Joel Liu's Library tagged annotation →  View Popular

Send us your ideas for Firefox add-ons, preferably ones created with Jetpack, that can turn the web-browser into a platform for rich personal learning. You are not restricted to work on any particular type of application. Here are a few examples to get you started:

• Turn social bookmarking and page annotation into effective learning tools (for example by including peer-assessment features).
• Allow users to easily compile personal e-portfolios (for example, by combining their own works — photos, comments, articles—with testimonials others have written about them).
• Let the browser suggest relevant materials (for example, by automatically identifying additional articles based on what sites a person visit or which topics they search for).
• Support social learning communities (for example, by making it easy to find and connect with others who share similar learning interests).

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.

• provide a trace of use
  
• third party commentary
  
• information sharing
  
• information filtering
  
• semantic labeling of document content
  
• enhanced search
  

But it continues to be hard to publish to the web. If better tools
are provided to information consumers then readers will be able to add
commentary, make new connections, interpret content, and otherwise
promote an accretion of both structure and content on the web. This
process will add new semantics to the web and this new information
will be the source for new approaches to searching and filtering of
information.