Diigo
Several months ago, I was searching for annotation apps for my students to use to annotate various texts, and someone told me about Diigo. It didn't turn out to be what I needed for annotation purposes, but now that I've had the chance to learn more about Diigo, this program is perfect for me as an educator!!! I teach reading and writing, and I've needed a place for a long time to store all my stuff (besides Pinterest of course :) ). Usually, what I just do is bookmark my favorite websites in the "favorites" section of Google Chrome. However, that hasn't really been helpful to me because there is no means of organizing what I bookmark. With Diigo, there is!
Text structure is the unit that I am going to be teaching next in 4th grade reading, so I decided to search for some resources to save in Diigo. After some simple google searches, I found some great websites. For example, I found a fabulous PDF created by the Austin Independent School District ("Test Structure Features and Organization") that had a lot of graphic organizers and tips to use to teach text structure. I saved the site, and then typed in "text structure" in the tag section. I repeated this process several other times, and now when I open up Diigo, and click on the "text structure" tag along the side, it pulls up everything I saved under that tag. I love the organization that this allows for, and it is also going to make my life easier as I build up my resources and favorite websites in this program.
The part of Diigo that is still confusing me is the tags. I wish that a tag could be more than one word. For some reason as I created my "text structure" tag, it kept it together as one tag. I tried the same thing when I created a tag titled "paired passages." However, this time it separated it so that I have one tag that says "paired" and another one that says "passages." In the grand scheme of things though, that's not a huge deal - it'll just require me to be a little more creative when coming up with tag names!
According to Richardson (2010), social bookmarking sites are also good for connecting people with similar interests together. On my Diigo account, I clicked on "Discover" and then I typed in text structure to see what else is out there, and I found a list of great resources that I can use, and it also tells me who has saved these websites. Here's a screenshot of one of the top of the page when I search for text structure. I like how it specifies how many people have bookmarked each site so that I have an idea of which websites are the best.
Text structure is the unit that I am going to be teaching next in 4th grade reading, so I decided to search for some resources to save in Diigo. After some simple google searches, I found some great websites. For example, I found a fabulous PDF created by the Austin Independent School District ("Test Structure Features and Organization") that had a lot of graphic organizers and tips to use to teach text structure. I saved the site, and then typed in "text structure" in the tag section. I repeated this process several other times, and now when I open up Diigo, and click on the "text structure" tag along the side, it pulls up everything I saved under that tag. I love the organization that this allows for, and it is also going to make my life easier as I build up my resources and favorite websites in this program.
The part of Diigo that is still confusing me is the tags. I wish that a tag could be more than one word. For some reason as I created my "text structure" tag, it kept it together as one tag. I tried the same thing when I created a tag titled "paired passages." However, this time it separated it so that I have one tag that says "paired" and another one that says "passages." In the grand scheme of things though, that's not a huge deal - it'll just require me to be a little more creative when coming up with tag names!
According to Richardson (2010), social bookmarking sites are also good for connecting people with similar interests together. On my Diigo account, I clicked on "Discover" and then I typed in text structure to see what else is out there, and I found a list of great resources that I can use, and it also tells me who has saved these websites. Here's a screenshot of one of the top of the page when I search for text structure. I like how it specifies how many people have bookmarked each site so that I have an idea of which websites are the best.
Diigo would be a great way for my grade level to collaborate because we could create a group and then put all our stuff in one place. That would save a lot of time as we plan together.Richardson (2010) gave a fantastic example of how Diigo can be used in the classroom. A high school teacher uses Diigo as a means to annotate student blogs. What a great way to give feedback to students electronically!
I really enjoyed learning about Diigo, and I'm really excited about using it more. My first step is to go back through my Google Chrome bookmarks and organize them in Diigo. That way, I can actually make some use out of them. In addition, I want to share this with my grade level and encourage them to get on board with me!!
I really enjoyed learning about Diigo, and I'm really excited about using it more. My first step is to go back through my Google Chrome bookmarks and organize them in Diigo. That way, I can actually make some use out of them. In addition, I want to share this with my grade level and encourage them to get on board with me!!
Resources
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oak, California: Corwin.