Tool 5: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

You probably have been bookmarking web sites since shortly after having your first computer put in your hands. With the educational networking that has come about on the web and the need to share information 24/7, bookmarking web sites one computer at a time is no longer efficient and effective.

How many computers do you use the same set of bookmarks? How many different groups are going to access all the information you have found? Social bookmarking to the rescue!

Click here to view the Common Craft video about social bookmarking.

You can build a list of bookmarks, organize them into groups, and update your bookmarks with online services such as delicious and diigo. And you can do all this arranging on one computer and walk over and use the information on any computer!

The key tool in having a well-oiled bookmarking machine is the tag. Tagging your information is like identifying the subjects or key words covered in the information you want to share.

DELICIOUS

On Delicious, you can save and share your bookmarks. You can also see what bookmarks are currently popular on the hotlist. Explore what you can find by doing a search for tags such as education or web2.0. Look what comes up if you search for tools and see how you can narrow your search. Even fun searches for things like frogs and fishing bring up some interesting results. Here is the tag cloud of popular tags .

To join Delicious, you will need a Yahoo ID/account. If you don't already have, it is a simple sign-up. After you sign up, you can explore creating a network or arranging your own tags.

Here is a silent video on how to sign up for delicious.


Here is a silent video on how to set up bookmarks in delicious.


DIIGO

Diigo is another social bookmarking site even more powerful than delicious in what it can do for you and your learning circle.

Look at this video of the basics of diigo. Then take the tour to see the special details in depth.

Click here to see the groups that are available in Diigo. There are over 1300 Education & Schools groups and 240+ k-12 groups, including one about using Diigo in schools. There are many groups about fun things, too, like PaperToys. Go here to see the most popular sites and tags.

To add to Diigo, you will need to register. You can use your Google or Yahoo information.

For your Tool #5 assignment:
1. Browse through both sites and use tags to find two websites new to you. You may choose to find educationally -related items or personal interests.
2. Join one of the sites so that you may add and share information of your choice. Consider joining or even creating a group that fits your needs.
3. In YOUR blog post for Tool #5, include the two webistes you discovered. Be sure to include hot links so that participants can visit them easily. Discuss what tags you used to locate your information. Briefly describe how social bookmarking will be useful in your classroom.

Have a few extra minutes?
This video discusses both delicious and diigo with emphasis on how diigo allows you to highlight and save portions of a webpage and how to set up groups. It is 9 minutes long, but worthy of your time after you have had a chance to get comfortable with the two sites independently.

Are you collecting lots of usernames and passwords for all your tools? Try hard to use the same information as much as possible. You may want to keep a record close by. What about a Google Docs so that you can access the information from any computer?

Credits:
Purple marker photo from FlickrCC by cambodia4kidsorg. Adapted using Jing.
Workman from MS ClipArt