Monday, December 29, 2008

Wiggio: Mobile Group Communication & Collaboration

I have been playing with a resource called Wiggio for a couple of months now and am ready to give some feedback. Overall, I really like the resource. I think that it has a lot of potential for facilitating group communication and collaboration inside and outside of the classroom. Wiggio allows anyone to set up a group for free. In the Wiggio group all members can post to a community calender, send mass audio, SMS text, or email message to one or more of the group members, conduct conference calls or chats, create polls, and store files in folders. While this is not a resource that can only be used via cell phone, it is a resource that is aided by the fact that so many student's own their own cell phones. Students can set up their accounts so they instantly receive text message reminders and alerts from the Wiggio group. For example if a group member created a voice message, it would automatically be sent to the group member's cell phones. Also, the scheduled events on the calender could also be sent to group members cell phones as text message reminders of up comming meetings and due dates.

All the communication in Wiggio is documented, so teachers can know how much input students have had in their group activities and what type of input they have had. I really like the achieving of group data since it is often difficult for classroom teachers to evaluate group work and individual member contributions. Teachers could also be part of the Wiggio group, so they could watch the group activities as they are proceeding and jump in when they feel it is necessary.

My Wiggio Wish List:
While I do like Wiggio, I have a few suggestions to make the site more compatible with today's mobile student.
1) Allow posting to Wiggio's calender and folder from the cell phone (maybe try to couple it with Dial2do or Jott)
2) Allow for conference calls to be achieved on Wiggio
3) Allow viewing of new documents (such as images/video) posted to the group on cell phones.
4) Allow group members to take a poll on their cell phone (rather then just being told there is a poll).

Is anyone using Wiggio for group communication? With Students, Teachers, Community Members, or Parents? If so, please share your stories in the comments.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wiggio is a really useful tool and have been using it for about six months! Super reliable, simple to use and really useful.

Mobile is the way to go and based the developments I've seen so far these guys will have mobile extensions within the next six months.

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