Collecting and Saving Information: Diigo vs. Pinterest LIS568

Something I never truly spent time thinking about is the idea of gathering and storing information accessed on the internet, specifically the benefits of doing such collecting.  As we all know, the internet is such a vast tool.  The amount of information that society is sifting through on a daily basis is unfathomable.  Now, something to think about is whether or not you want to try to make your time (and your student’s time) efficient while “surfing,” or you are fine continuing your mindless browsing.  I personally have found it very beneficial to start organizing quality information, that information that is helpful to my profession.  Don't get me wrong, I still have mindless “surfing” moments.  Although, they tend to be less and less these days.  My point is that I have had countless times that I needed some idea for a project, resources for my students, resources for myself, etc. in which I turn to the internet for assistance.  There has been many times that I have had to go back through my search history to try and find a certain website that I discovered a few days ago.  The wonderful thing about such a vast resource as the internet is that it provides us with exceptional tools that can help with such organizing.  The power that these tools can provide not only yourself but your students as well is immense.  I present to you Diigo vs. Pinterest.

Let me first start by saying Pinterest is mainly image centered, whereas Diigo focuses around the actual website as a whole.  There are certain aspects when you begin to use information organizing tools, such as Diigo and Pinterest, that you start to appreciate more than the others.  Tagging, being one of those aspects, allows a user to attach keywords to saved material.  Thus, the ability to find certain information in the future becomes much quicker and easier.  Diigo and Pinterest both incorporate tagging into their application.  However, Diigo allows its users to attach tags to saved material, whereas Pinterest only allows its users to search for new material using tags.  Although, I suppose creating boards in Pinterest and putting certain information on relevant boards can be considered tagging.  With Diigo the home screen of your account allows you to view your saved material.  It gives you the option to search through your material by typing keywords or choosing tags that you have created.  Pinterest opens you up to a home page that has all different resources depending on the interests you choose to be informed about, not your saved material!  With Diigo you can access suggested material through a “discover” option.  Where Diigo allows its users to copy and paste content into descriptions of saved websites, Pinterest only allows you to add a description to the boards you create.

Living in a socially connected world, having the ability to essentially “socialize” on applications is important for users.  Both Diigo and Pinterest allow you to follow other users and be followed by other users on the same application.  Pinterest allows its users to send messages, easily search for people by name and by content, and comment on both saved (pinned) and unsaved material.  Diigo allows its users to simply comment on individuals’ posts that are in the same group as them.  You have to first create a group to search, invite, and slightly interact with others while using Diigo.  Both Pinterest and Diigo do an excellent job with being able save content found on others’ boards (Pinterest) or libraries (Diigo).  However, Diigo only allows such functions with others’ content when following those users, whereas Pinterest allows such functions with whoever.  With that said, creating a class group on Diigo allowing students to add resources throughout the year can act as a valuable resource for students to use during the year and possibly their future years as well.

Pinterest certainly excels in the social aspect of the application, however Diigo seems to trump its counterpart in the more professional aspects, you know those functions that make your job easier.  Diigo allows its users to highlight, comment on highlighted text, and overall annotate any content saved to the application.  Sadly, Pinterest does not allow for any such functions.  The closest function Pinterest has in its annotating abilities is providing its users with the privilege to comment under an image.  Both applications allow for a browser extension.  The extensions for both applications certainly provide a better overall experience for its user, as they simply make the purpose of both applications easier to accomplish.  However, I feel for professional aspects Diigo’s extension blows Pinterest’s out of the water!  Using Diigo’s extension on my toolbar allows me to save websites to my Diigo library, annotate the article as is, annotate any PDF I drag into my browser, annotate the screenshot of the website I'm on, and more.  Pinterest’s browser extension, on the other hand, only allows me to bring up all the images found on the website I am currently visiting.

Although both applications are used for similar purposes, they are actually quite different.  Overall, they both store and organize information found on the internet, but depending on what type of individual you are will determine which application you will enjoy more.  If you are an individual who gets easily distracted by images, you will find Pinterest more of a distraction than useful.  However, if you need more visuals to help with your organization Diigo certainly will not do the trick with its wordy ways.  For me, it comes down to functionality for my personality type.  Pinterest simply distracts me, it is difficult for me to visualize its organizing ways, and overall too socially driven.  Diigo provides me with what some might consider an archaic organizing method, but that archaic organizing method is extremely efficient with its new age tags!  Not only that, but the functionality of the browser extension is super useful for my profession as an educator.  I can easily highlight areas of text and make comments directly on web sources, as well as annotate any pdf or screen shot.  For the assistance Diigo provides me in the classroom, I would be silly not to use this on a daily basis.  Furthermore, I feel that Diigo provides my students with a resource that exemplifies the power of connectivity through a less distracting and overall more beneficial way.  From organizing to functionalities, Diigo trumps Pinterest.

Wait, What Am I Creating With My Pen Pal? LIS568

Being an educator in such a connected world poses many opportunities to connect our classrooms with different cultures around the world.  One great resource that allows for such a connection is ePals.  Free to sign up it seems like a no brainer to join.  It’s not everyday you come across a resource which its sole purpose is to connect your classroom with another classroom anywhere you please in this world.  Whereas there are other pen pal resources, ePals takes a fantastic approach with allowing for more than just communication.  With ePals not only can you have a pen pal exchange, but you can also have your students partake in an “experience” as well.  While ePals offers a safe and secure network for students to interact on, it also provides educators with an organized location to ask questions, share tips and advice, and overall be part of an unique networking experience.

A specific function of ePals that I find most intriguing is its “experience” opportunities.  Students are able to work through inquiries with other students from all over the world.  Honestly, how cool is that?  I remember doing pen pals in elementary school and I can tell you that their was no collaboration in terms of solving an inquiry based project, and it was certainly not via the World Wide Web!  Talk about basically an instant response.  No more waiting for days as the USPS does their job.  There are many pre-made projects through ePals, however if you deem necessary you have the function to create your own projects from scratch.  The pre-constructed projects are very well thought out, organized, and offer a diverse range of subjects.  Students can partake in a language based project such as folktale exchange, in which students explore and compare folktales with partner classes from all parts of the world and actually create their own storytelling traditions.  Students can be part of a science lesson where they explore how scientist study animal traits to create robots, ultimately creating their own robots to achieve a certain goal in their partner class’s environment.  Not only are students gaining cultural understandings, but they are also gaining a significant level of digital competence.

When you think about the level of digital literacy and responsibility that students must gain and obtain in order to achieve success in their globally connected inquiries it is quite impressive.  Personally, teaching my students every year to achieve a sense of digital literacy is paramount, and being a social studies teacher it is critical for me to educate my students with a sense of cultural diversity.  For me, having my students partake in projects through ePals allows me to “kill at least two birds with one stone.”  On top of being able to provide my students with such an unique experience, I am able to network with other teachers from all around the world.  As professor Ronald Burt states, “ Instead of better glasses, your network gives you better eyes.”

Happy teaching!

To Blog or Not To Blog LIS 568

Being part of the 21st century and living in this always evolving technology generation is a pretty awesome thing!  I feel as if I could honestly learn something new everyday of my life off of the internet.  As teachers, having the World Wide Web is such a valuable aspect to education, especially when utilized effectively in the classroom.  Being in a district that provides students with 1:1 iPads, I absolutely take advantage of the benefits digital devices with network connection provide my classroom.  It certainly takes work on my end to stay up to date, and do my best to learn new practices as technology continues to develop and grow.  However, the benefits are well worth it.  

After some research on the possibilities and benefits of blogging, I truly would like to incorporate blogging into my curriculum.  Where there are many ways one could use blogging, both for personal development and classroom practices, having students construct and post short book reviews fits into my curriculum perfectly!  I teach at the elementary/middle school level, thus I encourage reading throughout each year by tracking our overall classroom progress with a tracking chart.  It’s actually a cool tracking chart that I made in undergraduate work many years ago of a mountain and a little hiker dude that treks up the mountain as students complete books.  Students can earn parties when reaching camp 1, 2, and the summit.  Anyways, I have students complete a short book review worksheet that I check and give credit for completion.  By having students simply blog their book reviews, not only would the book review be easier for me to look at, but other students could read the reviews as well.  Thus, helping my classroom become that much more student centered.

Throughout the school year, I always try to incorporate current event work.  I like to add in speaking and presentation skills with the current event work as well.  I provide students with an organization template that allows for them to summarize their articles they read.  Once their research is complete, students present their article and their thoughts to the class.  In future years, instead of just having students present their finding to the class I want to introduce blogging their thoughts and summaries of the current event articles as well.  Students can then present to the class using their blog on the overhead, or students could check out other students’ blogs and comment on their posts…etc.  It should be interesting to see the growth of students’ posts from the beginning of the year to the end.  

Whether you are a classroom teacher, library media specialist, or any other special area educator incorporating blogging into your curriculum can be a great way to work on English language arts skills, technology skills, and collaboration skills.  More importantly, students are learning to become content creators rather than simply consumers. As stated by Broad (2015), “Engaging students in activities that align closely to higher-order thinking skills like creating, evaluating and synthesizing certainly seems more transformative than asking them to search for information on the internet.”  Being content creators rather than passive consumers allows our students to truly engage in a relevant and rigorous task, ultimately allowing them to gain experience in 21st century skills.  Such 21st century skills can be very important for their college and career success.  Some free resources to start such blogging adventures are as follows: Blogger, WordPress, and Weebly.

Get out there and start blogging, or don't, totally up to you, but I definitely am!

References

Broad, S. (2015). Creators, not consumers. Education Technology. Retrieved from http://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/creators-not-consumers.