I used to keep track - rather lackadaisically - of useful weblinks using Delicious. But I am now totally sold on Diigo instead - and I imported all of my Delicious saves and tags. I have the Diigo bookmarklet in my Chrome browser that makes it easy to save and highlight, share, tag or comment on webpages as I browse. It's so easy to use that I'm keeping track of useful links and documents in a much more systematic fashion than before. I installed another bookmarklet in Safari on my iPad and can do the same from there.
With a Diigo Teacher account you can create and manage student groups. This could turn into a collaborative class or small group project where you have students maintain a set of annotated bookmarks on a single topic or theme. I also joined some groups that looked like useful sources for sharing weblinks related to topics that I'm interested in, and you can choose to receive a daily update notifying you of the groups' new saved links. As with Delicious, Diigo has a "Friending" function that allows you to connect with other users. It's also possible to post directly to a blog from within Diigo - I haven't tried that yet, but there are a host of similar useful tools that one could explore.
Diigo is a great productivity tool. It makes saving information fast and easy, giving you more time to read, reflect, use, share, and create. Try it.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Using lap-top computers for note-taking in class
A small minority of my students use laptop computers to take notes - perhaps 4 to 8 in a class of 35. As long as the computers are not an annoying distraction to others, our departmental policy is to leave it up to students to decide how to take notes. Most students with laptops sit on the periphery of the room in order to be close to a power supply. The actual typing does not seem to be a distraction to the rest of the class.
Most of the time, I have no idea whether students on laptops are taking notes or buying something on ebay. I can only tell from their facial expressions if they are engrossed in something other than notetaking. Last week I had the rather disheartening experience of realizing that about two/thirds of the laptop-users were at that moment clearly amused and interested in something on their screens that had nothing to do with what we were discussing in class.
Should I care that students are watching Youtube, catching up on Facebook, or watching video games in class? Is this extension of multitasking into the cyber world any worse than whispering, fidgeting or falling asleep?
Clearly, if this is distracting to other students it is a problem. But what about the students who are missing class because they are online? Should we ban laptop computers to save students from themselves? Should we change our teaching to accommodate what appears to be a shrinking attention span in the face of multiple potential distractions?
I don't know the answers to these questions. I have seen laptop computers used well in class. I have also seen them aid and abet distractible students. I know that classes need to be interesting to engage and hold students' attention. But I recognize that human brains are wired to seek novelty. Technology provides unlimited potential for distraction. The majority of students still use paper and pens to take notes - I wonder if there are systematic differences in note-taking between laptop-users and paper-and-pen users.
These observations raise many fundamental questions about how students learn, the role of technology inside the classroom itself, the best way to deliver course content, and the responsibilities of students, faculty and institutions.
Empirical research on the use of laptops for note-taking during lectures suggests that open laptops during class are related to poorer grades. There are several possible reasons for this: open laptops encourage multitasking and time "away" from class; typing notes is less effective than note-taking by hand in learning or memory-encoding; handwritten notes are better than typed notes for studying; students who use laptops are using less effective academic strategies, etc. We need more research; the technology is not going away. How do you deal with these technological issues in your class?
Most of the time, I have no idea whether students on laptops are taking notes or buying something on ebay. I can only tell from their facial expressions if they are engrossed in something other than notetaking. Last week I had the rather disheartening experience of realizing that about two/thirds of the laptop-users were at that moment clearly amused and interested in something on their screens that had nothing to do with what we were discussing in class.
Should I care that students are watching Youtube, catching up on Facebook, or watching video games in class? Is this extension of multitasking into the cyber world any worse than whispering, fidgeting or falling asleep?
Clearly, if this is distracting to other students it is a problem. But what about the students who are missing class because they are online? Should we ban laptop computers to save students from themselves? Should we change our teaching to accommodate what appears to be a shrinking attention span in the face of multiple potential distractions?
I don't know the answers to these questions. I have seen laptop computers used well in class. I have also seen them aid and abet distractible students. I know that classes need to be interesting to engage and hold students' attention. But I recognize that human brains are wired to seek novelty. Technology provides unlimited potential for distraction. The majority of students still use paper and pens to take notes - I wonder if there are systematic differences in note-taking between laptop-users and paper-and-pen users.
These observations raise many fundamental questions about how students learn, the role of technology inside the classroom itself, the best way to deliver course content, and the responsibilities of students, faculty and institutions.
Empirical research on the use of laptops for note-taking during lectures suggests that open laptops during class are related to poorer grades. There are several possible reasons for this: open laptops encourage multitasking and time "away" from class; typing notes is less effective than note-taking by hand in learning or memory-encoding; handwritten notes are better than typed notes for studying; students who use laptops are using less effective academic strategies, etc. We need more research; the technology is not going away. How do you deal with these technological issues in your class?
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