Social Bookmarking

How much fun is this!  And what a handy tool!

I took some of the resources I had on my blog, and added it to my Library on Diigo.  I also added the good sites I discovered while working on this course. Ideas are starting to form …  A simple highlighting function teamed with a sticky note, and I have communicated to my grade 11 students which terminology they need to know for the year.  All they need to do now, is click on the highlighted link to find definitions and examples.  I don’t have to supply them with the list, and they don’t have to search words from the list on the website.  It is already done.

Another idea is to share articles or essays, and to challenge them to identify topic sentences, thesis statements, main ideas, etc. They can also summarize a paragraph / short article on a sticky note.  (Note to self:  see how many characters the sticky note can take.)

I can see myself teaching novels and plays through Diigo.  If you can find the novel or play (and Shakespeare is, of course, available online), you can have students communicate and share notes with each other in groups – like online lit circles.  We are at the point where our Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet books are quite shabby.  I have been thinking of simply accessing the script online – so much easier – and Diigo makes interactive learning a real possibility. The students will love it.  The only stumbling block is the availability of devices.  I have tested the waters, and only about 75% of my students have access to laptops or iPads that they can bring to class.  I suppose phones can work.  The small screen might be a bother.  Then again, students are permanently on their phones and used to the small screens.  Something to ponder, for sure!

As for my own development, the accessibility of others’ already identified websites and blogs, makes the searching for good sites much easier; that is, if you get through the 22192 postings under the tag “education.”