Updates on DELICIOUS

** Please note: Post was impromptu and has not yet been edited for content or grammar**

Since I received a great comment today on a recent (ok... not so recent) post regarding READY and Delicious I thought it would be good to update the blog as well as answer some questions. I have been away in Florida for the last few weeks meeting my boyfriends new twin nieces and also touring the University of Florida. I will do a separate post discussing my trip there and my opinions/thoughts but first... to the business at hand.

Delicious...

As most of my readers know DELICIOUS is a social bookmarking application where users can tag links that are relevant to them and share them with the entire world or just a select few people if they so desire. The implications for academic advising are significant when you consider how many times we are asking students to take a broad look at their career interests, do research on them, etc. Delicious allows students of many different discplines to do this (as well as advisors and professors) and compile them in the aggregate for future students (and themselves) to utilize when considering majors and careers. This is particularly important because academic advisors can't possibly be competent and well versed in every area of study. Instead we are expected to be jack of all trades when it comes to knowing what types of careers students can get with a particular major, how much the projected salary is etc.

With DELICIOUS, students can compile all of their research into one area and use it for their personal reference as well as others. For an example of how we at the University at Buffalo are being to utilize the service, please visit
my delicious account.

You will see over to the right side a bunch of tag "bundles" entitled things like career exploration, career fields, General Advisement, Prehealth, Pre law, UB Courses etc. Each bundle gathers all the tags together on a particular theme and makes them easy to navigate. In particular, I would like to attract your attention to the career fields bundle. Underneath that bundle you will find tags which reference some of the most common careers or majors that we offer at UB (some that we don't are also included for reference purposes). If you were a student who was interested in learning more about the field of nutrition, you could go ahead and click on the "nutrition" tag. Once you have done this, you will be taken to a few links which highlight the latest news in nutrition, links to possible career fields within this field of study, salary information or whatever else we may have aggregated based on students we've previously worked with who have has an interest in nutrition.

This is helpful for undecided (or decided) students because they can easily integrate their research into our main database by becoming part of the academicadvisor's network or, if they choose not to create a delicious account, can access our resources without signing up or logging in. Students frequently come into my office with preconceived notions about what a particular career entails or how a major is chosen. With these links students can sift through information at a rapid pace while also learning more about all of the career options available to them.

The social networking aspect of delicious is also important to note. You can utilize the facebook integration function to post your booksmarks on your profile as well as share your links and exploration with others. My University experience class this semester has an assignment where they will need to post ten links to a delicious account on their possible career/major choices (all students are undecided on a major). I hope that this sampling of students will be a good place to start thinking about the broader implications of this technology as well as the bugs that still need to be worked out.


Deliciouss' use in academic advising is something that I am hoping to present at the Region 1 NACADA conference being held in Saratoga Springs, NY in March 2009. If you are interested in learning more about this service and how I am using it please feel free to email or comment and I will get back to you with more details. Also, if you are advisor who is interested please continue to visit the blog and more details will be forthcoming if the proposal is accepted for presentation at the Region 1 conference. I am hoping to make it successful enough to be presented at the 2009 annual conference next year. I welcome any thoughts or criticisms you may have.