BP3_iGoogleScreenshots

iGoogle's modest mask

At first glance, iGoogle doesn't appear to be anything terribly new or very much of a powerhouse.  But a bit of exploration shows that iGoogle's basic login screen and simple default appearance is a modest mask for a powerful tool in creating customizable homepages, including time-saving Personalized Learning Environments (PLE's).  Completely customizable tabs allow users to create a series of layered homepages that bring a massive amount of information together with just a few clicks.  As well, a multitude of gadgets allow two-way interaction with to widely used sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Blogger, TED, and more.  Also, a number of utilities like calculators, calendars, news and video widgets allow one to set up an efficient digital workspace, while iGoogle's ready selection of games might make the process less simple of a task.  Below, you can take a look at how my PLE is set up for use throughout the Education Media Design and Technology Course at Full Sail University.

First, my Home Tab houses widgets for Google Docs, Twitter, Facebook, and Todoist.  Also, there's a box of links to a few resources I use frequently.  Take a look:

My FSO tab houses resources related to Full Sail University, including Viddler, morgueFile, Creative Commons, and Wimba.

The CBR tab houses information pertaining to my Challenge Based Research project at Full Sail.  This page also houses another Todoist widget, as well as a widget for Diigo and links to my teammates' CBR websites.

Links to resources for my Emergent Technologies in a Collaborative Culture course are housed in the ETC tab.  These include widgets for Blogger, Flickr, Google Reader, Google Docs, and other useful sites.

Although I haven't used iGoogle much yet, now that I've set up a thorough PLE I can see how much time and how many clicks I'll be able to save.  In the future, I plan to set up a few more tabs including a set of utilities and tab of links to sites I use outside of my M.S. program.