Diigo as partial textbook replacer

Last year I threw out the textbook for my introductory computers in education course. Although the text was published within the past few years and a new edition promised, I was disappointed with the lack of relevant material, number of broken links, and high price tag. After reviewing other texts, I was similarly disappointed. Many had important elements (e.g., technology integration models, presentation on learning theories, potential positive and negative consequences of technology integration), but also contained a lot of fluff (e.g., detailed descriptions about how to use a mouse or surf the Internet). In my mind, technology integration has moved beyond how to use word processors, spreadsheets, databases, and presentations tools. It’s disheartening that most books still devote chapters to these applications while lacking relevant information about copyright and fair use issues when working in collaborative, online environments. I also had a difficult time locating good chapters on Internet security, privacy protection, and similar issues that affect practicing teachers, schools, and districts. Did I miss a good source during my review? Probably. But after a few months of searching I realized that I would have to supplement these $100+ texts with additional readings to create a relevant learning environment. At that point I wondered why we used the expensive text at all. I talked to the publisher to see if I could print half the book (or construct my own hybrid using chapters from several texts) but the cost was still prohibitive–even if printed in black-and-white with no cover. So I threw out the text—relying on library subscriptions to ejournals and magazines that students look up to supply content for the class (after all, they’ve already paid for the right to use these resources).

While I knew that I could locate comparable or better content for my course than was available in the textbooks, I was a bit worried about providing resources for subject-specific areas. The textbooks contained several URLs to interesting sites—and after three years, some of them still worked. I puzzled about this for a few weeks and then thought of social bookmarking (e.g., delicious and Diigo) and its ability to collaboratively gather, organize, and share web content. I wondered if students in my classes could use these tools to post and evaluate their own resources. So I created a group on Diigo and had my students locate three web resources related to their content areas. Once they located these sites, they bookmarked them in Diigo and evaluated them using content and design guidelines established in class. These guidelines allowed me to mandate what information was included in site reviews and better standardize content descriptions. I hope that over the years, both past and present students will continue posting resources that they find to this group so that users always have updated materials. Currently I have 151 bookmarks contributed by 48 students. That means that few of my students located and posted more than their required bookmarks. You can see this group here (warts and all). A better example of a more robust group was created by Clif Mims here. As I encourage my students to use this tool throughout the semester—posting additional bookmarks as they locate resources for other assignments and reviewing other’s posts to ensure continued accuracy, I hope this will become a tool that is much more powerful than the textbook lists I eliminated.