Some thoughts on educational uses of the annotation tools in Diigo « (No Longe... - The Diigo Meta page

• 29 Oct 08
  

  Joel Liu

  diigo annotation education

  • The assignment to annotate a classmate’s post didn’t seem like a very authentic task.  Why was I making the annotation?  My classmate’s already show up in my Google Reader, so there bookmarking the post felt redundant.  I try to comment on classmate’s posts when appropriate (and when time permits), so making digital margin notes also seemed redundant.  I haven’t made Diigo a required tool in my online course, but this assignment has got me wondering how I would use Diigo if I were to require it.

  • I may use Diigo to replace the Ning network that I am using in the course this semester.  I’ve used Ning mainly as a location for students to post profiles that provide me with a little background about them as individuals.  I’ve also used Ning as a forum to host class discussions.  I could accomplish the same goals by requiring students to create a Diigo account and join a Diigo group for the course.  I’d also gain the ability to share lists or resources with students.  I have a couple of ideas for Diigo assignments.

    
    
    • Students read and/or view an assigned web-based resource and make annotations guided by a set of reading questions/activities.  After making their own annotations, they will look to see their classmates’ annotations before participating in a discussion related to the readings.  I wonder how being able to see classmates’ thoughts as they read the same material might impact understanding of each others’ points of view during a class discussion.
    • Students create their own resource lists as they work on their projects.  For example, a student working on creating an educational podcast may gather links to the examples that inspired her, the tools she used, and the guides and “how-tos” that helped her through the process.  The student would then share the resource list with the other class members.
    • Students could have a discussion on tagging and evaluate the group’s use of tags.
  • 1 more annotations...

  • • As I was using Diigo, I noticed that the annotation tools didn’t work consistently.  I experienced some problems.

      
      
      • Diigo would only allow me to save private comments, even though I was trying to make public comments.
      • None of my comments would save.

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