Saturday, November 3, 2007

Reflections 2: The Most Useful Tool...del.icio.us!

Late last school year, I was complaining about trying to keep my bookmarks organized (both at school and at home) when my officemate, Scott, suggested that I try del.icio.us. I remember saying that I would give it a go but never even visited the site, but now, thanks to this course, I am hooked! I like that I can keep all of my bookmarks from school and home, whether they are personal or professional, all in one, easy to access place.

I love to bookmark things and a few years ago I would have way too many bookmarks in my "favorites" folder to be of much use; when the end of the year came I would feel relieved to get rid of all of them and start the new year with a clean slate. During the last few years, I have stopped bookmarking things and trying to rely on google to find sites that would pop into my mind from months earlier, however, not even google can find everything. Now I can bookmark like crazy and then easily categorize, search, and share my finds plus I can access my bookmark lists from any computer.

The portability piece is very cool. I will continue to learn and become more comfortable with del.icio.us. I will eventually have a group for EMT stuff, hiking, cycling, and who knows what else. As far as how this will help my teaching, I will be able to find those obscure sites that I ran across in the distant past to show my students. I don't see any reason why students couldn't look at my bookmarks as I don't have anything inappropriate but I will have to seriously consider how I will approach this in the future. My wife has also starting using del.icio.us and loves it as much as I do!

3 comments:

Harriet said...

Well, it sounds to me that you will be very busy "tagging" and "bookmarking" for a very long time. It appears that you thoroughly enjoy searching out many different sites and being able to organize and keep them in order. I am always trying to find things that I have misplaced in a finle that I assured myself that I would always be able to find. Using this tool in the classroom will be very interesting and I am sure enjoyable for all your students. I know that you are an avid bicycalist and I am sure that you will find other people and sites to add to your ever increasing favorite list.

Kathy N said...

I have never bookmarked electronically before and I know that it will be a site I will use regularly with practice. I am so impressed with the ideas you have in keeping yourself and activities organized and informed. With your family, hobbies and workday I wonder how you would do it all without this type of tool.

Julie said...

Though I haven't begun to explore all the ways del.icio.us could help me be organized, your comments about obscure site was so relevant. I can't remember how many times I bookmarked a site without creating a "good" name so I would recognize it in my favorites list never to find it again. Del.icio.us takes away the drudgery tasks, which makes it a very effective tool.