Ever imagine what it would be like to collaborate with someone in a different school district?  A different state?  A different country?  What would be some of the limitations in this collaboration?  Being miles apart presents unique challenges to collaborating.  Social book marking is a great way to collaborate with people all over the world.  I have recently discovered the power of social book marking as a collaboration tool when I utilized the following resources

Diigo:  A way for educators to share what works in education

Diigo.com 

Suppose one was to find something interesting online that could have value in the classroom.  What does one do with this information?  Text it to another educator?  Email it to a colleague?  print it out and put it in teachers mailboxes?  All of these methods would work; not efficiently though.  Diigo attempts to solve this problem.  When one finds a website, it can be bookmarked through the website diigo.com.  It can be seen, commented on, and important parts highlighted.  It is the most efficient way to get information out to all your colleagues!

Twitter:  Find out what others are doing!

Twitter.com 

Social Book marking took a giant leap forward when more and more people began using the social media website twitter.com.  Twitter was primarily used by elite computer users and enthusiasts primarily as a way to discuss what was interesting on the internet.  Then other users embraced it due to its comp ability with cell phones.  Twitter has been instrumental in bringing people together and collaborating because of the hashtag (#).  The hashtag gives the user the ability to group certain posts using this # symbol.  It has become an efficient way to see whats new in the twitter universe and can be updated in real time!

Below are some interesting social bookmarking sites

Social bookmarking for books

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9692957-2.html

7 things one should know about social bookmarking

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7001.pdf

Importance of user generated tags 

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/125-social-bookmarking-sites-importance-of-user-generated-tags-votes-and-links/