Social Bookmarking

I am currently enrolled in an Internet K-12 Instruction course. Last week, we focused on social bookmarking. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this application, it allows you to save your favorite websites and access them from any computer. Better yet, it allows you to search other members bookmarks and add them to your list. And it's free! I have an account with del.icio.us, but there are other sites out there. Try searching "social bookmarking" to find the application that best fits your needs.

I don't know about you, but when I find another user with the same interests as me, I find it addicting to look through all of their wonderful resources! I have a del.icio.us account with several resources for teaching if you are interested. You can also access it at the top left corner of my blog homepage.

Personally, I find it useful to bundle my tags into specific categories such as teaching, math, reading/writing, personl, etc. This way, when I need a resource for a certain topic it is easy to find.

It is also beneficial to add networks to your account. This way you have easy access to all of their resources too!

Now that we know about del.icio.us, how can we use it in the classroom? The first advantage of using an application such as del.icio.us that comes to my mind is safety. We all know we cannot keep an eye on everything a student is doing on the computer. But what if you want them to search for info on the web for a project or paper? Del.icio.us allows you to pre-pick sites that are student friendly and invite your students to access those sites. Create a separate account for you and your students to ensure safe searching!

If social bookmarking is new to you, I encourage you to try it out. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Check out this Common Craft video for a quick lesson on social bookmarking.