I spent hours looking at the different website on social bookmarking. A few years ago I took a course on Web tools 2.0. I signed up for a Delicious account, used it for the course and forgot about it. I was unsure how I would use it in the classroom. I was going to use it for my resource only. Things have changed.. I really like Diigo. I have consolidated all my bookmarks from home, school, and Ipad.
Not being a digital native does not mean I am digitally naive. It just takes a while for me to transfer the social technology to classroom use. I must admit I have spent many hours “Stumbling” on the Ipad for entertainment. I am sure my students have spend countless hours doing the same.
What uses can social bookmarking play in the education world?
1. Consolidation of bookmarks from different machines.Teach in more then one room or building, no problem, your bookmarks sit on a website
2. Organizing my bookmarks to be used by different classes. The bookmarks I want my Biology students to use for web-quests or other research will be somewhat different from the bookmarks my AP biology students will use.
3. Set up of a bookmark sharing system. For example, I want to set up a bookmark sharing with my AP Biology students where we share bookmarks on a current topic of study. With the description and tagging capabilities this could be a great resource.
4. The ease by which others can comment or edit makes these sites truly “Social”, it did take me a while to realize this. One of the 21 century skills is collaboration. Social bookmarking is a perfect way to practice collaboration.
I am open to uses of technology but I have not fully embraced the social side of it. Most of the sites allow for links to Facebook. People can share information easily, but at what cost? Are we becoming “overinformed”? Is there such a thing as having too much information? As educators we have the job of helping students sift through this information. Teaching them fact from fiction, truths from half truths, collaboration for mindless banter.
Mike - Your story about social bookmarking sounds very similar to mine. I already had a Diigo account from my masters program, used it for that and have not touched it in over a year. As you mentioned, it takes a lot of time to learn how to use these tools and sometimes it is difficult to find that time.
ReplyDeleteOne thought I had is whether many students currently have social bookmarking accounts. I don't see many students having one since it seems to be geared more for school rather than someone's personal life such as Facebook or Twitter are. It would be interesting to find out.
I like how you highlight the ideas Mike. I agree, I immediate thought it would be a great idea to for students to have links for webquets. Rather then them trying to type in all the web addresses the could just click on them. Think of the TIMESAVER!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are more now than ever opening our eyes to the difference between a teacher and an educator!
Mike - I really agree with you about Diigo. I love the idea of consolidating all my bookmarks from my different computers. Also, the district wipes out all of our bookmarks every summer, so, come fall, I have to start adding them all over again. Many times I have totally lost a site that I really liked. Have you tried using a site like this with a class yet?
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