Scuttle: Open Source Social Bookmarking Tool
Scuttle is an Open Source tool for creating and sharing web bookmarks. It is similar to del.icio.us and supports the del.icio.us API. The great thing about Scuttle is that you can download the source and run the application on your own server. Today my friend, Dick McPartland, came by and installed the necessary software and we now have Scuttle running locally at Lewis Elementary
This means that we can provide our students with a social bookmarking tool, running locally in our building. Several teachers have asked for a tool similar to del.icio.us. I wanted to set up Scuttle so that students did not have to create a login on a remote system. As they work on projects and research they will be able to organize their sources using Scuttle.
I think this will present some interesting opportunities for both students and teachers, since the bookmarking will be in the open and easily accessed/shared by others. I anticipate teachers learning of many valuable resources by watching the RSS feed of the most recently bookmarked sites. I plan to add the RSS feed to both our student and staff pages to make these resources even more transparent. This should be fun…
Update: Todd Slater comments about ScuttlEDU… He has added additional fields to the registration process so that a teacher’s name and grade level can automatically become tags when you post a page. A great idea, and a great example of how an Open Source tool can be expanded on by others.
Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, scuttle
January 24th, 2006 23:28
Wow, can I enroll in second grade again? I’d love to be there tagging.
January 25th, 2006 05:21
EXCELLENT! Thanks for sharing that one. I’m now sharing it with our tech directors who have been objecting to del.icio.us . THis just might do the trick.
January 25th, 2006 09:14
I’ve hacked up the previous release to allow for automatic tagging based on a teacher profile (subject and grade level). If that’s something you’d be interested in: blog post and demo.
January 26th, 2006 14:20
Hi Tim, nice find, but…
It is certainly great to have an interoperable, open source alternative to Yahoo’s Del.icio.us - but why do you feel it is important for your school to run it, and not just use Del.icio.us? Besides missing out on all the connectedness of Del.icio.us’, not to mention the liability your school ha taken on by offering and maintaining such a service…
I realise that offering internal versions of email, blogging, ePortfolios, and what ever else becomes popular in the real world is just what schools feel they need to do - but I can’t see the reasoning. I’m hoping you’ll help me out here Tim.
Will your students have access to their bookmarks when they are no longer students at your school?
Do you think your school has a better capacity than Yahoo to keep out spam?
My next question is solved by its interoperability with Del.icio.us, but I’ll ask it anyway, because I think it’s still important in the big picture:
Will new teachers (and students) be expected to use your system instead of the free web based one they have been using in other schools?
Does your school unnecessarily take on an extra liability in adopting its own system rather than using ‘what’s out there’?
Please don’t get me wrong Tim. I am excited by the opportunities offered by a free, open source and somewhat interoperable alternative to Del.icio.us. But am perplexed on what is a better approach to ICTs in schools. Real world, or our world?
January 26th, 2006 22:01
Leigh asked why not just use del.icio.us rather than Scuttle. Mainly because most of my students do not yet have email accounts. That is required for signing up for del.icio.us. Also the version of scuttle we are running is inside our firewall.
I look at the use of tools such as Scuttle as a kind of a sandbox where my teachers and students can learn about these various types of tools and then as they get older/more experienced, branch out into those that are more generally available.
I love del.icio.us, but for 4th graders in an elementary school, I think this is a better solution…
January 27th, 2006 00:52
Tim: we’ve been running a SCUTTLE for quite some time now in our office and really like it (http://cfdl.auckland.ac.nz/scuttle/). SCUTTLE supports the del.icio.us API so bookmarks should be able to be exchanged between both systems. I like the idea of running a kind of institutional system like SCUTTLE for a couple of reasons. Tagging as a means of adding metadata to content starts to breakdown as you get increasingly more and more tags added by increasing numbers of people; by creating a kind of institutional repository of bookmarks you get some of the benefits of more specific ontologies that are part of particular community or institution. The fact that SCUTTLE is open source as well provides a great opportunity for personalisation for a wide range of needs. The hack mentioned above is a great example of this and something that wouldn’t have been possible with just del.icio.us. I also wonder when ads are going to show up on del.icio.us. Using ‘commercial’ services for everything is a fine idea, and something that Leigh has been suggesting for some time but at what point do the commercial interests of these companies interfere with the goal of education? Just a though.
January 28th, 2006 17:13
Yep, I spose so Tim. Thanks for pointing that out. This get’s me thinking about a number of other issues such as appropriateness of censorship filtering in schools and stuff. Thanks.