Pretty good, but I don't know about Del.icio.us.

I was very hopeful that I would like the delicious account. In fact I was excited to get the links of my colleagues and others.  In the end, I can definitely see that this could have some very nice uses for students doing research or teachers interested in specific subjects, but in the end, I really can’t say I’m going to keep up with this account.

There really weren’t that many commonalities between the types of websites I am interested in and the ones that my colleagues bookmarked. I did like some of websites under the technology tag, but in the end I could probably find other sites like those of my friends on my own.

I am not a very consistent soul. I have to say that my computer is just as disorganized as my office desk. I tried to be consistent with my tags, but mine do vary a little. I also noticed, I didn’t go crazy with tags. I only used a few for each link, two or three seemed like more than enough to me. I would say that the tags of others did have some influence over me, but not a great deal. I did also try to use the same tags across the different tools I used, but I don’t think I met my goal of being consistent with that either.

In terms of teaching tagging to students, I think I would try to run a discussion. Since I, myself, don’t feel 100% comfortable with tagging webpages, I’d begin by going to a web page they all are familiar with. Then would explain how Delicious works and ask them to collectively brainstorm a list of tags they think would be good. Then in a large group discussion, I would ask them to explain their choices and evaluate what makes a good tag, what wouldn’t make sense to them. Once we had a discussion, we would make a list of “rules” to follow when thinking of tags. I would, of course, guide them through this process.

When it comes to tagging, I’ve used the word technology the most. As it turns out I have a ton of tags that I’ve only used once. It seems that tagging is not one of my gifts. I bet my ultra organized friends had a field day with this, but I…did not do so well.

I added useful tags, but I did not actually write any annotations or descriptions of my web pages. The reason I didn’t write any annotations is because I really have been lucky in the past finding the pages I want by using my favorite search engine. Since Delicious was new to me, I didn’t really see the capabilities of the site. At the time, I didn’t figure I would actually use it long term. If I do keep my account long term, I think it would be useful to add some annotations. And the more websites that I find, the more useful those annotations will become. For example, if I have many websites with the tags web 2.0 tools, then it will be advantageous for me to write a description more specific to the exact content of the page so I won’t have to open every link, I can just skim the information I wrote and choose the page I was looking for with out having to open each page individually. It also might help anyone that has access to my bookmarks because they may be better able to weed out sites they are interested in, or choose ones that they are interested in.

I could use delicious to connect with other teachers who teach similar units. I always like to use resources that have been approved by my friends and colleagues. If someone has marked a certain page, I know they probably liked it, and are using it or considering using it.

In terms of the tag similarities, I didn’t find a terribly high amount of overlap in tags, but I did find that Geri’s bookmarked sites were similar in nature to ones I’d like…probably because we know each other and we teach the same subjects.

I think I might use the network feature if I was doing research with a group of people and I wanted to share access with some of my group mates. I would put everyone in my group in my network and ask them to bookmark sites they thought had valuable information. Then we could discuss the readings and figure out how to proceed.

For example, My husband’s two college roommates and their wives have been asking us to go to Vegas with them for two years. My husband and I have never been, but two of the four friends have. While we are deciding what hotels to choose, and what activities we would like to participate in, we could bookmark helpful sites. We could all visit the sites and then compare prices and accommodations.

                                                          

There are certainly a number of creative ways to use the site and if I could convince my friends to use the site along with me, I would enjoy the aspects of the program that would allow us to collaborate. The idea of planning an entire vacation without having to ever meet and hash out details is so great. I’m thinking that we’d probably use it in conjunction with Google Docs to create lists and narrate some of our ideas. I would enjoy seeing what kinds of pages my friends would pick in comparison to me and with busy lives we’d be successful in getting organized. And a little bit of organization goes a long way in the busy lives of friends who are also teachers, mom’s, dad’s, and coaches.