SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

I admit, I adopted this tool with some initial skepticism. After all, the only connection I'd made to social bookmarking before was to Pinterest, a site I assumed was for arts and crafts. As it turns out, social bookmarking can entail any interest or pursuit, whether they be educational, occupational, or recreational. How is social bookmarking different from bookmarking? Both will help the user capture and hold lists of websites of interest, but the former doesn't limit access by the one computer it's store upon. Social bookmarking sites like Simbaloo, ShareOr, and Livebinder are just a few examples of resources that can help you find links of interest and store them online. Some, like ShareOr allow for additional collaboration by setting up conferences and sharing tagged items.  LiveBinder is geared more towards business and education, while Simbaloo is open to a variety of interests. All of these sites have their own features, but they all have one critical component in common: they free up your own memory by storing the sites to information you wish to save.

For my own additional exploration, I dug deeper into Google Bookmarks. Since I'd already grown familiar with some of Google's other applications and use it's bookmarking feature on my computer's browser, I felt more comfortable trying my own online bookmark list there. (I also wanted to see if my computer's bookmarks could be exported online.)  

In just a few minutes, I'd begun adding sites of interest into my bookmarking page. One thing I noticed right away: to help manage the sites and keep things organized, it is very important to attach labels to your entered sites. For example, I had a number of sites bookmarked: some for personal and professional interests, some for my students to use. Adding labels allows me to group my bookmarks by label, so any that I labeled "3rd Grade" would immediately cluster all the sites I want to share with my third grade students. Adding additional labels allows me to streamline my search for specific content, like math, language arts, and social studies. Without labels, trying to find that one site among the dozens or potentially hundreds collected would be like trying to find that one piece of hay in a haystack!

Here is a top portion of my bookmark list. As you can see, labels that I've created are listed on the right. I can click on any of them to find all of the sites I've attached that label onto.

Now that I've selected the "3rd Grade" label, you can see some of the selections that fall under that heading.

I can select labels by specific topic to break my content down further. All of my entries can be edited so that labels can be added or subtracted. I could create a label for students to identify the ones found and recommended by the kids in my class. 

With the plethora of information and resources available to teacher today, it is impossible to keep track of any of it without good organizational tools. With so much of these resources available online, it only makes sense to adopt an online tool that can keep track of it all. Choosing the right tool is up to the educator. One thing to keep in mind is cost. Nearly all of the sites I found are free to sign up and use. Those that charge do so to cover the cost of servers saving all of this information online. For many of us, the storage offered with free memberships will be enough.  That said, bookmarking does not take up a lot of storage space, and considering that Google is offering cloud storage for around 2 cents a month per gigabyte, bookmarking is one online tool that isn't going to tap your pocketbook.

ISTE Standards for Students

(Click on the link above for descriptions of the following standards this tool can address.)

       Creativity and innovation (a, b)

       Communication and collaboration (a, b)

       Research and information fluency (a, b, c)

       Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making (c)

       Digital citizenship (a, b, c, d)

       Technology operations and concepts (a, b, c, d)

ISTE Standards for Teachers

(Click on the link above for descriptions of the following standards this tool can address.)

       Facilitate and Inspire student learning and creativity (a, c, d)

       Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments (a, b, c, d)

       Model digital age work and learning (a, b, c, d)

       Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility (a, b, c)

       Engage in professional growth and leadership (a, b, d)

Sources:
http://www.symbaloo.com/
http://www.livebinders.com/welcome/home#
https://www.google.com/bookmarks
http://www.shareor.com/