Social Bookmarking Warning!

Pocket is very easy to use and allows quick bookmarking of sites and other online content.  Being able to read the bookmarked content offline is a benefit, however not all content can be read offline despite what the app says.  This app is good for quick bookmarking on the go as it offers browser extensions and mobile app versions, but falls short of real usefulness in the classroom beyond keeping a personal collection of links and offline versions to read.

Pocket does not offer the option to create different sections within an account in order to share a group of links. There is only one repository for the bookmarked items within Pocket. If I wanted to share a collection of bookmarked items with my students, I have to share each item individually. So to share my sample collection of 20 items relating to trigonometry I have set up for this project, I have to go through the sharing process 20 times. This drawback alone is enough for me to strongly recommend against using it in the classroom. The only benefit I can see is it can collect links and bookmarks on the go to be later put into a social bookmarking site that is better equipped to create shareable collections for the classroom, such as Diigo or eduClipper.

So, what is my recommendation? I choose Diigo. Being able to annotate and highlight pages to emphasize information or comment on content makes Diigo stand out as a great bookmarking tool for the classroom. Diigo is a great tool for students and teachers to use to collaborate on assignments and share annotated links, and the browser add-on in Chrome is easy to use when bookmarking and annotating resources.  The annotation links provide multiple options for marking pages, with multiple highlighting colors, sticky notes, and comment options.  Conversations can occur directly on the page in question.  This is the tool I recommend for use in the classroom.


Here are a few screenshots of my Pocket: