Thing 13

Share your thoughts about tagging. Is tagging a useful way to organize your digital resources and why? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages? What is important to think about before assigning tags to bookmarks or other Internet content?


I love the possibilities this creates for teachers to share their web research.  I think tagging is a great tool to help organize the infinite amount of data available on the internet.  I could really relate to the mess described in bookmarking.  I have hundreds of sites bookmarked at school and it is more trouble to sort through them than it is to do a google search and find potential resources.  I can see how tagging will help organize my resources and allow me quick access to places I have already been.  The obvious advantage is organizing a lot of information so it can be quickly accessed and shared with others.  The amount of research my staff does on their own could potentially be shared by the entire department or entire staff.  I also love that is web based and you are not confined to the computer you are working on.  I have found that to be most frustrating while working at home.  The disadvantages in my mind is it is another place or site you need to go to update and or organize.  I also see coming up with a "common language" to tag items as being critical.  I look forward to learning more about this.  I think if you can overcome a few of these obstacles, the potential for building an active community is there.  Finally,  the user must always keep in mind that your tags are public so appropriateness should be considered while tagging your information.