Social bookmarking is a great Web 2.o tool for students to use. It is a way to organize and classify sources that have been searched and located on the web. These sources can then be shared with others. So when the student learner is working collaboratively with a group on a project, each member can search and locate resources which can then be shared with each other. It forces students to work collaboratively, to communicate with each other, and organize their resources (Educause, 2005). Social bookmarking is also a means for students to think more deeply about the subject or topic they are researching which leads to greater understanding. Through the use of tags, students are applying a descriptive term to the website they are bookmarking which is forcing them to think more about the source and its relation to the topic. Once the tagging is done, these tags can be accessed by others at anytime (Berger, 2007).
Another great way that social bookmarking supports student learning is through assistance in research. All the resources that were found and are relevant to the research can be located all in one place and not all over the Internet (DesRoches, 2007). According to DesRoches (2007), "Research is more collaborative and students are more diligent about evaluating resources because they know their peers will be using them." Students are more cognizant of the sources they find on the web if they know that other friends will be using them thus leading to more critical thinking about the types of resources they find.
Berger (2007) lists the top ten reasons to use social bookmarking in Education:
1. Provides a free, efficient, effective and reliable way to save and organize media
2. Creates a collaborative environment
3. Supports a discovery/exploration process
4. Allows users to tap the "collective intelligences" of the web
5. Provides the opportunity for "sensemaking" through things like tagging
6. Provides an effective framework to collaboratively evaluate websites
7. Encourages students to analyze the web site content
8. Offers either public access or complete privacy for a class or group of students
9. Supports anytime/anywhere learning
10. Integrates with other newer technologies
Social bookmarking is a Web 2.0 tool that is continuously improving for student use. The 21st century learner should be educated in how this tool works and be able to apply it to any area of learning. This is 21st century technology and it is here to stay, why not use it to support learning?
References
Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2007). Social Bookmarking: Locate, Tag and Collaborate. Information Searcher, 17(3), 1, 3-5. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.
Educause Learning Initiative (2005). 7 things you should know about social bookmarking.
Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf
Ivers, K.S. (2009). A teacher’s guide to using technology in the classroom
(2nd ed.).
DesRoches, D. (2007). All Together Now. School Library Journal, 53(1), 33.
Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.