As I read along in the Richardson textbook,to be honest, I was not quite sure about the concepts that were being introduced. I have never heard of “social bookmarking sites,” but the more I read the more intrigued I became. I am naturally an orginizational “freak.” I cannot stand for things to be out of order, and I have to make lists to make it through the day. That is why I really like the idea of being able to sort information found on the web into neat little lists.
After reading the assigned text, I decided it might be a good idea to check out the Diigo site (mainly because I was not real sure I understood everything that I was reading). I opened the free account, and began playing around on the site. I thought it would be a good idea to start organizing my web resources for the digital project in this class. I really liked the fact that I could highlight the important ideas in each webpage-it’s almost as good as a physical piece of paper! Also, it is really cool that you can access the information from any computer anywhere. Overall, I think that this will be a great resource for me as I start to find more and more information.
After visiting the Diigo site, I went on to del.icio.us. I have to admit that I didn’t spend as much time at this site-probably because the book didn’t either! I figured that the concept was still the same, and one day I may find it useful to explore more in depth.
The text made a lot of points for using these sites in the classroom, but I have to be honest and say that I am a bit intimidated! At this point, I do feel like it would be a very good idea to introduce students to these sites as a resource for their research. It would be great for them to be able to access their stored information that they worked on from home in the school library. For all those disorganized students, this leaves no room for excuses about leaving their work at home,etc. I also like that I could access their bookmarks as well through an RSS feed. This way I could check-up on their progress of finding resources without really interfering at all. Then again, if I felt that a particular student (or more) is having trouble, I can post relevant links for them to explore-given that they are added to my network.
Most of all, I believe that students could use this as a tool for organizing and prioritizing information that they retrieve during the composing process.
