“Organizing is what you do, before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” A. A. Milne
Unless you keep your thoughts, ideas and information organized, you end up trying to remember things and wasting your precious time. By using some easy-to-use free tools, you can save time and work more efficiently.
There may also be the necessity of accessing information from different computers or devices. I use two computers on a regular basis and also have Internet access via Iphone, so it is good for me to easily reach my data on all of them.
There is a great variety of tools which you can use in order to organize your thoughts, ideas and digital stuff. (Best resources for your students, web sites for your professional development, resources that you collect for writing an article, etc.)
I don’t prefer to make a long list of the available tools since it would be very time consuming for you to choose which one to use. Instead I would like to share my favourites of three different categories.
Social bookmarking, Note-taking and Mind mapping.
Here is a selection of web tools for you to become a more digitally-organized teacher:
Social Bookmarking: In order to understand what social bookmarking is and what it can do for you, I recommend that you first watch this video (Social Bookmarking in Plain English) and read this article.
1. Delicious : It is one of the most popular social bookmarking services with a simple interface. It has more than five million users and 150 million bookmarked URLs.
2. Digg : It is a social news website where you can discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories. Voting stories up and down is the site’s cornerstone function, respectively called digging and burying.
3. Blinklist: It is a social bookmarking site for beginners and for long-time users. You can find video tutorials that make social bookmarking easy for beginners.
Note-taking:
1. Evernote: You can capture information of various types, including text notes, mobile phone snapshots, printed and handwritten text within images and web clips. The information you put into Evernote is synchronized across all of your devices. You can also create folders, categories and notebooks. First, you need to create an account. Then you can download the client. There are also phone versions that have voice recording and photo capabilities.
2. Springnote: Springnote allows you to take notes on your own or work with others to create a group notebook. First, you need to sign up. After creating an account, you can take a tour to learn more and start exploring your new notebook.
3. MyStickies: MyStickies is a very easy-to-use web tool that allows you to place little yellow squares of digital paper everywhere you like in the whole wide web. First, you need to sign up. Then you need to install the browser extension to place notes on pages.
Mind mapping: Mind mapping is an effective way to organize all thoughts and ideas floating around in your head. For more information about mind mapping, click here.
1. FreeMind: It is a free software that helps you keep track of projects, keep a collection of small or middle sized notes with links, organize research and brainstorm. It uses the wiki technology for its management.
2. Bubbl.us: It is a simple tool that lets you brainstorm online. You can create colorful mind maps online, share and work with friends, embed your mind map in your blog or website, email and print your mind map and save your mind map as an image.
3. WiseMapping: You can create and read your mind maps from everywhere. Once you create your mind map, WiseMapping allows you to embed it in your own web page or blog.
Well, I hope these tools will help you save time and energy and produce good work.
HAPPY ORGANIZING!
Online social networking offer teachers a great dimension of continuous learning. Learning by interacting with other teachers and experts of the field…
