Do you ever ask students to find research articles, books, websites, or videos online? Do you ever ask students to create an annotated bibliography for an assignment? Do you ever ask students to share or critique web resources? Do you wish you had a repository to organize and share web resources? Have you ever considered social bookmarking?

Social Bookmarking

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Social bookmarking is an online service that allows users to bookmark, categorize, and share weblinks. As we bookmark each weblink, we can add a description and comments about the weblink, and we can categorize the weblinks by adding a tag as we bookmark it. Not only can we share our bookmarks with others, but we can also import and export bookmarks and link with Facebook and Twitter. Some people use a search agent to find job postings, however, students could use bookmarks to find jobs, competitions, or volunteer opportunities. Others use bookmarking for planning; for example, a school trip or conference with links to hotels, transportation, and excursions (DesRoches, 2007).

VariationsVirtual Pinning. Pinterest is a type of social bookmarking. Since it is intensely visual, it can only bookmark images and videos. Therefore, a journal article void of any images cannot be bookmarked. Pinterest is really for virtual pinning - it is a virtual pin board.

ExamplesUse your imagination. What could your students bookmark? What would be an appropriate web resource for your students to bookmark? Only you know what would be authentic to your field of study, your curriculum, and your students. To get started, consider these ideas:

Visual Arts•Design ebooks

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Watch a three-minute video about social bookmarking from CommonCraft

Social Bookmarking

•Gallery shows•Urban art trends•Art commissions

Health & Community Studies•Health journals•Community agencies•Legislation updates•Field placements

Science & Technology•Trade magazines•Environmental issues•Science fairs•Job postings

Business Administration•Business reviews•Marketing events•Case competitions•Career fairs

Humanities & Social Sciences•News articles•Current events•Literary contests•Internships

MeritsSocial bookmarking is an easy way to organize and share weblinks. It replaces out-of-date ways to share links via email or listservs. It meets the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) learning outcomes for information management and time management. It is a great way to get an annotated bibliography started! Beyond these better ways to compile and share weblinks, it is also a great tool for building social networks.

Information Literacy. For undergraduate certificates, diplomas, and degrees, we must teach students information literacy skills. The Ontario Certificate and Diploma level Essential Employability Skills Outcomes (EESOs) include an information management outcome that requires students to “locate, select, organize, and document information using

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appropriate technology and information systems” as well as “analyze, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources” including the skill of “selecting and using appropriate tools and technology for a task or a project” (Queen’s Printer, 2009a). Likewise, the Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations (UDLEs) include a breadth and depth of knowledge outcome that requires students to “gather, review, evaluate and interpret information” (Queen’s Printer, 2009b). Social bookmarking is an ideal way for students to gather, manage, evaluate, and synthesize information while demonstrating Internet literacy. The added bonus is how easy it is to share bookmarks for collaboration, which also complements yet another ESSO to “manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects” (Queen’s Printer, 2009a).

Annotated Bibliography. Bookmarking is great for individual or group project research. With social bookmarking, students can set up an individual, group, or class research list of web articles, books, websites, videos, or podcasts. One of the early steps in any research project is to compile an annotated bibliography. Social bookmarking aids students in creating a list of resources while adding comments to annotate each article, book, website, video, or podcast. Students can work collaboratively to share, import, and export their bookmarks.

Networking. Bookmarking can transcend the classroom to include local community partners as well as global community partners. It encourages inquiry and critical thinking as students must evaluate the source of each article, book, website, video, or podcast they tag. Students can create bookmarks for themselves, their entire class, or for small group work to share or organize for collaboration. Students create a search category - a tag - and save a web link to create a subject guide or path finder (Rethlefsen, 2007). They can also subscribe to a tag and the bookmarking software will add new links as they become available.

Accessibility. Social bookmarks lower barriers for participation, contribution, and involvement (Rethlefsen, 2007). Since bookmarks can be links to written, auditory, or visual sources, this variety of sources would appeal to a variety of learning styles (Gardner, 2011), preferences, and abilities (CAST, 2012). Bookmarks are also accessible and portable in the cloud on all kinds of mobile devices. Not only does this aid students with organizational disabilities, but it also appeals to adult learners who need any time, any place, and any pace (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). Additionally, they save time and frustration in maintaining a static web page (Rethlefsen, 2007) or emailing lists back and forth.

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ChallengesThe greatest challenge with social bookmarking lies in teaching students Internet literacy. First, students need to know how to search for websites. Then, they have to know how to evaluate web-based materials. Lastly, they need to know how to use the bookmarking tools online. In any virtual environment, students need to be cognizant of safe practices online, especially respecting time and privacy.

Netiquette. One of the core rules of Netiquette is to respect other’s time. Social bookmarking certainly does this. It is much more efficient to share your bookmarks with others than to email back and forth. Many professors keep a a bookmark profile and have several followers. If we and our students make simple adjustments to our privacy settings we can maintain our confidentiality and privacy online as well as share our bookmarks we those we trust or want to network with (Shea, 2004).

Evaluating Websites. Make sure to review how to evaluate web sources for CRAAP - Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose (ALA, 2013). Anyone can publish almost anything online. No one fact checks all the information available on the Internet. It is up to the reader to determine whether the information is credible. Students may also need a review of how to search for information online using simple search phrasing or Boolean search operators (Google, 2012).

Instructional DesignUse a backwards design approach. First, start with your learning outcomes. Second, create your assessments. Third, plan your instructional activities. Finally, choose a technology to enhance the lesson.

Design. Consider your curriculum; look carefully at your accreditation standards, graduate attributes, program learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, and lesson learning outcomes. Will social bookmarking fulfill the learning outcomes? How will you evaluate what the students learn through social bookmarking? What technologies will you and your students need to learn in order to social bookmark? Will social bookmarking enhance the learning experience?

Develop. Review the kinds of information sharing common in your field of study. What works? What is redundant? Reflect on how social bookmarking practices could aid in your academic and professional career.

Deliver. Decide what students will do before, during, and after the social bookmarking activity. Before bookmarking, students might propose a research topic or group project. While bookmarking, students can follow prompts for critical thinking. After they compile and

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categorize their bookmarks, they can share their posts with peers and industry partners for discussion. The bookmarking activity should be authentic, active, and applied.

TechnologyBrowse the Internet or app store for social bookmarking software. Some popular bookmarking sites include StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Delicious; these can link to Facebook and Twitter as well. We can add the vendor bookmarklet or button to our toolbar. Whenever we find a web article that we like, we can simply hit the bookmarklet or button, and it will add the link to our social bookmarking page.

ReferencesAmerican Library Association (ALA). (2013). Information literacy

competency standards for higher education. Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (2012). Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/index.html

Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.

Google. (2013). How to search on Google. Google. Retrieved from http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134479&topic=1221265&ctx=topic

DesRoches, D. (2007). All together now: Social bookmarking offers a new way to store and share web sites. School Library Journal, 54(1), p.33. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

Queen’s Printer of Ontario. (2009a). Essential employability skills. Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU). Retrieved from http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/progstan/essential.html

StumbleUpon

Reddit

Delicious

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Queen’s Printer for Ontario. (2009b). Degree level standards. Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB). Retrieved from http://www.peqab.ca/standards.html

Rethlefsen, M. (2007). Tags help make libraries del.icio.us: Social bookmarking and tagging boost participation. Library Journal, 132(15), p.26-28. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

Shea, V. (2004). Netiquette. Retrieved from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/index.html

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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Written by Paula OggPhotography by Jonathan Eger

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