Comments on: More Deliciouser and Readerable

By: Bill Ferriter

Bill Ferriter — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:09:27 +0000

Andy asked:
I guess my question, Will, is: Assuming a tool (such as Diigo) has a clear or even potential purpose for us, do you feel that we as educators, promoters, and practitioners of technology should feel a responsibility to pick up the reins on the tool? Thank you for your thoughts!

So Andy,

I’m no Will, but here’s my thoughts in response to your question:

I don’t ever believe that teachers have the responsibility to pick up the reins of any individual tool that comes out on the marketplace, simply because tools come and go. Services that seem promising drop by the wayside as brilliant thinkers find the way to polish the ways that we interact with one another digitally.

What we do have the responsibility to do is to experiment with services for creation, collaboration, communication and managing information—because these are the skills that are going to be required in the innovative workplaces of tomorrow.

For me, exploring new tools isn’t about discovering new tools—-It’s about polishing the ways that I learn. I tend to try most anything that generates a buzz, but that’s only because I’m looking for more efficient ways to interact with the content and people that stretch my thinking.

To me, 21st Century teachers are always trying to perfect their own learning processes because by doing so, they can help students to identify the practices best “lube the wheels of learning.”

We’re not “practitioners of technology.” We’re practitoners of learning with a range of digital tools to choose from.

Does this make any sense?
Bill

By: Janice Stearns

Janice Stearns — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:15:53 +0000

Will,
Love the new delicious interface. I still use Diigo to save to Delicious, but I come back to Delicious when I want to search for content.
I love the new Google Reader script. It’s just what I was looking for. Now, I can comment right within Google Reader. Very cool. Thanks.
BTW, I’m district6 on Delicious. Wish I would have thought about the name before I added thousands of resources. Hopefully, I won’t move from District 6 any time soon.
Janice

By: Loisath-My ICT Journey » Blog Archive » Delicious

Loisath-My ICT Journey » Blog Archive » Delicious — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:39:54 +0000

[...] to create a digital profile as Will Richardson and Michelle Martin blog about. Michelle and Will both continue to expand on these ideas. On a basic level Delicious is just a simple and effective [...]

By: andybyerley

andybyerley — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:52:25 +0000

You’ve started me thinking about whether or not we have a *responsibility* to use new technologies out there, especially those that help us organize and manage our information. I am just climbing up the Diigo ramp myself, after being a delicious user for about a year and a half. But the “compelling advantages” of which you speak in your post, and to which Mike Wesch presents in “A Portal to Media Literacy” (Diigo as a bridge between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0), have made me begin the transition to Diigo. I’m still learning the intersection of Diigo and delicious, and both present great ways to organize and (better yet) share information with others.

I guess my question, Will, is: Assuming a tool (such as Diigo) has a clear or even potential purpose for us, do you feel that we as educators, promoters, and practitioners of technology should feel a responsibility to pick up the reins on the tool? Thank you for your thoughts!

By: glangy

glangy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:04:15 +0000

All this information that we have available right now is so overwhelming, and when we’re looking information that we need we don’t even know which one is the right one, it would be perfect some suggestions about the best way of doing it. glangy Outsourcing Solution

By: Brian C. Smith

Brian C. Smith — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:15:44 +0000

Only fitting that I post my first comment from the GReader preview feature here on your blog. Thanks for the tip. One of the things that I have to keep reminding myself about the firehose of information coming my (our) way is that the information I seek or read needs to be tied to some goal or task that have. My reader typically hovers around 500+ items to read and I’m okay with it. I could spend a lot of time learning a huge variety of things, but if it doesn’t fit my needs, interests or where I’m heading then it’s just passing time. Which is something I do from time to time, however, it can’t happen on a daily basis for me. Using Del.icio.us for searching tags first over searching Google has been a good practice for me, for reasons in which you touched upon (i.e. – more relevant, more thought provoking). Del.icio.us (and Diigo) are human filtered, not computationally filtered. This is also why I like the “Friends’ Shared Items” in Google Reader. My network shares the cream of the crop which saves me (and everyone) time from further filtering that which comes from the “usual suspects”. (I love that, BTW)

By: Anne Baird

Anne Baird — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:47:31 +0000

I have been thinking about this for a little while now Will. I often feel overwhelmed by all the information that is now available to us. As an educator I want to be informed but not overwhelmed. How do I manage all that is there for me to access? If we recognise that we have to be more efficient in the management of this information then we also have to make a decision about the tools to do that. Diigo or delicious, GoogleReader or Bloglines, twitter or plurk? and so much more…
So I appreciate the reflections in this post which offers advice and reassurance that sometimes the ‘old’ tools are just as good as the next new tool on the block.
Another great point from this post is that we often don’t explore the potential of any one tool e.g delicious/ so I appreciate your reflections about looking more deeply into your network and into the annotations of others. It reminds me to think a little more about the notes that I add to my delicious links.