As a classroom teacher, I often encountered a seemingly simple task that was deceptively challenging, namely, sharing a collection of web pages with students.  In most cases, writing a URL on the board or a handout is completely ineffective, resulting in a good deal of lost instructional time while the teacher helps students fix typos and correct other issues.  URL shortening services, like bit.ly and TinyURL can help, but can also lead to problems of their own.  The solution I usually adopted was to post the links to any web pages I wanted students to use in class on the course web page.Because this was a site that students were familiar with, it was easy enough to ask students to use it as a sort of portal to pages I wanted them to look at in class.

What if, however, you want to present students with a list of web pages you want them to visit in a particular order?  Again, you create such a list on a course web page, but you won’t be certain that students visit the indicated pages in the specified order.  That’s where the tool reviewed in this edition of Web 2.0 Weekly comes into play.

Jog the Web is a simple app that allows the user to create an ordered list of web sites for visitors to sequentially step through.  These lists are called “jogs”.  Below is a screenshot of an example jog I created (click the image to see it full size).

You can see that Jog the Web places each of your websites in a navigational frame.  Clicking the “<” and “>” allows you to move forward and back through the list of sites.  You can also click on a particular web site’s listing to jump directly to it.  The top frame provides the position number of the view page in the list, it’s URL, and also gives the jog creator the opportunity to insert a brief description or comment.  This last feature is great for providing students with instructions or other information.

At the end of every jog (at least those created by non-premium users), are two special pages.  One gives registered users the opportunity to comment on your jog.  The second provides users with links to other recommended jogs.  Note that these pages do have advertisements.

Strengths

• Easy to create jogs
• Navigational frame provides easy sequential access to web pages
• Teacher can leave instructions or comments for each page

Weaknesses

• Navigational frame can limit amount of screen real estate available for displaying content on lower resolution monitors
• Advertisements are added to the two special pages automatically included on each jog (unless you are a premium account holder)
• Premium service is very expensive (~$40/month)
• Free account holders’ jogs are listed on the Jog the Web directory

Jog the Web offers two levels of service: the free service and a premium version.  As mentioned, the premium service is quite expensive at roughly $40/month.  To make use of Jog the Web, you will need an Internet-connected computer with a modern web browser.  Creating jogs requires the creation of a user account (you will need a valid email address for this), but anyone can view jogs.  Jogs can be shared but note that the URLs are quite long (http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/TPOxCvEq8u8C/LuthEdGuild).  A URL shortening service might be helpful here.