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The Bottomless Toolbox

A question was raised in class this week- are you a chronic bookmarker? Yes, guilty as charged. I bookmark a ton of things that I find online- mildly interesting things, resources to use next year in class (that I forget about), lists of cool products on Amazon, etc. They pile up quickly, are a jumbled mess, and most are never looked at again. 

As someone who is a self-proclaimed neat freak, and my closet is organized by type of clothing and color, I cannot believe how atrocious my bookmarks folder looks. I could and would organize these if I used them more often but I don't. This begs the question- do I not use them more often because they are not organized? Or do I not organize them because I don't use them? A true paradox. 

However, this week is the week that I realized the virtual toolbox does not have a bottom. It is truly limitless. We explored several new tools this week and I got on to almost every single one of them just to view and peruse briefly, and then picked a handful to explore further as this week progresses. My initial thoughts on these tools are summarized below. 

  • Diigo - I thought that I would love this tool, by the explanation and summary of the website it is meant to help with organizing your bookmarks, and you can annotate about the websites you are marking. I think this has a lot of potentials and there are good things that I would use, but I do not feel like it is going to be easy to use and the interface is just not appealing to me. 
  • Nuclino- I joined the class section but nothing is posted yet. Not too sure about this tool since no one in the class has posted anything. It seems like it has the potential to be a helpful tool for sharing resources and expanding knowledge and I like the interface better than Diigo. 
  • Badge List- this seems fun! I love elements of gamification and completing tasks to collect badges is right up my alley!
  • Quora- I am quite excited to explore this further. I spent time picking topics that were interesting to me both personally and professionally. My initial reaction is that this seems like a grown-up version of Twitter/Reddit.
  •  Goodreads- this was fun to set up and browse through my recommendations of books to read, it seems like there is potential here but I have not explored the community part of this much. 
There is something similar that I found a few weeks ago called LikeWise, an app on the Google Play store, where you can connect with people and give/receive recommendations on TV shows, movies, books, and podcasts. It has been helpful to feel connected during quarantine and to get recommendations on my next binge. 

The virtual toolbox is truly limitless. As society changes and needs arise, new tools will be developed in response to those needs.

Comments

  1. KendylJune 2, 2020 at 3:12 PM

    I appreciate your initial feedback on these tools. I have not yet played around in them, but am interested to play around in them. I am not someone that bookmarks much, but I am an avid Pinterest-er (is that a word? Pinner?) so there may be some adjustments needed for me on a differnt site!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LeahJune 3, 2020 at 10:24 AM

    I'm an avid bookmarker, too, but I'm very anal about keeping mine organized. I often use Pinterest to bookmark things I find online such as gardening ideas or recipes. If I come across an interesting article that I want to reference later it goes into a specific bookmark folder that fits its topic.

    Thanks for your initial thoughts on some of the tools for this week! Someone in a previous class I took did a project on Diigo and it actually looked very useful. However, I felt the same way as you when I initially browsed the site. I agree that Badge List looks fun and I like the gamification aspect behind it. Quora is something I've used for a long time but I created a new account just for instructional design topics. It does remind me of a grown up Reddit of sorts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bruce E. Screws, Jr.June 7, 2020 at 9:52 PM

    Until I read your post, I didn't think of myself as a bookmarker. I do not have many bookmarks in my webbrower and I almost never save any posts on social media. Then, I realized that I often bookmark videos through YouTube's playlist function. I mostly bookmark videos to show people. I like being the guy with a repertoire of YouTube videos to show people. For example, I have a five different "show wife" playlists. When they get too long, I start a new one. I have saved hundreds and hundreds of videos to show her. I have other playlists for music for different occasions and videos that I may want to incorporate into the lessons I teach. I never thought of making YouTube playlists as bookmarking!

    I recommend checking out Jasmyn's post about her Instagram bookmarking if you haven't already.

    ReplyDelete

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