ADD ME!

I invite you to find me on Delicious, the social bookmarking site or on Diigo. You will find me under the user name adhilland.


Great Things About Social Bookmarking Sites

1. On Delicious you can create networks with like-minded individuals and share bookmarks with one another.
2. No more "check out this wicked site!!" in your work email inbox : ) With Delicious, you have your own inbox that your friends can share websites with you that they think that you will enjoy.


A Gem Uneartherd Using Delicious:
1. Slideshare is a website that you can use to find and share powerpoint presentations!

Differences Between Diigo and Delicious

Diigo has dubbed themselves "Delicious with Brains"

1. In Diigo, you have a "My Messages" rather than an "Inbox". I like this feature as it allows you to start discussions and have a thread to track your ongoing discussions. Very similar to Facebook inboxes actually.

2. "The page you have requested can no longer be found". When searching others bookmarks on Delicious, I kept finding myself at dead-ends. Not with Diigo. Diigo takes a snapshot of the webpage and archives it so that you will continue to have access to it even if it is removed from the web. (Wow, talk about being careful with your online portfolio.....)

3. Diigo offers tags the same as Delicious, but goes a step beyond. With Diigo, you can highlight specific areas of the website that you would like to draw attention to and attach sticky notes (well, virtual sticky notes) to that website for others to see. Others will only see your highlights and stickies if you forward the site link to them so that your personal notes won't be available for all to see.

4. Have you ever found a really great website and your connection fails? Or the website's server goes KAPUT? With Diigo, it automatically caches the address so that your bookmark will be saved no matter what!

Social Bookmarking in the Classroom

1. I came across Clay Burell's Blog, BEYOND SCHOOL and he demonstrates a way to create a quiz using Diigo and student blogs. Using highlighting and sticky notes. The way in which he structures his quiz ensures that students are actually reading each other's blogs and thinking about one another's opinions and thoughts.

2. Out with the red marker, in with the invisible ink! A few years ago I attended a workshop titled, "Mark Less, Assess More". One of the topics discussed in this workshop was the fact that the "red marker" way of assessment or marking was not setting the right tone for teacher-student interactions as teachers were defacing students' intellectual property with our red pens. Sticky notes were the (somewhat pricey) solution to this. Now, with Diigo, teachers can assess/mark students' work directly on their blogs (using Diigo's highlighter and stickies) and show respect for students' work.

3.Student collaboration on projects. They can share sites with one another, helping each other with finding sites to suit each other's projects or co-ordinate on one project.
4. On-going professional development with your peers during the hours that suit YOUR schedule.
5. Creating networks with like-minded individuals doesn't have to be time consuming or restricted to your local area....or even hemisphere!

So, to conclude, I see many ways in which social bookmarking can impact my teaching and change the way I organize my classroom and my professional development. I have tried both Diigo and Delicious and prefer Diigo. My goal this week is to hunt down my contacts so that I can share my growing list of bookmarks (the list is very short right now...). I have installed the Diigo toolbar, have experimented with bookmarking, highlighting, and using sticky notes on the web pages. I look forward to spending more time frequenting this useful and inspiring tool!