Journal 5

Diigo

I think that Diigo is an interesting application to use. It can be helpful to annotate on the web in certain aspects but I do feel like mostly it would not be necessary. I think this would be a great tool for Graduate students and researchers who are always trying to remember what website they used, and what points they wanted to make about something. It could actually just be used for anyone doing a research assignment. I do not like how the bookmarks show up on the page, I think it could be a little more clustered and categorized. However, I do like that you can put things into groups that you share with other people because that would be very helpful for collaboration. I think overall I would introduce Diigo in the classroom as an idea, but not make it a mandatory part of my student's projects and papers.

Blogging

I have blogged, mainly for other classes before and I usually enjoy it. I love putting together websites and having fun with my designs so that my website shows my personality and my messages. In this class, Blogging has not been as fun as it usually is in other classes. I think It has to do with Blogger and how hard it is for me to get my website to look the way I want it too. Overall I think the actual Blogging is going well. I enjoy writing about education and the different intersections it takes with technology. I have learned about how important reflection is as a way of making sure you learn and understand information.

Web 2.0.: Kidblog

 I found the website kidblog.org, which provides an atmosphere for young students to create and work on blogs. I wasn’t able to look at the site as much as I wanted to because you do have to pay to use it but from what I could see the site seemed extremely efficient. They have free lesson plans to help teachers, and support staff available to live chat if you need it. Kidblog also has ways for administrators to monitor students use, but also give them a safe place to publish their work. I think for middle and elementary students this would be ideal because they may not have the best technological capabilities yet, and also their parents may be worried about them being on the internet. Kidblog seems to be an appropriate and safe alternative to have students create their own blog on a site like Wix or blogger.