Wiki - a simple word for a powerful Web 2.0 tool. “Wikis are collaboratively authored,
searchable documents linked internally and externally.” (Morgan and Smith, 2008) “Collaboratively authored” is the key concept in the definition of a wiki. “The first wiki was created by Ward Cunningham in 1995, who was looking to design an easy authoring tool that might spur people to publish.” (Richardson, 2009) Considering the current number of wikis, not to mention the startling number of entries on Wikipedia, Mr. Cunningham was successful in his endeavor.
Another authoring tool on the web is blogs. I was initially confused by how writing a blog and writing on a wiki were different. “Wikis and blogs share much in common, but blog visitors simply add comments to the original content, whereas wikis allow visitors to change the content.” (Morgan and Smith, 2008) A blog is primarily focused on the ideas of the individual author. Discussion of the posted ideas occurs, however, collaboration does not usually occur on the original blog entries themselves.
The Common Craft Show on wikis (LeFever, 2007) clearly demonstrated the basics of this tool and its usefulness. Through coordination of a camping trip, the superiority of a wiki over email was shown. The importance of the three buttons “edit”, “save”, and “link” in the process of creating wiki entries was also highlighted.
After reading a few journal articles and viewing some wikis, I embarked on the creation of my own. A colleague has a class wiki on pbwiki and had extended an invitation for me to join via email. In order to do this, I filled out some basic information and then found that the site was quite user-friendly and was able to create my own using a link. I tried out some of the features and then for comparison sake, I also created a wiki at wikispaces.
The features at pbwiki and wikispaces are almost identical. The big difference being that pbwiki does not have a discussion link. A comprehensive list of these features, including a short explanation of each is located on these sites. As a teacher, I found the features that pertain to security were reassuring. “Access to all parts of a wiki can be controlled by the teacher. Changes in the wiki can be closely tracked and compared with earlier changes in terms of frequency and type of engagement.” (Morgan and Smith, 2008) The teacher is the administrator of the site and can give different access to those invited. For instance, pbwiki 2.0 allows the administrator to invite others as an administrator, editor, writer, or reader. Also, pages on the wiki can be either public or private. At this point in time, I have made my wikis private and therefore do not have a link to them in this blog entry.
Wikis are a valuable tool for classrooms and libraries. There are a plethora of ideas in which to incorporate the use of this tool when teaching. I was pleased but also chagrined to find that my “unique” ideas as to how to implement wikis in a school setting had, for the most part, already been done. These ideas included:
· Writer’s Workshop
· Literature Circles
· Book Clubs
· Mathematical Problem Solving
· Science Fair Projects
· Ancient Civilization Projects
· Student Portfolios
Keeping in mind that “[e]mphasis is placed on authoring content rather than simply viewing existing information” (Lamb and Johnson, 2007), I plan on creating the initial pages (framework) for the wikis and then leaving the rest for students to collaborate on as they share the knowledge and skills they acquire. For instance, the classroom wiki will have mathematical pages and website links for students. One of the pages will be problem solving. Students could work collaboratively to solve the problems a student or I post and share different strategies for finding the solution. Students will also be taught how to create their own pages and to add links.
“As we continue to move toward a world where everyone has access to ideas and where collaboration is the expectation rather than the exception, wikis can go a long way to teaching our students some very useful skills for their future.” (Richardson, 2009) It is imperative as educators to explore wikis, model their use, and teach our students how to utilize this powerful Web 2.0 tool.
References:
Bejun, Matthew M.. “Wikis in Libraries.” Information Technology and Libraries. Chicago: Sep 2007. Vol. 26, Iss. 3; pg. 26, 13 pgs
Bowlian, Amy. “A Wiki Gives a Worthy Book New Life.” School Library Journal. September 2008
Fredrick, Kathy. “Wiki-World.” School Library Media Activities Monthly. Baltimore: Dec 2007. Vol. 24, Iss. 4; pg. 45, 2 pgs
Lamb, Annette and Johnson, Larry. “An Information Skills Workout: Wikis and Collaborative Writing”. Teacher Librarian. Seattle: Jun 2007. Vol. 34, Iss. 5; pg. 57, 4 pgs
Lamb, Annette and Johnson, Larry. “The Virtual Teacher-Librarian: Establishing and Maintaining an Effective Web Presence”. Teacher Librarian. Seattle: Apr 2008. Vol. 35, Iss. 4; pg. 69, 4 pgs
McPherson, Keith. “Wikis and Student Writing.” Teacher Librarian. Seattle: Dec 2006. Vol. 34, Iss. 2; pg. 70, 4 pgs
Morgan, Brian and Smith, Richard D. “A Wiki for Classroom Writing.” The Reading Teacher. 2008. 62(1), pp. 80-82.
Richardson, Will. (2009) “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.” California: Corwin Press.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Virtual School Libraries
A great virtual school library is like any great school library in that it provides opportunities for learners to gain knowledge through provision of thoughtfully selected resources and well developed library programs created by a great teacher-librarian.
Qualities of a Great Virtual School Library:
Joyce Valenza’s “A Webquest About School Library Websites” gives a detailed list of the features and the characteristics to examine when evaluating school library websites. I began exploring various school library websites using her list and found it to be quite useful but very time consuming. With only a week to examine school library websites, as well as other library websites and to locate those qualities that I felt were important involved a more succinct and less encompassing list.
In the end I found that great virtual school libraries are:
· tailored to the needs of the school community it serves
· interactive
· accessible
· easy to navigate
· dynamic
· visually appealing
A virtual school library is representative of the school library itself. The information and online resources it provides are intended to meet the needs of its school community. The pathfinders are designed to support grade specific curriculum and the library catalogue is available to students and staff 24 hours a day. New books in the library are featured, as well as book reviews and book talks. Upcoming events are relayed via online calendars. The site is designed to be inviting and easy to use, with the links being checked on a regular basis to ensure that they are still viable. Students have the opportunity to participate through blogs and wikis, as well as have their projects shared on the website. A school library website allows teacher-librarians to provide for the school community in a greater capacity. As stated by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, “while you can’t clone yourself, you can create an online environment providing virtual resources and services that are available even when you’re busy with other professional activities.” (“The virtual teacher-librarian: establishing and maintaining an effective web presence.” Teacher Librarian. Seattle: Apr. 2008. Vol. 35, Iss. 4)
Some Great Virtual School Libraries:
The virtual school libraries I began with were Canadian and came from school-libraries.net. From this list, my favourites based on ease of use, information provided, and visual appeal were:
· Calgary Middle School Libraries
· Calgary Elementary School Libraries
· Calgary High School Libraries
· DW Poppy School Library
· C.W. Jefferys C.I. Library
It was interesting to note that some sites I explored were virtually identical to others with only the school name changed.
I then looked at those recommended by the course web links and found a couple particularly appealing. These were sites that I would revisit when I create my own school library website.
· Springfield Township High School Virtual Library
· Parkcrest School Library
· Grandview Library
There were many other great library sites that I found by searching with Google. These sites contained a wealth of information with many useful links that I can use for my students. One of these sites is the “Internet Public Library” and the link I find relevant for my students is “KidSpace”:
· The Internet Public Library
Being relatively new to the virtual world, I was impressed by the quantity and quality of virtual school libraries already online. As a venture that we have only recently discussed within my district, I am looking forward to examining more of these sites and then incorporating the best aspects to create a site that would be beneficial to my school’s community of learners.
Qualities of a Great Virtual School Library:
Joyce Valenza’s “A Webquest About School Library Websites” gives a detailed list of the features and the characteristics to examine when evaluating school library websites. I began exploring various school library websites using her list and found it to be quite useful but very time consuming. With only a week to examine school library websites, as well as other library websites and to locate those qualities that I felt were important involved a more succinct and less encompassing list.
In the end I found that great virtual school libraries are:
· tailored to the needs of the school community it serves
· interactive
· accessible
· easy to navigate
· dynamic
· visually appealing
A virtual school library is representative of the school library itself. The information and online resources it provides are intended to meet the needs of its school community. The pathfinders are designed to support grade specific curriculum and the library catalogue is available to students and staff 24 hours a day. New books in the library are featured, as well as book reviews and book talks. Upcoming events are relayed via online calendars. The site is designed to be inviting and easy to use, with the links being checked on a regular basis to ensure that they are still viable. Students have the opportunity to participate through blogs and wikis, as well as have their projects shared on the website. A school library website allows teacher-librarians to provide for the school community in a greater capacity. As stated by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, “while you can’t clone yourself, you can create an online environment providing virtual resources and services that are available even when you’re busy with other professional activities.” (“The virtual teacher-librarian: establishing and maintaining an effective web presence.” Teacher Librarian. Seattle: Apr. 2008. Vol. 35, Iss. 4)
Some Great Virtual School Libraries:
The virtual school libraries I began with were Canadian and came from school-libraries.net. From this list, my favourites based on ease of use, information provided, and visual appeal were:
· Calgary Middle School Libraries
· Calgary Elementary School Libraries
· Calgary High School Libraries
· DW Poppy School Library
· C.W. Jefferys C.I. Library
It was interesting to note that some sites I explored were virtually identical to others with only the school name changed.
I then looked at those recommended by the course web links and found a couple particularly appealing. These were sites that I would revisit when I create my own school library website.
· Springfield Township High School Virtual Library
· Parkcrest School Library
· Grandview Library
There were many other great library sites that I found by searching with Google. These sites contained a wealth of information with many useful links that I can use for my students. One of these sites is the “Internet Public Library” and the link I find relevant for my students is “KidSpace”:
· The Internet Public Library
Being relatively new to the virtual world, I was impressed by the quantity and quality of virtual school libraries already online. As a venture that we have only recently discussed within my district, I am looking forward to examining more of these sites and then incorporating the best aspects to create a site that would be beneficial to my school’s community of learners.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Podcasts
What is a Podcast?
“Podcast” was just another buzz word that I heard time and again. The word itself has an alien-like quality to it and gave me the impression that it was a Web 2.0 tool that only those really technologically savvy people would utilize.
I began learning about how to podcast by first finding out exactly what it is. Yet again, I looked to Wikipedia first and I found myself wondering why I kept chastising my students for doing the same thing. Wikipedia defined podcasting as “a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers.” This gave me a general idea but I needed more clarification so I next went through the podcasting trailfire created by our professor.
The Common Craft’s show “Podcasting in Plain English” clearly illustrated that “podcasts” are simply amateur radio. Who knew? All this time I had assumed that “podcasting” was far more complex than it truly is. So why the hype over radio when it has been around for such a long time? I decided to listen to the podcasting samples in the trailfire to determine the reasoning behind the craze. Women of Web 2.0 (Show #65) was indeed inspirational. I found that as I listened, I kept jotting down ideas and websites that they shared. This also led to the discovery that unlike the radio I grew up with, I could pause, rewind, and play back whatever sections I needed to or wanted to on the broadcast. Listening to some of the podcasts featured on the blogs “Educating Alice” and “Just One More Book!!” further piqued my interest and provided me with a great starting point for using podcasts in the classroom and school library.
Creating a Podcast:
Will Richardson states in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009) that “what you need to create a basic podcast [is] a digital audio recorder that can create an MP3 file, some space on a server to host the file, a blog, and something to say.” (p. 111) I had all of the above except the digital recorder with the capability to create an MP3 file. However, I did have an old-fashioned voice recorder and after finding a volunteer to interview, I was ready to begin.
We started by going over basic internet safety. I suggested that since we wouldn’t use our real names, she could pick a letter to represent each of us. For further security purposes, I let her know that the letter she picked should not be either our first or last initials. For the podcast, I am “M” and she is “J”. Next we determined that it would be interesting for her to share a couple Robert Munsch books that she enjoyed. I have purchased almost all his books over the years so she was able to refer to them during the interview. (As a side note, his website contains audio files of his books.) I turned on the voice recorder and we conducted our first recording. The motivating factor of creating audio files was apparent as halfway through the interview she took charge of the recording device. Unfortunately, using the 15 year-old voice recorder resulted in a very distorted, poor quality recording. Go figure! Plan #2 involved using a microphone to record directly onto the computer. A few phone calls later and a microphone that I could borrow was located. My volunteer was disappointed to learn that we would have to reschedule the interview until I could obtain the microphone – another clear indication of her interest in the project.
In preparation for saving directly to the computer, I downloaded the free software “Audacity” as suggested on page 116 in Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009). After plugging in the microphone, we conducted a couple more interviews, listened to them and chose the one we liked the best. I saved the interview and then attempted to convert it to an MP3. This process took me hours as I muddled my way through downloading “Audacity’s Lame MP3 Encoder” – no, the irony of the name was not lost on me – then locating it on Audacity. Thankfully, I was able to Google all the information I needed as I went along and was finally successful.
Have a listen to our very amateur podcast:
http://blip.tv/file/1356098
Podcasts in the Classroom and School Library:
There are many articles that give examples of ways in which to incorporate podcasts in the classroom and school library, as well as providing reasons for their use. For instance, the article “Podcasting 101 for K-12 Librarians” is a great overview of podcasting and the four examples it suggests for podcasting are library promotion, sharing student learning, broadcasting school news, and professional development. As stated by Dan J. Schmit in “Podcasting Craze Comes to K-12 Schools”, “Educators are starting to see how podcasting can help hone students’ vocabulary, writing, editing, public speaking, and presentation skills. Students can also learn skills that will be valuable in the working world, such as communication, time management, and problem-solving.” After reading the various articles, I soon realized that there is a great number of possibilities for this technology.
In my school, I envision using podcasting in the library to share books. This can be done through book talks and interviews about the books students are reading similar to the podcast I did with “J”. I am curious to see if I can add an audio file within the existing library catalogue or if I will need to utilize a different program such as “LibraryThing” or “Shelfari”. The article “Tell Me a Story”, mentions one school librarian that did this on her school library web site, as well as providing audio questions about the books.
Podcasting is supportive of all students’ learning but one group of students that would really benefit would be those with low writing output ability. In my class, a number of students are unable to share their comprehension fully through writing. Sharing orally provides a better picture of their understanding but I am unable to listen to more than one student at a time and scribes are not readily available. Students could instead use the computer to record podcasts which I could listen to later to assess their level of comprehension. Instead of maintaining a portfolio of just their written work, they could also have a podcast portfolio.
In addition to creating podcasts, students would also benefit from listening to pre-existing podcasts. There are podcasts for all subject areas. For instance, our French Immersion students could listen to French podcasts to assist in their learning of the language, such as those I found on CBC. We will also have to look at our “no IPod” policy as we could have students use them to download the podcasts to which they subscribe based on their interests and learning needs.
Sharing podcasts sends a clear message to students that their knowledge is valuable and worth sharing with a global audience. As long as we have the technology to support it, podcasts are another Web 2.0 tool that will benefit student learning and assist in the creation of an information rich environment.
“Podcast” was just another buzz word that I heard time and again. The word itself has an alien-like quality to it and gave me the impression that it was a Web 2.0 tool that only those really technologically savvy people would utilize.
I began learning about how to podcast by first finding out exactly what it is. Yet again, I looked to Wikipedia first and I found myself wondering why I kept chastising my students for doing the same thing. Wikipedia defined podcasting as “a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers.” This gave me a general idea but I needed more clarification so I next went through the podcasting trailfire created by our professor.
The Common Craft’s show “Podcasting in Plain English” clearly illustrated that “podcasts” are simply amateur radio. Who knew? All this time I had assumed that “podcasting” was far more complex than it truly is. So why the hype over radio when it has been around for such a long time? I decided to listen to the podcasting samples in the trailfire to determine the reasoning behind the craze. Women of Web 2.0 (Show #65) was indeed inspirational. I found that as I listened, I kept jotting down ideas and websites that they shared. This also led to the discovery that unlike the radio I grew up with, I could pause, rewind, and play back whatever sections I needed to or wanted to on the broadcast. Listening to some of the podcasts featured on the blogs “Educating Alice” and “Just One More Book!!” further piqued my interest and provided me with a great starting point for using podcasts in the classroom and school library.
Creating a Podcast:
Will Richardson states in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009) that “what you need to create a basic podcast [is] a digital audio recorder that can create an MP3 file, some space on a server to host the file, a blog, and something to say.” (p. 111) I had all of the above except the digital recorder with the capability to create an MP3 file. However, I did have an old-fashioned voice recorder and after finding a volunteer to interview, I was ready to begin.
We started by going over basic internet safety. I suggested that since we wouldn’t use our real names, she could pick a letter to represent each of us. For further security purposes, I let her know that the letter she picked should not be either our first or last initials. For the podcast, I am “M” and she is “J”. Next we determined that it would be interesting for her to share a couple Robert Munsch books that she enjoyed. I have purchased almost all his books over the years so she was able to refer to them during the interview. (As a side note, his website contains audio files of his books.) I turned on the voice recorder and we conducted our first recording. The motivating factor of creating audio files was apparent as halfway through the interview she took charge of the recording device. Unfortunately, using the 15 year-old voice recorder resulted in a very distorted, poor quality recording. Go figure! Plan #2 involved using a microphone to record directly onto the computer. A few phone calls later and a microphone that I could borrow was located. My volunteer was disappointed to learn that we would have to reschedule the interview until I could obtain the microphone – another clear indication of her interest in the project.
In preparation for saving directly to the computer, I downloaded the free software “Audacity” as suggested on page 116 in Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009). After plugging in the microphone, we conducted a couple more interviews, listened to them and chose the one we liked the best. I saved the interview and then attempted to convert it to an MP3. This process took me hours as I muddled my way through downloading “Audacity’s Lame MP3 Encoder” – no, the irony of the name was not lost on me – then locating it on Audacity. Thankfully, I was able to Google all the information I needed as I went along and was finally successful.
Have a listen to our very amateur podcast:
http://blip.tv/file/1356098
Podcasts in the Classroom and School Library:
There are many articles that give examples of ways in which to incorporate podcasts in the classroom and school library, as well as providing reasons for their use. For instance, the article “Podcasting 101 for K-12 Librarians” is a great overview of podcasting and the four examples it suggests for podcasting are library promotion, sharing student learning, broadcasting school news, and professional development. As stated by Dan J. Schmit in “Podcasting Craze Comes to K-12 Schools”, “Educators are starting to see how podcasting can help hone students’ vocabulary, writing, editing, public speaking, and presentation skills. Students can also learn skills that will be valuable in the working world, such as communication, time management, and problem-solving.” After reading the various articles, I soon realized that there is a great number of possibilities for this technology.
In my school, I envision using podcasting in the library to share books. This can be done through book talks and interviews about the books students are reading similar to the podcast I did with “J”. I am curious to see if I can add an audio file within the existing library catalogue or if I will need to utilize a different program such as “LibraryThing” or “Shelfari”. The article “Tell Me a Story”, mentions one school librarian that did this on her school library web site, as well as providing audio questions about the books.
Podcasting is supportive of all students’ learning but one group of students that would really benefit would be those with low writing output ability. In my class, a number of students are unable to share their comprehension fully through writing. Sharing orally provides a better picture of their understanding but I am unable to listen to more than one student at a time and scribes are not readily available. Students could instead use the computer to record podcasts which I could listen to later to assess their level of comprehension. Instead of maintaining a portfolio of just their written work, they could also have a podcast portfolio.
In addition to creating podcasts, students would also benefit from listening to pre-existing podcasts. There are podcasts for all subject areas. For instance, our French Immersion students could listen to French podcasts to assist in their learning of the language, such as those I found on CBC. We will also have to look at our “no IPod” policy as we could have students use them to download the podcasts to which they subscribe based on their interests and learning needs.
Sharing podcasts sends a clear message to students that their knowledge is valuable and worth sharing with a global audience. As long as we have the technology to support it, podcasts are another Web 2.0 tool that will benefit student learning and assist in the creation of an information rich environment.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Social Bookmarking
My first year as a teacher-librarian involved teaching in a well established library. The previous teacher-librarians had spent countless hours amassing an exemplary library collection tailored to the needs of students and teachers at this specific school. Unfortunately, at the end of the year, this school was one of a few schools in our district that were closed. The collection had to be packed up and sent to other schools or stored in a central location. Not wanting these fabulous resources to be lost, I was very careful when organizing these into boxes to ensure that they could easily be located at a later time.
Over the years, I have not done so well with organizing the online resources I have found or have been shown by others. Social bookmarking appears to be the answer to preventing the loss of valuable internet resources as it “is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking) It employs the benefits of traditional bookmarking, while improving on those areas in which traditional bookmarking was lacking.
Traditional Bookmarking vs. Social Bookmarking
The traditional method of bookmarking websites involved saving websites to the computer that you were on at the time you found the site. Since the site is “bookmarked in your browser”, it is now “only available on that specific computer” and you can not “easily share your bookmarks with other people.” (http://web2tutorial.wikispaces.com/social_bookmarks) Of course, this is fine if it is the only computer you use and the site you located has no value to anyone else. However, that is not usually the case. It is with increasing frequency, that I am asked about online resources that are relevant to the curriculum. If I found the site while at work (and assuming I can find the folder I saved it in), I can immediately send the URL as an email to the person or people who have requested it. However, if the site is saved on my home computer, they need to wait until I return home for me to send the URL. Another concern with traditional bookmarking is that it is restricted to only one DemoURL and one topic. (http://web2tutorial.wikispaces.com/social_bookmarks)
Social bookmarking is the evolution of traditional bookmarking. Using a social bookmarking site allows websites to be saved in an organized fashion using tags on the internet. This allows a person to access their bookmarks on any computer. Bookmarks can be made public which means that anyone with internet access and an account with the social bookmarking site can access them. No more waiting for relevant websites to be emailed! Also, since one site can be saved with multiple tags, it is easier to find all sites related to a topic.
Del.icio.us
“Social Bookmarking in Plain English on YouTube” by Lee and Sacha LeFever (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU) was a great introduction to the basics of social bookmarking. After watching this short video, I chose to revisit the social bookmarking site del.icio.us on which I had set up an account last year. I had not used it prior though because of a lack of understanding of what it actually was and how best to use it. Knowing that it is simply “the practice of saving bookmarks to a public Web site and “tagging” them with keywords” (http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf), gives me a clearer picture of how this technology will be beneficial personally and professionally.
Del.icio.us is free and easy to use. To begin with, I signed-in to my account and set up the bookmarking buttons. Since I wasn’t sure how to set them up, I accessed the help button and was provided with clear, written instructions that I used successfully. After this, I went to a few websites and chose one to add. This involved a simple click of the “Save to Delicious” button on my tool bar. A new window opened and I added tags in the correct box, leaving a space in between each tag. Notes could have been added as well. I hit “save” and then went to my del.icio.us account and was pleased to see it had worked. One of the options when you save a website is whether or not to keep it private or share it publicly. The default is to share publicly so to keep it private, you need to check off “Do not share” either when you add it or by editing the bookmark. Another feature that I used was “subscriptions”. I subscribed to “lessonplans” and discovered that there are almost 47000 bookmarked sites. After viewing a couple of them, I was able to save one by clicking on “save” beside the title of the bookmark. It was also interesting to note that “del.icio.us and other bookmarking sites offer a unique RSS feed for every tag contained on their site as well as one for every account holder.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html)
A concern I had when using del.icio.us was that there were quite a few bookmarks whose sites I could not access. Also, I wonder about whether or not students will be able to add the bookmarking buttons to their tool bars on our network.
Tagging
“Today, information literacy implies an ability to organize the world around us, and that encompasses the big ol’ Web.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html) With regards to social bookmarking, this means using tags. Tags are a way to sort the websites you bookmarked to find them later. (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU) I found that I had to consider how I planned on using the sites to determine the tags I gave them. For instance, tagging a website on a unit for Rome meant not just tagging it as “Rome” but also as “lessons” and “grade7”. I can also edit this bookmark and add more tags later if I choose. I can even add a unique tag to signal that it is a site that I want to use for a specific class. This unique tag could also be used by others when they find sites for the topic being learned.
Tagging involves people determining keywords which are based on their own choices and not on any pre-approved list of tags. This has led to “folksonomies” which are “a homegrown taxonomy for the Web.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html) As a teacher-librarian, I use a global system of categorizing books called the Dewey Decimal system. I wonder then if these “folksonomies” will eventually lead to a more organized system. I have to admit that I was tempted to add the Dewey Decimal numbers to some of my bookmarks. I think they would probably fit well but not necessarily be the tag that others would use to search.
Sharing
As the name states, social bookmarking is social. “It’s all about collaborating and sharing bookmarks amongst people of similar interests, whether or not you know these people in real life.” (http://web2tutorial.wikispaces.com/social_bookmarks) The focus is on creating a network of valuable sites as determined by people within the online community. “And together, using these tools, we can build comprehensive resource lists much more effectively than any one of us could working alone.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html) Time is valuable for everyone. How wonderful is it to know that you can locate great resources in a fraction of the time through social bookmarking. Also, since there are many “web savvy users” searching for sites, this results in “links to sites of higher quality” (http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking) than those that the rest of us could find. The human factor means that sharing sites through social bookmarks are superior to the usual Google searches. “Google searches are primarily designed to find articles based on popularity. Computer reboot programs run these searches.” (http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking) Popularity does not necessarily mean the site is valuable.
Social Bookmarking in Classrooms and School Libraries
Within the classroom and school library, social bookmarking has the ability to support learning. “[L]ibrarians and teachers can tailor bookmarks to meet a classroom’s curricular and research needs.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6403269.html) For instance, at my school, students will be participating in a Science Fair. The teachers and I can search for websites through search engines and through tags on the social bookmarking site that will generate interest and give some suggestions for projects. We can decide on one tag or a number of tags and provide students with these to search. Once students have chosen projects, we can then add sites geared only to those projects that are chosen and students can add sites they find that are relevant to their or other students’ needs. Talk about collaboration!
The evaluation of websites is important when researching and when it comes to social bookmarking, “students are more diligent about evaluating resources because they know their peers will be using them.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6403269.html) Students can be introduced to this skill and then further learn it when bookmarking. Initially, all sites that appear to be relevant to a particular topic could be bookmarked. These sites could be divided amongst students and evaluated using the criteria outlined by the teacher and/or teacher-librarian. The sites that are found to not be useful could then be deleted.
Efficient search techniques can be taught through the comparison of a Google search and a del.icio.us search. Recently, a visual dictionary had been requested by a colleague for her ESL student. I was unsuccessful in loading a CD Rom onto her networked computer so I decided to look online. The quality of visual dictionaries that I found through a search on del.icio.us was far greater than those found on Google. Students can be taught the importance of tags (keywords) when searching. “It may become less important to know and remember where information was found and more important to know how to retrieve it using a framework created by and shared with peers and colleagues.” (http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf)
Book clubs and sharing collections of books through sites such as LibraryThing or Shelfari are another way in which social bookmarking can be used. After reading a book, one class in my school wrote their review of the book which we called “pageturners”. These were shared on a bulletin board in the library and as part of the lunch time announcements. I would think that for many (if not all) students, it would be far more rewarding to share their thoughts on books to a greater audience through a social bookmarking site.
Other Social Bookmarking Sites
LibraryThing, Shelfari, Diigo, and Furl were all sites I visited and plan on further exploring. Both Diigo and Furl save copies of the website pages in your account, unlike del.icio.us, so I may consider utilizing one of these sites in the future. Diigo also has an offer for educators to sign on with an educator account. This allows for upgrades to a regular account that is specific to creating class accounts.
“Developing self-organizational skills in this world of overwhelming information is key to enhancing your professional and personal learning practices.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html) Social bookmarking sites are a great way to become more organized, as well as working collaboratively with others.
Over the years, I have not done so well with organizing the online resources I have found or have been shown by others. Social bookmarking appears to be the answer to preventing the loss of valuable internet resources as it “is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking) It employs the benefits of traditional bookmarking, while improving on those areas in which traditional bookmarking was lacking.
Traditional Bookmarking vs. Social Bookmarking
The traditional method of bookmarking websites involved saving websites to the computer that you were on at the time you found the site. Since the site is “bookmarked in your browser”, it is now “only available on that specific computer” and you can not “easily share your bookmarks with other people.” (http://web2tutorial.wikispaces.com/social_bookmarks) Of course, this is fine if it is the only computer you use and the site you located has no value to anyone else. However, that is not usually the case. It is with increasing frequency, that I am asked about online resources that are relevant to the curriculum. If I found the site while at work (and assuming I can find the folder I saved it in), I can immediately send the URL as an email to the person or people who have requested it. However, if the site is saved on my home computer, they need to wait until I return home for me to send the URL. Another concern with traditional bookmarking is that it is restricted to only one DemoURL and one topic. (http://web2tutorial.wikispaces.com/social_bookmarks)
Social bookmarking is the evolution of traditional bookmarking. Using a social bookmarking site allows websites to be saved in an organized fashion using tags on the internet. This allows a person to access their bookmarks on any computer. Bookmarks can be made public which means that anyone with internet access and an account with the social bookmarking site can access them. No more waiting for relevant websites to be emailed! Also, since one site can be saved with multiple tags, it is easier to find all sites related to a topic.
Del.icio.us
“Social Bookmarking in Plain English on YouTube” by Lee and Sacha LeFever (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU) was a great introduction to the basics of social bookmarking. After watching this short video, I chose to revisit the social bookmarking site del.icio.us on which I had set up an account last year. I had not used it prior though because of a lack of understanding of what it actually was and how best to use it. Knowing that it is simply “the practice of saving bookmarks to a public Web site and “tagging” them with keywords” (http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf), gives me a clearer picture of how this technology will be beneficial personally and professionally.
Del.icio.us is free and easy to use. To begin with, I signed-in to my account and set up the bookmarking buttons. Since I wasn’t sure how to set them up, I accessed the help button and was provided with clear, written instructions that I used successfully. After this, I went to a few websites and chose one to add. This involved a simple click of the “Save to Delicious” button on my tool bar. A new window opened and I added tags in the correct box, leaving a space in between each tag. Notes could have been added as well. I hit “save” and then went to my del.icio.us account and was pleased to see it had worked. One of the options when you save a website is whether or not to keep it private or share it publicly. The default is to share publicly so to keep it private, you need to check off “Do not share” either when you add it or by editing the bookmark. Another feature that I used was “subscriptions”. I subscribed to “lessonplans” and discovered that there are almost 47000 bookmarked sites. After viewing a couple of them, I was able to save one by clicking on “save” beside the title of the bookmark. It was also interesting to note that “del.icio.us and other bookmarking sites offer a unique RSS feed for every tag contained on their site as well as one for every account holder.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html)
A concern I had when using del.icio.us was that there were quite a few bookmarks whose sites I could not access. Also, I wonder about whether or not students will be able to add the bookmarking buttons to their tool bars on our network.
Tagging
“Today, information literacy implies an ability to organize the world around us, and that encompasses the big ol’ Web.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html) With regards to social bookmarking, this means using tags. Tags are a way to sort the websites you bookmarked to find them later. (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU) I found that I had to consider how I planned on using the sites to determine the tags I gave them. For instance, tagging a website on a unit for Rome meant not just tagging it as “Rome” but also as “lessons” and “grade7”. I can also edit this bookmark and add more tags later if I choose. I can even add a unique tag to signal that it is a site that I want to use for a specific class. This unique tag could also be used by others when they find sites for the topic being learned.
Tagging involves people determining keywords which are based on their own choices and not on any pre-approved list of tags. This has led to “folksonomies” which are “a homegrown taxonomy for the Web.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html) As a teacher-librarian, I use a global system of categorizing books called the Dewey Decimal system. I wonder then if these “folksonomies” will eventually lead to a more organized system. I have to admit that I was tempted to add the Dewey Decimal numbers to some of my bookmarks. I think they would probably fit well but not necessarily be the tag that others would use to search.
Sharing
As the name states, social bookmarking is social. “It’s all about collaborating and sharing bookmarks amongst people of similar interests, whether or not you know these people in real life.” (http://web2tutorial.wikispaces.com/social_bookmarks) The focus is on creating a network of valuable sites as determined by people within the online community. “And together, using these tools, we can build comprehensive resource lists much more effectively than any one of us could working alone.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html) Time is valuable for everyone. How wonderful is it to know that you can locate great resources in a fraction of the time through social bookmarking. Also, since there are many “web savvy users” searching for sites, this results in “links to sites of higher quality” (http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking) than those that the rest of us could find. The human factor means that sharing sites through social bookmarks are superior to the usual Google searches. “Google searches are primarily designed to find articles based on popularity. Computer reboot programs run these searches.” (http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking) Popularity does not necessarily mean the site is valuable.
Social Bookmarking in Classrooms and School Libraries
Within the classroom and school library, social bookmarking has the ability to support learning. “[L]ibrarians and teachers can tailor bookmarks to meet a classroom’s curricular and research needs.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6403269.html) For instance, at my school, students will be participating in a Science Fair. The teachers and I can search for websites through search engines and through tags on the social bookmarking site that will generate interest and give some suggestions for projects. We can decide on one tag or a number of tags and provide students with these to search. Once students have chosen projects, we can then add sites geared only to those projects that are chosen and students can add sites they find that are relevant to their or other students’ needs. Talk about collaboration!
The evaluation of websites is important when researching and when it comes to social bookmarking, “students are more diligent about evaluating resources because they know their peers will be using them.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6403269.html) Students can be introduced to this skill and then further learn it when bookmarking. Initially, all sites that appear to be relevant to a particular topic could be bookmarked. These sites could be divided amongst students and evaluated using the criteria outlined by the teacher and/or teacher-librarian. The sites that are found to not be useful could then be deleted.
Efficient search techniques can be taught through the comparison of a Google search and a del.icio.us search. Recently, a visual dictionary had been requested by a colleague for her ESL student. I was unsuccessful in loading a CD Rom onto her networked computer so I decided to look online. The quality of visual dictionaries that I found through a search on del.icio.us was far greater than those found on Google. Students can be taught the importance of tags (keywords) when searching. “It may become less important to know and remember where information was found and more important to know how to retrieve it using a framework created by and shared with peers and colleagues.” (http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf)
Book clubs and sharing collections of books through sites such as LibraryThing or Shelfari are another way in which social bookmarking can be used. After reading a book, one class in my school wrote their review of the book which we called “pageturners”. These were shared on a bulletin board in the library and as part of the lunch time announcements. I would think that for many (if not all) students, it would be far more rewarding to share their thoughts on books to a greater audience through a social bookmarking site.
Other Social Bookmarking Sites
LibraryThing, Shelfari, Diigo, and Furl were all sites I visited and plan on further exploring. Both Diigo and Furl save copies of the website pages in your account, unlike del.icio.us, so I may consider utilizing one of these sites in the future. Diigo also has an offer for educators to sign on with an educator account. This allows for upgrades to a regular account that is specific to creating class accounts.
“Developing self-organizational skills in this world of overwhelming information is key to enhancing your professional and personal learning practices.” (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6420397.html) Social bookmarking sites are a great way to become more organized, as well as working collaboratively with others.
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