Book Reflection: Chapter 6: The Social Web: Learning Together

The magic word for Will Richardson in chapter 6 is "tag" as it relates to two forms of social networking: Twitter and social bookmarking. He describes Twitter as a "microblogging" tool that has become what some describe as "a 'sixth sense' in terms of the network(s)" that the Internet provides. (Richardson, 2010) This social networking system revolves around a web of people who are either following, being followed, or both as they micro-blog about a variety of topics in 140 characters or less. As a result, an impressive vocabulary has emerged to describe the various actions taking place in the Twitterverse. If you're like me, you wish there was a Twitter dictionary of sorts to help define them all…oh wait, there is: Twittonary.

Within the Twitter community there are two tags to take note of:

• Use the "@" sign in combination with a person's Twitter name to denote your response to one of their tweets. This helps to make connections with others and build up your list of contacts.
• Use the "#" sign (also known as a "hash" tag) before key words to mark your tweets so that they will show up in a search using that particular tag.

I was introduced to Twitter a few years ago at a technology education conference, ACTEM. I created the account but didn't see much value or use in it (it didn't help that my school district was blocking Twitter either). However, as time progressed and I started following other teachers, tech. integrators and just really smart and savvy people it has transformed into something more. It is now a tool for sharing cool websites, asking for suggestions and ideas for an activity, and cries for help when technology doesn't go the way you want it to (I use it for this A LOT).

The other half of chapter 6 focuses on the concept of social bookmarking, with the two largest players in this arena being Delicious and Diigo. Social bookmarking is simply the act of taking the bookmarks you have stored in your web browser on your computer and moving them to a spot on the Internet. In this configuration, you can access your bookmarks from any computer with Internet access. I had a teacher come to me just this week in a panic because he had somehow lost all of his bookmarks in Firefox. I strongly suggested that we setup a time to meet so that I could show him how to setup a social bookmarking account so that this wouldn't happen to him again. This feature alone in my opinion solidifies social bookmarking as a valuable web tool.

Now, I know what your thinking, "Where does the word 'tag' fit in with social bookmarking?" When you bookmark sites using D-&-D (Delicious-&-Diigo) you have the option to add tags to the entry which can be used in future searches. Think about it, how many sites do you have whose content is applicable across multiple educational disciplines? I used to go so frustrated when trying to organize websites for teachers because I was never sure under what category to list the site…now I don't have to - YEA! Better yet, how many times have you wanted to find a site you bookmarked but can't remember the site's name? If you use tags, then you them to search for the site because you remember that it had something to do with history, videos, a quiz and Napoleon.

The "social" in social bookmarking comes into play once you start adding sites to your library. D-&-D both allow you to see who else has also bookmarked a site or are using similar tag identifiers. This  allows you to search for other users who are bookmarking sites that you both share an interest in. And, do you remember my blog post about RSS feeds…yup, you guessed it. You can setup RSS feeds based on tags so that when someone applies that tag to a newly bookmarked site your aggregator will notify you. At this point in the game we realize that we have come full circle, where "RSS lets us read and connect with what others write; now we can read and connect with what others read as well." (Richardson, 2010)


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