I am reviewing a Web 2.0 tool called Remember the Milk.  The URL is www.rememberthemilk.com.

I would classify this tool as  a productivity tool, but it can also be used in a networking/social kind of way.  This tool seems to work like an organizer, allowing the user to input tasks in several different categories, including personal, study and work.  There is also an inbox feature that allows a user to email a task to the program and a sent feature that may store items sent to the user, I’m not sure.  This is a web based tool, so I did not need to download or install any tools to make it work.  It doesn’t need any other hardware to make it work.  To use it I need basic computer skills and a schedule to manage.  If I had better skills, I'm sure I could make better, more efficient use of this tool.  As it is, I found it to be fairly useless for me.

When you log onto rememberthemilk.com, you are invited to set up a free account.  The free acct. allows you to use the program on your iPad, iPhone, Android or Blackberry, and the Pro acct allows autosyncing from your device to the online app.

After setting up the account, you are directed to the welcome page, which prompts you to log in.

The Pro account, for $25 a year, has a few more bells and whistles.  It also automatically syncs with MicroSoft Outlook, for those who use that at work or home and a mobile device at the other.

There is a Remember the Milk blog that is a companion to the website that gives users tips for using the program more effectively.  

There is a screen with FAQ’s to help a new user get started, with definitions of terms used in the program and tips for how to get started.

After a list is created, you have an option to share or publish your list.  Sharing allows others to see and modify your list, while publishing allows others to see the list, but not to modify it.

To use this tool, one must:

1.        Log in

2.       Choose the category for the task

3.       Click on the print box and type in the name of your task.

4.       This adds the task to your list and opens the box that allows you to describe your task – when it’s due, whether to repeat, a time estimate for completion, tags, location and URL if desired.

5.       You can continue to add as many tasks as you want in whatever category you want. 

6.       You can go to the options box and choose whether to publish or share your task list.

7.       You can highlight a task on your list and then click on the “Complete” button to change the task from pending to complete, which removes it from your active list.

This tool is really not applicable to creating an educational resource.  It is merely to help a person stay organized and not forget tasks that need to be completed in the future.  I suppose an instructor could use this tool to create a task list, then publish it to the group of students that need to get the tasks done, if one needed to spoon feed one’s students.  It doesn’t seem appropriate for formal teaching environments, but I think it might be useful for group projects in some more informal settings, to allow people to collaborate with each other and not lose track of who agreed to do what.  I think a disadvantage is that it really isn’t much different from the calendar apps that we already have in our phones or OutLook, it doesn’t seem to do anything different or better that I can discern.  I will stipulate that I am barely an OutLook calendar user, and not a very proficient one at that.  I don’t use the calendar apps on my phone or iPad, I prefer to write in a pocket calendar if I need to remember something.  I would recommend this tool to someone who really likes using online calendar tools, but personally, I don’t think it’s really worth the time it takes to input the data.