Blogs, Wikis, & Podcasts - Oh My!
One new tool that I learned about in this course was Diigo. I had been using Evernote, Google Docs, & Chrome bookmarks to store a lot of my favorite websites, but I realized that Diigo could help me take this to the next level through tagging and sharing of my favorite resources. I have started using Diigo regularly and follow several educators who have a great tagged collection of social bookmarks, including the author of our text, Will Richardson. I'm looking forward to sharing Diigo through technology professional learning at our school this year.
I'm most thankful that the work in our course was always focused on student learning. We didn't learn tech tools just for the sake of learning them, we learned how to use them to support rigorous, standards-based work for our students. Nothing is worse than someone who uses technology just for the sake of using it, to check off a box on a form. I'll end with this great graphic from North Carolina middle-school teacher (and prolific blogger & author) Bill Ferriter, who reminds us why we should use technology. This graphic has been shared and re-shared thousands of times in the past year and a half, and I hope that you'll pass it on and use it to inspire your work with students every day.