Organizing and Socializing

I’ve always been a “type-A,” organized person.  As a kid I was notoriously orderly; I would meticulously clean my room, and I took pride in keeping my desk and personal cubby at school neatly arranged.  Although I continue to operate this way (whether I want to or not), it’s become more of a challenge since becoming a mom.  Many moms will tell you they suffer from what I like to call “mommy mush brain.”  Severity of this condition ranges from being slightly forgetful to being a complete scatterbrain.  While I don’t have a cure for all aspects of “mommy mush brain,” I can at least share with you a way to better organize your web browsing as you seek to learn more about using technology to educate your little ones.

Social bookmarking is a tool that I began using a few months ago.  It’s much like bookmarking with your browser, where you create a list of web pages you frequently visit.  Social bookmarking, however, uses a web-based tool to organize these sites, and because it’s online, you can access this list from any computer, not just on your work or personal computer.  Of course the “social” part means that you can share your bookmarks with anyone you want to see them.  Thus, it becomes a great learning tool, kind of like Twitter or Pinterest.  You simply create a user account and password, and the service will allow you to add a button to the toolbar on your web browser.  When you visit a website you like or think you’ll frequent, simply click on your social bookmarking button and add it to your list.     

There are several social bookmarking sites available.  Some of the more familiar ones are Delicious, Diigo, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Newsvine.  I use Diigo because it was simple to sign up for an account and easy to install the “diigolet” button to my toolbar.  Whenever I find a site that I like or feel could be useful to me, I click the “diigolet” button.  This brings up a box where I can enter a description and tags related to the site (so I can remember exactly what the site is and what I can use it for), and then I add it to my Diigo library.  I have links grouped together in lists, and because I’ve already added tags, I can easily sort my links and narrow any search among them without having to scroll through the entire library.

Diigo allows users to make information public or private; this is useful for those who may want to share professional information, but keep personal links to themselves.  Just as one might follow another colleague or mentor on Twitter, individuals can view and subscribe to someone’s social bookmarking site to learn from the information he or she has already gathered.  Parents and children can also benefit from social bookmarking as they explore learning tools on the web.  When parents find a great educational site, they can add it to a list they’ve created just for their child; this list will be available for them to access at home, at grandma’s house, or anywhere else.   

Here is a link to my Diigo library:  

http://www.diigo.com/list/elanabrister

All of the links I’ve posted so far in this blog are in the “Tech for Tots” list.  Feel free to view any of the other lists as well.  Social bookmarking is truly a user-friendly tool that is well worth the minimal effort it takes to get started.