Diigo provides a great way to model and practice reading informational text and to engage students in collaborative virtual discussions. Many know Delicious and Diigo as social bookmarking sites. Diigo is so much more! Find a website that you want your students to read. Then use Diigo to model the active reading process and make notations right on the web site by using the Diigo tools of Sticky Notes and Highlighting. Paste a sticky note at the beginning of the text to remind students to ask themselves, “What do you already know about this topic?” Also, add a sticky note reminding students to note their purpose for reading. Diigo’s highlighting tools include four different colors. Use the various colors and model how to find the main ideas and highlight only the essential words in yellow. Supporting details, key vocabulary words, and confusing parts can each be highlighted with different colors. Consistency in highlighting color will provide another cue for students about text structure. Diigo serves as an excellent tool for modeling the pre-reading process, for pointing out text features and structure, and to practice active reading by making connections and asking questions. Once students are ready for independent practice, Diigo can be taken to another level. Educator accounts allow teachers to create classes. Each student in the class can annotate and highlight the assigned web site article independently. Connections, questions, and comments are then shared with the teacher and the class. “Sticky note” or “Read and Say Something” conversations can then be conducted through Diigo.
Claude Almansi on 29 Sep 11"August 1, 2011, 5:51 pm By Rachel Wiseman College students with very poor vision have had to struggle to see a blackboard and take notes-basic tasks that can hold some back. Now a team of four students from Arizona State University has designed a system, called Note-Taker, that couples a tablet PC and a video camera, and could be a major advance over the small eyeglass-mounted telescopes that many students have had to rely on. It recently won second place in Microsoft's Imagine Cup technology competition. (...) The result was Note-Taker, which connects a tablet PC (a laptop with a screen you can write on) to a high-resolution video camera. Screen commands get the camera to pan and zoom. The video footage, along with audio, can be played in real time on the tablet and are also saved for later reference. Alongside the video is a space for typed or handwritten notes, which students can jot down using a stylus. That should be helpful in math and science courses, says Mr. Hayden, where students need to copy down graphs, charts, and symbols not readily available on a keyboard. (...) But no tool can replace institutional support, says Chris S. Danielsen, director of public relations for the [NFB]. "The university is always going to have to make sure that whatever technology it uses is accessible to blind and low-vision students," he says. (Arizona State U. has gotten in hot water in the past in just this area.) (...) This entry was posted in Gadgets."
