Social Bookmarking – What’s It All About?
The idea of having all of my bookmarks organized and in one location is enough for me to jump on the social bookmarking bandwagon! Between two work computers, a laptop, a tablet, and a PC in my home office, I’ve got bookmarks (and duplicates) everywhere! (Oh, on my USB flash drives too…ugh!)
But the other benefits of social bookmarking, as I see it, are: sharing our interests and knowledge with others; learning from others with like interests; building relationships around the world (or next door); having others assist in my research efforts; and, the ability to apply as many tags as I think are relevant to one source.
“Learning is a continuous conversation among many participants”, (p90) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson, really expresses the fundamental purpose of social bookmarking tools; many participants learning from each other. Why not tap into the expertise and time that others have already spent researching? And, why not add to the cycle to assist others? Social bookmarking is a means to this end.
Some features of the del.icio.us site that I like are the podcasting feature; linklog allows addition of notes to web links (in case you forget why you added this favorite/bookmark); the ability to include del.icio.us links to my blog (to get the important stuff in one place); I love to cook, so I love the cookbook feature; the wish list and “for:username” tag are great for relocating cool items and/or book titles; the ability to keep certain items private. The collaboration feature which allows groups to use and build links under a common sign-on could be a very powerful tool in the educational setting…here again, eliminates duplication of effort through collaboration.
A comparison of social bookmarking sites can be found at http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/06/23/stuff/filters_table.html. There are many social bookmarking sites out there, all with similar and unique features. Some notable features that I found are:
Furl – saves a copy of the actual page you are looking at, not just the link; unlimited text description allowed for each URL; you can follow common tag words to individuals and scope out their other material; you can export all your resources into MLA, APA, Chicago or CBE citation formats; you can export your stuff for backup.
Jots – has a clean, blog-like look; personal tags easily available; RSS feed subscription; unlimited annotation; captures a copy of the page, not just the URL; allows for private groups (i.e., a class of students);.
Del.icio.us – unlimited tags per URL; RSS feeds for tags; quick and easy to setup.
Instructional Design Technology Defined
The definitions in this chapter seemed to merely put words to the process that I’ve used over and over when preparing and delivering training sessions (I am not a classroom teacher). I think the term(s) for instructional design is used more prevalently in the business world than the school environment…at least I’ve never heard anyone in my district talk about “instructional design” or its process. Sure, I hear about curriculum writing and lesson planning, but regardless of the term I feel that the processes and outcomes are the same…what are you going to teach; how will you teach it; did the students (young or adult) learn what you intended them to learn. These definitions clarified the obscurity of what instructional design truly is.
What seems to be missing is the element of collaboration and teamwork; many times instructional design is accomplished by a team, rather than an individual. Specifically, what would be the point of several grade level teachers all preparing-separately-to teach the same subject/unit? Teamwork eliminates duplication of effort and ensures maintenance of standards and consistency across the grade level.
Ending note:
Since it was referenced several times, I investigated the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT) at its website: http://www.aect.org/default.asp. While browsing, I found this eBook on the publications tab of the AECT website and thought it looked like a relevant resource for this course: Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology. Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001); you can find it at http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt.
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4 comments:
Great point about the lack of collaboration...our dept is constantly reinventing the wheel...we are suppose to teach how to use PowerPoint, Word, Excel...etc...but no clear lesson plan is out there...we just know what we are suppose to teach and must have the same output in the end. I have created many lessons and shared them...I think our department needs to publish a lesson plan book so we are all on the same page...opps...if I say that too loud...I will have volunteered myself:)
"Furl � saves a copy of the actual page you are looking at, not just the link; unlimited text description allowed for each URL; you can follow common tag words to individuals and scope out their other material; you can export all your resources into MLA, APA, Chicago or CBE citation formats; you can export your stuff for backup."
This is a great tip, I'll be sure to check this out. I was hoping that del.icio.us would be able to this exact thing!
Great job looking at the other social bookmarking sites. I plan on looking into them...I agree with you that many teachers don't use the vocabulary expressed in the definitions even though they may actually do the activities described. I like how you pointed at that there was no mention of collaboration. To me it seems like every school is talking about collaborating. Also many of the tools we haved learned about seem to make collaborating easier.
Barbara- I'm looking for your link to your del.icio.us page. Am I missing it?
- Brian
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