Step 1: Discuss Tagging Policy Tagging can get sloppy – spelling errors, verbs v.s. nouns, etc. You probably noticed that about my tag stream. This can make trouble down the road if you want to publish your resources to a web site using an RSS. So, come up with a few standard tags. But don’t get bogged down – you’re not creating a formal taxonomy, rather it’s a folksonomy. Also, people can add whatever additional tags they want so they can remember the item as well as a description. If you want to understand more about tag strengths and weaknesses, I recommend the following articles:      Tags Strengths, Weaknesses And How To Make Them Work by Robin Good   Tips for Effective Tagging from TechSoup   Tips for Tidying Tags by Alexandra Samuel

Tags Users add tags to describe online items, such as images, videos, bookmarks or text. These tags are then shared and sometimes refined. For a more detailed definition of tags, see the Wikipedia entry here. Here are the examples I showed you in the screencast, using the tag “sharpie.” Photos Web Pages Event Videos People For an excellent primer on tagging, see Andy Carvin’s PBS LearningNow essay.

For a group of teachers working in language arts classrooms, common shared resources might include sites connected to reading, writing, problem solution essays, evaluation essays and poetry resources.  For social studies teachers, shared resources might include sites connected to topics of study like Greece, Rome, World Wars, Middle Ages, Europe, South America and current events.   Common tags, then, could include the name of their school, followed by their grade level, content area, and topic of study.  Here's an example of the tagging language that my professional learning community has developed:      salem6la_reading salem6la_writing salem6la_ps salem6la_eval salem6la_poetry salem6ss_rome salem6ss_greece salem6ss_ce