This assignment was actually a little difficult for me. I am a rather private person. I didn’t mind writing the blog because I could word thoughts and ideas to academic standards. This way I only let people know what I want them to know. Using Delicious was scary at first. I wasn’t sure just how much information I wanted to give out. Do I really want people to know about my hobbies and interests by letting them know what web pages I like to surf? Than I figured, I could try it out. I don’t necessarily have to link all of my interest to my delicious page. I played around with it for a few days and decided, if used correctly I could handle having one.
I could definitely see the potential of a social bookmarking tool. One of the projects my junior high kids work on is a persuasive essay research report. The students are given topics to choose from by the science teacher. She also provides two or three websites where the students might be able to find some information. This was always the difficult part of the research. The students would go to these sites and search for hours. Literally, the kids would have to word things just right in order to get any information on the subject they were researching. A social bookmaking tool would have been a blessing. I could stop sitting at student computers trying to find the “right” search words and actually teach the kids how to take notes from the web or write web bibliography cards. If the science teacher and I could have made a social bookmark took for this project, the research part would have been so much easier. Granted, students need to learn how to find information on the internet, however, that could be another lesson at another time. The point of the persuasive research paper was the writing.
I also like the idea of staff sharing with staff. I just sat through a professional development hour where a fellow teacher reported back to us about a technology seminar she went to. She had a 50 plus page packet filled with web addresses. It was a lot like the social bookmarking except on paper. I wish now that she would have just directed us to a social bookmark with all of these addresses on it. It would have been so much easier. To tell the whole truth, I have not picked up that packet of web addresses since the professional development two weeks ago, even though it has some sites I was interested in. If it had been on a social bookmark site, I would probably have played with it a little.
As for parents of students in my classroom, I can absolutely see a use for it. In my class syllabus and my open house newsletter I list at least seven websites the parents and students can go to for extra help or practice. I only list seven because I know that more may overwhelm some people and others are not going to go and type in all of these LONG web addresses just to check them out. If I had a social bookmarking page just for students and parents, then I think the parents (and students) would actually spend some time surfing these sites. They may even learn something.
Once I got over my initial fear of social bookmarking, I found a tool that has a lot of potential for education. I’m glad I got over it and got with it.
Kendra
1 comment:
Your blog about this week's social bookmarking activity was right on the money!
In my own response, I also mentioned how, much to my surprise, sharing all my bookmarks for all to see was a little unsettling in how personal it seemed to be. I agree that moderation is the key...pick and choose wisely.
I also share your frustrations in letting kids loose, especially middle school kids, on the computer for any type of research project. They get lost so easily! Your idea of using the social bookmarking sites as a guiding tool for this type of activity seems not only functional, but easy to do as well. I've already done the work in reviewing sites when coming up with the lesson/activity, so why not put that work to use in order to help the kids.. and to free up some time to really help them where they need it.
Thanks for sharing your ideas. They were definitely very helpful.
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