Talkin' 'bout my cerebration.

My pet subject of Health Education requires students and teachers to continually read, research and gather information to inform their understanding and application of concepts.  This research was recently revealed as a concern for students when I conducted an open, critical reflection in class.  Therefore to enable this process, I have endeavoured to establish a routine with specific tools that can assist research.

Firstly, I set my students up with portable FireFox on their USB memory stick or in a folder on their network storage.  Portable FireFox allows me to install two essential addons for research; Zotero and FoxIt Toolbar.  I have blogged about Zotero previously, and have recorded podcasts on both of these tools also.

I will gather a range of resources for research.  Using the FoxIt toolbar in FireFox, I can annotate and highlight PDF files.  If I then choose to “Save As”, all markups will be maintained.  I use this to add in bookmarks and highlights for important information.  When students open the file, they can quickly navigate to what I consider important information within the document.

As an extension to this concept, when students are working on group projects, they can markup their research individually or collaboratively.  If it is a web page they wish to markup, they simply print using PDF Creator and save the page as a PDF file.  Then they open the file in FireFox and markup.

Zotero allows them to create collections of resources, which can include webpages and PDF files.  This ensures wherever they are using Portable FireFox they can access their research.

If I build a collection in Zotero, I can export it as a file with attachments, and then distribute that to my students.  They simply import the collection into their Zotero and they have my collection ready to go.  This is also useful when they share research with each other.  Simply export the collection and share.

Zotero can also publish a bibliography.  Users need to ensure the information is recorded in the Zotero reference section, but this function enables accurate bibliographies.

And best of all, these tools are free.

Enable student research, and you can enable student achievement.

If you would rather watch this as a screencast, please refer to my wiki.

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.