Week 4: Diigo and Google Reader

Diigo

When I first heard about Diigo and Delicious, I didn't understand why people would want to share their bookmarks with anyone else. Even though I was aware of several Web 2.0 tools, I was still stuck in the Web 1.0 mentality, where the Internet was still primarily a place one goes to find information. I had always used bookmarks as shortcuts to my most commonly visited sites. It never occurred to me that bookmarking could be a social activity.

I started using Diigo about ten months ago after hearing about it at a workshop I went to for work. I was not impressed with it initially. I was expecting it to replace browser-based bookmarks, and it could, but really Diigo is more aptly characterized as a reference tool. During the Spring semester, I began using it with the students taking my Economics and World History classes. Many of them actually liked. It is very handy when conducting web-based research. It is easy to bookmark sites and because all of your bookmarks are stored online, students can access the sites they have saved on any computer. Additionally, tagging enables a person to easily organize content.

Diigo’s highlight feature makes it very easy to save quotes or take notes. You can even post notes to your bookmarks. All of this can be shared with the public or a select group of individuals. Diigo offers teachers the ability to create student accounts. This enables teachers to control how students share their content. I used Diigo with my classes for both individual and group work. Sometimes, I would bookmark something and highlight sections on which I wanted the students to comment. They could type their comments in Diigo and easily share with the entire class. For my own part, I use Diigo constantly to keep track of things I find on the internet. 

RSS

Google Reader is by far the most distracting web tool. It provides instant access to incoming feeds from any site of interest. Because the user subscribes to changes on the website, there is no need to navigate to the same website repeatedly to find out what is new, and it's harder to miss something. I mostly use Google Reader on my Android phone now. It’s very handy for keeping up to date with my favorite news sources. I especially like it on the phone because it gives me quick access to interesting content when I’m not able to get on a computer.