The idea of the Internet being a social web is something I've never really given much thought beyond the obvious. Of course it must be social because of the ease with which we can communicate with one another and publish our ideas. However, the idea that we can so easily share our research, our "bookmarks" and other such things is rather interesting. I thought that Bloglines was one of the most "high-tech" sites out there due to its ability to constantly search and collect information for its users on topics of the user's choosing without any further work on our part beyond entering the RSS code to Bloglines. Reading about Furl and Del.icio.us really changed my mind! How neat is it that we can use these sites to create individualized instruction for our students and send them links to sites that could help them in their research for projects?! The idea that we can create homework questions or even just consideration questions for each student which cater to that student's interests or topics of study is great! This individualized take on education is exactly what education should be leaning toward. We need to give our students the most personalized education is possible because no two students are alike or will be interested in the same things.
Furl especially sounds promising with the multitude of keywords to search and the ease with which users can "bookmark" a site to return to. I like that users can post comments of their own on their bookmarks, kind of as a mental note about what to use the site for or what was especially interesting. Then, with the capability of adding multiple tags or keywords to a website, searching for and sharing similar sites becomes that much easier.
Excuse me while I go investigate Furl farther.....
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