Diigo

It is coming up to the final week of college for semester one, and as part of our final lecture we had to research a Web 2.0 technology that we haven’t discussed yet and present what it is and how it would be beneficial to us. I chose to research Diigo.

Diigo is an online tool that does many things. It started off as a normal bookmarking website but it has transformed into so much more. It is now an online tool that improves workflow and productivity….How you ask? Well, it allows one to collect and organise anything, whether it be bookmarks, highlights, screenshots, images, etc. It even allows you to write on the screenshots, makes little notes through the use of sticky notes. And something which makes it even better is the fact that you can access it anywhere, whether you are at home on the laptop, on the way to college or school on your iphone, you can access your account anywhere.

All you need to do is sign up and then the world is your oyster. You have so many options. You can annotate by highlighting text, make sticky notes, highlight in different colours to organise your information, take screenshots, write on your screenshots, read later option and much more.

When I was completing my undergraduate degree we were always given links to documents and I am one of those people who need to underline, highlight or write on the page to make sure it is going into my head. As a result I always had to print the document out which was a waste of paper, because once I was finished with it it was never touched again. I wish I had known about this tool it would have made my life so much easier, it makes you interact with the writing on the screen because you can do so many different things with it to alter it. Diigo really is a lifesaver and I think it would work well with an older class to help make a class library where useful information is stored and all students can view it.

Everything you highlight or annotate is saved to your library, so never lose a document or quote again. Then you have the option to share your annotations with a group of friends, as well as making it private. I think it would be extremely useful for students doing a project together, they could collect all the information and save it to their library and collaborate with each other about the information.

I hope you strongly consider using it. I have only started using it over the past few days and it has saved me a lot of paper already. I am so excited to research my Thesis topic with this new tool.

Below is my presentation that I created to help explain what Diigo is.

Diigo

Wordle-Education

I really liked these wordles used to define education.

Wordle is such a powerful tool that really makes word stand out, for both students and teachers. I haven’t really used it much in the classroom but I am definitely going to try incorporate it in my lessons more. It can be used to summarise topics, generate discussion about topics and much more. There are variety of different ways that wordles can be used in the classroom. Embedded below is a link to a short entry that looks at fie ways which wordle can be used in the classroom.

Five reasons to use Wordle in the classroom

Twitter in the classroom

As part of my MA course, I joined twitter this week. I have used twitter before but not in an educational way so I am excited to get started and use it in a way to help connect with other teachers, discuss topics and share resources. Social media can get quite a bad rap in the media, but if we use it correctly it can be a great learning tool. It can help develop teacher’s Professional Development, as well as helping students connect with the outside world in a safe and educational way. I am only starting off with twitter, so it is a work in progress.Stay tuned to see my progress!! 🙂
My new twitter account

Some useful tips for educators:
1.
2. http://images.pcmac.org/Uploads/MCPSS/MobileCounty/Departments/Forms/Twitter%20for%20Educators.pdf
3.tips for the classroom
4. 7 ideas for using twitter in the classroom

What is education?

Is education purely about learning in a school environment? Is education sitting in a class 5 days a week teaching certain things to students so that they will be able to acquire a worthwhile job?

I think today’s climate has made us forget about the freedom of education and how we should be teaching and learning to explore the mind and let ourselves go. We have become too focused in doing well economically, that we forget how truly liberating education can be. As teachers we need to shy away from teaching for the exam and reinvigorate the students to let themselves go in their learning.

Education should not just be for the exam. Education is for life. We need to teach students life lessons, as well as academic lessons. We are preparing our students for the future and I believe that their life skills are just as important, if not more important than their success in their exams.

Let education liberate you, not restrict you! 👍

Quote of the Day

Inspiration comes in many forms and sizes. Our job is to inspire students, however most of the time it is the students that inspire us and make our job worthwhile. 🙂

Quote of the day

After having a tough week, I was looking through the internet for some inspiration and I stumbled across this quote. It really let me see that teaching has its dark days, but the one thing teachers need to remember is that we are making a difference. As teachers, we need to realise that every teaching day something new will be chucked at us, but the important thing to remember is that we are the lucky ones. We have to remember that for some students we are the only constant in their lives and we should try educate them as best we can. It may be tough but eventually the fruits they bear will be sweet.