Diigo vs. Delicious

Web site bookmarking…

Currently I save my bookmarks on my hard drive of my computer.  I’ve started to use Google bookmarks and find it very easy to use and like the new List feature they have. It reminds me of folders but is not exactly the same.  I don’t like that they don’t help you out with tag or label suggestions, both diigo and delicious have that option.  Five years ago when I was a computer lab teacher in an elementary school I used www.ikeepbookmarks.com.  It was a great site and exactly what I needed at the time.  I have hundreds of sites that I used and teachers in my school.  I kept folders for different grade levels and folders inside those for different projects they were working on.  I loved the organization.  However, I have since forgotten my password and don’t have access to the email account anymore, so I can look at all those bookmarks but I can’t save them anywhere else.  So learn from my mistake, don’t use your school district email address for an account like this.  It’s a sad, sad day when you find you have to save them one by one on a site like diigo.com or delicious.com.

I first learned about diigo.com for this class when our instructor had us use it to find the web sites we needed for this class.  I found it very confusing and didn’t know really what I was looking for or at.  I think my problem was the lack of folders, which is what I was used to in ikeepbookmarks.com.  I’m not a real fan of the list format.  Now that I have my own account and have played around with it I find it very useful.  I especially like the highlight option.  Bookmarking sites is great but when you can highlight the part that is most meaningful, WOW, I find that amazing.  I like the ease of set up and the easy bookmark tool, diigolet you can put on your toolbar.  I like that you have the choice of highlighting, bookmarking or sharing right from that tool. 

I signed up for a delicious.com account and found the set up very easy.  It seems as easy to use as diigo.com but again did not have the folders I really like.  It also did not have the option of highlighting parts of the site and saving it with your bookmark.  Delicious.com is a Yahoo product and I don’t like all the ads associated with Yahoo.  I think this is why I like Google products better.  I know in the end they are all just out to make a buck but I don’t like Yahoo’s style of IN YOUR FACE advertising. 

In the end I think I like diigo.com better because of the highlighting option. I think in education students will be able to see at a glance what they found interesting about a site because of the highlighting.  When students have so many classes keeping information at their fingertips like this will be very helpful.    

Virtual Worlds and Learning

I started my research on Virtual World Learning in general, not specifically Second Life and I found some very interesting articles.  I was disappointed on the dates of most of the information I was finding, everything seemed to be from around 2006.  I thought this was very old for such a dynamic topic but then got to thinking that maybe this is when the popularity was increasing and it was the big buzz.  So maybe, just like good teaching, the ideas and concepts behind Virtual World learning might not have changed that much in the last 5 years or so. 

The most informative and helpful article was by 3 men; Tony O'Driscoll from IBM On-Demand Learning.  Eilif Trondsen,director of  Learning on Demand project at SRI Consulting Business Intelligence and founder of eLearning Forum.  Jay Cross author of Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance.  From looking at their credentials, I found them and their opinions very valuable.  Some of their main points were: (my thoughts/comments will be in italic)

·         Virtual learning will not replace other forms of learning but it will enhance the experience and transfer of learning.  Virtual Worlds won’t every replace good teachers (hopfully).

·         VWs are somewhat a solution looking for a problem. VWs can provide a platform for collaboration, community, and commerce, but so can a sofa. Aside from entertainment appeal, what's new here? The most powerful learning technology ever invented is conversation, but most VWs lack the horsepower to entice people to converse naturally. Time will bring voice, more expressive avatars, and higher resolution to VWs. When the virtual environment functions much like the real world, conversation will flow-making it easier to mentor, coach, teach, brainstorm, discuss and manipulate prototypes, and to collaborate on problems. Sometimes I think we’re putting the cart before the horse with the technology, and I’m skeptical of those that make money off education and kids.  But if it’s useful and engaging enough teachers should be using it. 

•         VWs are what we like to call a Learnscape. They are learning/working ecosystems that by their very nature embrace:

• Flow, balancing inactivity and challenge in just the right proportions to keep people moving through the experience
• Repetition, which allows learners to try-and-try again as many times as they choose.
• Experimentation, encouraging learners to try new things and learn in the process.
• Experience that is much more engaging than other digitally mediated technologies.
• Doing, because practice makes perfect and VWs are big practice fields.
• Observing, because if you're not ready to act now, you have plenty of opportunities to observe others and learn from them.
• Motivation, because all of these factors culminate in an environment that cultivates teachable moments at every turn. Motivation is baked into the context as people want to learn within it.  All of these take TIME and classroom time is so precious, I would hope most of this could be done as homework.  But then we keep saying kids should be restricted to how many hours a day they spend in front of a screen.  It’s a hard balance.
•  The industrial-age approach to learning put a wall around schools and training departments. This "protected" the learners from outside interference and distraction. Children were kept at school rather than sent out into the community. Workers left work for training. Talk about artificial life! It's so much more effective to learn from the real thing, and VWs are the closest we've got for practicing without customer consequences.  I agree that getting them out into a community is a great learning experience.  I can imagine how much time and money could be saved it a 3^rd grade class went on a virtual field trip to the zoo instead of the real thing.  However, if the real experience is available it should be obvious choice. 

I enjoyed doing this research on the bigger picture rather than specifically Second Life.  I did poke around in SL using my Tracy Mellow avatar again, she was brought to life in my Communications class and has been idol ever since.  I’m not a huge fan of the virtual world, it just doesn’t appeal to me.  I first landed on Moose Beach Info Hub (58,57,24) and heard all these people talking about strange foods they have eaten.  It was strange and intrusive I thought to be walking in on someone’s conversation.  So I teleported to UCMO and walked around.  I had never noticed the little airport before so I checked that out.  Is there an aviation department at UCMO, or is this just for fun on SL?  Then I noticed a brown unicorn and went to investigate, but it turned out to be the UCMO Mule, so I pet him and took my picture.  I never chatted with anyone, I’m not a real conversation starter and didn’t see anyone to chat with at UCMO so I just checked out the campus a bit more.  It’s fun and I appreciate getting to spend a bit of time in SL.

Mobile Technology- I LOVE my iPhone

I was looking forward to February 10, 2011 for several months.  I didn’t sleep well the night before worrying about out of stock situations.  Verizon and Apple were finally ready to work together and I got my first iPhone.  I’d never had a smartphone and had been out of Mac loop for about 5 years and missed it terribly.  I’m having a lot of fun with the phone and see a ton of education and learning opportunities.  There are some limitations but I think the advantages far outweigh them.    

            Tablets and netbooks are similar in their performance but netbooks have a keyboard attached.  There are after-market portable keyboards but if you really need to type that much a netbook might be the best choice for you.  The iPad 2 has 512 MB of memory, up to 64 GB of storage, up to a month of standby battery life and is only 1.3 pounds, it starts at $499.   A Dell Mini netbook has 512 MB of memory, an 8 GB of storage and 4 hours of battery life, weighs 2.28 pounds and starts at $399.   The keyboard on a netbook is not a standard full size but is very close.  So depending on what you want to do there are pros and cons to each.  If you are briefly browsing the web, watching video or keeping in touch with social networking sites than a tablet is really all you need.  But for any more complex tasks like playing games getting home or school work done a netbook or pc is probably going to be a better choice, but mostly because of the keyboard.  From a teacher and computer lab teachers’ point of view I would also be considering durability as an issue.  I would think the protection of the top would be a good idea.  But they don’t have the apps you can use on the smartphones and tablets.

            The apps are what make the smartphones are what make them so fun, productive and useful. I’ve been using Evernote as a digital organizer.  For students it would be a great way to keep track of assignments, taking notes and organizing your schedule.  I also love the app Vocab Ahead, Word of the Day.  I get the email version, so I didn’t have to pay the $1.99 fee.  It gives a word each day and the definition is animated.  It’s great for SAT prep.  I also use a few apps with my 5 year old and 3 year old.  They like the newness of the phone and touch screen, so it’s very fun for them.  Preschool Memory Match is a great one for increasing their memory and is available in easy, medium and hard.  Kids Math Fun is a great one we’ve been using a lot with my kindergartener.  There are versions for different grade levels and it’s free.  ABC Tracing is one both girls have been using and really enjoy.  The only negative I’ve heard about this is that the kids are not using a pencil to learn to write their letters, they are using their fingers but it is great in my opinion for learning letter recognition and how to make the letters. 

            For my own personal school work I have downloaded the Blackboard app, but I have only used it a few times.  I just don’t have the need since my situation does not call me to be far from a computer for long periods.  I do check my discussion board on Facebook on my iPhone a lot.  I can read new posts when they are posted and give them some thought and then respond when I’m at my computer.  I feel connected and up to date but it doesn’t make me feel like I can respond and get actual work done.