Confessions of a Diigo Addict

Hi, my  name is Amber Hooks and I’m a Diigo addict.   

I can honestly say that I will try almost anything once - food, adventures, teaching strategies, and new tools.  Occasionally I get stuck on something new and quite frankly, I exhibit all of the symptoms of an addict.  That’s where I am now with Diigo, and my friends and family may secretly be planning an intervention.

How did I get here?

I spent some time last school year experimenting with different ways to bookmark sites and remember Diigo being one of the tools I looked at, but I just didn’t do anything with it. Recently I’ve been reintroduced to it by an administrator and can’t seem to get enough.  Housework, grading, face-to-face communication - these are all currently being ignored because of my obsession with Diigo.

What is Diigo?

Diigo is a browser add-on extension that is basically a social bookmarking website.  This sums it up pretty well, but doesn’t explain much.   I use Diigo in the following ways:

• Online bookmarking.  I have previously bookmarked things in my browser and NEVER go back to that list.  It was pretty much useless.  I didn’t remember I had something there to fit what I was looking for or forgot what it was called.  Now I can tag my bookmarks. I can easily find them in my library or when I enter a new query in Google, a Diigo reference appears before my results list telling me what I’ve already bookmarked on that topic, if anything. Or more likely, I had bookmarked it at school, and not at home where I was now working.

• Highlight and Sticky Notes. Do you remember a time when you had to print a website to take notes on it or highlight it? Perhaps you’re still there.  Diigo’s toolbar allows me to pin a sticky note or highlight sections of websites. Both tools are easy to use and easy to find.

• Building my PLN. The social part of Diigo allows me to join and create groups on specific topics of interest.  This give me immediate access to sites others have already bookmarked and includes their notes and highlights.  I’m able to follow other Diigo members and to see their bookmarks, notes, and highlights on given topics of interest.  

So now what?

Hopefully Diigo is going to save me some time when researching various topics.  Maybe this will make up for the time spent looking on Diigo that could have been spent grading, vacuuming, or just spending time with others.