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Module 7: Building Online communities


In today's cyber world, there is a plethora of data out there! Therefore, it's a great idea to discuss and learn different ways to tap into this wealth of information. I have some of my own ways - being the avid iPad user that I am - that I will tell you about later. However, I had not read much about Delicious or Diigo and it was interesting to learn of yet another way to try and itemise useful information for future uses.

Upon delving further in Delicious I can see a range of benefits that I currently use. For example:

  • there is never enough time to read interesting articles and its great to be able to bookmark pages, authors or work sites that have great lesson ideas you might like to come back to and trial in your own classroom.
  • a benefit that is an absolute MUST, is the capability to be able to access your bookmarks from any device.
  • it's also beneficial to be able to share interesting articles or sites with students and colleagues that promote discussion and activities.
What I do like is the ability to create a group where resources could be shared. Having that central source is great rather than sending out multiple emails with interesting links that might get lost or deleted in time. The reference can always be there for everyone and would be good at meetings for team members to be able to all reference from the one site.

One of the apps that I get students to download to their iPad is 'Pocket' (found HERE). Similar to those discussed above, Pocket can save articles, videos for later viewing. It all goes in one place and can be viewed on any device. I quickly stopped emailing myself links or piling up open tabs in my browser - I learnt to put in in my 'Pocket' for later! In trying to empower my students to use the internet to gather and use information, being able to organise their references and have access to it even when offline, is invaluable. As listed in the THIS article, Pocket is rated as one of the top five apps to help students succeed in the classroom. Students can tag and put articles in groups as part of any research undertaken. It helps to eliminate any of the distractions when being 'live' on the internet. The iPad app also assists with being able to share articles to someone else's 'Pocket'. I love it.




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