Bookmarking as a participatory tool
As we said, social bookmarking makes a good example for considering the characteristics of Participatory Web applications. It is these same characteristics that offer general classroom benefits.
Among the characteristics of the Participatory Web we identified in our overview of the Participatory Web were the following:
Here is how these characteristics apply in social bookmarking applications.
Low barriers
Social bookmarking sites assume very minimal equipment/software requirements and at the most basic level are very easy to use. For example, the argument might be made the social bookmarking sites are more readily accessible than even bookmarking on a "personal computer". To be useful on a computer, bookmarking assumes that one either owns the computer or perhaps shares that computer with a limited number of other "users" (assuming the computer is set up to isolate the resources of multiple users). Internet-based bookmarking sites allow access from any computer and would allow students with access through school or library computers to maintain a personal collection of bookmarks. You do not have to purchase software and you do not even need to own a computer.
Bookmarking services are designed to be easy to use. Because the services are browser-based, a user adds information by clicking buttons, selecting on-screen options, or filling in text boxes.
Some bookmarking services allow you to set up your browser so that you can bookmark a page you are viewing within the browser by clicking a button that appears within the "Bookmarks bar" of your browser. You may encounter the term "bookmarklet" used to describe bookmarks intended to be inserted in the bookmarks bar. The bookmarks bar appears at the top of your browser in that area immediately below the area that contains the back, forward, and reload buttons and the textbox containing the address (URL) of the page you are viewing. Clicking one of these buttons will open up a new window that automatically contains information about the page you were viewing (the address in both systems, text you have selected in Diigo) and then allows you to fill in textboxes with additional information. For example, an extension post to del.icio.us for the bookmarking service del.icio.us performs this funciton. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that predates Diigo. More information appears at the end of this page. This convenient system assumes you are using the system from your own computer because when added the buttons become a part of the browser itself. Some may add these buttons to browsers on lab computers because users of social bookmarking services must sign in before using the service. However, this practice can sometimes lead to problems because leaving a service open (not signing out) on a computer that is left on may make open a personal account to other users. While the use of a bookmarklet is very convenient, there are other ways to add bookmarks when you are connecting from a public computer.
Personal ownership of data with opportunity to remix
A user can tag individual bookmarks as public or private. Public bookmarks are available to others by way of the several search methods available within the system. When others view your bookmarks, they cannot alter your personally generated content (e.g., your comments). However, you can search the bookmarks saved as public by others and save bookmarks to your own collection. Once saved (private or public), the comments and tags of the individual who first saved the bookmark disappear and you can add your own. So, even when bookmarks exist within a public space, the unique content of each "author" is retained.
Harness collective intelligence
Bookmarking services offer opportunities to take advantage of the work of others. Making all or part of a personal bookmark collection public and available through search or RSS feed shares this content with others.
Here is a unique way to think about the value of discovering Internet resources by tapping into the bookmark collections of others. I once read a blog contrasting the experience of using a search service (e.g., Google) with the experience of finding resources within a participatory environment as the difference between "search" and "discovery" (I wish I could reference the source for this distinction). It is true that you can search a bookmarking service in the same way you search using a search service. However, a bookmarking service offers another possibility (i.e., discovery). The idea is that in discovery you often locate interesting and valuable resources you did not set out to find by examining the "collections" of individuals with similar interests to your own. Individuals with unique perspectives can expand your own perspective by offering resources they find valuable.
Bookmarking services in a class environment
As a starting point, social bookmarking sites offer an interesting alternative to traditional search sites. The search/discovery experience is a different way to locate Internet resources relevant to educational topics.
In keeping with the "participatory" theme, the unique value of "social" bookmarking is in organizing and sharing collections of links.
Educators can create bookmarking accounts specific to their classes and share the account with students by way of RSS. Diigo offers a way to create a social site specific to a class (see tools section). Educators might also take responsibility for organizing the account and involve students in contributing annotated links by sharing the login and password.
Students can create their own accounts. The instructor and other students might connect to these resources by RSS feeds or by making use of unique tags. The use of unique tags become a useful strategy for organizing the contributions of many with minimal inconvenience. For example, it is common practice to ask individuals who attend a professional conference to tag their blog entries relevant to that experience with a common tag (e.g., ISTE15 for the International Society of Technology in Education conference 2015). The same technique can be applied to classroom bookmarking projects. If I taught high school biology, I might tag bookmarks I add this year as grabebiology15 and ask students involved in course projects to do the same.