This guest post was written by Keith Ozsvath self-professed techie who is passionate about helping others. This is post #7 in the “30 Days to a Whole New PLN” challenge!

So now that you’ve started building your PLN, we’re going to look at how educators use Diigo as part of their PLNs.

In this activity you will explore:

1. What is Diigo?
2. How to get started
3. Joining and creating a Diigo group
4. Ideas for using Diigo

What is Diigo

Diigo is a free social bookmarking tool that allows users to share online resources like websites and web 2.0 tools in a private or public group format.

There are tons of different groups on Diigo, many for professional and educational use. Diigo has also evolved into a place where you can store all your bookmarks, pictures, and notes too.

The main features of Diigo we will focus on are research, sharing, and collaborating.

The power of Diigo lies within the groups feature. A user can create both public and private groups for professional development purposes or perhaps a graduate class, study group, or classroom research project. Anyone with access to a group, has access to all bookmarks, plus special features like tagging and commenting on links.

As a music educator, I am interested in education technology, as well as music.

On Diigo, I have joined public groups that interest me like:

1. Classroom 2.0
2. Cool Tools for Educators
3. Educators
4. Teaching Music

Diigo was a powerful tool in my quest to create and build my PLN 1 ½ years ago. It is a tremendous way to share and collaborate with fellow educators.

I have also created private groups for students and teachers.

When my middle school bands were participating in a Lewis & Clark Expedition Cross-Curricular Unit, I created a private group of bookmarked websites pertaining to the Lewis & Clark Expedition. I was able to share the private group with my 2 colleagues so we could collaborate using the same websites and resources that were bookmarked in the group. Commenting and tagging these links were also very useful for our planning.

How to Get Started

1. Set-up an account and click on the link in the confirmation email to activate your account.

2. After activation, you will be directed to the My Library page.

If there are bookmarks you would like to start adding from your Delicious account or computer, go ahead and begin.

If not, click on the My Groups tab at the top of the screen.

How to Join a Group

To create and develop your PLN, you need to join some groups.

Diigo’s groups open a world of learning and professional development for the educator. There are so many groups to choose from. From Social Studies to ESL to Ed. Tech., there are bound to be groups that will interest you.

Click on the My Groups tab at the top of the screen. In the search box, look for groups that will help you build your PLN.

It may also be helpful to view the categories on the right side of the screen to guide your search.

I recommend finding 3-4 groups to join.

Once you find your first group, click on the group name.

If it is a public group, apply to join the group by clicking on the right side of the screen.

• If the group you selected is a private group, you will not be able to join it.
• Private groups are by invite only.

When you apply to join a group, you can also choose to be notified via email when new bookmarks are added. This feature makes it really easy to stay-up-to-date when new bookmarks are added.

More nice features on the group pages are the Most Active Members and Top 10 Tags.

How to Create your own Group

Perhaps you have already thought of creating your own group on Diigo.

Go for it!

Click on the My Groups tab at the top of the screen.

On the right side of the screen, follow the steps to create your group.

Second, follow the instructions on the next page. Set-up details like group name, description, category name, who can view, and public/private.

After you set-up all of the details, you will be prompted to invite others. Congratulations!

You have created your first group.

Begin adding bookmarks you wish to share with group members.

Ideas for Use

Here’s some ideas how you can use:

1. Create a group for your department or team to access and share bookmarks
2. Create a private group for your students to get bookmarks for a project or unit
3. Join a public group to create your own professional development and grow your PLN

Your Challenge

We’d like you to add your ideas to our ongoing conversation about PLNs by undertaking one or more of these challenges:

1. If you haven’t joined Diigo yet, head over to Diigo and sign up. Leave a comment on this post with your Diigo name so we can follow you.
2. Join some Diigo groups and/or create your own group(s).  Write a post (or leave a comment) about your initial impressions of Diigo. You could include – what you see as obstacles to taking part in Diigo, what you have learnt from using Diigo, or who you have connected with via Diigo. Don’t forget to leave a comment here with the link to your post.
3. Your tips for using Diigo.

About the Author

Keith Ozsvath is a self-professed techie and my blog, Teaching & Technology in Music, provides practical technology-infused teaching tips for music educators.

He has conducted numerous professional development classes for fellow educators on creating a PLN, educational technology, podcasting, blogging, and using social media as a professional development tool.

He currently team teach 6th-8th grade band, direct the Jazz Ensemble and serve as music department chair at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia, Illinois.

He has presented for the Illinois Music Educators’ Association and National Middle School Association and continue to be an active judge, adjudicator, and clinician in the Chicago area. You can check-out his program’s blog at Rotolo M.S. 8th Grade Band and follow him on Twitter @band_techie.