Diigo

Summary

For today's assignment, we joined a social bookmarking website called Diigo. Diigo is an extremely useful website to use because you can do a lot more than just bookmark various sites. You can also highlight text, insert comments, create tags, organize your websites by lists, share your sites with friends, send messages and much more. There is also a "Group" feature to share certain information with friends, peers, or students. This feature is great for collaborative research and keeping projects organized. 

Web 2.0 sites like this one are extremely important to the expansion of knowledge and growth because collaboration is key. People from all over the world can join together and share information with just a few "clicks" of their mice. Web 2.0 is also useful in the classroom and in business settings because it allows people to work together to share ideas and promotes social learning.

What I learned

Even though I use a social bookmarking website called Pinterest on a daily basis, I have never used one like Diigo. They have a lot of similarities, but Pinterest doesn't have a highlight tool or many of the other features the Diigo toolbar has. Because of these features, Diigo seems to be more useful for researching and scholarly information.

In my opinion, one of the best features of Diigo is the ability to bookmark websites to your account and access them from any computer. I can't tell you how many times I've been on another computer and have had to email myself a link to a particular website so I could access it on another computer. Especially since I occasionally conduct research on my work computer during the day. Now, I can just save it to this account and all of my highlights, comments, and sticky notes will be saved no matter what computer I use.

Here is an example of my Diigo Library: 

So far I've only added four websites, but I plan to add a lot more. I've also added my Diigo account link under the link list on my profile, but you can also view it here.

Questions and Answers:  

1. What browser do you use?

 Mozilla Firefox, although my brother often tells me to download Google Chrome. 

2. What is a browser add on? Give an example and explain why they are useful (if they are useful). Which ones have you used? 

Web browser add-ons add features to the browser you are using. One example is a "Facebook" add on, which is one of the ones I use daily. To access Facebook, all I do is click on the link and it takes me there immediately. Add ons like that are useful because because of efficiency. I no longer have to type out the Facebook web address, but instead I just simply click a link. On my old computer, I had add ons for everything! Some examples of add ons I've used include weather, news, and Twitter.

 
3. What browser add-ons are you currently using?

Besides the Facebook add on mentioned above, I also use the Diigo toolbar. I have my toolbar features set to include the highlight feature, comments, capture, send, and read later.I just bought a new netbook and I haven't fully set it up yet, so as of right now these are the only two add ons I have. 

How I would use it

I can see myself using this website on a daily basis for articles that I find interesting. I really wish I knew websites like this existed during my undergrad, because as an English major I had to constantly find and print journal articles to use in all of the papers I wrote. Not only could I have saved a lot of paper, but I also would have saved a lot of time. I used to have to save links to my flash drive, go to the library to use the printer, sort the pages, and then highlight and write comments on the information I wanted to use. How easy this website would have made things!  As an English teacher, I would really like to bring this website to my classroom so students could do research together using the Group feature.  As this interesting article suggests, students are more inclined to read and research if teachers make it interesting and allow them to be social. Not only are students focused on their social lives, but they are also all about the latest technology. Combining both would make me look like a saint! :)

NETS Standards 

The Diigo website activity focuses on standards one and two because it involves using digital tools to enhance student learning. This activity engages students and allows them to explore real world issues on the internet. Students would also have the opportunity to collaborate with their peers in a social, virtual environment.