The more you explore the more you learn: my impressions of social bookmarking

As my learning process goes on, I happen to reflect upon the kind of tasks the teacher assigns to us: which is their primary function? Why is it necessary to read as many websites and blogs as possible? Is my exploration of the blogosphere useful exclusively for me, or can it be somehow of interest to a larger number of people? Bookmarking gave me the answer to all these questions.

Social bookmarking is basically a service available on the Web which places a "list" of "special" websites at the users' disposal. What renders these websites so "special" is the fact that they are selected websites, picked out by the users - and not by the computer - because they can be useful for the whole virtual community.

Therefore, this kind of social software can be considered as a sort of "storeroom" filled with a number of interesting "objects" - the users' favourites - which are kept there until thay are needed. It is not an "outlet store" where we can find "a little bit of everything", but rather a collection of websites and blogs deliberately chosen by the users after being carefully "scanned", for their primary function consists in providing a web source from which anyone can gain benefit: the entire online community is the potential beneficiary of this service. It is precisely in this process of classifying and sharing bookmarks where, in my opinion, the real pivot of interest of this social software lies.

I think that this activity is particularly helpful for us because it "obliges" us to reflect upon what we read online, in order to "perceive" its usefulness (or uselessness): each of us is, in a certain sense, responsible for the success of the whole process, as every single contributor classifies a set of web sources deemed to be of common interest. Therefore, what is initially a personal choice becomes inevitably part of a wider project.

As a matter of fact, the websites selected by my classmates all deal with a series of topics that can be useful for the whole group. Just to cite a few examples, Svjetlana picked a very interesting website entitled "Blogging for beginners", where we can find different but complementary definitions of 'blog' that can help all of us to understand more deeply what the object of the course consists in.
Marco, Francesca and Barbara chose some websites centered on the development of writing skills, whereas one of the web sources classified by Annalisa focused on the improvement of listening skills. Noteworthy is also the website "Learning vocabulary with games and quizzes" chosen by Alice. Last but not least, I'd like to mention the online "Dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms used in the United Kingdom", catalogued by Lucrezia. It can be a useful means of getting used to the informal register which characterizes all languages.