Using Diigo for Organizing the Web for your Class
31
07
2007
A good friend of mine, Randy Lyseng, has been telling people of the tremendous power and educational value that can be gained from social bookmarking in the classroom. His personal favourite is Diigo.
My preference is a social bookmarking tool called http://diigo.com. With diigo, you can highlight, add stick notes and make your comments private or public. (Randy Lyseng, Lyseng Tech: Social Bookmarking, November 2006)
After listening to Randy praise Diigo at every opportunity, I finally started playing with the site (and corresponding program, more on that in a bit) this summer (I know Randy - I’m slow to catch on…)As I started to play with the system, my mind started reeling with all the possibilities. First off, like any other social bookmarking tool, Diigo allows you to put all your favorites/bookmarks in one “central” location. Students can access them from ANY computer in the world (talk about the new WWW: whatever, whenever, where ever). They just open up your Diigo page, and there are all the links. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Diigo’s power lies in it’s group annotations. That’s right, people can now write in the margins of webpages. You can highlight passages of interest, write notes, and even write a blog entry directly from another webpage, quoting passages right from the original text. Sounds great - but to do all that it must be complicated right?
Nope. To use these advanced features all you need to do is run the Diigo software. This can either be done using a bookmarklet or by downloading and installing the Diigo toolbar. While both have basically the same features, the toobar is less finicky, and allows you to use contextual menus to access features quickly. I also find the toolbar’s highlighting and sticky notes to be easier to read. Ok fine… I can leave notes on webpages - so what?
Here’s an example. I’m thinking about having my 7B’s record radio plays. I’ve looked them up online and found many scripts from all the old classics available. However many also contain the old endorsements from tobacco and other companies. So I go to a play that I’d like to my students to record and highlight the old commercial. If they’re using diigo when they access this page they’ll see the same text highlighted in pink, and when they mouse over the highlighted text they’ll get a hidden message from me - “I’d like you to write a new advertisement for this section. What other advertisement do you think we could write for here? Write an ad for a virtue or trait that you think is important. For example - “Here’s a news flash for every person in Canada. It’s about a sensational, new kind of personality that will make you the envy of all those around you. It’s call trustworthiness. Why with just a pinch of this great product….” They now have a writing assignment to go along with the recording of the radio play.
Adding assignments is just one possibility. You can ask questions about the site, or have students carry on conversations about the text. Perhaps about the validity of some information. These notes can be made private (for your eyes only), public, or for a select group of people. You could use the same webpage for multiple classes, and have a different set of sticky notes for each one! Diigo will also create a separate webpage for each group you create, helping you organize your bookmarks/notes further! This technology is useful for any class, but I think is a must have for any group trying to organize something along the lines of the 1 to 1 project. I’m hoping to convince all the core teachers to set up a group page for their classes, and organize their book marks there! I’ve already started one for my 7B Language Arts Class!
One of the first questions I was asked when I started looking at this site, and more importantly at the bookmarklets and toolbar was is it secure? Will it bring spyware onto our systems? How about stability? I’ve currently been running the Diigo bookmarklet and toolbar on 3 different browsers, Explorer, Firefox, and Safari (sorry, there’s no Safari toolbar yet), across 4 different computers and 2 different platforms with no problems. I’ve also run every virus and spyware scan I can think of, everything checks out clean. I’ve also done an extensive internet check, and can’t find any major problems reported by anyone else. To my mind it’s an absolutely fantastic tool for use in the classroom. Thanks Diigo! And thanks Randy for pointing me in the right direction!
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The Classroom » Using Diigo for Organizing the Web for your Class - 13 views
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shared by Christophe Gigon on 09 Dec 08
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elearnspace. Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age - 17 views
www.elearnspace.org/...connectivism.htm
connectivism MEMOIRE learning elearning theory collaboration technology community
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Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.
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I aggree that as teachers we need to realize that technology has changed instruction and the way that our students learn and the way that we learn and instruct.
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Technology has always changed the way we live. How did we respond to changes in the past? One thought is that some institutions, some businesses disappeared, while others, who took advantage of the new tech, appeared to replace the old. It will happen again and we as educators need to lead the way.
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With technology our students brains are wired differently and they can multi-task and learn in multiple virtual environments all at once. This should make us think about how we present lessons, structure learning and keep kids engaged.
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Rubbish. The idea that digital native are adept at multitasking is wrong. They may be doing many things but the quality and depth is reduced. There is a significant body of research to support this. Development of grit and determination are key attributes of successful people. Set and demand high standards. No one plays sport or an instrument because it is easy rather because they can clearly see a link between hard work and pleasure.
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Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime.
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Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories.
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Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions. Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources. Learning may reside in non-human appliances. Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill. Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities. Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
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Classrooms which emulate the “fuzziness”
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John Seely Brown presents an interesting notion that the internet leverages the small efforts of many with the large efforts of few.
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The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.
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To combat the shrinking half-life of knowledge, organizations have been forced to develop new methods of deploying instruction.”
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a persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world”
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Learning theories are concerned with the actual process of learning, not with the value of what is being learned.
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Chaos is the breakdown of predictability, evidenced in complicated arrangements that initially defy order.
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If the underlying conditions used to make decisions change, the decision itself is no longer as correct as it was at the time it was made.
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principle that people, groups, systems, nodes, entities can be connected to create an integrated whole.
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Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual
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Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism do not attempt to address the challenges of organizational knowledge and transference.
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The health of the learning ecology of the organization depends on effective nurturing of information flow.
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This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed.
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This amplification of learning, knowledge and understanding through the extension of a personal network is the epitome of connectivism.
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An organizations ability to foster, nurture, and synthesize the impacts of varying views of information is critical to knowledge economy surviva
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As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses.
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Always Write: Cobett's "7 Elements of a Differentiated Writing Lesson" Resources - 10 views
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One of the goals I ask teachers to set after my training is to find new ways to push students to analyze and evaluate as they learn to write.
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As part of my teacher workshop on the writing process, we investigate multiple uses of student samples. One of my favorite techniques involves having student compare and contrast finished pieces of writing. During both pre-writing and and revision, this push for deeper student thinking both educates and inspires your students.
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The handout has student writers analyze two fifth graders' published writing with a compare and contrast Venn diagram.
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Revision is hard, and most teachers recognize it as an area of deficiency; the truth is, a lot of really great writing teachers I know still freely admit that revision is where they struggle the most.
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When students like what they've written in rough draft form, they're ready to move to revision. My other six elements aim at helping students increase their pre-writing time so they both like and see more potential in their rough drafts
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Professional development research clearly cites the study team model as the most effective way to have learners not only understand new ideas but also implement them enough times so they become regular tools in a teacher's classroom.
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Below, find three examples created by study teams during past workshops. I use them as models/exemplars when I set the study teams off to work.
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I also use variations of these Post-its during my Critical Thinking Using the Writing Traits Workshop.
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By far, the best success I've ever had while teaching revision was the one I experienced with the revision Post-its I created for my students
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During my teacher workshop on the writing process, we practice with tools like the Revision Sprint (at right), which I designed to push students to use analysis and evaluation skills as they looked at their own drafts
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I used to throw my kids into writing response groups way too fast. They weren't ready to provide critical thought for one another
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The most important trick learned was this: be a writer too. During my first five years of teaching, I had assigned a lot of writing but never once had I written something I intended to show my students.
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I have the following interactive plot element generator (which can be replicated with three coffee cans and index cards) to help my students feel in control of their options:
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If you want to hear my take on graphic organizers in detail, you're going to have to hire me to come to present to you. If you can't do that, then I'll throw you a challenge that was thrown once at me, and completing the challenge helped me become a smarter designer of graphic organizers. The challenge came in two parts: 1) learn how to use tables and text boxes in Microsoft Word; 2) for practice, design a graphic organizer that would help students be successfully with the following trait-based skills:
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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, etc," which is an interesting structure that students can borrow from to write about other topics, be they fiction or non-fiction.
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Asking students to create daily journals from the perspective of other animals or even inanimate objects is a great way to borrow this book's idea.
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it challenges students to analyze the author's word choice & voice skills: specifically his use of verbs, subtle alliteration, and dialogue.
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Mentor Text Resource Page here at my website, because this topic has become such a big piece of learning to me. It deserved its own webpage.
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Here are seven skills I can easily list for the organization trait. Organization is: 1) using a strong lead or hook, 2) using a variety of transition words correctly, 3) paragraphing correctly, 4) pacing the writing, 5) sequencing events/ideas logically, 6) concluding the writing in a satisfying way, 7) titling the writing interestingly and so that the title stands for the whole idea. Over the years, I have developed or found and adapted mini-lessons that have students practice these skills during my "Organization Month."
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The problem with focusing students on a product--instead of the writing process--is that the majority of the instructional time is spent teaching students to adhere to a formula.
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the goal of writing instruction absolutely should be the helping students practice the three Bloom's levels above apply: analyze, evaluate, and create.
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Improving one's ability to teach writing to all students is a long-term professional development goal; sticking with it requires diligence, and it requires having a more specific goal than "I want to improve writing
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Robert Marzano's research convinced me years ago of the importance of having learners set personal goals as they learn to take responsibility for their own learning.
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shared by Michael Sheehan on 25 Feb 13
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Learning Never Stops: Huge Collection of Graphic Organizers - 142 views
seekoutlearning.blogspot.com/...ion-of-graphic-organizers.html
learning collection graphic graphic organizers organizers
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Graphics Organizer resources from TeachersFirst - 105 views
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About | The Open Master's Program - 21 views
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"Learning- even "self-directed learning"- is an inherently social activity. The Open Master's is a global community of small groups for self-directed learners, offering each other the structure, accountability, relationships, and sense of forward direction that are often hard to find outside formal programs and institutions. These groups are using and building on an open source framework of shared practices to help us: Master the art of social, self-directed learning Be more intentional about our learning journeys Take bolder risks in our journeys of becoming Discover and share our unique gifts Ensure that our short-term learning goals feed into our longer-term vision for transformation for ourselves and the world We invite any existing community, organization, or even groups of friends or colleagues to use the Open Master's framework to make their own learning process more intentional. You can do that simply by: Mapping out a personal plan or curriculum, including a clear statement of purpose and some intentions for your own learning journey, and sharing them on a personal website or blog Bringing the rhythm of semesters back into your life, including regular opportunities for evaluation and reflection Developing deeper relationships with study buddies, mentors, and advisers Starting an Open Master's group with a clear commitment to study together, support each other, and share your work Offering a presentation or organizing a study group on a topic that interests you Maintaining a portfolio of learning projects (including professional work) you've completed and reviewed with peers and mentors We also invite you to link up with the broader global community of Open Master's groups by joining regional or global events to spotlight members, mix with members across groups, and cross-pollinate ideas or strategies that are working in different contexts."
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SimplyBox - Think Inside the Box - 1 views
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Another way to share bookmarks. It allows you to take screen shots of teh website and put them in a "box" to organize and share your links. Each picture brings you to the source and you are able to comment on the sites inside your boxes. You can then make a container to keep the specific boxes organized.
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25 Teaching Tools To Organize, Innovate, & Manage Your Classroom - 138 views
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shared by Peter Beens on 29 Mar 12
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Digitize Student Work With the Three Ring App - 121 views
www.android4schools.com/...t-work-with-the-three-ring-app
Three Ring app education ePortfolio iPhone iOS Android
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Three Ring is a new free service offering free Android and iPhone apps for digitizing and organizing student work. Using the app teachers can take a picture of a student's work and upload it to a free Three Ring account. Three Ring offers teachers a lot of organizational flexibility. You could organize artifacts by student name, class, date, or just about any other tagging system that works for you.
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iearn - 4 views
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iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) iEARN is a non-profit organization made up of over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 130 countries. iEARN empowers teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communications technologies. Over 2,000,000 students each day are engaged in collaborative project work worldwide.
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shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 23 Jun 13
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It's the End of an Era - Enter the Knowledgeable Networker - Forbes - 26 views
www.forbes.com/...era-enter-the-networked-worker
socialnetworking knowledge network Forbes leadership management projectmanagement
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Knowledgeable networkers are very good at what they do, and at the same time, do not pretend to know it all. They consider the entire puzzle, not just their own area of expertise. They’re integrative thinkers with broad interests and connections. They see how puzzle pieces fit together without needing to know everything about each piece
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They have instant access to multiple knowledge workers via a phone call, email, Twitter post, or LinkedIn InMail. They can bring experts and expertise into a team, a department, or organization to fulfill a specific need or help seize an opportunity.
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The knowledgeable networker can also seek out, find, assimilate, and translate useful information into workable solutions.
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In a faster-and-faster moving world, the ability to tap your team members’ or former colleagues’ networks to bring expertise to a situation and then set it free, will allow your organization to be faster, more nimble, and more capable than ever before.
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Your Inner Fish Teaching Tools - 49 views
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"In Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria. We have compiled the figures from the book into a deck of PowerPoint slides for use in the classroom."
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shared by BOB MERKEL on 23 Nov 10
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LiveBinders - Online Organization - 114 views
www.theinspiredclassroom.com/...ivebinders-online-organization
livebinders web2.0 organization resources
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Curriki - TerrariumsandVivariums - 1 views
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In this comprehensive five to ten week unit, late elementary students (grades 5-6) will plan, create and observe three different environments: woodland, desert, and tropical. Each environment provides opportunity for activities studying adaptations of plants and animals, with focused activities on the earthworm and isopod. Humane treatment of organisms is stressed. This resource includes correlations with NY state standards. Each "kit" in the Curriki repository includes a teacher's manual and student activity book. The teacher's manual includes a unit overview, scheduling information, extensive and clear background information materials, preparation instructions, discussion questions, an assessment, cross-curricular extension ideas, a glossary and teacher references. Each student manual includes clear, reproducible student handouts and a glossary. The last section in the "kit" is a wiki, and Curriki members are encouraged to edit and build up the existing curriculum. It may take some time initially to organize and order all the necessary supplies, but these written materials are excellent and can be used immediately in the classroom.