Diiggo: A SOCIAL BOOKMARKING TOOL FOR EDUCATORS

Diigo: A SOCIAL BOOKMARKING TOOL FOR EDUCATORS

Browser Bookmarks

Bookmarking is a process according to wiki.answer.com that saves the url of a web page which allows the user to check back to it whenever he so wished to. There are two types of this process: Browser and Social bookmarking. Browser bookmarking according to Cahil, (2013) is only accessible from the computer and the browser used to bookmark, while social bookmarking according to Wikipedia is a centralized online service which enables users to add, annotate, edit and even share bookmarks of web documents with friends, students and even colleagues for professional development. These possibilities as against the browser method of bookmarking according to Cahil, (2013) enable valuable web page related resources to be shared, as a result, stand out, beyond search eng

ines algorithm ranking.

Social Bookmarks Using Diigo 

                There are many different types of social bookmarking tools, but the two popular one particularly recommended by Cahil, (2013) are delicious and diigo. Delicious is a simple and useful tool particularly to those individuals who are only interested in saving their bookmarks online; while diigo in addition to saving bookmarks online, it also saves digital highlight and notes, and it again has a free classroom version that enables teachers to interact and share their valuable bookmarks with their students in the classroom.

                Diigo therefore is the most appropriate social bookmarking tools for educators, and it takes the following three simple steps to start using online bookmarks in your classroom as a teacher:

1.       Sign up for diigo account by going to www.diigo.com.

2.       Visit the tools section of the diigo web page and install a diigolet for your browser, or alternatively install the whole diigo toolsbar.

3.       Apply for diigo educator account.

In my humble opinion as a teacher, social bookmarking activity is cool and an awesome teaching and learning activity and enhanced online/mobile learning and further deconstruct the walls of traditional classroom to allow learning to take at anytime, anyplace and in anywhere.  

GoogleChromeMyPreferredBrowser

GOOGLE CHROME: MY PREFERRED WEB BROWSER

Before now all I know and use web browser for is to surf web pages, download and to some rare cases listen to and view video clips online, for these purposes I was using Flock browser as my default browser against the default Internet Explorer which I still found very complex to use. Later around 2009 I changed to firefox browser as my default browser until very much recently when I was fully engaged with Google plus.

My engagement with Google plus changed everything about my web browsing experience, as well as my life perceptions about web contents and social relations online. Google plus widen my horizon and broaden my heart to register with different online communities such as Google Application in Education; Connected learning; Google Drive Development; Google Certified Teachers; Edtech;  Educators on Google+, and ESL Teachers just to mention a few. With these communities I meet and interact with a number of senior colleagues and friends in teaching industry who are always ready to teach, inform and share their teaching experiences with the world community. These great individuals includes Caitlin Cahill my Teacher Tech tools course moderator,  Ian O’Byrne,  Mouhsine Kharbach, Shane Bybee, Peter Irons, Fran Aslam, Pamela Stockwell, Alice Lou, and many others with whom I collaborate share and even learn online from, not minding my creed; the colour of my skin; my race, or my nationality. With this new exposure, I become a different individual altogether to embrace new life; new internet surfing experience, and new application software. With these communities I come to learn more about Google Chrome browser and its awesome adds on features.

My enrollment with Teachers Tech tools course 3.0 (2013) taught me more on how to use modern Web browser, their types; differences and how to fully utilize their adds - on features across devices, beyond just surfing the net and checking mails, I also learnt that, although all web browsers were built to allow users access to internet and its contents, not all browsers were created to offer equal services, that different browser renders web pages differently, therefore the need to know what browser to use and why, hence the choice of Google Chrome as my Preferred Web Browser based on the following reasons:

1.       In their “2013 Internet Browser Software review” TopTen Reviews advised that one needs to consider three things when choosing a web browser, these includes Simplicity, speed and security; and Google Chrome was mentioned first to excelled in each of the three. Secondly, Google Chrome was rated highest with 9.85% in their side by side comparison of ten top web browsers based on five criteria that includes: features, security, speed and compatibility, ease of use and help and support.

2.       About.com stated in their article “the Best Web Browsers for iPad” that Google Chrome browser is “Easily the most popular safari alternative … a great all-round browser experience. It is fast, tabbed, and best all… one really neat features is the ability to open web pages on your ipad that you have on one of your other devices”.

3.       Lastly, Google’s Chrome is the only web browser that allows one to use Google Apps offline (Tech Tools 3.0 web Browser Basics).

With the little I learnt from this course I now have about ten Chrome extensions on my browser, these includes” Adlock, FVD Video downloader, Google +1, Google Docs, Google forms, Pocket, save to drive, sole 64, and talking gmail. I have tried pocket, googlr+1. I sincerely believe that, after my training, my students would benefit more from the goolge docs on “My Chrome” as well as my teaching colleagues in my school on the basis of professional development.

copyright_reflection

REFLECTION ON COPYRIGHT®

I learnt from the Teacher Tech Tools 3.0 online training documents that copyright traditionally refers to absolute ownership of author’s original work, but with creative commons copyright licenses and tools, a balance inside the traditional copyright order of “reserving all rights” was strike now having three different levels of copyright licenses here below described:

Copyright

 

                                      C                                  CC                                  ₡

                             All right reserved      Creative Commons           Public Domain

There are six licenses under creative commons:

  CC BY                CC BY-ND      CC BY-NC-SA           CC BY SA      CC BY-NC   CC BY-NC-ND

KEYS

C:         the author retains all the rights.

CC:      Author retains the copyright but allow others to copy, distribute, and even remix .

₡:         Not protected by any copyright, can therefore be used freely without permission of the copyright owner except the logos of the original author.

CC BY:                        This allows others to distribute, remix even commercially.

CC BY-ND:     This allows others to redistribute both commercially and non-commercially as long as the   original was not mixed.

CC BY-NC-SA: This allows remix, tweak and even build upon but non-commercially as long as the other party credited the original author under shareAlike terms

CC BY-SA:      This license lets others remix, tweak and build upon even for commercial purposes as long as the third party credited the original author and license their work under shareAlike terms.

CC BY-NC:     This license allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the original, but non-commercially, and their work must acknowledge the original author without any condition of licensing their work under the same term

CC BY-NC-ND: This license allows the work to be download and shared as long as the author is credited

Multicultural African conference Zaria Conference

From left to right Umar Muhammad and Umaru Garba

Participants at the Multicultural African Conference

The potential benefits of ICT in increasing access, equity, quality, and scope of teaching and learning experiences have, for long, been advocated by scholars. This understanding has also influenced government policy to the extent that the provision of ICT-based resource in schools has increasingly featured as a necessary component of public expenditure on education at both the federal and state levels in Nigeria. The utilization of ICT tools in Colleges of Education (COEs) becomes imperative given that the prospective teachers they produce will operate in school systems and with students that are increasingly influenced by global trends in information explosion. But like most educational innovations, the use of ICT in schools should satisfy the key demands of availability and accessibility to all who demand it, effective utilization, and, above all, integration into all facets of curricular and pedagogical practices. It is in the light of this that this study undertook  an evaluation of ICT use in the four COE's in Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara states using the three criteria of technology adoption outlined above. The study used the cross-sectional survey design since it aims at a description and evaluation of existing characteristics of a large population of respondents in these colleges by concurrently studying different samples drawn from that population. Data were collected using questionnaires administered on lectures and computer laboratory technicians in these COE, and analyzed using percentages and means. The major finding of the study is that ICT presence in these schools is still peripheral due to lack of access to internet connectivity. It was therefore recommended that the schools should expand their ICT capability, the students be given proper orientation and training on the uses and benefits of ICT and that ICT integration must begin from the teacher training curriculum of the institutions.

my_expectations

In my school where I am teaching, student are engage in teaching and learning activities via board and chalk. The most disheartening part of the story is, my school has more than two computer laboratory equipped with computers and even connected to internet, yet students are taught in traditional method. My expectations on this online programme are numerous but challenging. They are numerous for I expect to learn how to effective integrate new ICT tools in the stream of teaching and learning, in particular integrating these tools in ESL classes via posting blogs, Google forms and audio visuals tools. My expectations are challenging, one considering the nature of our (Nigeria) internet connectivity, students readiness and their accessibility to the required ICT tools. 

Pictures in teaching reading fluency

A study was carried out to explored the effect of Pictures in teaching reading fluency skills to primary three pupils in Sokoto metropolis, in Sokoto state (Nigeria). The purpose is to investigate whether or not Pictures in teaching reading fluency skills, influence the achievement level of the participants between genders and groups as against the conventional chalk and board method, in the study area. The study sampled 178 pupils randomly from eight primary schools. Mixed design research method was employed in the study, where attitude and aptitude of the subjects of the experimental group were measured before and after the treatment. Six research questions were asked, and four hypotheses generated which were statistically tested at 0.05 levels of significant. T-test, two ways analysis of variance (2 – way ANOVA) and Wilcoxon 2 sign test were employed to test the hypothesis accordingly. Guided reading passages with Pictures were used to teach the experimental group, while the control group was exposed to the same passages but taught traditionally with chalk board and teacher talk. It was found that there was significant difference between those exposed to Pictures compared to those exposed to chalk and teacher talk traditional method of teaching. It was also discovered that no significant difference exist between gender within the experimental group, as there was also no significant difference observed between gender and groups (experimental and control). On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that Pictures are effective tools in teaching reading fluency skills to primary three pupils, particularly in the study area, and that Pictures are gender friendly. The study therefore recommends that primary school teachers should be encouraged to use Pictures in their teaching, ICT should as a matter of urgency be embedded in teacher training curriculum, and most importantly, the teacher training institutions, should have a Reading Instruction Research Centre to cater for the needs of the reading instructors as well as the needs of the pupils in terms of materials development.