Let's talk about Diigo!

Guys. I'm kind of in love with Diigo. I was skeptical at first. I read comments for articles all the time, and I get really turned off by the amount of hate and vitriol spewed all over them. However, after reading this article, my views have changed. What an amazing way to foster reading and thirst for more information with kids who are obstinate than a tool like this one? My only suggestion was to have the ability to make a classroom group that was private and as I kept reading-guess what!  You can! This is a great way to take learning out of the classroom (where students can see it as dull and boring) and slide it right in nicely with their home lives and social networking!! I am out of my mind of the possibilities of this tool in the classroom!

Need help getting started? Watch this video tutorial!

The three steps to get it going are, read an article, highlight passages, make comments and bookmark them for easy retrieval?

I have populated my Diigo library with some things I have been looking at recently. Yes, I know I just did all of these, but they are sites I either use for school, so I remember them easily, have recently viewed in the past day or two, or I'll admit, stole from my IE favorites. Apologies for not getting to this sooner. This has been a crazy summer, between going full time at my job, 2 very demanding online courses, and my other almost full time job, roller derby-I just haven't had a lot of time!  Plus, I am a terrible procrastinator. And I thought this was really confusing. Turns out-it was easy! Well, the bookmarking part. I tried to do some highlighting and it kept telling me no or highlighted parts I did not want. So that needs some figuring out. Will I trade this for a favorites list? I'm not sure yet. I might since I have only recently started using Chrome, and when I bookmark, I'm not sure how to find it! So maybe I will! But, speaking of social bookmarking, I have gotten sucked into the never-ending vortex of Pintrest. I was extremely skeptical of this at first and was totally confused and did not see the point. However, my girlishness has taken over and now I pin away. Mostly food stuff and recipes. I haven't gotten so bad as to start boards for children that have not been conceived yet.. Yet.. I try to avoid looking at the DIY section because I see all this awesome stuff that I feel like a loser because I didn't think of it, or am too lazy to try. Food, however, I can make. So I pin the hell  out of some food! It is really great for recipes! So, if Pintrest is social bookmarking, then I'm in. There is an education board that I have avoided because I'm afraid my head will explode. The link for that is here. I'm logged in, but hopefully one can see what is there initially. Now that school is winding down, I will have to take a gander to get some ideas for next semester!

Web 2.0? Its a concept I never really understood because I never knew there was a difference. Of course, I've heard the term, but since I have only really been jockeying around on the Internet since 2004, there was no huge change. Remember the whole survey about technology as something you had to learn about? Well for me, I web 2.0 has always been around. Of course, I went from casual web browsing to social networking to creating my own online content, but the transition was so smooth I barely noticed. Maybe I am more adaptable than I thought. I also feel I am in field(s) where one has to be on the cutting edge lest you lose your viability. Am I constantly amazed at the content, and networking of the Internet? Yes. But web 2.0 seems like a dated concept to me already.

Social bookmarking?  I guess with Pintrest I am doing it? I have heard of several of those mentioned like Delicious, Reddit and Stumbleupon. I never really got interested in any of those. I like Diigo because it seems more geared towards educational content, and the look of Reddit was off-putting to me.. Advantages seem to be the ability to share information with others interested in similar content. However, given my Pintrest experience, when some repins something I have pinned, I feel like they are stalking me. So, I'm still getting used to being "followed" and others seeing what I like and my interests. Something I have valued about the Internet is the relative "privacy" one has when browsing. Now, hundreds of people can see I looked up how to get stains out of the carpet on Pintrest. Weird. I guess that shows my age!

NETS T standards associated with this are:
1) Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity
2) Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments
3) Model digital-age work and learning

I feel that Diigo has a wealth of possibilities waiting to be explored. After learning about it, I kind of wish I was a middle/high school English teacher and we would have online discussions about reading material. Again, like with pretty much every application we have learned about in this course, its ease of use and adaptability to a myriad of situations makes them invaluable. I'll bet with Diigo you could have conversations and share stuff with kids around the world. What better way to encourage digital communities, the global village, information sharing, networking, independent thought, and open-mindedness than that? Students and teachers (of all ages) need to see the Internet and all the digital world has to offer as not something to fear, but something to embrace. It truly can enhance your learning and your lives.

***Apologies for linking to Wikipedia. I can't help it, even with all of its flaws, I love that site!