PLE in the Works

My wife has asked me to help her in the creation of a research skills class for the homeschool co-op we participate in. I accepted, but the challenge has reminded me of how much I do is on the spur of the moment or off the top of my head. I decided it would be in my best interests to create a formal Personal Learning Environment (PLE). I will try to document my efforts over the next few weeks. I have a few articles and documents I have collected over the last two years and I will try to make those available here, either through links or references.

The first thing I have done, however, is to make sure that my Firefox browser is equipped with the latest versions of Zotero, Scribefire, FireShot, and Delicious plugins. Zotero allows me to capture web pages and journal articles, as well as the accompanying bibliographic information. Scribefire allows me to create blog entries on the fly without actually signing into my blog account. FireShot is an excellent screen capture utility. I can easily bookmark and tag items of interest with my del.icio.us plugin.

Zotero allowed me to create a short bibliography and paste it to my clipboard so I could drop it into this blog entry on Scribefire like this:

Bentley, Nancy. Don't be a copycat! : write a great report without plagiarizing. Berkeley Heights NJ: Enslow Elementary, 2008.

Gelb, Michael. Innovate like Edison : the success system of America's greatest inventor. New York N.Y.: Dutton, 2007.

Hunt, Andy. Your research project : how to manage it. London ;;New York NY: Routledge, 2005.

Newport, Cal. How to become a straight-A student : the unconventional strategies real college students use to score high while studying less. 1st ed. New York: Broadway Books, 2007.

Sertillanges, A. The intellectual life, its spirit, conditions, methods, Westminster Md.: Newman Press, 1948.

Hopefully, everything else will go as smoothly.