Social Bookmarking: Shared class bookmarking
What is Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking is similar to adding a page to your favorite sites within your web browser but instead of only being stored on your individual web browser, each bookmark is stored in a single location (a folder) on the internet for all the pupils to access and add to.
There are many different social bookmarking tools available today but the majority include the following characteristics useful to you and your pupils:
In a world where your pupils "seek greater autonomy, connectivity and socio-experimental learning” (McLoughlin and Lee 2007), social bookmarking provides a platform for them to research on the internet for themselves while giving them the comfort of knowing that if they are not successful in finding useful information at first, they will still have a repository of useful information at hand from their classmates.
Below is a very simple description, produced by commoncraft.com, of what social bookmarking is and what it can be used for. The video uses the social bookmarking application "del.icio.us" as an example but "diigo" has very similar characteristics.
There are many different social bookmarking tools available today but the majority include the following characteristics useful to you and your pupils:
- “Personal user accounts (groups sometimes provided)
- Mechanism for entering links, titles and descriptions
- Browser bookmarklets to facilitate entry
- Classification by ‘open’ or ‘free’ tagging
- Search by tag or user (Boolean combinations sometimes allowed)
- RSS Feeds" (Hammond et al. 2005)
In a world where your pupils "seek greater autonomy, connectivity and socio-experimental learning” (McLoughlin and Lee 2007), social bookmarking provides a platform for them to research on the internet for themselves while giving them the comfort of knowing that if they are not successful in finding useful information at first, they will still have a repository of useful information at hand from their classmates.
Below is a very simple description, produced by commoncraft.com, of what social bookmarking is and what it can be used for. The video uses the social bookmarking application "del.icio.us" as an example but "diigo" has very similar characteristics.
Typical Layout of Social Bookmarking Repository and Toolbar
How can it be used in your classroom?
Social bookmarking opens up opportunities for utilising the pupils’ desire to use the internet to find interesting information and websites, as it encourages pupils to look for specified information in a structured and traceable manner. This pooling together of individual research to form a large repository of shared research is referred to as “distributed research”
Distributed Research
Mejias (2006) studied distributed research and found that:
Distributed Research
Mejias (2006) studied distributed research and found that:
- “It engages students in learning to learn by having them assume some of the responsibility for integrating and maintaining the social software systems that allow learning to happen;
- It promotes the benefits of working cooperatively with tools that facilitate the aggregation and organisation of knowledge while at the same time demonstrating that the diversity of individual research interests enhances learning for all;
- It helps students develop practical research skills that they need in a world where knowledge construction and dissemination make increasing use of online information networks” (Mejias 2006)
Sample Class Social Bookmarking Activities
Tools Available
References
McLoughlin, C. and Lee, M. J. (2007) 'ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007', in ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007, 2007
Hammond, T., Hannay, T., Lund, B. and Scott, J. (2005) 'Social Bookmarking Tools (I)', D-Lib Magazine.
Mejias, U. (2006) 'Teaching Social Software with Social Software.', Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 2, 6.
Hammond, T., Hannay, T., Lund, B. and Scott, J. (2005) 'Social Bookmarking Tools (I)', D-Lib Magazine.
Mejias, U. (2006) 'Teaching Social Software with Social Software.', Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 2, 6.
This website has been created by Paul Leacy (0744034) in 2011 as part of his Final Year Project in the University of Limerick as part of the (B.Tech. Ed.) course in Materials and Construction Technology.