Blog Journal 6

I had never heard of the platform Diigo before using it, so at first, it was a bit confusing to use. I like the concept of the site because the people in the EME 2040 group shared various resources that I wouldn't have found otherwise. Organizing the information by tags is the most helpful feature in my opinion, mostly because I can find websites on a specific topic rather than having to look through a cluttered list of random websites on my computer. I also like the fact that users can annotate the media they post to the Diigo page because it makes it easier to look through important information in the number of posts. However, I do think that Diigo's user interface could be updated to include a button at the top of the page (ideally along with the "Bookmark" and "Topic" buttons), and from there you can simply choose what media you want to annotate. 

I would say that I have had a positive experience with having a blog. My blog gives me a space to reflect on what information would help me most in the future when I eventually become a teacher. It helps me imagine that there are other people with a similar mindset and are still navigating the early stages of their careers in education. In a way, I could probably note down these reflections and use them to give advice to others as I progress in my field. It's also great writing practice, and Blogger makes it easy to add content to the blog and manage posts and feedback. I think the only concern I have about my blog is that it might be overlooked because since I don't yet have experiences to compare with other educators, it might be overlooked among the many blogs that exist for current teachers. I could always rebrand my blog with different information, I just need to remember to do so if I decide I want to keep my blog.

One Web 2.0 program that I would encourage my students to use is VoiceThread. It is an online platform that allows users to share presentations, documents, and other forms of multimedia. One unique feature of VoiceThread is that other users can respond to posts using multiple mediums, such as a text response, an audio response, a webcam video, and more. Annotations such as audio recordings can also be added to posts with media. I think that this feature would work great specifically for student presentations; since these presentations have time constraints to make sure everyone has a chance to present, students may not have ample time to give feedback to their peers. These presentations can take place during class time and then get uploaded to VoiceThread, where students and the teacher can comment on these presentations. VoiceThread posts can be shared with other students and instructors through email, or even social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. VoiceThread can also be accessed through its website or mobile app, allowing users to edit multimedia elements, receive notifications of interactions on posts, and more.