dawblack posted on June 05, 2008 20:30
This overwhelmed feeling is not a bad thing for me. After all, if one of my roles is teacher and staff training, I need to understand the bewilderment many feel when confronted with new technologies. There is so much to learn and try. How do we make sense of all of it?
Here are a few analysis questions that may help educators learn and grow with technology that have resulted from my experiences with new technology tools:
- Focus on one task at a time. What would you like to accomplish or try today?
- What is one use for your own personal productivity?
- What is one tool for your own professional development?
- What is one feature that you would like to share with other educators?
- What elements of the service are time wasters? Why?
The feature that I feel is beneficial for educators is the ability to annotate web pages. Using Diigo, I am able to highlight, add sticky notes, and share my comments about the content of web pages with others. The site will then generate a unique address which can be shared with others so that your annotations may be viewed. Here is my first attempt at annotation:
http://www.diigo.com/annotated/8abf00eeef335035266af374caef1e48 (NOTE: Move your mouse over the sticky note bubbles to view those comments)
Think about it -- wouldn't this tool have value when sharing sites with students. This gives us the ability to share more than a URL, but also to add our comments and spur debate. I'm sure many of you can immediately identify many other uses.
There are many other features which I could discuss. One of these features is that I was able to import my del.icio.us links into Diigo, sharing them in similar but also more robust ways with a larger audience. However, I'll save a larger discussion of those for another time.
Summer is a great time for renewal and experimentation. Give Diigo a try and share your findings as a comment to this post.