Mod 2 - Reflection of Blogs, Bookmarking, and Wikis

What are your early impressions of using a blog and what was your experience using Diigo and creating a Wiki this week? Any surprises, pleasant or otherwise?

I think that these can be really powerful tools if correctly implemented. The ability to collaborate with others opens up many possibilities and ease of use. I did find myself wanting to stay in one application and try to set it up so all my bookmarks were in it and not having to move around between applications. I can see some really good uses for the app in my current work setting if I can get the staff to use it... that is one of the major components to a successful application-is it really used? I am using diigo more and getting used to putting in key words that will actually help me later. Sometimes its hard to come up with the terms that I would be searching for. 

Considering Siegel's (article we read last week) concept of "computer imagination", what do you think would be at least one "imaginative" educational use of each tool (blog, Bookmarking, Wiki) that takes advantage of each tool's inherent strengths? That is, what do you think you and/or your students could use these tools for that they might not be able to do with other more simple or low-tech tools? Or, what is a problem to which each of these tools is an answer?

An imaginative use for the blog would be writing stories and finding web imagery to illustrate them.  I see the blog as the digital journal. A notebook and pen are good if its just free writing to get the ideas out of your head, but a blog is a step more formal. 

For bookmarking, I find it tougher to think outside the box on this one... perhaps getting students to do their own research and link back for others. The bookmark tool is great for when you have many links that need to be shared with students or have a set group of web resources that are "pre-approved" for use in a project. 

With the Wiki, creative collaborative pieces could be made to illustrate a lesson or research the history of an event. I like the example used in the video to plan something, such as a student event. The problem I encounter is that other staff aren't open to learning new programs.