The Social Bookmarking Battle

Out of the several social bookmarking options I reviewed I would have to say Diigo and delicious are my favorites (just like the millions out there).  Both of these bookmarking tools help you easily organize and save different websites by using a tagging system. They also let you retrieve these bookmarked sites no matter which computer you are on, which works great for people like me that use multiple different computers a day. The way the tools organize, tag, and share seem to be about the same with both tools. One big difference that I have found, however, is that Diigo seems to have more cools tools besides just tagging. I love that Diigo has a highlighter, sticky note, and a capture tool and what makes it even cooler is that all the things you do actually stay on the site. I especially love that the text that I highlight goes to my Diigo home page and it acts as a type of a "notecard" saving and organizing all that important information I found.  I have the free educators upgrade in Diigo so I am not sure how it compares to the normal version. I haven’t fully investigated all its uses, but I think it would be a really great tool for students who are doing research on the web. Not only can they take their notes on the web page, but it can also be shared with you so you can actually monitor their progress and give them tips and ideas. As for delicious I really liked it when I was using it, but now that I have seen all the Diigo can do I will most likely use Diigo full-time (in- and outside of this class) . This tool would be great when you find a really cool website and have a tendency to forget where it was or what it was about.  There have been several times that I have been thinking of an activity and then I have to spend my prep period searching for the darn site that I got the activity or idea from.   With this tool at school I could tag it (for example Algebra II Graphing Quadratics worksheet generator) and then I could start compiling my resources and save myself a large amount of time.    

I still have not downloaded Diigo to my school computer yet but that is because my school computers are frozen so anytime I download something it disappears the when I shut down.  I really think that Diigo would be an amazing tool when students are doing a research project.  (I was also thinking of having my math students doing research on the use of mathematics in the real world or of a famous mathematician). They could bookmark their sites, tag them, and then take notes using just one tool. How cool is that? Diigo is like the modern day notecard method of doing research.