. This could be really valuable to opening up a student's mind, even if the searches are a bit more wild and scattershot. One word of caution: I had my StumbleUpon profile set to filter out R and X rated content, but I still got some result that might be offensive to some, and could be a problem with underage students. The main example I can give is that when I searched for "centipede," my second stumble was a very raunchy, profanity-filled, scatological video parody of the movie "The Human Centipede." So, if possibly exposing students to material of that nature is a problem, you might want to avoid StumbleUpon.
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