- Jump to Task?
- Note – this activity is part of the “Red P” Digital Driver’s Licence.
Diigo: a Tool for Analysis and Commenting
As it says on Diigo’s Web site:
Diigo provides a browser add-on that can really improve your research productivity. As you read on the web, instead of just bookmarking, you can highlight portions of web pages that are of particular interest to you. You can also attach sticky notes to specific parts of web pages. Unlike most other web “highlighters” that merely clip, Diigo highlights and sticky notes are persistent in the sense that whenever you return to the original web page, you will see your highlights and sticky notes superimposed on the original page, just what you would expect if you highlighted or wrote on a book!
Let’s see how this works
For your class activity, you will be given the URL of a Web page that is in the OxleyLearners’ Group Library. For this tutorial, we will use the pages below:
- Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples
- Banjo Paterson’s Clancy of the Overflow
Using the Prime Minister’s speech as a sample document, let’s experiment with using Diigo’s highlighting and commenting features.
Note: Most of the Diigo Tools work equally well, just differently. The Diigolet on Safari for Mac works the most consistently, but the full Diigo toolbar (for Firefox and Internet Explorer) also tend to work well. The iPad Web Highlighter works well with a couple limitations. Less effective is the Chrome extension. If your particular Diigo Tool isn’t working well, try visiting the Diigo Tools page to see if there might not be a better version.
Sticky Notes
Anyone can add a sticky note to any Web page that is in a personal library or group you are a member of. Below are two sticky notes added to the Apology Speech asking students to highlight different aspects of the speech. Some students might be given one task and another group the second. (Click the graphic to see a slightly larger version)
Note: You can leave Sticky Notes by clicking on the Sticky Note icon from any of the Diigo Tools. After adding your Sticky Note, you can drag the icon to any position on the Web page. You can leave Sticky Notes for yourself (private) or share them with others (either Groups you are in or “Public” which any Diigo user can see). Feel free to add Sticky Notes to any of your pages, but please don’t clutter the page you are currently working on with them. Also, you will quickly see that some people leave pointless public stickies. We suggest not joining in this. Use Diigo as the powerful knowledge management tool it is and leave the silly stuff to “newbie” users. 😉
Highlighting Text
Task: Complete the tasks detailed on the Sticky Note for the Web page you are using with your class. Everyone can do their highlighting at the same time.
If you find someone has already highlighted something you would have highlighted yourself, either add a Sticky Note explaining why you agree that the highlighted text fits the task, or, if you can add a Sticky Note to the highlight, try what’s displayed in the screenshot below:
Here’s how you can add a comment to the highlight and make it visible to everyone in a group:
Activity 1 Task – Highlighting: Go to the Web page provided for you that is part of the OxleyLearners Diigo group and complete the tasks on any Sticky Notes toward the top of the page.
Congratulations!
If you have successfully completed this task and all those from Levels 1 & 2, you are completely trained in using Diigo. Now make the tool your own and explore things like the “Clip Tool” and saving PDFs – all very handy when you’re working on long-term studies like Prelim and HSC topics.
Real Life example
Here’s an example of how a university teacher uses Diigo for online literary discussions.