INTRODUCTION TO DIIGO:
Diigo is a powerful information collector, great for capturing, storing, recalling, and sharing data on the Internet. All information goes into your own “Cloud” or Library that you can access anywhere online. This is an online reading and collection applications you can collect and bookmark websites, images, online docs. Allowing you to also add digital highlights and sticky notes that will stay in your library until you are done. In order to use highlighter and sticky notes application you have to install Diigo browser add-on, which is quick and simple.
Can organize bookmarks by tags and mark to read later, in order to make things easy to find. Also you can achieve a website forever by taking snapshot. The page is saved as an html as well as an image; so then you don’t have to worry about it disappearing forever into the Internet abyss. Capture features enables you to select a part of the website and add/annotate with shapes, arrows, or text. You can share with others in a group or just keep it private.
Highlights/notes will stay on articles in your library. You can continue working on your PC or mobile device or where ever you are. Access library wherever you are, read while you are waiting. Diigo offline for smart phones enables you to read when there is no Internet access.
This idea of highlighting and commenting about the article is great way to insure active understanding. A shared classroom library would be a great way of seeing if the students are reading the articles, taking notes, and commenting.
Example of the digital sticky note, which can act as a community comment board.
Here are just a few of Diigo’s talents….
- Information Cloud- filled with you inspirations and interests.
- Save important websites and access them on any computer and time of day.
- Categorize websites by titles, notes, and keyword tags.
- Community tools like general subject lists and groups.
- Bookmark tab enables you to quickly find desired information.
- Save a screenshot of a website as an html so you will never loose information.
- Annotate websites with the use of highlighter or virtual "sticky notes."
- Share your notes or view other people comments on website or link.
- Share/Add found websites with groups or the entire Diigo social community.
- You have the power to make you experience on Diigo private or public.
After applying for a free Diigo teacher account, I can easily create/manage student accounts from my class roster. This way I can create a Diigo group and limit access to only students. Another thing I have the option to require each student to open an account, which requires them all to have email address, or I can create their accounts through my Diigo site.
To learn more about how Diigo can be used as information management tool, visit these pages:
STRUGGLES IMPLEMENTING TECHNOLOGY
Considering the learning curve, some students might pick it up this technology quicker than others. Make sure to allow class time to work through problems, troubleshoot, and ask questions. The best way to teach struggling students is by assigning a buddy system. This idea of using a more knowledgeable peer will work best. They can work out problems together.
The access to computers might become an issue, ideally every student would have computers available to them everyday, but the school might not allow this. Also the internet could be a problem, if the server is down, the power is out, or for some reason the computers are running slow, have a back up lesson just in case something goes wrong.
Students will need extra motivation to go beyond simple summaries of general ideas. I need to make sure to teach effective analyzing/critiquing skills. Show examples, ask leading questions, and post comments that get my students to re-evaluate and think deep than the surface of articles.
DIIGO BASED PROJECTS...
My idea to incorporate Diigo in my classroom is based on my understanding that it will help my students develop and improve their skills in communication, organization, annotation, and classification. It is a great way to guiding my students in a similar direction and allow them to discover the articles on their own as opposed to assigning them. I will upload or add articles to our class group, the students then get to choose out of those which are the most interesting. This allows me to direct students in the right direction without taking the fun out of discovering by forces them to read certain articles.
Another reason I found Diigo interesting is how the Internet is daunting and at times very frustrating. I would exploit this program by assigning a research-based project, whether that would be a research paper or a search for alternative artists/techniques. When students are doing research online it becomes overwhelming, time consuming, and almost impossible to find credible sources. With the use of Diigo, Students would be able to read as much on the subject as they would like, moving through articles as they interest them. It is a great taking off point. Eventually the students might move to another method of finding new information, but this is an easy supplemental starting place. Diigo is perfect for this method because with student accounts they can manage websites by saving them immediately after they discover them. This way when it comes time to make a work cited page students would be able to find the sources and important information right away.
Using this idea of collections of research, Diigo would be a perfect technology to foster a collaborative environment. Students could share found articles on Diigo, working together to find inspiration or interesting artists. They could work along side each other sharing cool things and inspiring each other. Diigo would work great in a creativity or sketchbook class where students are searching for inspiring people or projects.
Beyond this idea of a Diigo Project, it could also serve as an extension to class. You could offer up a follow up. Students could learn more about topic or similar topics outside of class. When you consider diverse learners, if you have an advanced learners that are ahead of the curve this is their opportunity to extend their knowledge. They could research topics of interest and even post findings to class webpage to share with peers.
PROMOTING BLOOM’S TAXONOMY
Using the Sticky notes and highlighting tool, students can actively read. Considering that reading is pretty low on learning pyramid. Pairing reading with the Sticky notes and commenting tools allows the students to move up the pyramid. Depending on how involved the student’s comments are, determines how high they move up the learning pyramid. Students can understand, apply, analyzing, evaluate, the readings while communicating with their peers. As a teacher I want to make sure to promote this high level of learning by asking leading questions that provoke deep thinking. I want to students to constantly push themselves to be knowledgeable and extend their idea of what inspires them.
As a teacher I want them to learn as much as they can but also remind them to not believe everything they read. I would love for the students to make connections between different articles, viewpoints, arguments, and most importantly different subjects. Ask the important questions like why is this person wrote this article? What are they trying to say? Are they bias? What connection can you make? Combining this technology with a project might be very interesting to see what connections they can make and information they can draw from the articles. This addition of applying their knowledge into something physical, it would be a very concrete way to reach the final step in the learning pyramid, creating.
BY THE END OF THE SEMESTER, I WANT THE STUDENTS TO BE ABLE TO….
- See some importance in Internet technologies like Diigo for finding/sharing information.
- Find credible sources online and know what a credible sites looks like.
- Use critical thinking skills when evaluating articles.
- Have effective annotating skills and use Diigo Toolbar correctly.
- Find inspiration online (outside of their major content area).
- Make connection and links to other subject matters/articles.
- Know the importance of research in art.
- Have effective collaboration skills.
- Know the importance of being able to verbalize your opinions.
- Leave appropriate, constructive comments.
- Formulate their own engaging and thought provoking responses/comments/critiques.
TRADE OFFS, BIAS’, AND OTHER LIMITATIONS of web based technology.
Although the students can share information and interesting site, the viewpoint they are receiving with the gathered articles are all placed in the group by one person, me. With this limited viewpoint, they are only hearing and seeing my opinion on subjects in class, I will try and include subjects outside my normal taste level, but the cloud will still be limited at times. A way around this idea of limited point of view, is the incorporation of another teacher, in fact the more the merrier. It would be fun for all the teachers in the district or city area to share the same group on Diigo and add new articles as we find them. The students could pick from there what they are interested in and go from there. This way they are not stuck with my favorites.
When using Diigo in the classroom, I have to keep in mind our class group has a limited viewpoint. Initially, I am choosing what goes into the group. The students will be allowed to add as they do more research but the variety might get lost along the way. Maybe I will have the students join another pubic group to get various other viewpoints on a particular subject.
Although the use of Diigo is easy and great for promoting growth in vocabulary and content-based knowledge, we need to consider how it is only using one stylistic approach to learning. Some students might not find text an appropriate way to gain knowledge, even though they can have a say in what goes into the group, they may struggle getting content from text or have learning disabilities like dyslexia or dysgraphia. Even English language learners will struggle reading, so I might include a couple articles in Spanish. Yes, there might be videos on the websites to watch, but there is a more concrete way to learn and find inspiration. I might pair this technology with a concrete exercise like a photo shoot. They could experiment with a camera outside by composing and cropping shots then research on Diigo articles that explain how to take a good photo.
Although I am checking for adequate academic sources I cannot guarantee that others using Diigo will upload quality articles. I need to make sure that I am teaching the importance of finding credible sources and what to look for when researching online. I also want to make sure that just because there is research backing up an argument does not make it true. I want to promote students to test and question variables in research and to not believe everything they read.
A limitation of Diigo is internet access. Because this is a web-based technology students rely on internet access in order to success with this technology. This idea will increase the demographic divide and create an uneven playing field for your students. Making computers available during study hall or after school is a great way to create fairness and guarantee everyone has equal abilities to succeed.
RESEARCH ON COLLABORATIVE WEB BASED TECHNOLOGY
Considering the fact that digital sources are advancing our learning by allowing students to create, manage, read, critique, and organized with the simple click of a button. Which is entirely different than traditional information sources on paper. More than ease and organization this technology offers a level of collaboration and communication that other traditional methods of research does not. According to a professional blog article written by Margaret Dalton, Diigo promotes an environment where students teach other students creating a community of “collaboration and research sharing”.
As stated in the journal article by Naeema Jabr, students can personally achieve the basic competitions for accessing social networking site by themselves or through friends, what students lack are critical thinking skills that can transform the way they understand and retain knowledge from an academic perspective. Considering this important fact, teacher should consider this idea and make sure that there students are pushing the boundaries of social networking sites. These networks like Diigo are extremely useful if used properly. Just because students can leave posts and communicate with their peers does not mean they are learning. True social learning is more than merely socializing. The article goes on to talk about the importance of developing “communities of practice” where students and faculty can deeply develop their online learning. The important part of this community is the addition of faculty; this can directly affect the whole group. Faculty can encourage learning, while at the same time decreasing nonacademic socializing.
According to this article, online social networking and bookmarking are described as “relationship facilitators” (Educause, 2007). Diigo allows students to construct relationships with other individual with similar interest. By creating their own account on Diigo they can share and gain content from others while communicating through sticky notes and highlighting tool bar. Although most student won’t use Diigo to it’s full capacity and the students need inspiration to push themselves in the right direction. I want to emphasize the importance of collaboration and remind the students that knowledge is nothing unless shared. You might have the greatest idea of all time but until you tell someone about it, it is like this profound idea never existed. Collaboration is a necessary skill we all need for the future and if the students can collaborate without necessarily know that they are doing it, it become a natural skill for them.
Beyond the importance of sharing knowledge, Diigo is a perfect place to extend the classroom outside of school. Students can work outside of school hours or during study hall to research interesting article within their interests and share what they find with their peers. This creates a community outside of the classroom. It is important as a teacher to promote positive attitude towards life long learning. If you are not proving learning to be fun and interesting students will begin to tune out and eventually decrease their commitments to learning. It starts in the classroom; multimedia tools are exciting and useful if used in the correct way. Using a social network without meaning or direction can conceal students’ inhibitions for learning. Correctly promoting knowledge based learning through social bookmarking tools like Diigo is a small step in the right direction during this technology era.
SOURCES:
· Dalton, Margaret. “We Diigo”, http://dakota.edublogs.org/2010/11/07/we-diigo/
· Jabr, Naeema H. “Social Networking as a Tool for Extending Academic Learning and Communication”, Internatinal Journal of Business & Social Science; July 2011, Vol. 2 Issue 12, (p. 10, 93-102,)
