Bookmarking

I am always surprised how few people use bookmarks and I believe we need to be more proactive in teaching students to use this effectively. I use 2 tools to meet my bookmarking needs.

First, I use my local laptop to bookmark items that are private to me.  That might range from financial institutions to travel resources.  These are things that I save for my own personal reference.  I do use Xmarks to sync bookmarks across browsers and devices (I'll write more about this in my next post).

Secondly, I use Diigo to bookmark a fair amount of material that I want to find later.  It seems the bookmarks on my computer are more static and ones I use over and over.  The ones on Diigo are usually things I want to reference and search out later.  The other aspect of Diigo is the social bookmarking aspect. Although I can choose what is public and private, most of my bookmarks are public.  I have created several lists where I just add links.  I am pretty diligent about tagging so I can effectively search for these resources later.  Adding links to Diigo is easy on both my iPhone and my laptop.  It is also my way to share some of what I find for those that want to follow the list.

I have the following Diigo lists to which I actively add links as I come across them:

• 21C Libraries: I place links to how libraries are changing and adapting to a 21st century context here.  This is a relatively new list for me.
• 21st Century Schools & Education: This is a broad category that relates to a lot of topics that I write about on my blog.  It is probably my most active list.  I like to bookmark good articles and such I find here.  I don't necessary agree with everything I bookmark, but it allows me to archive stuff in one place.
• Cool Tools: This is just for software and applications I find that seem neat.  Some are for me to look up later and pursue further reviews.  These aren't always ones I would recommend.  It is like a brainstorming space or a post-it note to check out later.
• Japan Earthquake Links:  I created this one to compile some resources I found and that might benefit students on the recend natural disaster.
• Leadership: I like to post general leadership links here.

Diigo has some other cool features like posting highlights and sticky notes onto websites.  Some teachers find this valuable to help students as they are reading and research information.  I personally don't use that as it isn't my purpose.  It might be useful for some classroom teachers, particularly in conducting some webquests.

Do you use bookmarks?  Do you use different apps to accomplish your goals?  Feel free to share your ideas in the comments.

Switching over to Diigo for News

I don't know if anyone ever checks my Be Literate Wikispace. I was posting some current news articles that I ran across to this wiki as much for myself as anyone. I found the wiki a bit tedious for the task so I have completely switched over to using Diigo. I don't post tons of links but you might find some news articles and exemplars of 21st century practices through this Diigo list. Check it out if you are interested.

http://www.diigo.com/list/pricedm/21st-century-schools-education

Needless to say, the wikispace will still be around with past news articles and some video resources, but don't expect more updates there.

Stumbleupon

I have been using StumbleUpon for about 2 months. It is a free web service and can also be a Firefox add-on so a toolbar appears in your browser. I use Firefox so I prefer the toolbar for ease of use.

How does it work?
When you sign up, you identify categories and interests that you have as well as contacts. Based on that information, the service takes you to random websites that other users have identified as good and applicable to your interests. It's pretty easy and straightforward. And yes, I have run across several sites that were quite good but I may never have found otherwise.

What are the benefits?
This is a great way to share bookmarks as it is easy to send links to specific friends in your contacts. I have used this as part of my PLN (personal learning network) to trade links on several occasions. It is also a great way to stumble across some good sites that could otherwise be lost in the exobytes of data on the web.

I see this is a tool for professional growth but can also lead you to some good classroom resources and tools. In addition to finding some resources, it can turn some leisure surfing into productive and applicable professional or personal learning. Who knows...maybe someone will Stumble across the Be Literate blog.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a popular term but what is it? Well, the word social can be a little inaccurate in the strictest sense. It's not just social as in informal or in the personal realm. It refers to linking communities. The concept is relatively simple. I may like the same sites and topics as my friends. Additionally, I may like the same sites as my friends' friends, even though I may not know them. Social bookmarking leverages relationships to point you to things that may interest you. It can access bookmarks through relationships, categories, or interests.

I'm fairly new to social bookmarking. I don't particularly like to share all my bookmarks. And I don't always bookmark everything that is of interest to me. However, I have found some value to this concept. I have been able to leverage it to find new information on particular topics. Within my PLN of professional educational technology educators, I have run across many new sites that I see as valuable and helpful to my professional growth. It has become a way for me to expand my community and find new sites that expose me to new things.

Social bookmarking really steps into the beginning stages of the semantic web, or Web 3.0. It is "smart" and helps you find places that are of interest and value to you. Some social bookmarking applications learn and tailor themselves to your preferences on what you like and don't like. The concept is really not foreign. Do you use iTunes? The genius feature of iTunes recommends music to you according to what music you have in your library and the particular song. It is tailored to you. Social bookmarking is really just making the same types of recommendations, just in a different sense. iTunes is not the first to use this idea...Amazon has been doing it for years.

Social bookmarking works largely off of tags. Users "tag" keywords to sites so they can be searched or are associated as relevant to certain topics. Tagging is a common term and commonly used on many photo sites. It has many uses and makes accessing relevant information easier. Tagging is great when people work together. Instead of waiting for me to tag 1,000s of sites, I can leverage others to help me tag good sites and be able to search and categorize them effectively based on the wisdom the collective group. Tagging is often associated with images because the only way to search the content is through tags. However, it is also helpful in something like this blog to reference ideas. (This concept also links to Wesch's video of The Machine is Us/ing Us.)

Examples of social bookmarking sites might include del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg, Diigo, and Ma.gnolia.org just to name a few. I even noticed that Foxmarks, my Firefox add-on, is becoming a social bookmarking application. Wikipedia has a fair list of the many bookmarking tools available.