Talkin' 'bout my cerebration.

All this talk on regular blogs about preparing for school (still 12 days away in my part of the world) has resulted in me feeling less than fully prepared.  I have been pushed into some resource research and collection as my initial preparation.  In performing this, I realised how efficient certain tools have made this.  This should be something I pass on to my learners to aid them in their studies.

First, some context.  Within my organisation students are restricted to the standardised computer image, where only IE is installed.  Within IE, students cannot bookmark a favourite (who made that decision!).  However, portable applications can be run.  I will use this functionality to have students set up a browsing system that will enable their research instead of hinder it.

Barrier #1 – students will need to provide a USB.  Won’t need to be big, but still a purchase if they don’t have one already.

The personal research assistant looks like this:

1. Portable Mozilla Firefox – Firefox allows extensions to be installed, and the extensions provide the assistance I am blogging about.
2. Zotero – this add on is an essential for me.  It allows the user to create collections of resources, and then tag any number of sites within.  You can store additional notes, pics, text.  Where available, Zotero will automatically read and store bibliographical information.
3. Google notebook – there are other more effective note taking options out there, but Google Notebook add on within FireFox is more than satisfactory for my learners.  They can always research others and include them later if they so desire.
4. Diigo Toolbar – As I’ve posted previously, Diigo is awesome for research, and the sharing of research.  The toolbar allows it to be done easily from withi the browser.
5. Essential bookmark #1 Bib Me – build a bibliography, formatted and ready to go.
6. Essential bookmark #2 Class Portal – this is essentially the public netvibes space I’ve set up for the class.  This is the starting point / launch pad for all our internet activity.

Barrier #2 – Browsing the add-ons section of the mozilla firefox site is filtered at the school level, therefore relying on students following instructions at home or on an unfiltered machine. Zotero and Diigo can be installed from the linked sites, external to the FireFox add on centre.

I believe this will establish an enabled research experience for my learners, with the added bonus of portability.