Reflecting on "How to Cook with Kale"

I'm off to a late start with one of my two MOOCS (massive open online course), Making Learning Connected. So for our first assignment, we wrote a "How to..." guide and I chose to write on how to cook with kale.  As part of our reflection process, which should probably take place a little more than two hours after posting, we have been charged with thinking about what we learned from making our guide and what did we see as the purpose of this assignment.

As I went through the process, I thought of several things:

• Writing directions is an art form.
• Use as few words as possible and choose them well.
• Good images go a long way and it's probably better to make your own rather than to search for fair use ones.
• Design and layout matter.
• Writing out directions takes longer than you think.
• I am in awe of the bloggers I follow.
• I want to practice this is skill more so that I can get better at it.

What I've been using how to guides for this summer:

• Sewing a tote bag
• Making goat cheese
• Learning to use a GoPro
• Figuring out how to fix my blog

What will I be doing for the remainder of the summer?  Take a look at my list for work.  I made it with WorkFlowy, my list tool of choice.

Lists for me, lists for you, lists for two

Two work flow apps that I have begun to use to track my work are Workflowy for tasks that I need to get done and Azendoo for tasks that I need a group of people to get done.  Both are appropriate for middle school students, though they will need to create accounts.

Workflowy is great for the person who finds himself/herself writing out lists of things to do at home and at work.  Keep them both in the same place and then embed lists within lists.  Does this sound like a Type A person's dream come true?  It is!  Sync between your computer and phone.  Get daily updates on what you've done and what you still have to do.  Watch the demo video below, sign up and start making lists.





As for Azendoo, here is a great way to break up group projects into small tasks assigned to specific group members.  You can set due dates, sync with other mobile devices, and link work to apps like Evernote, Dropbox and Google Docs.  All parties can be held accountable and work becomes transparent when everyone is working via collaborate apps.  To learn more about how you and/or your students can use Azendoo effectively, visit the help page for answers to your questions.  To get a visual sense of how this software can be helpful, watch the promo video below.  Other tutorials exist on YouTube.

The Value of Diigo

Diigo, while not new, is still worth writing about.  Many of us are used to bookmarking within our web browser.  And while that has been a fine organization system for years, it might be time to upgrade.  It's just a little button that typically sits near your address bar.  If you are reluctant to change over to a social bookmarking platform, consider these points:

• Diigo allows you to access your bookmarks on any device at any time.  
• You can organize them by tags (think of these as labels) which means that a bookmark can be labeled in multiple ways.  So the website doesn't have to live in one folder. It will even suggest tags based on the site's content.
• Moreover, you can easily share your bookmarks with others.  And, yes, you can import your bookmarks from your old web browser.  
• As you read, you can highlight and take notes. These stay with your website whenever you open it.

Why am I using it?
You might be thinking, "yes, all of these features are great, but is it really SO much better than a web browser?"  For me the answer is yes and here is why I am using Diigo.

• I can ask my students to read an online source and take notes.  Then I can show them my notes and share them as well.  They'll learn from modeling.
• I don't have to scroll through long lists of sites anymore.  Just type in a tag and up come the sites I have associated with that tag.  
• I don't have to remember why I bookmarked a page in the first place because I can leave myself a note saying why.
• Lastly, I can archive a page in such a way that if it is ever removed, I will still have a copy of it.

Here is where to get Diigo (you can even upgrade your account by clicking on Education Edition on the right side of the screen) and here are two resources on how to use it.

---

A quick guide to annotation with Diigo.

A Guide to Annotating using Diigo from José Picardo on Vimeo.

---

This is a five minute video on how to organize bookmarks.

---

Remember this is just a Diigo primer.  Learn three things about now and figure out the rest later.  You don't need to know everything right now and you can't anyway!