Week 9. Exploring Diigo and Second Life
I joined Diigo in 2010 and I have now 384 bookmarks. I used to share the links of websites and videos I visited during my classes when I taught at a private elementary school. Parents were scared of what I was going to show their children when the school bought a projector for every classroom (you know, Latina, from South America… dangerous). The principal wanted us to show only videos from her list. 
No one of them was in Spanish or had anything to do with what I wanted to teach (culture or language). Then, I made public lists in Diigo for every grade and sent the link to the parents. I told them that everything we see in class will be saved in the classroom list. Many kids really appreciated because they could go home and re-watch videos they liked and share them with their parents. The principal also could that way see whatever I showed in class (although she never did) and everybody was happy! I love Diigo, Diigolet and all about it! The exercise we did this week of highlighting an article and make sticky notes is an excellent way to make students read, comprehend and share. I can definitely use this with a Spanish article or newspaper.
I couldn’t find any pitfalls for Diigo; however I did find Second Life challenging for the students and also very easy to get distracted and deviate focus from the learning objective. I do not think I would use Second Life in my online class; but I did enjoy playing with it and seeing myself beautiful and traveling to gorgeous places!
November 4th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
I love hearing stories about how innovative technology application can open new windows for understanding, Maria. Your Diigo strategy is one more teachers should use.
Sorry to hear that Second Life seems far too distracting to be useful for your classes. I enjoy having class in Second Life, and the only distraction is usually a very playful backchannel 😉 If you have any questions that I could help with in solving the distraction problems you experienced, just let me know and I’ll try to problem-solve with you.
I teach young adult literature but I know that there are many language teachers who have found great value in immersing students in a language via Second Life. Alfonzo is a leader in this effort. Take a look at his virtual TV show — http://www.facebook.com/virtualtvmagazine
November 6th, 2012 at 11:33 am
Like the that you found away to create a community for learning outside the classroom by engaging your principal, whole school, and parents. People reject what they don’t understand, thank you for having the courage to reach out, first step to building community.
Felton
November 10th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
I felt the same way! Not a huge fan of Second Life & I can see how students would get distracted from the purpose of being there. This was the first time I had used Diigo, and I did like it. However, I had a difficult time with the highlighting and was getting frustrated with the program. I think I need to use it more to get a better feel for it. What a great tool for your students and parents of your students!