Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Digging Diigo

Argh!  When I returned from vacation I got so caught up in reading everyone else's blog that I forgot to get my own done!

I investigated different social bookmarking tools for an assignment a few years ago and wound up recommending Furl and Diigo.  I had been using Delicious but liked the additional features of the other two.  In the end, Diigo bought out Furl so my decision was simplified!  I only wished I had been using Diigo right from the start of my student days as the commenting, archiving, highlighting and sticky note features would have been extremely helpful.  As I became more comfortable with it, I started to use it as a search tool by entering tags to see what sites others had bookmarked with those same terms.  I would look to see how many people had bookmarked a site and use that as a gauge of its value.  I also started to come across the same users over and over again and began to identify some as 'experts'.  Instead of using a search engine and sifting through pages of results, I would simply look to see which sites they were identifying.  Another use for Diigo that I hadn't anticipated came when our home computer crashed.  If my favourite/bookmarked sites had resided only on my browser, they would have been lost to me and I would have had to start collecting them all over again.  Thanks to Diigo, I had a 'backup' set!

So, for Library Lady's questions this week...

I bookmarked Mathematical Fiction and Mathematics in Movies using the tags mathematics, fiction, and numeracy education.  And yes, I will definitely continue to use Diigo outside of Betty Blogger summer school.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Streaming with YouTube

 love YouTube!  At first I thought it was for kids and entertainment but it really is a fantastic learning tool.  In fact, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google (which happens to own YouTube!)  Further, it can be particularly helpful for visual learners who would rather watch a demonstration than read a set of instructions.

I will definitely continue to use it!

As a matter of fact, it has already come in handy with respect to the Betty Blogger program. In trying to understand what Web 2.0 means, I found the following streamed video helpful.




And this is the video that Library Lady showed us at the Welcome Party to give us some perspective on the growth and importance of social networking.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Let's get started!

I'm excited to begin exploring all the intriguing Web 2.0 tools out there. I will need to psych myself up and tell myself I can do it. The point is to explore, enjoy and then decide what, if any, place these cool new applications might have in my life.

At this point, I would have to rate my current Web 2.0 savvy at a 5. I'm familiar with a few things (thanks to my kids) but want to learn more. I will have to, if I want to enjoy one of the great prizes that those who complete the program will have a chance of winning: an Apple iPad, or a Sony Reader!