Blog Post 6

To begin, I've never heard of Diigo before this class. After using it a few times, I appreciate how it can be a very great source for educators or other collaborators to post interesting findings from different articles. The bookmarking aspect is pretty easy and comprehendible but the annotating experience is quite confusing. In my opinion, it is odd that one of the easiest ways to annotate is to have the Diigo extension and in the same breath, the annotations appear weird when you post them on Diigo. I'd rather Diigo possibly having a function to state that the article is annotated by the person who posted it and then allowing the audience to click on the article and view the annotations made. This format may make the layout look more digestible to those who use Diigo. 

So blogging, I like the idea of this being a reflection-based format to our class. I find myself gaining clarity of what I am learning in class and the importance of it as well as how I can apply it to my future career. Rather than discussion posts that are extremely tedious and formal, I appreciate how we can express ourselves through our blogs while also remaining focused on the content of the class. I also was at first a little bothered by how simple this blog layout is, but the more blogs we create, the more I appreciate how straightforward it is. I also appreciate the length of our blogs, short and effective. 

As I was searching for web 2.o tools, I found a tool named "Glogster" that allows you to make multimedia posters on your presentations or allow students to collaborate with each other through these multimedia stickies that they can post on in a collaborative virtual workspace. Rather than a boring PowerPoint, or even prezis, Glogster allows you to add various stickers and multimedia forms such as 3d effects, music, and videos to make presentations more interesting. Students are also able to go through the lesson plan used by Glogster and advance their higher-level thinking skills as they answer questions or prompts in a fun and creative way. Whichever grade level I plan to teach, I believe this is a great tool to enhance learning and is an interesting and different way to express information. 

Glogster Link