So Simple Even My Mother In-Law Can Use It

[Eldery couple on computer]. Retrieved July 13, 2009 from http://zeebarf.com

I was staying overnight at my in-laws last night when the conversation turned to a discussion of my father in-law's love of bookmarking sites. My mother in-law expressed frustration at having to try to sort through the exceedingly long list of sites he has deemed one of his "favourites". I proceeded to extol to them the virtues of social bookmarking. In particular, we discussed using Delicious to help them navigate through the forest of favourites on their computer. In a matter of a couple of minutes, I had my mother in-law signed up and ready to begin tagging. If two senior citizens who only recently purchased their first computer can begin using social bookmarking sites, shouldn't our techno savvy students be able to give it a go?

My Sales Pitch

I personally began using Delicious just over a month ago. I can honestly say that out of all of the Web 2.0 tools that I have tried, this is the one that has revolutionized my Internet use. I have become more organized and can find sites more easily than ever before. What benefits have I seen in using social bookmarking over traditional bookmark lists in web browsers? While The Clever Sheep, aka blogger Rodd Lucier, and Education World provide a list of benefits to using social bookmarking sites, here are my top reasons to social bookmark.

1. My favourites list is portable. Social bookmarking sites bookmark your favourites to a website, not a web browser so your favourites are accessible anywhere. This is particularly helpful for people like myself who use more than one computer. Delicious is now even more portable as there is a version available for your cell phone. However, be aware that you can only view your bookmarks on the cell phone version, not tag new sites.

2. My bookmarks are organized. When you want to make a site one of your favourites, you create tags for the site. Delicious, or other social bookmarking sites, then organize your bookmarks according to the tags you created.

3. My bookmarks are searchable. I now can search my own bookmarks using the search feature for a particular bookmarking site.

4. I can share my bookmarks with family, friends, colleagues, or students. Anyone can see my bookmarks. This makes information easy to share with others.

5. I can assign multiple tags to a site. I like this feature because sometimes a site may be useful for more than one purpose. If this is the case, I can assign multiple tags to the site so I can find it easily later.

6. It's free! What can I say, I'm cheap.

7. I can easily perform searches of other's tags on Delicious. This feature has been invaluable. When I am researching a topic for a class assignment, I simply search for a particular tag. Delicious then shows me sites that others have tagged with that label and lists the number of people who have tagged the site. This greatly simplifies research when compared to the the millions of hits, most of them irrelevant, that you would get with Google searches. In fact, this method of research is so useful that some libraries are even posting Delicious searches on their computers.

Getting Started

As I said previously, the social bookmarking site that I decided to use was Delicious. I primarily chose this site because, having no previous experience with social bookmarking, I thought it would be most advantageous to use one that was suggested by Will Richardson in our course textbook. There are many other social bookmarking sites to choose from, each with their own benefits.

By filling out one easy form, you will have your Delicious account up and running. When you sign in, there is an option to import your existing bookmarks from your computer. This is a great way to get started. You should notice that at the top of your browser there are three new icons. One icon to tag, or label, a site, one to access your bookmarks (these will appear on the left-hand side of the screen), and one to take you to the Delicious website. Any time you come to a site of interest, hit the tag button and use some key words to label the site. You can also enter a short description of the site for reference later. If you are looking for sites on a certain topic, you can subscribe to a certain tag. Whenever, someone tags a site with the word you subscribed to, you will be notified. You can also create networks of people to subscribe to your bookmarks. This could be very useful if you wanted to share information with fellow teachers or your students. You may find this video clip useful as it explains in layman's terms how to set up your Delicious account.

Commoncraft. (Producer). (2007, August 7). Social Bookmarking in Plain English. Videocast retreived July 13, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x661V7GOcNU&feature=channel

For all you bloggers out there--I found an interesting way to load a Delicious tag cloud to your blog site. The blog doctor offers step-by-step instructions on how to create a tag cloud like the one I have in the right-hand column of my blog. Neat, eh!

The Potential Pitfalls of Social Bookmarking

[Computer frustration]. Retrieved July 13, 2009 from http://simplecomputerinstructions.com/why_us.html

As with everything, social bookmarking may not be all roses. There are several issues that you need to be aware of as you begin using bookmarking sites.

1. Beware of spam. When subscribing to tags there is a risk that you will be directed to a ton of sites, too many to sort through. This can be overwhelming and quickly become an ineffective way to find new information. Will Richardson suggests and alternative to subscribing to tags. He suggests that rather than subscribing to tags, you may want to consider subscribing to blogs that you find of interest. This may be useful if you are interested in a particular topic (e.g. Web 2.0) and you can then find bloggers who blog frequently about this topic (e.g. Will Richardson and other Ed. Tech. bloggers). This may reduce the amount of information that crosses your path to a manageable amount.

2. Searching using social bookmarking sites may not be as comprehensive as using search engines. One researcher estimates that only 28% of American Internet users tag their web resources. Therefore, while using social bookmarking sites to search for tags is an efficient method for conducting research, you may be limiting the amount of sites you are exposed to by simply relying on this search method alone.

3. Ineffective tagging can lead to frustration! When tagging sites, the user needs to be very careful and specific. For example, when I was researching social bookmarking, I tagged 28 sites with the tag "social bookmarking" and one site with the tag "social bookmarking," When I tried to find the one site, it took me a long time to realize that I had inadvertently put a comma behind social bookmarking when tagging the site. Also, some words in the English language have multiple meanings and certain tags could end up collecting sites on more than one topic. Jason Falls offers some suggestion for how to effectively tag. This includes:
- Never use more than 2 or 3 tags per website
- Keep words generic
- Be consistent when using tags
- Review tags periodically, cull or consolidate as needed
- Don't bookmark everything

4. Social bookmarking sites are public. This may expose students to inappropriate material. The solution? There are a few sites that offer users privacy. For example, Scuttle is a social bookmarking site that is loaded onto a local server. A school could host the social bookmarking site so that kids wouldn't be exposed to things that they shouldn't see.

The Million Dollar Question: How Do I Use This In My Classroom?


Retrieved July 13, 2009 from http://4.bp.blogspot.com /_4ARm5mk8fws/Slv1gDGaGGI/AAAAAAAAACQ/gq46Abz5BrQ/s1600-h/ Questionmark.jpg

As a teacher, when introduced to a new application, my mind immediately begins to dream of the ways that I could use my new found knowledge to enhance my instruction. Sometimes this task is easier than others. When I began to think about the impact that social bookmarking could have on my school and classroom, some ideas came to mind.

1. Sites such as Delicious are very simple to use (Remember, my mother in-law can use it!). Even early elementary students, such as my Grade 2 students, would be able to access tagged sites. The simplicity of using tagged sites makes the Internet accessible to even our youngest students.

2. Using social networking sites saves time. Yes, you read correctly. I believe that by having a teacher pre-tag sites for students you can save time. I have often given my students long lists of web addresses to type in. Every time, hands go up as students claim that the site no longer works. Typically, the student has mistyped the address. Bookmarking sites eliminates this wasted time, leaving more precious time for curriculum delivery.

3. Social bookmarking may help reduce students' exposure to inappropriate sites. By providing students with a pre-tagged list of acceptable sites, the chance of them stumbling upon something inappropriate is nearly eliminated.

4. Social bookmarking may provide for more effective research. Giving students a starting point for research, i.e. a list of tagged sites, will give students a variety of approved sites to begin conducting their research from.

5. Social Bookmarking is a great way for students to organize their research. Teaching students skills in how to tag sites effectively will help them be able to organize their own research and will enable them to access a reference easily. Personally, it has revolutionized my own research as I am now able to tag sites that I come upon into categories. If I happen to stumble upon a site that may be useful in the future, I can tag it for a more detailed look at a future date.

6. The tired old "Jigsaw" can take on a whole new flavour. Mister E. suggests using social bookmarking sites to have students perform jigsaws in class. Students do web searches about a particular topic and then tag the relevant sites that they find using a set of preset tags. Once all the students have finished, the class will have a smattering of sites about different topics tagged for everyone to use in their class' social bookmarking site.

7. Students can easily share sites with other classrooms or other schools. Students can collaborate with other classes anywhere in the world and add information using tags. What a great way to learn about a school in a different country. Students in Canada could collect sites that exemplify Canadian culture and tag them, while students in another country could do the same. Voila, instant sharing!

8. Social bookmarking can help teachers stay organized. Teachers can simply create tags for each class. Students can then easily access their class' bookmarks.

9. Social bookmarking can be used for professional development purposes. As an administrator, I foresee myself using Delicious to create tags for sites relevant to our division's initiatives. For example, our division is amidst a literacy initiative. Sites could be found and tagged for guided reading, read alouds, shared reads, work work, etc. These sites can then be shared with my staff.

10. Students can use social bookmarking sites to search for certain topics. As mentioned previously, Delicious allows you to search for certain tags. Students can use this feature for research purposes. A benefit of searching this way is that beside each site, its popularity is listed. This might be a quick way for students to prioritize which sites they will read first.

Social bookmarking is an easy, effective way for students to search for, collect and organize information. With relatively little teacher prep, teachers can have students tagging in no time!