Finally, I am finished reading Chapter 7 of Ko and Rossen. And now I am to post my experiences trying Second Life and/or Diigo. I think that both these tools can be used to make the class become more stimulating for both students and instructor. This, of course, will spur on more participation, hopefully. I know that Diigo will be very useful for my compositon students. We can do peer review and teacher feedback using Diigo. I think it’s great that we can make comments as well as highlight key points or ideas.
Of course, there are pitfalls to using either Second Life or Diigo. The number one thing that stands out to me is the lack of skills and familiarity with the tools. I don’t think I will be confident enough to use Second Life for my classes unless I have more know-how and practice with it. Then there’s the concern that some tools might take too long for students to learn how to use. So, I say, I will probably use myself as a guinea pig and try out these tools and see how complicated or easy they are to use. Then the decision to impliment them or not will be based on how meaninglful it is for the students.
Obviously, this is what we are doing in POT, isn’t it? We are familiarizing ourselves with the various online tools out there that will prove useful and meaningful for us and our students. Yeah! Light bulb moment.
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