Andy Losik’s Islands of Geektopia

It always seems that just as I am really starting to feel good about a new technology or online tool, another somewhat similar comes along to start tugging at my allegiance.

This summer I finally had figured out this Twitter thing and everybody started raving about Plurk for microblogging. The same is true about Delicious and a somewhat similar service called Diigo.

What I have learned from the whole process is that instead of just sticking to one tool, I can utilize the best of both. Like I tell the teachers I lead in professional development in our district, “Don’t feel bad if you are not maximizing every capability of your classroom technology. Just get good at what helps you the most.”

I am a very loyal user of Delicious for bookmarking sites. In fact, because of the Firefox add-on, I only bookmark school related sites via Delicious. I use it in a number of ways and love experimenting with new ways to enhance what I am teaching. Therefore, when people started getting all excited about Diigo and asking me to join a number of groups, I wasn’t really into learning about it. But, I did and kind of put it on the backburner.

To be honest, getting really involved with Diigo is still on the back burner…but everyday it cooks up a bundle of great resources. As certain as there is going to be an email from Sierra Trading every morning advertising a sale, there is going to be an email with  great resources every morning from the Discovery Educator Network on Diigo. Thanks to the alert settings I can decide how often I receive updates from the group listing new bookmarks and new members. The MACUL Group on Diigo is another great group comprised of Michigan educators.

Someday, I promise I will be more of a contributor to the DEN Diigo group. I feel kind of bad that I am just taking at this point and really not giving to it as it has delivered so many ideas and  sites. Thanks to the people who are really involved. Maybe I will pick your brains sometime to really understand it and use it efficiently. I am also set on helping the MACUL Elementary Teachers group get rolling a little more in the coming year.