Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking will definitely be something that will come in use when I begin to teach. I was aware of social bookmarking, however until now did not know how beneficial social bookmarking can be to a teacher. Social bookmarking is a good way for teachers to organize websites into categories or “tags” so that when they need to find a certain website, they can easily locate it. Teachers can also follow each other and share websites that they found. Not only is social bookmarking beneficial to the teacher, but it can also be beneficial to students. If the teacher wanted students to do research on a certain topic, he/she can place a list of websites on their social bookmarking website for students to easily access. The teacher can also assign readings that students can read from home with internet access. If students do not have internet access from home, the teacher can still print out copies for these students to read. Another major advantage to using social bookmarking websites with students, is that is saves teachers from making copies, and instead, students can just log online to do their readings. Also, when students use social bookmarking sites to complete readings, they are much more engaged then if they were completing their readings from a textbook or a handout.

As a student at Albright College, I can see many ways that having a social bookmarking site can help me now, as well as in the future. Because I am an education major, I am constantly writing lessons, planning activities, creating units, and finding ideas that can help me when I begin to teach. I could use my social bookmarking site to organize websites that I found that are helpful to teachers/students. By placing websites into categories, I can easily be able to find them. Also, if I needed a website on something specific, like classroom management, I can just see what I tagged under that category and see what comes up. This will make it much faster to complete an assignment since the websites are essentially at my fingers. Social bookmarking is something that I plan to begin using right away, and continue to use throughout my career. Not only will it help me organize the websites that I find online, but it is also an easy way to share these websites with my coworkers, and hopefully many of them will have social bookmarking websites that can be beneficial to me as well.