When we think back in the ages we can see the evolution of bookmarking, from the ornate page holders to the “dog-eared” pages. To continue to the new generation we have eBooks, so it’s only proper that we also have eBook marks. Leave to the digital natives to make eBook marks a social networking method.
“Social bookmarking is one of the signature Web 2.0 categories” (Alexander, 2006). Social bookmarks are sites that users have selected as a favorite site or for future reference. User can also use “tags”, or keyword for others to find in a search. When users use the tags they are creating a categorization, like the scientific method of taxonomy. This new method of categorizing was dubbed Folksonomy for “the people's taxonomy” by Thomas Vander Wal, an information architect and Internet developer (Pink, 2005).
There are some obvious uses of social bookmarking in education like convenience, usability, and sharing. Since the social bookmark sites are web based students, and teachers can access their page from any computer. Convenience leads to the overwhelming usability for the users. Teachers can use the page to keep links to sites for homework, new lesson plans, and sharing with colleagues. Students have the ability to manage resources, organize information with tags, share with a group, and connect with others with similar int'erests.
“There are more than 100 million Web sites on the Internet." (“Social Bookmarking,” n.d.). This is a lot of resources for everyone to sift through. For some of the more advanced uses in the classroom, teachers could monitor the student’s research and their sources. Some bookmarking sites allow for comments giving the teacher the ability to leave feedback about the source. Another great ability is the tags users apply to the links could be used as a alternate search engine method.
The uses of social bookmarking sites are endless. The biggest trick will be to the one of the 100’s of free sites that fits your needs.
Some additional fun information:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_bookmarking_faceoff.php
Resources
Alexander, B. (2006). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning. EDUcause Review, March/April. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0621.pdf
Pink, D. (2005). Folksonomy. Retrieved October 6, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/magazine/11ideas1-21.html
Social Bookmarking.(n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2009, from http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking
"The uses of social bookmarking sites are endless." As are the ways in which they could be used in learning environments by educators:) Great, Jamie.
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