Using Social Bookmarking in the Classroom
Posted by Eric C. on December 6, 2006 in Internet Research
The web is a great resource for the classroom, but it can be hard to find just what you want, let alone find it a second time. Most of us are familiar with bookmarking favorites and use this feature often. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to manage those favorites, especially when you use multiple computers or have more than one person trying to find resources on the web. Fortunately, as web resources have grown, so too have the tools to manage them. One of those tools is social bookmarking. Social bookmarking allows you to store and share your bookmarks online. Anywhere you can get to the Internet, you have access not only to your bookmarks, but also to the bookmarks from the vast community of online users who are looking for similar information. The organizational scheme that these sites use, folksonomy and tags, can also be a much more efficient way to catalog the sites you have visited than the traditional folders you find in most browsers. Teachers are beginning to think of creative ways to use social bookmarking in their classrooms. Check out the links below to get started.
- Del.icio.us (Social bookmarking site that is unblocked in Seattle Public Schools. You need to register to use. (free))
- More information on social bookmarking and tags
- 12 uses for social bookmarking in the classroom
- 7-things-you-should-know-about-social-bookmarking
Note: Social bookmarking does have it’s downsides. Users can easily post inappropriate sites. If you are a Seattle School’s employee and find an inappropriate site that is not blocked by our filter please email the link to “filterreview” at seattleschools.org. Also tags and folksonomy can lead to messy information and brain overload. See Will Richard’s thoughtful post on the issue. Tags vs. Trusted Sources
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
I was intrigued by the possibilites of using a del.icio.us site to post a collection of pre-selected links for classes. Opened an account there and saved a like to it, gave it a tag. Had a student open his account on and go to del.icio.us – he could search and find my account but it showed no links and the search by tag didn’t work either. Any suggestions? Also, how is del.icio.us pronounced? Don’t want to sound foolish if I intro this to my students!
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:34 am
>>it showed no links
Not sure, but it could be that your account is private, I can’t remember if this is the default setting. To check this; login, click “settings”, scroll down and click “private saving”, and make sure “allow private saving of bookmarks?” is not checked.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I created an account in Del.icio.us as an example of how to possibly organize links for student use. It’s definitely not exhaustive.
http://del.icio.us/classroomlinks
June 16th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Wesley Fryer just posted a great article comparing taxonomies and folksonomies at the TechLearning Blog titled Farewell Linear Conversations.