Social Bookmarking for Educators

From LiteracyTentWiki

Subject: [PD 4892] social bookmarking for educators?
From: Jason Keith Guard/AC/VCU
Date: Fri Jul 16 13:39:20 EDT 2010

Similar to the use of sites like PortaPortal, social bookmarking on Delicious or StumbleUpon are great ways to compile resources for adult educators. I'm curious if anyone on this listserv uses either platform and would be willing to share a link to their page so we can see what resources you've collected and maybe share our own in return.

Professional development can go viral, in a way, if teachers feel encouraged to build on what each other have assembled as their own repertoire. I think this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on social bookmarking is a pretty compelling introduction to the concept:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them. Descriptions may be added to these bookmarks in the form of metadata, so that other users may understand the content of the resource without first needing to download it for themselves. Such descriptions may be free text comments, votes in favor of or against its quality, or tags that collectively or collaboratively become a folksonomy. Folksonomy is also called social tagging, "the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content.

Jason Guard
GED and Distance Learning Specialist
Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
Twitter: jkguard
http://www.valrc.org
http://www.GEDVA.com
http://www.elearnva.com

Subject: [PD 4893] Re: social bookmarking for educators?
From: Kathy Olesen-Tracey
Date: Fri Jul 16 13:57:13 EDT 2010

Hi all,

We have used this resource and listed all of the connected links by lesson topic. Feel free to check it out.

http://delicious.com/GEDionline

We have found it useful and check out the networked teachers. They have created the same type of resources and are linked to our page.


Kathy

Subject: [PD 4894] Re: social bookmarking for educators?
From: Debra Cargill
Date: Fri Jul 16 14:13:03 EDT 2010

All,

I use Delicious to collect Adult Education sites and connect with others who might be doing the same. Here's my link (debbycargill): http://delicious.com/debbycargill

I've been trying to keep up with so many fascinating postings, WOW! I afraid I am just lurking for now while attend to some work related projects.

Debby

Debra H. Cargill
Lead ESOL and Program Developer
Adult Education
Prince William County Public Schools
Manassas, VA
www.pwcs.edu/curriculum/adulted/#2

Subject: [PD 4896] Re: social bookmarking for educators?
From: Maria Moriarty
Date: Fri Jul 16 14:52:14 EDT 2010

Hello:

Here at the AlphaPlus Centre <http://webindex.alphaplus.ca/> we have been developing a "Web Index" over several years - recently we developed four collections ( Technology, Numeracy, Communications Skills and Find and Use Information) in Delicious to share our links and to connect with and gather information from a wide community interested in adult basic education and to allow us to explore ways of using social bookmarking that can be helpful to adult basic educators. You can check out our collections here: AlphaPlus Web Index<http://webindex.alphaplus.ca/bookmarking.asp> You might also want to check out our AlphaPlus Blog<http://blog.alphaplus.ca/> where we regularly provide links and information about technology, social media and adult basic education.


Cheers..

Maria Moriarty
AlphaPlus Centre

Subject: [PD 4897] Re: Social Bookmarking / Links for Educators
From: Hillary Major/FS/VCU
Date: Fri Jul 16 15:03:21 EDT 2010

At the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center, we've used a Google site to share links for some of our tech trainings:

http://sites.google.com/site/valrctechtraining/links

We use the site as a virtual agenda for some trainings -- obviously not looking at all the links, but skipping through to highlight the ones on which we plan to focus. Participants follow along on their own computers, so they can play with the sites as we describe them.

We set up the Google Group to extend the conversation with our teachers past the training and let them share what did/didn't/might work in their own classrooms, but although many of our teachers have joined the group, the discussion has never really gotten off the ground.

Hillary Major
Specialist for Publications and Communications
Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center
The Literacy Institute at
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
www.valrc.org

Subject: [PD 4901] Links for Educators/ websites, etc
From: George Demetrion
Date: Fri Jul 16 16:16:38 EDT 2010

Hey all,

I see the enthusiasm for digital technology utilization is very high. As a result of the sharing I created my own Diigo page which would need more resources added before I would share it. At this stage I am adding sources to the bookmark page and will experiment witn this site some more. I think it has some potential for my purposes and in embracing it I take a note from Richard Sebastian's playbook that sometimes new technology can be the impetus for new learning. No doubt too, the medium is the message with the caveat in turn that such enthusiasm could diminish a general aptitude for more extensive texts that one will find in serious books and journal articles.

In any event based on my personal emphasis on more enduring digital technologies (discussion list archives, blogs and Internet searching) I would like to highlight a website I created while in Connecticut through the Connecticut Regional Education Council (CREC) (www.creg.org; the Collaborative on Adult Literacy Resource Library http://www.crec.org/cetes/adult_literacy/index.php, which I intended as a comprehensive adult education site mainly for teachers, but also for program developers and managers. The site contains key instructional links, many of which can be utilized immediately, teacher resources; mostly instructional sites that require more teacher support; a support services link focusing on a broad array of topics at the management and administrative levels; online articles and quarterlies gleaned throughout the US, and links.

In the process of creating this site I visited a number of Hartford area programs. Mostly the teachers were enthused, which showed also the importance of direct service. I also experienced that when I was a primary program support person for a 25 station computer lab in which both students and the volunteer tutors benefited through direct support that an engaged staff person was able to provide.

In short,there's a lot to be gained through a continually more acute utilization of digital technology even with the following caveats.

There could be a tendency to uncritically embrace the new without close regard for its pedagogical value and the need for solid training, including much reinforcement Whether synchronous or asynchronous (and both have much value in which one is not inherently better than the other), close personal attention by a knowledgeable, supportive other is a key factor in the effective utilization of digital technologies.

There remain many traditional technologies that are equally (if not more) pedagogically valuable; namely the book, the copy machine, the white board (smart or otherwise), the pen/pencil, the notebook, the aesthetics of the classroom arrangement; etc.

To be sure, there's much here to learn!

George Demetrion

The Comprehensive Adult Educator
http://thecomprehensiveadulteducator.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

Retrieved from "http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Social_Bookmarking_for_Educators"