Diigo

The resource for today is called Diigo.

What is Diigo?

Diigo is an annotation service that can either be used online or on a mobile device. According to the website, Diigo is an online personal research tool, collaborative research platform, social content site, as well as a knowledge-sharing community. Diigo is an online web highlighter that provides sticky notes for those times when you need to quickly jot something about a website and an online bookmarking and annotation program.

Is it free?

Diigo has three pricing plans. The first plan, you receive: unlimited bookmarks, 1000/year highlights, and 30 total cached pages. This plan is FREE. The next plan is the basic plan. You receive: unlimited bookmarks, unlimited highlights, full text search, and it's ad free. This plan is $20.00/year. The last plan is the premium plan. You receive: the basic plan PLUS unlimited cached pages, unlimited screen captures, and priority support. This plan is $40.00/year.
There is an educator upgrade which includes the following features:
-Create accounts for entire class
-Students of same class are set up as a Diigo group so they can share group bookmarks and annotations
-Privacy settings are pre-set so only teachers and classmates can communicate with one another
-Ads presented are limited to education-related sponsors only

What will Diigo bring to your classroom?

This product can prove to be beneficial in all different grades throughout the education system. From using it in the Kindergarten classroom to create a list of bookmarks for students to use to using it in 9th grade classrooms to help students study different inventors and mark notes on sticky notes for future reference to a college student annotating their eTextbooks online. This tool brings an easier way to take notes on the web, instead of writing them down, research, and extend learning in ways that other programs may not.

How do I use Diigo?

Below, I will show how to use Diigo.

MY LIBRARY PAGE

MY GROUPS PAGE

COMMUNITY PAGE

MY NETWORK PAGE 

Install the Diigolet toolbar marker in your bookmark toolbar. This allows you to access all the different annotations, stickymarks, and bookmark features for your Diigo account.

This is what the Diigo toolbar looks like once you log in and are on a website

This is what the highlighter feature looks like.

This is what a bookmark feature looks like.

This is what the sticky note feature looks like.

Finally, this is what the share page looks like - you can share an annotated link which holds all of your highlights and sticky notes that you added. Or, you can simply share the link via e-mail.

After you have annotated something or added highlights, it shows up on YOUR LIBRARY page. This is a great reference tool.

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How can I use Diigo in my classroom?

Below is a list of ways that this tool can be utilized in the classroom:

-Utilize the group feature to assign group research projects
-Save relevant websites to lists to create a research portfolio
-Personal student bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere
-Use an information search to preview content for a research project
-Create PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) within the classroom in groups
-Research famous scientists and jot down notes of their most prized inventions
-Assign a project for students to find and annotate 5 websites relating to a topic
-Create bookmark lists that surround topics (separate by themes or content topics)
-Use the sticky note feature to summarize the important points of info on websites
-Assign work by asking for annotations on a topic to register student understanding
-Read online books or watch online movies and write sticky notes of important parts
-Annotate a storybook while reading to jot down thoughts and ideas as provoked by reading
-Use annotations for others to see in the classroom, sort of like providing research to your peers
-Write evaluations for websites based upon the information provided using the sticky note feature
-Complete Internet searches on what is factual and what is fiction (highlight information to compare)

ALTHOUGH NOT IN THE CLASSROOM, THE FOLLOWING IDEA IS USEFUL:
-Use in professional development for teachers to identify, share and collaborate with bookmarks that are between one another

Honestly, the possibilities are ENDLESS.

How would YOU use Diigo in your classroom? Answer in the comments on this post!