I have never used del.icio.us before beginning this course. I am sure glad I have been introduced to this site. I have used favorites on my own computer for years, but if I needed the site at school or work I had to e-mail the site to myself. This way I can bookmark the site with tags to help me remember what the site contains and log in anywhere I have internet access. I can also share these sites with others who are interested in the same information as I am!
When first logging back into del.icio.us there were many bookmarks that looked interesting from other classmates. These are a few that I added to my own bookmarks. After just completing my internet safety my mind has been on blogging. There was one website that caught my attention titled Landmarks Class Blogmeister, which looks at blogging related to classroom use from both teachers and students from all over the world and our country. I noticed a website called Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools, which included many different areas of tools that can be used as interactive online resources. I have also added some bookmarks to my list throughout the last two or three weeks related to my course I am taking through my district related to social studies. I have found these sites very informational, and it is great to have them right there when I need to access them! I have also added a few tools that can be used within the classroom such as: Webspiration, One True Media, along with creating slides, books, and websites.
When it comes to using tags for bookmarking my websites my list has definitely grown over the past couple of weeks. My tags began as pretty basic with the web 2.0 and UWWLibmedia, but now I have extended more of my bookmarks to include what is actually in my bookmarked sites. I do admit I have usually left the tags similar to what was tagged if I bookmarked a website already found by a classmate. Looking back at my tags I averaged between three to six tags per bookmark. If I had to explain tagging to my students I would tell that that tags are what the website is all about. What are the first terms that come to mind when you look at or think about the website? These should be the terms that you tag. Also, how would you remember the website or what were you looking for when you searched for the site? These would also be tags to bookmark your sites!
The tag clouds that I have used the most often (not related to the web 2.0 and UWWLibmedia, which of course are my top two) include: classroom, timelines, tools, Twitter, education, history, slideshow, and wikis. This concludes my top ten tags with more listed afterwards.
Yes, I believe I did make annotations while bookmarking each link. Annotations are basically notes that I am taking while reading, and in this case I am tagging the words that are coming to mind as I am taking a look at the websites. The advantage to this is easily being able to find the bookmarks at a later time by remembering what you were looking for when you bookmarked the site. You will tag the site with bookmarks of what you were looking for at the time.
I could use del.icio.us to connect with others interested in the same topic by looking just at particular tags. For example, common tags among classmates were education, resources, tools, and technology. When using the network outside of this course I could use it with my team members at school. When looking at curriculum lessons one of us could bookmark a site of interest with the other two easily being able to assess the webpage. It could not only be used with the teachers within my building, but also with the other grade level teachers in the district. I could use del.icio.us or another bookmarking site with my students through a research project. I could log in and add many sites that I have bookmarked related to the research topic. The students could then look at my bookmarked sites, along with adding their own to share with their classmates as they found them!
The website del.icio.us is a very handy website to know all about, and I would highly recommend it to others!
