Social Bookmarking... without the tassel

My Diigo Tags

Although these are bookmarks I created in Diigo last semester, my goal was just to see if I could transfer it into my blog as a cloud...I'm not sure if it worked... okay...it looks like it is at the bottom of this blog post. Hmmm...

This weeks reading about Social Bookmarking is one that I am interested in, as I am continually adding bookmarks to my personal bookmarks on my computer, but I have very little organization with it. As you can see, this screenshot of just a few of my bookmarks is quite disorganized, and there are a lot of bookmarks to sift through when I am trying to find a specific one I have bookmarked. There is no way to "search" through my bookmarks.

Delicious or Diigo? Last semester, in one of my courses, we were given the option to pick one or the other, and I chose Diigo (the home page was more eye-catching to me). I started using it, then I found I was constantly signing in to bookmark, and the highlighting feature wasn’t working. So, I just continued to bookmark like I normally do, but I am finding I need some organization to them! It’s getting crazy!! Something Richardson pointed out in our text this week made sense to me: “Obviously, if we are to be expected to participate in the construction of ‘folksonomies’ to save the information that we find, it will require us to redefine the process we currently use in relative isolation. Our personal organizational systems for content may need revision to fit with a more communal model” (Richardson, 2010, p.91). This is so true. I think part of the reason I abandoned Diigo was that it was something different than what I had always been doing. But what I am finding now, is that what I have always been doing is becoming not all that effective, nor efficient. I also wonder if I can access my bookmarks (my personal ones) from a different computer. Something I will have to check!

Trying to figure out how to add a screenshot from my diigo:
Hope it works

Ah…Richardson compares Diigo and Delicious! Perfect!

Diigo: I did like the highlighting and stickynote features in Diigo – I just wish I could get them to work consistently! I also like that I can decide if it is private or public. I do like Richardson’s reasoning for public though – to be able to connect with others who have bookmarked similar sites (p.92).  Being able to create groups is another nice feature – I could see incorporating that with teacher colleagues at the school.

Delicious: Richardson didn’t have too much to say regarding Delicious, so at this point, I may stick with Diigo and try to figure it out some more. Got a little sidetracked with the information regarding LibraryThing.com and Shelfari.com. Found myself looking at books....reading reviews...having a little fun! Okay....I have work to do!!  I think I like Shelfari.com better – I just like the name of it! 

Clouds outside Niki's window

I had heard of Clouds before, but didn't realize what they were. I also didn't realize the significance of the size of text- now it makes sense!

I can certainly see the usefulness of social tagging within the school. In the library, the Librarian can organize useful sites into categories that pertain to subject areas that teachers can access. For students, the social bookmarking skill can help to narrow down searches so that they are not endlessly searching through google -and they develop their evaluation skills as they analyze the findings within the bookmarks (Berger & Trexler, 2010, p.53). I just need to become more proficient in using them myself!