Diigo

I found Diigo to be quite interesting, a different take on the Wiki and other tools with collaborative potential. It was also fairly easy to use. I believe this tool would be useful for groups to share information that cannot be summmarized easily. In other words, one must go to the source/article to get all the information. This tool would be useful for students working in a group on a research project as well. They could pool their resources using Diigo and pick from the best to use in their project. Or, alternatively, they could assign each group member a part of the project to research and all members of the group could see what the others have collected. Members could also check up on who is the weakest member of the group (who has not done their share of research or whose work is lacking in quality). Teachers and instructors could join the group to keep tabs on student progress.

During the summer I work at the Greater Cincinnati Civic Garden Center as a volunteer on the Horticulture Helpline. We often get numerous calls for help on the same subject/topic, so something like Diigo would be a great way to electronically pool the resources we find on the web on a particular topic (end rot in tomatoes, for example) to share with one another and with our clients as well.