Reflection on Google Sites, Google Docs, and Diigo

Reflection on Google Sites, Google Docs, and Diigo

Heidi Hopp

What I learned:

I have navigated other people’s Google Sites, but have never created my own prior to our last class.  Creating a Google Site provides an excellent communication tool for teachers to share information with parents.  One of the biggest things that I learned is the importance of having a rough skeleton idea of what you want on your site before you begin creating it. 

The class activity of creating our own Google Site was comfortable for me.  It was similar to the wiki activities that we did.  The “edit” and “save” buttons were extremely important as changes were made.  I learned how to embed images, text, YouTube video clips, and games onto my site.  At our school we receive our weekly newsletters from the office in our email, and the information is found in a Google Doc.  I have not typically used Google Docs in my day to day work.  I learned that there is more than one form of a Google Doc.  I have used the documents before, but never the presentation, spreadsheet, forms, or drawing formats.  I especially enjoyed creating the survey and including the seven different types of questions. 

            After reading Solomon and Schrum (2010), I also learned that a Google Doc can be an effective way for colleagues to collaborate on a project (p. 68).  People can see the changes that have been made and the most current version is right there.  No more need for saving to disks or flash drives because it is all there online.

Future Use(s):

 I have more work to do with my Google Site, but I am feeling confident that I will share the address with my students’ parents and use it as a communication tool.  I have had a “website” for parents in the past.  I prefer using the Google Site because it is much more organized and easy to find information.  Since our class, I have uploaded my picture on the About Me page.  I have included the reading and math homework expectations.  I also embedded a YouTube video clip about helping your child with reading at home.  Finally, I have embedded a Google Doc about book in the bag reading procedures.  I need to explore the class calendar, reading lists, and class photos yet.  

            One of my goals is to create and share Google Docs with my first grade team.  Instead of having everyone create the same assessment or learning activity, colleagues can share their work with each other.  I can see our team using them for Late Start meetings and tasks that we are assigned to do.  I intend to explore other forms of Google Docs to see how they could be used in my classroom.

                               

What I learned:

Prior to our last class meeting, I had never heard of Diigo.  I learned that Diigo is a social bookmarking system that uses a website, not a browser.  I admit that I do not often use bookmarks when retrieving websites.  I typically just type in the URL of a website.  Diigo has changed my mind!

After working through the class activities, I learned that Diigo is a research tool and arranges websites I choose by “tags.”  The tags are words or phrases that help pinpoint what the site is about.  If I am looking for a particular website on a specific topic, I can sort the websites in my library by their tags, and the websites that have a tag match will appear.  This is a huge organization and time saving feature of Diigo and I think something that will really be helpful as I gather and add more sites to my Diigo library.  Highlighting text and adding sticky notes was something that I enjoyed doing and learning about.  Sharing my sites with my group is what Diigo is all about. 

            I also learned that Diigo is a way to connect and collaborate with each other.  Teaching at times can feel somewhat isolated and there is little time to communicate and share ideas during the school day.  Diigo provides the opportunity to find other “friends” to share websites and build a network, either personally, professionally, or both. 

Future Use(s):

After setting up our Diigo group for our class activities, I decided to invite a colleague by email to join Diigo.  I was curious to see what her response would be.  She knew that I was taking this class, and I told her that I was learning about something new called “Diigo.”  She seemed interested after I explained that it was an organized way to share ideas and bookmarks.  I will see how it progresses from here.  There are other colleagues on my team and some might not want to join.  But, it is worth a try.  I plan to continue to follow other people’s bookmarks that have similar interests in elementary education.

Another possibility that exists is having parents of first graders using Diigo to form a network.  They can share sites about issues related to parenting.  Some may already be involved, and those who are not may want to be and will benefit from it.

 I see the benefits of collaborating and sharing with colleagues ideas from websites that have made their teaching more successful.  There is a saying in our district that a lot of people use:  “Work smarter, not harder.”  Diigo appears to be an avenue to do just that.  By having people already research and select useful websites, some of the work is already done for me.  Picking and choosing which sites to use is the fun part.  Being able to join groups and form networks will make teaching more enjoyable as we learn and help each other.

Reference:  Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2010). Web 2.0:  How-to for educators. Washington, D.C.:  ISTE.