The average person goes to so many websites throughout the day. Granted, my position as a tech integration specialist lends itself to web surfing. Not the mindless surfing like reading the comics or visiting Awkward Family Photos. But, instead, checking out numerous sites to find the perfect rock type interactive, gravity launch activity, or a simple comic creator. I focus on sites with educational merit, few ads, and age appropriate. This leaves quite a extensive web history.
Early in this position I realized the challenges of maintaining bookmarks. I would mark something at home or work, to need it when I was in the other place. I would email myself lists of links. My work became inefficient and messy. That is when I found Delicious. I was able to bookmark sites on the site- to access at home, work, or wherever I was. I was able to tag links for different subjects, grade levels, and other ways of organizational tools. Good things rarely last, though. And the sale of Delicious changed many of my favorite features. Like many Delicious users, I made the transition to Diigo.
Diigo is a social bookmarking site. It allows people to keep track of their web links in one place. But, there is more to the site than that. Like Delicious, you can view the sites of others who have linked to the same source. You can follow the updates of individuals or themes.
My Diigo collection has grown. And will continue to grow. I have 1500 links right now. Some weeks I had a lot. Some weeks I add no new links. But rarely am I left wondering where I saved a site.
One real gem of Diigo, though, is in its ability to track web based research. You can highlight on the text of websites. You can write notes to yourself. You can flag images that you may refer back to. I remember my early years of internet research. I sometimes printed websites to refer back to. I highlighted in different colors. I put this information onto notecards for organization and reference. Now, you can do this all digitally.
Personally, I have used Diigo when researching for the SCSU Trivia weekend. I was able to organize all of my superhero findings by topic and question number. It was quick and easy to pull up relevant information to quickly answer questions. I have also used the Diigo research tools when preparing for presentations. I am able to document sources and professional citations in the time leading up to the actual organization of the presentation. I have found it to be very slick!
In all honesty, teachers –and therefor their students– are not always the best about citing their sources. This tool makes it super simple to track where information is coming from. I would love to have every student using the World Wide Web to have a Diigo account to track where they are finding their ideas. Diigo even has teacher tools for just this function!
Do you struggle with the mess of lost bookmarks? Have you ever wondered just WHERE it was that you found that link? If you haven’t checked out Diigo yet, do so! You may like it as much as I do.