Social Bookmarking Changed My Life (...well, my teaching)

This week I saw an advertisement for a book (yes a book) on the best websites for fill-in-the-blank. Hmmm. A book on good websites? Another great example of the old guard holding on to the past…still hoping that some Boomers out there think that this is a good idea and will plop down over thirty bucks for free resources. Sure, the sites are cataloged, researched, annotated, and have nice descriptions. But a book? …and not just a book, but an expensive book? Rather than go into the obvious here (if you are going to sell a product on websites, wouldn’t it be better to sell it as an app so you can update/modify/change sites as they change), I am going to talk about the wonderful and free world of social bookmarking. Besides, anybody in 2011 that would buy a book on websites isn’t reading this blog (and probably think blogs are marshy areas in cold, temperate climates). Ah, I am digressing. (Is that getting blogged down?) Anyway…

So, social bookmarking. Free online services that allow you to not only share your bookmarks, but find other bookmarks on a variety of topics and interests. Here…go to to Wikipedia if you want more on social bookmarking. I had dismissed social bookmarking for years, actually. I remember hearing about this new service called Delicious and how I could save my bookmarks online AND share bookmarks online. As is often the case with me, I dismissed it as just ONE more thing that was neat, but I didn’t need. Why would I need it? Share my bookmarks online? I already shared bookmarks with myself across platforms & computers through web browsers, and that seemed good enough. Then I started sharing a lot more bookmarks with colleagues, students, clients, etc. In the “old days” when I shared bookmarks, it was usually through a website. I would copy & paste the URL into a webpage, give it a name, and write a description…voilà! Bookmark shared via website…people could access it…life was good.

As with all things “web” the static webpage I created was hard to keep current. Sure, a few web links here and there were easy to keep track of, but what about dozens or hundreds of websites? Ack. Each semester with each new class there were more and more and more changes. In the world of educational technology, things just kept evolving and moving on! THAT is when I FINALLY saw the light (and the point) of social bookmarking:

1)   I needed easy/fast way to change/add bookmarks

2)   I needed to keep current in my field without surfing the web 24/7 for new & engaging websites to share in classes/workshops

A benefit I found later was the organization these sites provided. I could place sites in a list. The example here is from a list in Diigo: Practice. This list has 59 websites related to “Practice” as it relates to skill in K-12 classrooms. The list is also public, so I can share it online with anyone (private is also an option to share with selected people, or even just yourself).

Bookmarks can be tagged, too. So one bookmark could be useful for music, reference, lessons, and practice. So if was looking for a good website on any of those topics, that site would pop up.

There are a lot of great social bookmarking sites out there (Delicious, Google Bookmarks, Diigo are among the most popular…and free). I have settled in on Diigo, though. Diigo seems to take social bookmarking to the NEXT level by adding in features like leaving notes on sites, caching websites, saving sites to read later, etc. There is also a wonderful (and free) account for teachers to better utilize Diigo in the classroom. Just one of the ways Diigo has changed my teaching and the way I deliver staff development is I am now part of several networks on Diigo that share web resources on a variety of topics in my interest areas. Rather than pay for a static book on websites that may or may not remain active by the time of printing (or be current by the time of printing), I get annotated web links from many professionals that I can review and comment on…and best of all, add to my bookmarks to share with my networks. And vice-versa. When I find great things to share, my network can benefit and share those on, as well. All in real time, current, relevant, and free. Just how I like my education resources.

For my Diigo lists go to: http://www.diigo.com/list/islandandy