Bookmarking sites have many potential uses in the classroom.
They are free tools to catalogue and comment on links you have found. Some
include stumbleupon, backflip, diigo and del.icio.us.
For teachers, it is an easy way to present resources to students. You don’t
have to type in the whole URL or multiple URL’s for a topic area. You can use
one URL to direct students to your bookmarking site. You can create a list of
excellent sources to direct students to those with the best information.
Teachers can also publish links to sites for homework help, practice tests and
quizzes, flashcard sites, and many others.
For students, it would be helpful to teach them to make
their own to cite where their information came from for projects and to make
comments along the way on which are the most useful sites for particular
content. Several sites also offer aps for Smartphones which would make it more
appealing to students, as they could research on the go.
The educational and technological components of my own
Del.icio.us lists were created during an educational technology course. I first
signed up for Diigo, but I found it a little difficult to navigate, so I tried
out Del.icio.us and found that it was much simpler. I would definitely recommend
Del.icio.us to my students, not only because it seemed easier to me, but also, I
am more familiar with its functions, so I could be of more help to my students
in its use. In reading Web 2.0: New Tools
for New Schools, we were introduced to many other sources. Our professor
and fellow students also offered many links to other materials associated with
the topic of each week’s discussions. We were required to accumulate those in
an annotated bibliography. I carried over those links as well as the
annotations to De.licio.us. Creating tags for each link makes it very easy to
access materials on whatever topic you choose. Making these links public makes
it helpful to others with similar interests. In researching e-portfolios, the
name that came up continually was Helen Barrett. I was able to gather many
other resources on e-portfolios, as she linked her informational page to her Del.icio.us
account. It is easy to tell which links
are some of the best by looking at the number of “saves” on Del.icio.us. Some of
the links also import a description rather than having to type one in. It is
also a great way to share links with others, even in a closed group, as you can
send the link to a particular “stack” to any interested parties. However, in
the true spirit of Web 2.0, why not share with others? Here is mine!
Sharing is awesome. Social bookmarking is a great idea. I have used it some during my studies at Montevallo as well as sharing information with fellow teachers at school. It saves time to direct them to the site. I have not tried this with students, but will attempt to work that in next year.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great way to share! I have continued "banking" my links for A&P. It is a great way to catalog them!
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