Social bookmarking in education

Social bookmarking is a way for link and information to be classified into particular categories. Others who may be interested in the same topics use these tags for research. When doing research on a topic, many people may use search engines like Google. Social bookmarking is a way to find the links and information one is looking for, without having to distinguish what is reliable from a Google search. One way social bookmarking would be used as a viable source in the classroom would be for research papers in any subject. When reading a novel, there are many historical references made or locations a student may not be familiar with. By looking up that information via social bookmarking, students will be able to be more involved in the learning process because the background knowledge is now with them after their research. I have found many sites that explain how and why to use social bookmarking for research and academics.

www.mpla.us/documents/handouts/2008/reed.ppt

This site hosts a PowerPoint titled, “Using Social Bookmarking in Academic Research” by Adriana Reed. The power point is basically a “how to” in regard to using social bookmarking for research. Reed states the benefit of bookmarking is: 1. To track online sources and 2. To explore other publications that have the same or similar tags. Not only does it discuss del.icio.us, but also CiteULike. There is a page that discusses the differences between these two social bookmarking sites. The main difference is that del.icio.us is used for a social network, where CiteULike is more for an academic one.

http://www.pandia.com/sew/967-social-bookmarking-for-research-collaboration.html

This page is titled, “3 social bookmarking tools for research collaboration.” This site discusses three different types of social bookmarking sites, who they are developed by, and how they are used. They are: Zotero, Connotea, and 2collab. First, Zotero: it is only a Firefox plug in, so unfortunately it would not work through Safari. The pros are that it can integrate with online sources and will find and automatically save the reference. The cons are that it stores the information in files and not online, and it cannot be access from computers that do not have the plug in. Next, Connotea: It is touted as “an advanced Delicious for bibliographic references.” Finally, 2collab. This is mainly for research for science, technical, and medical. 

http://www.slideshare.net/rudibrarian/social-bookmarking-rss-for-research-teaching

This site shows a slide show, “Social Bookmarking and RSS for Research and Teaching.” The slide show discusses what social bookmarking is and how to incorporate it into teaching and using it for research. A good use of the social bookmarking tool is that the source can be bookmarked and embedded into a web page. Another positive in using social bookmarking is that a teacher can create a tag for a particular class and students will be able to find each other’s information under that tag.

http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSocia/156804

The Educause Learning Initiative came up with a list of seven things one should know about the use of social bookmarking. The use of social bookmarking in research is good for classifying information into separate categories. The information on one person’s site can be used for others for research. The tag’s popularity will show when one tags a bookmark, thereby allowing others to search more easily for certain topics.

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites080.shtml

This is an article, “Sites to See: Social Bookmarking,” from The Education Journal. This article discusses the use of social bookmarking and how accessible it is for others to view your favorite sites. This article also gives a list of social bookmarking sites to use in the K-12 classroom. Those sites include: del.icio.us, BuddyMarks, Wikipedia on Social Bookmarking, Tags vs. Trusted Sources, and 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking.