Diigo

While reading through Kajder, I happened upon a site that seemed really interesting to me, especially since we've been talking in class about online resources that can help both the teacher and student in the classroom collaboratively, Diigo.  The book does a good job of explaining how it works, starting on page 65.  Basically, it's a way you can highlight certain things off the web, such as excerpts from articles that may be prevalent to a lesson you are teaching in the classroom, and sharing it with your students.  This is a great video I found that improves on the introduction given by the book, and shows how it can be yet another resource that help teachers in the technology age.

Digg: The Informational Time Waster

I just wanted to make a quick post about how entertaining the website digg.com is.  Before Dan presented about it in class, I had used it casually just because I heard about it found some interesting articles.  Now this was probably 2 or 3 years ago, but now I find myself on it nearly every day.  Not only is the site great for wasting time, it's also an interesting source for just about any news article you can think of, revolving around numerous popular subjects.  The idea of using digg in the classroom is a brilliant idea in my opinion, since the website can potentially be an endless torrent of information.  The one thing that we didn't really touch on in the class was the whole concept of "digging" an article.  Browsers of the site can digg articles that they find interesting and fascinating, I always thought this was a great tool for weeding out the unnecessary articles, and bringing the best to the top, for everyone to see.

The Power of Skype:Changing the Classroom

In class we discussed the communication software Skype and how it can be used in the classroom to benefit the learning experience. I found this discussion really interesting and eye opening to just what technology can do for students in the classroom environment as well as teachers in the school community. Skype can provide students the opportunity to speak with authors and guest speakers they might not otherwise get the chance to see. This type of experience engages students in the learning process by having them ask questions and participate in discussion. Another unique project students can do using Skype is the Skype Pen Pal Project. This gives classrooms the opportunity to communicate with other classrooms across the country or even the world.If you want to stay close to home, you can interact with other classes in your school to enhance the sense of school community.  You can even arrange discussion groups with other classes to get different perspectives from readers of others cultures and backgrounds. Skype can also be used for Parent/Teacher conferences for those parents who are unable to meet face to face. Skype can even be used for teachers or school districts to meet with education experts or other schools and districts who faced similar obstacles. For more information on Skype and its power in the classroom visit  http://education.skype.com/.