Part 2: Searching for Social Bookmarking

Even though I haven't written about social bookmarking sites in awhile, I have continued to look at options available. As you might remember, I face a dilemma in that I want students to collaborate on projects in part by sharing resources. One way to do that would be to use Diigo or Delicious, but both of those services are blocked by district filters at my site. I favor Google Notebook, but production stopped on that months ago so new accounts aren't being accepted.

Over the weekend I started playing with Zoho Notebook.



Last night I created this notebook about the new service thisMoment, in about 5 minutes. Go ahead and click on page one above to view the page in the notebook. I referenced the article from Mashable, the home page for thisMoment, and a sample. I then quickly added some text about general ideas for classroom use. Within the program, there is an easy to use navigation bar on the left hand side and at the top of your work area. I can click one button to enter email addresses of people with whom I would like to share my notebook AND I can give them either Read Only or Read/Write privileges. Further niftiness allowed me to publish and embed my notebook here.

I am liking Zoho Notebook, but now need to check to make sure it's not blocked at my site.

Part 1: Searching for Social Bookmarking

While I've personally used Diigo for nearly a year, I have yet to use social bookmarking services with my students. Earlier in the school year, as my geography students were researching climate change, I wanted a place where we could collect useful links as a group. That was when I discovered that Diigo was blocked by district filters (interestingly, as shareware/download because of the toolbar). Not to be deterred, I quick went to Delicious, but, alas, that was blocked too.

I thought about Google Notebook, but since Google has stopped development, I'm not sure how long it will be around (though they promise that current users will continue to have access and I can create new notebooks with collaborators). The other downside to Google Notebook is that I can't recommend it to other teachers as new sign-ups aren't being allowed.

So, I'm looking for something that is: 1) not blocked at school, 2) easy to use, 3) I can recommend to other teachers.

I put out a request to my Twitter PLN and was inundated with possibilities. I had no idea there were so many social bookmarking possibilities out there! Now my task is to begin sorting through the possibilities and choose a few to test at school.

My first task is to go through Larry Ferlazzo's "Best Social Bookmarking Applications for English Language Learners & Other Students." After that, I'll start mowing through Wikipedia's list of Social Software.

Stay tuned for updates....

What Teachers are Saying about Google Apps

Today, Tom Barrett posted "11 Google Apps Improvements for the Classroom" on his blog ICT In My Classroom.

Even better, I received word today that many of the Google Apps have been unblocked by district filters, so we're finally ready to get started using the tools in several classrooms. I have been using Google Docs in my yearbook class for more than a year. I really got tired of hearing the excuses for leaving work at home. I also got tired of feeling bad about my school only having Microsoft Word, which can't read most of the software that comes installed in today's computers. Google Docs has helped my students to become more successful writers and better collaborators. I am SO excited to roll out Google Apps with my students.

Tom's post is suggesting improvements that will make Google Apps even more user friendly than they already are. My favorites:

1. Add audio comment capability. Can you imagine? I would LOVE to be able to leave my students a comments that were a bit more personal than the comments on the page. If students hear " I really liked the way you___________ in your essay this time," maybe they won't get so discouraged when they have a long way to go!
2. Add Notebook into Google Apps. Notebook is a great way to clip and organize online resources. The ability to add notations to your sources is awesome.
   
3. Google Spreadsheet and Presentation already have chat capability, so, as Tom suggests, why not add the same feature to Docs? Makes perfect sense to me. I also love the idea of archiving the conversation much like you can do in gmail chat. It would be great for student teams to go back to their conversation from earlier in their collaboration process.

Go check out Tom's suggestions in full and add your own!