New Media in Education Fiesta (20100907, Day 2)

Signed up for the workshop at 8 am.
It's the first time attending a virtual workshop... I guess it would be a good opportunity to experience it before moving on to consider 2nd life as a possible learning space.

Indeed, this notion first appeared in 2009 Term 1 when we were working on some publicity stuff for the school... considering it's a 'hip' thing... nevertheless, after some considerations, the idea was withheld.

The workshop I signed up this morning... "Use of Collaborative Tagging through Diigo to Promote Independent Online Research amongst Student" by Alicia Poo Peng Peng (aliciapoo2010@gmail.com).

Thought this would be the first "window" to open - to learn how others have used SecondLife in Teaching & Learning (This is precisely my objective of participating in this whole event). Synposis from the NMiEF event at http://www.mediaplaylab.sg/nmief/:

• This paper investigates the potential of using Diigo to encourage interdependent online research among Economics students through the use of collaborative tagging.
• The prevalent rise of various information repository and social networking platforms such as Google, Facebook and Moodle has provided vast opportunities for collaborative and interactive learning for both educators and learners of the current era.
• Simultaneously, the tremendous rate at which knowledge and information has grown for the past decade has been astounding.
• This poses challenge for any serious learner or researcher who wants to continually engage in research to renew his or her knowledge and keep abreast of the latest empirical developments and observations in relation to what is acquired theoretically.
• The need to effectively sift out, organise and archive critical updated information is even more significant for A-Level Economics students who require supporting real world data, facts and observation for rigorous essays’ analysis.
• Given the tight curriculum and the numerous commitment faced by a typical junior college student, researching into every topic of relevant interest for Economics is impractical and results in wastage due to the duplication of research efforts.
• Hence, this has brought us to examine the possibility of exploiting the Diigo platform for a collaborative research experience that maximises research efforts and outcomes among students.
• This research project explores how the Diigo platform offering the online tools for quick annotation, highlight, archival and the adding of sticky notes of comments directly to online research materials fosters a social information network rich in collaborative research and self directed learning.

Now... awaiting for the lecture to begin (6:36 am)




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Agenda

• Introduction to Diggo Platform
• Research Problem
• Implementation
• Research Outcomes & Recommendation

What is Diggo?

• http://www.diigo.com/
• Highlight, bookmark, sticky note functions

1. Convenient Highlight Feature on Online Activities
2. Add a Sticky note feature on Online Activities
3. Tagging Feature of Online Articles to Enable Efficient Archival and Faster Retrieval

Why is there a need to promote interdependent online research among economics students?

• A comparison between the use of Google and Diigo
• Teacher's observation:
• The school compiles all relevant and important theories and examples for us, personal research is not important.
• Even if research is necessary, I thnk it is more efficient ot conduct it personally.
• Most essays written by students are theoretical
• Students carry out research in an adhoc manner
• Lack of organisation
• Absence of sharing & collaboration for research efforts among students

Tapping on selected features of Diigo

• Research: Annotate. Archive. Organize
• Group Knowledge Repository: Share & Comment
• Personal Learning Network: interact with others on content of interest

Implementation Approach

• Identification of topics (that students need to research on)
• List of prescribed websites

Findings of Research

1. Majority of students engage in little or no research (self directed/ mutual) despite knowing the importance of research
2. A high proportion of students (about 70%) will use the group repository for major exams like A Level
3. Most significant factors hindering intent and effort for mutual research

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Think this is a platform worth exploring. In fact, think it has high potential and relevance in our context, especially when it comes to managing online materials... will follow-up on this :)