Organizing New Things Learned on Social Media

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcfarlandmo/3275420128

   There are many ways that you can organize all the information that you learn from your PLN on different social media websites.  My favorite ways to organize what I learn are through the use of Diigo, Pinterest, Symbaloo, and Google Docs.  Here is what I do:

•     Diigo- I use this tool to help me organize articles from websites that I have read or would find useful in the future.  Diigo is a great tool because it allows you to tag keywords about the article to link on your Diigo site.  Once you tag an item, it is easy to look up different articles under that specific tag.  I also love Diigo because you can download an extension for your browser to easily add any site, PDF, or image to your Diigo page.  Check out my Diigo page at: https://www.diigo.com/user/abrenem2
•     Pinterest-  Pinterest provides you with a lot of the same features as Diigo but it has a more visual aspect to it.  Instead of having short explanations of a link you have pictures with a brief sentence to explain what that site is.  You can easily organize or "pin" websites to different boards.  Once you pin something to a board it is simple to access.  My favorite feature is the ability to search for resources within or outside your own boards.  Check out my Pinterest page at: https://www.pinterest.com/angelab35/
•     Google Docs-  There are so many possibilities with Google tools.  I like to create a Google doc to save and categorize all my favorite websites to use in the classroom.  I hyperlink a website on the document and write a short paragraph about the use of that website.  
•     Symbaloo-  Do you ever want a place for your students to have access to outstanding resources on one site?  Symbaloo would be a nice tool to use.  Symbaloo offers you the ability to add resources to one page.  Students will not see a link to a website because each website only has an image to link to the website.  This is a great tool for younger students that can't read.  

    I love to share what I learn and I value learning about new tools and strategies for others.  I thought the topic of organizing new things that are learned on social media was so important that I wanted to talk to others about it at a #BFC530 chat.  In turn, I decided to moderate one of their chats.  Once I was done, I used Storify to save the discussion that we had.  Please, feel free to take a look at it and leave a message if you have any questions or comment.  

You can look at the Storify at https://storify.com/teachlove4SpEd/bfc530