Social Bookmarking

Can you remember a time when “bookmarking”  a website (or creating a “favorite”) meant saving its URL address somewhere in your computer, perhaps with a note or commentary, perhaps with a tag or keyword, and perhaps in a folder?

In the last 10 years this saving of resources has become one of the major tools for a teacher, because of social bookmarking sites like Diigo and Delicious. (eBiz lists many more sites.  Several are useful, some are less so.)  A social bookmarking site gives you the power to save the URL to your online library, annotate it, tag it, search for it, and share it through a variety of widgets and tools.

Long ago, I created accounts at Delicious, and later at Diigo, because I worked with many different computers in many rooms at our schools, and I wanted to have my resources always at hand (this was even before USB keys!) It was a great decision, because those accounts have followed me to several school buildings, and into many new computers, tablets, and phones.

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Langwitches: http://flickr.com/photos/langwitches/5285524738/

Diigo describes itself as “a multi-tool for personal knowledge management”.  It’s grown from a simple online bookmarking site to a “cloud-based information management tool that enables users to collect, highlight, access and share a variety of information, on a variety of devices.”

This is a short introductory video about Diigo by Katie Day, Librarian at UWCSP, who blogs at The librarian edge. (You can learn more about Diigo from it’s video library page.)

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For a teacher, the List and Group functions of Diigo are extremely powerful tools. This video shows how Groups works. (Although the narrator speaks of “marketing researcher”, think “teachers”, “leaders”, “curriculum developers”, etc.)

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A fine example of a Diigo Group used in education is IB Geography: Patterns and Change “Diigo group for IB Geography teachers preparing resources for the ‘Patterns and Change’ core unit of the IB Geography Syllabus.” Its 116 members have bookmarked over 1300 webpages.

The IB ITGS Group has 234 members contributing resources. A note to members suggests “A group for students and teachers involved in IB ITGS. Tagging standards: Please tag each bookmark with at least three tags: one of the group tags: SOCIAL, IT SYSTEMS, or IMPACT; a subtopic; and ITGS.”

You might want to look at this Educational Technology and Mobile Learning page list of  “The best 6 Diigo Groups for a Teacher to Join.”

You can see how The Royal Geographical Society uses Delicious to extend it’s educational mission by sharing its links. This is the links page for an IB DP History course which uses Diigo.

As a teacher, you should investigate Diigo for Education. This video, How to Use Diigo in Education, was made by a teacher for his Middle School colleagues.

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 If you’re not already there, I urge you to create an account at Diigo, install the bookmarklet, and start keeping your resources in the cloud. If you are there already, join or create a group, and share your resources more actively.