This week I had the opportunity to explore a Web 2.0 tool that has grown up a bit since I last used it. A few years back I was determined to organize my bookmarks and went about trying to find the best method for doing so. What resulted was a bunch of accounts set up with no actual bookmark organization happening. I came across several tools that offered different advantages. I was struggling to determine which one to use. My inability to make a decision resulted in no decision being made at all.
One of the Web 2.0 applications I came across was Diigo. At the time I was looking for a bookmarking tool, so many of the other features were not relevant to me. When I originally looked at Diigo it seemed to me that they were still trying to define their presence on the web. There was no real definition of what the application had the potential to do. Diigo now in version 4.0 as defined its purpose and seemed worthy of a second look. The general overview of Diigo is that it provides tools to assist you with the ability to research, share, and collaborate with other Web users.
One of the first aspects of the site that I explored was Diigos potential as a research tool for my action research. Like other Web 2.0 applications Diigo provides an opportunity to bookmark your research. You are able to organize these bookmarks with tags and lists. In addition to the bookmarking feature you are also able to take and archive screenshots of the sites you are visiting. Giving you a snapshot of a moment in time. One of the distinguishing features is the ability to highlight web text and place sticky notes that are persistent each time you visit a site. As a result you are able to return directly to the content you wanted access to without endless searching (Diigo, 2010).
As a user of Diigo you have the ability to share or not share particular bookmarks. You can also make bookmarks available to only certain groups within Diigo. Through establishing connections with others you begin to develop your own personal network of web archivists, researchers, and bookmarkers. The opportunity to collaborate with others is also an exciting feature of this application. Through the creation of groups you are able to document and bookmark the Web specific to the needs of your particular group. Groups can be public or private, large or small. You can even set a pre-defined list of tags for your group to use to insure consistency in your research documentation.
Finally, I am most excited about the features it offers to educators. Once you are enrolled as an educator you are able to establish accounts for your students with or without an email address for registration. Students of the same class are automatically grouped together into a Diigo Group, providing the user with immediate access to collaboration tools. Privacy settings are pre-set so that only the teacher and fellow students can communicate with the student user. One Web 2.0 difficulty I have had is in the ability to register my students for particular Web 2.0 tools. Setting up email for younger students even with gMail is not advised. Lack of email results in the inability to register for many Web 2.0 tools. It would seem Diigo provides a way around this difficulty.
Reference
Diigo. (2010). Retrieved 01/16/2010 from http://www.diigo.com/index
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