Bookmarking tools are useful for any researcher, or research-based profession. The Internet is not only a wealth of information, but can be an overwhelming source of information. Trying to sort through all of the results of a search, or even just the countless daily headlines available as more and more local newspapers 'go live' with their own websites can be a daunting task. As a science teacher, it is important for me to stay up-to-date on new discoveries, research and technology. Often, I read a good article, and want to remember to apply it a class later, but can't remember where I found it. Thanks to social bookmarking sites like Furl, this becomes significantly easier.
The Pros: In my previous post, I talked about how it's great that iGoogle (and RSS feeds in general) will search out the newest headlines on any topic of my choice. Here is the tool that I can then use to save them, so that even as they're replaced in a feed by newer headlines, I can still access them, tagged and annotated to help sort for relevancy. Furl, with it's quick and easy toolbar add-on, makes it easy to save something now and come back to it when I have time. And you never lose an article - because Furl archives a complete copy of the page's html, it can't be lost due to outdated or broken links. Also, easy tagging with topics/keywords for future searching is a big bonus. In terms of using technology for teaching, this isn't a bad way to find articles to assign for additional reading.
The Cons: It may seem petty, but I find the site visually unappealing. I feel like I'm reading a bunch of Google text ads and not a list of my favorite articles. This is an important reminder: you can have the most relevant, useful, high-quality content and usability out there, but if your website isn't appealing, the negative associations destroy what you've set out to do.
That's not to say I won't use it. I'm sure I can adjust to the layout in time. Certainly as a tool for tracking articles for future reading and reference, it has a valuable place in teaching.
References: Furl.net, Wikipedia:Furl
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