Thing 13

I've used tagging before, but never to the extent that social bookmarking sites do; I simply used it to make my blogs easier to find or to show who was in my facebook pictures.  I really like the idea of being able to find websites that have to do with a specific subject (like the Algebra example from Common Craft explaining how to use  delicious), and group them together with tags - what a simple way to organize!

I also really liked everything that Diigo had to offer (even a Diigo educator account that is more private than the regular and can be catered to the classroom/student environment).   In fact, Diigo, is the bookmarking tool I decided to add.  I love the idea of highlighting and attaching sticky notes (I can see how this would be useful when researching). Through Diigo, I was able to find this terrific article about blogging, which really put what a blog is supposed to be into perspective.  In fact, I got a little carried away with bookmarking, making a profile, searching, and tagging, that I forgot I was supposed to be focusing on researching the tool for this blog!  I suppose that means I found it to be extremely useful!

I actually have a twitter account, but I never use it.  I apparently follow a few people on it (I just went to check it out) and at least half of them have something to do with education or technology!  (If only I had paid attention to this earlier in the semester!)  Scott McLeod posted a link to this slide show about powerpoint which was great!  Now I'm going to have to check out the rest of mine . . . You know what I find really interesting about Twitter, though? - I seem to have six followers, but I've never tweeted!  That being said, anybody have any advice on tweeting?  I didn't see a tutorial, but have noticed the "@" symbol in people's tweets (I'm assuming this means the tweet is aimed at them), the "#" symbol (no idea what that does) and then the actual urls for the pages they're tweeting about.  Can anyone fill me in?  I'm thinking I might like to tweet now that I'm following more educational blogs and more health and fitness ones.

I had been getting seriously annoyed with firefox and attempting to organize my bookmarks, so I really liked that delicious had an option for importing them and then tagging and organizing them (my account).  It was so much easier than using firefox.  Also, I don't remember seeing an option for importing existing bookmarks in Diigo.  I haven't quite finished sorting my bookmarks yet (there's 400 and some), but I'm in the process of grouping them for easier access.  It's actually been kind of fun!  I could easily see students using social bookmarking sites to group, organize, and share pertinent information or research with classmates or even just doing it for themselves.