Category: Community Participation

For my LLED 462 class this spring, I decided I wanted to find a way to organize my bookmarks.  I had been saving bookmarks on my browser, of interesting and useful sites, but there was no way for me to access them when I was at school.  So I did some investigating into online bookmarking services, also called social bookmarking.

I had 5 criteria

1. Easy to use – if it was complicated I knew I wouldn’t keep it up
2. Ability to annotate links – I wanted to record notes about the links, to jog my memory
3. Ability to organize – I wanted to group links by theme, and find them easily
4. Shareable – I wanted to be able to share these with other teachers, parents, and students
5. Visually Appealing – it has to be a little bit pretty, I don’t want to be looking at a list of text

After doing some research I settled on Zootool.  It had all the features I needed, and I worked well for me.  However, the developers of Zootool have not been able to provide service and updates, and say that the format may change in the future.  I really hope I can continue to use it, but I wanted to explore some other options.

Zootool

• Pros – bookmarklet and app are easy to use, can add notes and tags, arrange links into packs, label links and packs as public or private, visually appealing
• Cons – can no longer sign up, had to pay for a Pro account to have more than 10 packs, search function does not search the notes

Educlipper

• Pros – can add notes and tags, arrange links on clipboards, can create collaborative boards, and set up classes so students can create & add to boards
• Cons – slow, no bookmarklet, a bit clunky and counterintuitive

Draggo

• Pros – could import links from Zootool, bookmarklet sends new links to an inbox, can add notes, arrange links into categories and change order within, create tabs and share or keep private, could rearrange links easily, search link titles and notes
• Cons – no tags, did not import my notes from Zootool, can’t move links across tabs, a beta service

Delicious

• Pros – could import links, tags, and notes from Zootool, bookmarklet and app are easy to use, can create tag bundles, links can be public or private, can search link titles and notes, can see other users who have saved the link and their comments
• Cons – no way to group links (other than tags), interface is a bit boring

If I were to recommend one of these sites, I think Delicious has the best functionality to organize and annotate, as well as the reliability of having been around for a while.  If anyone wants to export their browser bookmarks and import them into an online service, I’m happy to help out.

I must say, I was very excited to come to campus today.  Although I had a challenging class this year and could have used a few more days rest, I am ready to be on the student side of the classroom.  Armed with a new water bottle, a clipboard full of paper, and a charged laptop, I was ready!  I am looking forward to having some time to explore digital technologies for the next three weeks.

Now for the work part….

Module 1 Questionnaire

1. What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting?

• Our school has an internet use policy for students, but no formal policy for teachers.  In general, students are not encouraged to bring their own devices; the expectation is that if students have cell phones at school, they are not to be used during school hours.  We are more constrained by the technology available and the bandwidth of our wifi, than a school or district policy.

2. What digital technological resources do you have available for teaching and learning in your school setting?

• My school is in the process of upgrading its technology.  Our large, slow desktop computers in the library/lab are scheduled to be replaced next year.  The PAC purchased a cart of 15 laptops this year, and we also have 4 school iPads for general student use (a couple students with special needs have their own from SetBC).  We have wireless internet in the building, but it can be slow and it is not functional in our three portables.

3. Please provide an example of an exemplary use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

•  I did a project this year combining art, science, and technology with a Grade 3 class.  Students found an image of a plant on flickr’s Creative Commons (they were learning about plants in science), and they learned how to save it to their own documents folder.  I taught them about attribution, and the importance of giving credit to the artist who created a work/photo, and the students recorded the photographers name and address of the site in a template.  Then we used SumoPaint to apply a kaleidoscope effect (we had learned about radial symmetry in art) and saved the resulting image.  They put the kaleidoscope image into the template with the artist’s name and we displayed them for our student-led conferences.

4. Please provide an example of a problematic use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

•  I had a challenge with the project I described above.  After students had learned how to navigate SumoPaint, but before finding their plant images, SumoPaint updated its website, and I discovered it no longer worked on our computers at school.  I spent a long time finding another site that would do something similar, and finding a work-around for how they could link to their pictures, since the new site used a link instead of an uploaded file.  After spending several hours devising this new way to complete the project, I saw the little Chrome icon on one of the library computer toolbars.  “Wait! What? We have Chrome?  Why didn’t I think to try it there?”  Although SumoPaint wasn’t loading in Internet Explorer, it worked in Chrome.  I had wasted all that time coming up with a work-around, when I should have just tried another browser!

5. Please provide a brief history of how you learned to use digital technologies (personally and professionally).

•  We had a Commodore 64 computer when I was quite young, but things really took off for me when my family got our first Macintosh Performa in 1996.  I got a Hotmail account when I was in Grade 7, and used a computer throughout high school and university.  In my Bachelor of Education program I remember participating in a technology program called SEEDS, but I didn’t really use technology in my teaching practice until starting this diploma program.  I feel that I have grown quite a bit in this area in the past year.  I have taught units that incorporate technology, and am building a personal learning network online.

6. How would you rate your digital technological proficiency? 0 = low level of proficiency -> 10 = high level of proficiency? Why did you give yourself this rating?

•  I would rate my technology proficiency as an 8, I am comfortable with most technology and not afraid to troubleshoot when technology is not working, although I am not always successful.  I am becoming more comfortable using technology in the classroom, but I know I can still do more to develop my skills in this area.  Although I try things on my own, I still often turn to my “tech support” for guidance (my husband is a web developer).

7. What do you hope to accomplish in this course?

• I really hope that this course will allow me to investigate some of the online tools I have heard and read about, but haven’t had time to explore.  I would like to spend some time with ThingLink, VoiceThread, Dipity, and especially Wideo.