Module 2: Social Bookmarking and Networking

Visual Learning

This week I learned about Diigo and Pixton. I also used Twitter, but I was already familiar with it. I had a lot of fun learning about these technological tools and how they work. While I was learning about them, I kept thinking of different ways I could incorporate them into my classroom.

 Diigo would be very helpful in the classroom. If I had my students doing a paper or some other activity that required research, I would recommend Diigo to them. Diigo would allow them to bookmark websites so they could come back to them later. This would be extremely helpful if they needed to go to several different websites. They would also be able to highlight and annotate these websites so they wouldn't forget any important information or thoughts they had. 

Twitter can also be a useful tool in the classroom. I could get my students to follow and keep up with other people who were doing research and work on whatever topic we were covering in class. I could also make them post updates as we worked so that other people could follow along and make suggestions as they learned. Twitter is also a more common form of social networking, and my students may be a little more comfortable using this than some of the other tools that I might have them use.

Pixton was probably my favorite tool to use and learn about. Pixton allows you to create characters and comic strips/stories through their website. I could use Pixton to help my students understand and retain the information we have learned in class. I could also get my students to make their own comic strips to display their understanding of the content we are covering. Having my students make these comics would be a fun and unique way for them to communicate their understanding and questions about the content we were covering in class, and I could use this information to help my students learn and understand everything better.

While these tools can be very helpful, there are some challenges that could arise when using these technologies. There is likely to be a learning curve with some students. Some of my students may be very tech-savvy, while others aren't as familiar with the technology. Also, there might not be access to technology in some of my students' homes, so they wouldn't be able to work with these technologies outside of school. Another challenge I might face would be keeping my students on task. Pixton and Twitter can be very fun and useful tools, but they can also be very distracting. I would have to closely monitor my students to make sure they were staying on task.