Have you ever wanted to create collaborative groups with your students that could possibly have the option to work collectively in and outside of the classroom? I want to share a Web 2.0 tool called Diigo Education. Now, we are already familiar with Diigo since we will be utilizing this tool for our Action Research Projects, but Diigo Education is a fantastic grouping tool to use with students in and outside of the classroom.
Diigo Education makes it possible to have students create a learning community not only within the classroom walls, but to also extend their collaboration outside of school. This effective tool makes it possible for teachers to create collaborative groups to use during project-based lessons that involve the power of working together towards a common goal. The aspect that I think I like most about this tool is the fact that educators can use it to effectively teach students how to not only collaborate together, but to also understand the purpose and importance of researching a specific topic.
As a teacher, I always strive to impress upon my students the importance of gathering facts and information to support a main idea. This is simple for some, but for the most part, difficult for individual elementary students to grasp. When there is a group involved, not only is there more than one brain at work, the group is enhanced by having the capability to share their findings online through Diigo Educator. This alone creates a safer environment for students that wouldn’t normally share out in class, to be able to give input within this community.
Finally, Diigo Education is free for teachers! To apply for a Diigo Education Account online, follow this
link and you can then have access to everything from whole class accounts, email accounts, and pre-set privacy settings so that teachers and students are the only ones allowed in the group. Everything through Diigo Education is filtered and safe, so teachers don’t have to be concerned by what students are viewing in and out of school within Diigo. In fact, my application for Diigo Education was just accepted and I now have my account ready to go for next school year.
I even got this cool Diigo Education Pioneer badge for joining!
All in all, Diigo Education is a fantastic Web 2.0 tool for integrating more effective group collaboration within the classroom.
Students Using Diigo on Computers image by theunquietlibrary used courtesy of Flickr through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic 
It was a matter of learning some code, but the Lynda.com tutorials really made it easy to understand how to open the script page and insert language that would be understood in making actions happen the way I want them to. 
