Discovering Diigo... And Why It Rocks!

As I was sipping on a hot cup of coffee catching up on some Google Reader blogs I've neglected for the past couple of days I came across a post on Diigo by Steve Anderson aka Web20classroom Blog but it was posted by Teacher Hub. This caught my eye,

Sharing with Groups

And the groups are great too. Have a special interest or area that you want to find resources for and share with? Maybe you have an Interactive Whiteboard or you are interested in Pre-K education. Or perhaps you are in a 1:1 school. There are groups for all these where members can share their saves to not only their inventory but to the group as well. Diigo will email you once a week with all the new content. Pretty neat, huh?

The more I read the more I realized I'd forgotten to look into the Group and List functions of Diigo. So off I went to explore.

What did I discover?
1. Joining a group. 
Once I joined the group, I could then add a link and a brief description. Here is a picture of what it looks like. I can't believe how easy it is. You search for groups you are interested in joining through the search window and depending on your search or the words you use, several suggestions come up. I joined the Daily 5 Chat group and added some bookmarks to test it out. 

You'll notice Mitch Hughes has already tweeted out the link I posted and forgot to tweet.

 2. Adding a bookmark. Here's what it looked like:

So much easier to now tweet out a link.

It was so easy to add the link to my Diigo site, my list and my shared group. Wahoo! I've finally figured out how people share their bookmarks on Twitter through Diigo. I knew I would figure it out eventually. I like how Diigo shows you the last tags you used. This helps with not duplicating tags and especially when you're searching and bookmarking for similar like ideas or topics.

3. Subscribing to RSS feeds. 

I've subscribed to this group through the RSS feed. I think because I'm focusing on RSS feeds I'm starting to see them everywhere. I had noticed them in the past but didn't pay much attention. The more I see it the more I'm curious to know what will appear in Google Reader when I click on it. A major goal of mine was to discover what RSS did and how it linked to sharing and collaborating with others. RSS feeds are becoming a way to stay up to date with activity on blogs, Flickr, Wikis, and now Diigo. Who would have thought?

4. Personal Learning Network and followers of the Group
I also discovered others from my PLN who have joined this group. I am now following a lot of them and I'm looking forward to seeing what following someone does.

How will this impact my students in a primary classroom? 

Diigo in Education

View more presentations from Jennifer Dorman

Anderson (2011) also confirms what Dorman (2008) suggests about creating a classroom account. Anderson wrote,

First thing to do is get a regular Diigo account. Then visit the Educator Area and apply for the Educator upgrade. Once you get upgraded you can access all the new features in the Teacher Console. You can create class groups and student accounts.

I have done what both of them suggested and I am currently waiting to find out whether or not I will be given an educators account. I get the feeling Diigo takes educators accounts very seriously because I needed to use a school email address when applying but when I signed up for my original Diigo account I used my gmail address. They also ask you to fill out how you will have your students use Diigo. Here's what I said,

Diigo has the potential to start my students on the journey to social bookmarking. We work on a Penguin unit in January. The students will be doing research on Penguins and I would like them to be able to share the sites they find. They will also enjoy the highlighting feature and the sticky note feature to give a brief understanding of what they have read about or why they choose the particular site. What a fabulous discussion we could have as a class, as to why someone chose a particular site? They could also highlight key words, strong verbs and such to help develop their knowledge of making their writing sound more interesting.

I am excited to see if they approve my request. The more I use this tool the more I am enjoying it.

References

Anderson, S. (2011). Why diigo rocks for educators!. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/why-diigo-rocks-educators

Dorman, J. (2008). Diigo in education. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/cliotech/diigo-in-education-presentation