I have long used Google Bookmarks to maintain all of my bookmarks so that I have them no matter which computer or browser I’m running. I use tags more like folders for those, but primarily because I have used the folder method for so long it’s hard to break that habit (I do a lot better with tags in Gmail). However, the thought of searching bookmark sites such as delicious.com to find good sites had actually never really crossed my mind.
I created a (fictitious) list of tags that I would use in my school because of the way the school operates. My list was created from a more “global” perspective–from the point of view of the Tech Integration Specialist. Individual teachers/coaches, et al., could expand this list ad nauseum as their needs dictated (individual classes/sections, sport teams, clubs, etc.). I just didn’t want to get into the minutiae of listing each individual one myself, as they would be fairly dynamic from year to year. This list represents the more constant tags that would remain fixed.
Since this is going up late, and I have the added benefit of having feedback on the list already, I will take a moment to respond to one question: “Do you think it’s better to have more or less tags available?” In the case of a community collection of bookmarks, I would have to make the point that having more is more. In my own personal Gmail, for example, I try to limit the number of tags (labels) that I use because if I want to search for something with a specific tag, I need to remember how I tagged it. (In this case, having a label called “Finances” and a label called “Financial” would be confusing and counter-productive.) With collective bookmarks, however, a larger quantity of specific tags or labels would be very helpful. Using our finance example, having tags such as “Personal Finance,” “Corporate Finance,” “Finance 101,” “Finance 102, MATH02567” will help the students find the information they need faster, as long as they are clued in to the right tags to search for prior to searching.
Click here to view a PDF of the social bookmark tag list I came up with for my fictitious school.
One response to “Investigative Strategies: Tags!”
I also am used to using folders, and it is going to be hard for me to break that cycle and use tags. I really enjoyed the social bookmark tag list that you included for your fictitious school. The tags and descriptions were well thought out.