Have any of you read Gary Paulsen's Hatchet? If so, you no doubt remember poor Brian surrounded by swarms of gnats and mosquitoes even to the degree that his eyes and nose were clouded by the offenders! That horrifying image always stuck with me, and to a large degree it colored the way that I looked at social bookmarking tags. I considered them a nuisance, an unwelcome presence that buzzed about the bottom of webpages I tried to view.
I wasn't sure of these semantic intruders' origins nor could I speak to their intent, but I did know that ignoring them and hoping they would go away was out of the question. The blue underlined pests buzzed around the screen and distracted me from my webquests. Honestly, if I came across a website or blog that harbored these little intruders, I would hit the back button with lightning speed. Could any site that gave refuge to that disorganized mess of words (and I do hate a mess!) really be credible? Really?
Well, that was my opinion until the wee hours of this morning. Imagine my surprise when I heard that these "tags" (as I learned they were called) really held some value. I have to credit the guys at Common Craft for my changed heart: really, those fellows are amazing! Who would ever have thought that a white board, a few paper dolls, and a dry-erase marker could be such an effective educational tool?
Once I watched their video and listened to the podcast by Kathleen Gilroy, my previous disdain melted away. Concepts like "the magic middle," "topical authority," and "folkarchy" suddenly added purpose to what I previously considered worthless junk.
After such a thorough introduction into Del.icio.us, Furl and Ma.gnolia seemed to pale in comparison, so I didn't even pursue them. Instead, I just played around with the tags already posted in Del.icio.us, spending most of my time in the most popular tags in the food section.
So, what is my new and improved opinion of social bookmarking? Well, I like the idea of using one's own system of organization to create order out of the increasing tangled worldwide web. How many times have I wished that there was a better way to categorize my bookmarks, one that would allow greater flexibility in nomenclature? My own word associations do far more to charge the synapses than do the stilted titles of some website. The title of the play Tanglewood Tales is a far better reminder than the name of the article which discusses the play, "Hawthorne in Salem."
But will I use it? Will I encourage my students to use it? I think I'll have to be sure that those little clouds at the bottom of the screen are fireflies or lightning bugs before I do!
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