BP11_2009112_SocialBookmarking

Social Bookmarking

There is so much out there on the web. Sometimes I find great sites and bookmark them only to have them lost in a sea of bookmarks on my computer. I have several computers so that means my other computers don’t have those bookmarks. Ugh! Enter “social bookmarking.” There are several sites but the one I use and love is Delicious.com, which I started using several months ago.

The first most important feature of social bookmarking is the ability to tag websites. This allows me to find similar sites easily. I have a variety of interests including ballet, cycling, classical music, shopping sites that I love and a variety on technology and teaching. Remembering where each site is located can easily become overwhelming.

For students, social bookmarking is an opportunity to mark and share great sites in connection with research projects. For instance, my youngest son is beginning to work on his Exhibition, which is capstone project of his graduation from an IB elementary school. He is working with another student so the two of them can research sites and mark them. Each of them can research sites and then share them with each other, their teacher and other classmates. Conversely, the teacher can share important sites that might help all the students in the class such as tutorials on some of the technology they will use to create their presentations or sites for creating their references (Tangient, 2009)

The Delicious blog (2008) reports that librarians embraced social bookmarking sites for education. Libraries like the Nashville Public Library have created del.icio.us tags on a variety of subjects that patrons can click on to find sites that are relevant and valid (Rethiefson, 2007). Librarians can create tags to help local students with research projects and even tag for specific classes (useful by academic librarians).

Other bookmarking sites include Zotero (www.zotero.org), a research tool from George Mason University that is also a Firefox extension (eSchool News, 2006). This site allows you to collect, manage, cite and share information easily within a web browser. It takes social bookmarking to the next level and would be most useful for researchers. I plan on trying it out for my research project!

I’m an organizer at heart – always have been – and it has frustrated me to find sites that matter to me and then lose them amongst the mass of my collected gems.

Gustafson, Britta. (2008, March 12). Who says librarians (and teachers) don’t like tags. Message posted to Delicious Blog: http://blog.delicious.com/blog/2008/03/who-says-librarians-and-teachers-dont-like-tags.html

Rethiefsen, Melissa. (2007, September 15). Social bookmarking and tagging boost participation. Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=42069&CFID=24235108&CFTOKEN=78139838

Riddell, Roger. (2006, December 26). Social bookmarking makes its mark on education. Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=42069&CFID=24235108&CFTOKEN=78139838

Tangient LLC. (2009). Link to classroom 2.0 social network discussions. Message posted to CR2.0: http://wiki.classroom20.com/Social+Bookmarking