Recently I had my first experiences using the social bookmarking tool Diigo. I was surprised at how straightforward and easy the set-up process was. I can see that using Diigo will be helpful for many reasons. I’ve always had trouble keeping track of interesting websites that I discover. Now I not only have a quick place to save websites, but I can easily share them with coworkers and friends. Instead of having recommendations from others lost in old emails, I can save new information to my account and view it at a later time. I’m excited to use Diigo for educational websites and blogs. Now when I’m searching for ideas, my time is not wasted by losing information. I can keep collecting to use later. I’d like to also use Diigo for personal interests other than education. I’m very interested in sewing and I’d like to see what other people are creating. I can see how joining with others will create a nice community of people with similar interests. At this point I only have about thirteen sites in my library. I’d like to save websites as I find them interesting instead of adding random sites just to have material. I think this will make Diigo more usable and accessible.
Michele Drechsler, who manages a district of 260 teachers, was interviewed on the benefits of social bookmarking. She sees social bookmarking as a way to get ideas for classes and resources to create her own materials. She also sees it as an essential tool to share good teaching practices with other educators. She uses information from websites to add innovation to classroom lessons. You Tube videos, Audacity for recordings, Voki, Wordle, and live web pages help her illustrate ideas in multiple ways. Drechsler made the point that resources need be tailored to the needs of our students. She does not always use tools for their original design purpose due to time constraints, blocked sites, and access to computers. It is a reassuring message to know that other experienced educators are exploring and taking changes with technology.
Google Reader has been helpful keeping up with blog posts for Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom. It’s great that updates come right into my account so I don’t have to look through each classmate’s blog to find new posts. I also like that I can create folders for different groups. This allows me to single out class posts without being overwhelmed by all the new information coming in. I am a little overwhelmed by all the other information from the 200 subscriptions I now have. I’m not sure when I will have time to look at it all. I have some of the websites from my Google Reader in Diigo so I can still explore the websites even if I can’t keep up with them daily. So far, I have found both Diigo and Google Reader to be easy to use and I can see how they will be beneficial in the classroom. I’m looking forward to adding new sites to my accounts and organizing information so I can make the best use out of it.
Google Reader is great in that you can keep yourself organized with different folders. I have never used it before and I really am enjoying this opportunity to try it out. I do agree with you that it at times seems a bit overwhelming with all the sites and information that is "out in cyber space", but, learning how to navigate and "tagging" sites that really seem helpful will really cut down on the information that you may not need.
ReplyDelete"She does not always use tools for their original design purpose due to time constraints, blocked sites, and access to computers. It is a reassuring message to know that other experienced educators are exploring and taking changes with technology
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see many educators are trying new things a little at a time and hopefully they are not feeling overwhelmed. There are always glitches and things that will not work. Always test a site at school if you can before you plan your entire day around using it! Lesson learned!
Google Reader and Diigo are life savers. There are so many ways to use them both personally and educationally. I know what you mean about already feeling pressure to get through all of the feeds coming into your reader. I have felt that way too, but I decided to let it go. I just browse through them now and again when I have a minute or on a rainy/snowy day. I check out the titles to see if it sounds interesting and then add that to my diigo if I really liked a resource they shared or something. Reader is a godsend when it comes to managing this course. You mentioned it helping you too for your classmates blogs! Happy it is something useful.