Check Out Gooru!

     I recently had the opportunity to learn about a really fascinating online teaching tool called Gooru.  It’s sort of like a search-engine specifically designed to locate education materials appropriate for K-12 students, but the best part is that teachers can organize these materials into collections and share them with students via a class webpage.  Check out the site here: http://www.goorulearning.org/#!discover

     In constructing a how-to guide for my peers, I decided to focus on Gooru’s primary functions and explain the basics of using them.  Since the interface is so user-friendly (and since I wanted to keep the entire guide limited to two pages), I felt that I didn’t need to go into much detail.  In fact, the only button that I specifically pointed out via a screenshot was the “sign-up” button on the homepage for new users to get started.  Though not as explicitly done, I also drew attention to help button and the three main tabs at the top of the screen.  These tabs (discover, organize, teach) formed the basis for the remainder of the tutorial.  Each tab received its own section with a screenshot and a few bullet points describing the function, but I did not include any more explicit instruction on how to use them.

     Did I expect too much technological know-how from my readers?  Did I make unfair assumptions about their abilities?  My inclination is to say no.  I feel that if a teacher is willing to try to integrate a tool as innovative as Gooru into his or her learning, then he or she is probably already familiar with website usage to some extent.  In that case, I probably didn’t need to provide sign-up directions beyond “click the button and provide the requested information.”  Again, the interface is so intuitive that I felt it unnecessary to say something like “click ‘delete’ to remove a collection” when the button is so clearly labeled; instead, I included a bullet point simply mentioning that collections could be organized and deleted on that page.  This broader focus on function rather than tedious instruction seemed like the best approach, and if any of you visit the Gooru website, I think you may agree.