Day Sixteen: Diigo

Diigo is a social bookmarking site that enables users to bookmark and tag web pages, organize pictures, documents, audio and screenshots, and it can be accessed via PC, Mac, Android, iPhone and iPad.

If you upload Diigolet, you are able to highlight text, and add sticky notes with comments on each bookmarked web page. You can then share the sites with others by creating a group or you may keep your bookmarks private. This is particularly helpful when working on a research project because all sources can be saved in one location and shared with classmates. 

How to install Diigolet

You can annotate text, ask students questions, have students leave comments, etc.

Source: www.diigo.com/tools

Diigo now has an app for iPad that serves as an all-access digital library. The app is free, but it is new, so they are still adding features (group bookmarking isn't available yet). 

Educator Accounts:If you sign up for an educator account, it’s free and it allows you to set up class groups where students can share sites with classmates. Student email addresses are not required and privacy settings are pre-set so only the teacher and classmates can communicate with them.  It may take a few days to be approved for the teacher console, but it is well worth it.

By setting up a class group, you can provide students with websites that you have already approved, eliminating issues with students using unreliable sources. 

Diigo is also great for storing assignments. If you want students to read an article in the New York Times, for example, you can bookmark it on Diigo and mark areas where you would like them to focus/respond/analyze, etc. Students can share and interact via group sticky notes, highlights and bookmarks. You can also publish a bookmark directly to your class blog.

Once you have an educator account, the Diigo in Education group will send you a daily email of several different bookmarks made by other educators. I have found many interesting articles and resources via these emails.

Articles worth reading:

10 Reasons to use Diigo: The Educational Technology Site

Classroom Collaboration Using Social Bookmarking Service Diigo

How to create your own textbooks-with or without-Apple

Diigo Sign up Tutorial*Note that this tutorial was designed for a district in which Diigo is blocked; this is NOT the case in Middletown.

Diigo educator account:
Sign up now!

Day Three: Voicethread and Capzles-Presentation Tools

Voicethread and Capzles are sites that allow students and teachers to create collaborative multimedia presentations.  Voicethread has a free educator account that allows you to create up to 50 presentations with your students.  These presentations can include videos, images, documents, and audio elements.  Students can comment on other presentations through written responses, voice recordings and/or web cam recordings.  Voicethread also allows you to “draw” on the presentation to point out elements of the image or document.

Learn more about voicethread:

At Voicethread Educator you can compare the different education plans available to you.
There are many tutorials to help you and your students learn how to use it.
Here is a 6th grade Middletown student's voicethread for some inspiration. (It will ask you to sign into your voicethread account to view it..hint)
You can use voicethread as an assessment tool.
You can use it for brainstorming writing ideas and peer editing.
Here are a couple of wikis of just voicethread resources.
Here are 26 interesting ways to use voicethread in the classroom.
There is an entire diigo list just for voicethread!
Of course voicethread itself offers a host of ideas for educators k-12 encompassing all content areas....

Below is a 7th grade Middletown student's voicethread for even more inspiration...

Sign up for Voicethread! 


Feeling inspired yet? Wait there's more, you should also try......

Capzles is a similar multimedia presentation tool that allows you or your students to create a free account. It is much newer than voicethread, and educators are beginning to harness the learning opportunities it has to offer. This site can be used to create a digital story or timeline. It allows collaboration with others while creating your capzles. They can be easily integrated into your curriculum in many different ways. You can create your own capzles for instruction or they can be a tool in a student's 21st century learning belt. Any way you incorporate them, capzles are very user-friendly and now many of our students opt to use this tool instead of traditional paper and pen!



Sign up for Capzles today, so you and your students can begin creating tomorrow!


Learn how to use capzles...

7th Grade Middletown Student Example:

Both voicethread and capzles are available in the itunes apps store and there are plans for them to be available for android devices soon.  Please let us know how you could use either of these tools with your students or if you have tried them before.  Have fun!