Chapter 6 and The Social Web

There's no doubt about it that the Web has become a place to gather, to socialize. And I can see it being used to share what students have done with each other so they can learn from it and create 'a continuous converstions among the participants.' I'm not convinced that Twitter is a way to go about sharing in the classroom. To me, twitter seems more like a distraction. Richardson cites one example where they teacher used twitter to communicate in real time what the class was doing during their field trip with other students who were unable to attend. Why not just use a cell phone or make a podcast. The twittering just seems so intrusive and if a student could not attend obviously they are doing something else or maybe they're sick which means they don't have time to read something that has been twittered.

Richardson also discusses ways in which to track of all the information you might want or need. He identifies Diigo and del.icio.us as two social bookmarking sites that have come to the forefront of all the available sites out there. While I can understand the usefulness and purpose of using social bookmarking as a way to filter and organize your items of interest, I do not see how this type of thing would be useful in the classroom for students. I say this because students have very little flexibility when it comes to using computers in the classroom. The sites they can access are already given to them. Therefore, bookmarking is not realistic. It could be very useful to me in my current research job and in my own personal life. As a teacher I could also see it as a way to store sites so you don't have to go searching for it everytime.