I sat today using Diigo to bookmark, annotate, highlight, capture pages and pictures, and do just about anything I needed to do effortlessly. Ya’ll, this is straight from this educator‘s heart: Diigo is amazing!
Now look, my thinking about tech tools is that they have to serve everyone: teachers –administrators, students, parents — basically all stakeholders to be truly of value. I’m into the reality of teaching which means if it is not going to improve the outcome for students academically by supporting their learning, most teachers just don’t have the time to deal with it. But, I’d like to think I’m a realist and if there’s a tool that makes a teacher’s life easier, then preparing for lessons, classes, professional developments and, yes, our other life is easier, and that translates to a happier educator who has more time to work on supporting those students learning. So, here’s the deal: Diigo has to be the single most valuable tool that I have on my computer.
Now, that’s a bold statement and one I don’t take likely. Folks joke with me because I’m the first one to admit that I get emotional about technology in education and what it can do to improve student learning and darned if I’m not feeling that way right now. I don’t want you to miss this tool and what it can do for you.
So, I’m asking…if you aren’t a Diigo user, take a moment and go grab a free account, transfer in your Delicious (or whatever its called now) bookmarks and start exploring.
There are some must haves: Please get the extensions for Firefox or Chrome or the toolbar for Firefox or IE that make bookmarking, capturing, annotating a simple click. Here’s the annotated page for it: http://diigo.com/0i7j6. By the way, you can see other people’s annotations at websites….it’s like being part of a special club and getting the inside scoop.
Now, here’s what I absolutely love the most! When I bookmark something using one of the extensions or the toolbars, it provides me suggested tags. The tags are keywords that mean when I go looking through my library and all I remember is that I’m looking for a math lesson with fractions, I can just search “math lesson fractions” and boom, there it is. Fast, easy.
Have I convinced you yet? If not, check out this video:
And, there’s more…there’s always more…I’ve just touched the surface..but you can get an educator’s account and work with your kids in Diigo! Become a Diigo Pioneer!
Join me folks…let me know you are there…I promise you won’t be sorry!
Carol Mortensen has nearly twenty-three years of educational experience. She began as a substitute teacher as she worked toward her degree. Upon graduation, Carol began teaching middle school Math and Algebra I and served as the technology liaison for her campus. She served as a teacher for 16 years and was lucky to have taught at Hillcrest Middle School, a 1:1 campus where every student was issued a laptop computer. She also worked as an Instructional Technology Trainer for her district providing training and technology integration support for campus and district staff, faculty and administrators. Currently, Carol enjoys her position as the Campus Technology Integration Specialist for Deer Park High School – South Campus. Before taking this position this year, she served for three years as the Campus Technology Integration Specialist at Fairmont Junior High in Deer Park Independent School District. In this position, Carol provides integration support and training to the students, staff, faculty, and administrators at the campus and district level. In addition, Carol is an online Math instructor for Aventa Learning and K12. The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) named Carol the Classroom Teacher of the Year for her innovative and creative use of technology to create a 24/7 virtual classroom using her classroom website. Carol has presented at school districts throughout Texas as well as state and local conferences on a variety of technology integration topics. Her article on the use of websites as an instructional tool was recently published in the TechEdge Magazine. In February 2011, her article, Lessons Learning In a 1:1 Classroom, was published by TechEdge. The article was republished in ISTE’s Learning and Leading magazine in August 2011. She was named Fairmont Junior High’s Teacher of the Year for the 2011-2012 school year. Carol is passionate about the positive impact that technology has on student achievement. Her presentations are packed with real-life solutions, quality resources, and humor. She has an ability to connect with her audience and motivate them to take technology integration to a higher quality level.
