I love technology. I do. Diigo and Delicious seem like two very useful tools…in the right hands. I love the way that you can take snapshots of the screen and save the images as html in Diigo. If the page you love gets updated or eliminated, you can still capture what you saw the first time you visited. I really think that is cool. I also like how you can save the page with highlighted text and annotations for future use. This tool is genius.
Delicious seems handy, Diigo has more features, but if simplicity is attractive to you, Delicious is the way to go. I’m not completely in love with the way that web pages are organized, but I do like the premise of Delicious overall.
These tool seems to have many advantages over the old paper and pen. I remember my research days at the Racine Public Library. I’d stand there with a pocket full of dimes to make photo copies, and then highlight, underline and annotate with (gasp) a PEN! I think if more students knew about this, we’d see it quickly become their best friend for research. They already use Microsoft Word to copy and paste important details. They save and print out their research…no dimes needed. I think once they discover this tool, they’ll even stop printing. As Ipads become more popular and affordable, we might slowly but surely see fewer pens and pencils in classrooms.
Every once in a while I fear technology. At first I was thinking that plagiarism might increase as a result of all these gadgets. I thougth that maybe kids would find it easier to copy and paste, or just collect links and not actually construct a research project, but with a little further contemplation on the subject, I’ve decided that that is silly. If we asked students to add us to their social bookmarking sights we could monitor their use of websites. We could actually help them decide which websites were worthy and which are unworthy. As always, it is up to the student to use these tools responsibly and it is up to us to continue to teach research skills such as paraphrasing and citing research, so I guess I can’t condemn the tool for being completely handy and useful. I’m very excited to try them in my classroom
Great writing voice! I am with you and the heart/love factor. Your idea about using sites like Diigo and Delicious to help students select valid research sites is one I hadn't thought of. Another classmate mentioned these bookmarking tools being like modern day notecards. Your comment really adds to the ideas that I have and haven't considered for the use of these sites in my classroom. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI too have a similar conflict when view technology. It does make research so much easier on the one hand, but all the knowledge available on the web is sometimes overwhelming for kids (and me!). I think the challenge with this tool, as with all others, is to monitor its use and make sure we teach those research skills, so that kids can gather info responsibly even when using BOOKS!
ReplyDeleteResponsible use and plagiarism are important issues to address with students. They have been copying and pasting for years, and, without guidance these tools certainly facilitate it. We'll never be able to prevent the use of these tools, nor do I think we should. I agree 100% that one of our important roles is to help students understand intellectual property and creating their own ideas from what they have read. I have seen a number of high schools (and our college) getting Turnitin to check for plagiarism, but the uses of this tool that I find most valid are to have students themselves check their work to see if the tool judges the work as not copied.
ReplyDeleteWinifred is right -- there is so much information out there we are getting buried. Some of these tools can help us create our own organization of the information we come across.