BP5_2009112_Social Bookmarks

Social Bookmarking

Although bookmarking has been around for sometime on the Internet, it has been more of an individual pursuit rather than a way to share information with others. However, with the creation of social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, bookmarking has transcended from an individual activity to a shared knowledge base. With this ability to create social bookmarks comes an opportunity for social bookmarking to be put to educational uses.

What are some educational prospects associated with social bookmarking?
Cannata (2009) believed social bookmarking can help students learn to organize and categorize information. Social bookmarking includes tagging, which encourages students to think critically about what tags are appropriate for different sites. Additionally, finding and evaluating information that will be saved to the social bookmark can improve students study skills.

According to Hastings (2009), social bookmarking assists with research and collaborative work. Any team, whether it is students or teachers, can research useful and informative websites for their project. When a member of the team discovers a worthwhile site, he or she can save it to their social bookmark. This bookmark then becomes available for all other members of the team to view.

In addition to research, librarians or teachers may use social bookmarks to create reference links pages that support students during research projects or papers (Library Technology Reports, 2007). The great aspect of these social bookmark reference pages is that they are available to anyone with Internet access and they invite participation because of their social dynamic.

Not only is social bookmarking beneficial for students, it can be helpful for teachers as well. According to Eastment (2008) social bookmarking sites are excellent places for teachers to find websites and resources for units or lessons. Eastment recommends two social bookmarking sites: StumbleUpon and Del.icio.us.

Teachers and students can profit from using social bookmarking. Hopefully educators around the world will consider social bookmarking for their classrooms.

References

Cannata, C. (2009). Folksonomy, tagging and taxonomy for effective learning: Perspectives of learning 2.0 in the XXI century. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 4(2), 26-32. Retrieved November 5, 2009 from Education Research Complete.

Eastment, D. (2008). Social bookmarking. ELT Journal: English Language Teachers Journal, 62(2), 217-219. Retrieved November 5, 2009, from Academic Search Premier.

Hastings, R.(2009). Collaboration tools, 2.0 style. Library Technology Reports, 45(4), 19-27. Retrieved November 5, 2009, from Academic Search Premier.

Library Technology Reports. (2007). Tagging & social bookmarking. Library Technology Reports, 43(5), 58-61. Retrieved November 5, 2009, from Academic Search Premier.