I
found this past class about Diigo, Evernote, Skype and Dropbox rather helpful
in terms of how I take notes and organize information, but I am not sure if I
will use these services all that often in my teaching. I did my presentation on Dropbox and it
is a tool I will introduce to my students as it seems to eliminate the need to
email yourself large files for presentations and such, but when it comes to
teaching I don’t anticipate asking for students to turn in such large files
(such as videos, mp3s etc.) and if I want them to submit papers online I
anticipate Google Docs will work just as well and the students are probably
more familiar with and comfortable using Google Docs. Skype is a great resource to have and one I used extensively
while studying abroad in Scotland so it was certainly not new to me. The primary benefit of Skype is that it
allows for a much wider array of class speakers as they can video chat my class
rather than physically come into the classroom. Evernote still confuses me so I don’t think I’m ready to use
it either for personal use or in a classroom setting. Diigo was probably the resource I enjoyed the most learning
about and one I will certainly use in the future. Its a great way to keep track of articles I still want to
read, but haven’t gotten around too through its bookmark function. Diigo also allows for highlighting
online articles which I can see being a great tool when having to do online
readings.
Smorgasbord Fun Facts:
If the University of Michigan were
a country it would rank 19th all time, ahead of Spain, Denmark,
Greece, Brazil and Mexico
There are UM Wolverines
representing 9 different countries in the Olympics.
1896 is the only Summer Olympics in
which no UM student or alum medaled.
I too found Diigo to be the most useful. It's ability to share just seems crucial in this program. I can find that might be of no use to me, but could be amazing for the science teachers in our cohort. Diigo seems made for that. Evernote has many of the same features as Diigo, but for whatever reason, it didn't click for me. I don't see myself using it the way I could envision myself using the other ones. As a social studies teacher, nearly all these programs have potential in my classroom. It's interesting to see the perspective from a math teacher about how they might work, but their necessity isn't the same.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a great point: there is an abundance of tools that can accomplish similar goals. I use Google Docs a lot myself and have co-authored a handful of books using Google Docs. I do find that the closer we get to publication, the more we need the formatting to be just so, and so we need the precision of Word ... so we slowly but surely move the project to Dropbox. The trick, as you've identified, is knowing which of a tool's features is the most urgent, the amount of start-up time it would take to introduce a new tool vs. hack through an existing one, etc. (PS - Evernote is the toughest for me, too, but past MACers have used it much more than Diigo. Just goes to show -- chacun a son gout!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the UM Olympics trivia!
Good reference to the Olympics! I need to find more time to be able to follow all the activities this week.
ReplyDeleteI also like the Diigo features and think they will have a lot of applications in my personal life.
Dropbox, also, should be a tool that will be used quite a bit.
I've been a Skype user for a while and have also used iChat and GoogleChat for connection with family around the world.
Evernote is a question in my book.
Thanks for the fun facts! I especially liked the one about UM being ranked 19 all time. Also I share your sentiment about not seeing myself using most of these applications, but I will most certainly have to check out diigo more in depth because I didn't fully understand it in class and you're not the first I've had recommend it.
ReplyDeleteI've seen so much positive response to Diigo, and I've slowly turned over to using it. I realize that there is so much great info out there and that I want to organize and recall it. I think Diigo works really well for "read laters" and bookmarking "interesting others" in my content areas. Whether it's for french, physical education, or circus arts, I can find what I wanted to look at (when I have time to mess around and read for fun!)
ReplyDeleteI've also seen a lot of hesitance around Evernote (and felt it myself). I would be interested to hear from someone who really uses it a lot in our program (I think Bekah and Pete might be two of these people).
Thanks also for Olympic fun facts!