The Value of Diigo

Diigo, while not new, is still worth writing about.  Many of us are used to bookmarking within our web browser.  And while that has been a fine organization system for years, it might be time to upgrade.  It's just a little button that typically sits near your address bar.  If you are reluctant to change over to a social bookmarking platform, consider these points:

• Diigo allows you to access your bookmarks on any device at any time.  
• You can organize them by tags (think of these as labels) which means that a bookmark can be labeled in multiple ways.  So the website doesn't have to live in one folder. It will even suggest tags based on the site's content.
• Moreover, you can easily share your bookmarks with others.  And, yes, you can import your bookmarks from your old web browser.  
• As you read, you can highlight and take notes. These stay with your website whenever you open it.

Why am I using it?
You might be thinking, "yes, all of these features are great, but is it really SO much better than a web browser?"  For me the answer is yes and here is why I am using Diigo.

• I can ask my students to read an online source and take notes.  Then I can show them my notes and share them as well.  They'll learn from modeling.
• I don't have to scroll through long lists of sites anymore.  Just type in a tag and up come the sites I have associated with that tag.  
• I don't have to remember why I bookmarked a page in the first place because I can leave myself a note saying why.
• Lastly, I can archive a page in such a way that if it is ever removed, I will still have a copy of it.

Here is where to get Diigo (you can even upgrade your account by clicking on Education Edition on the right side of the screen) and here are two resources on how to use it.

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A quick guide to annotation with Diigo.

A Guide to Annotating using Diigo from José Picardo on Vimeo.

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This is a five minute video on how to organize bookmarks.

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Remember this is just a Diigo primer.  Learn three things about now and figure out the rest later.  You don't need to know everything right now and you can't anyway!