BP4_2009102_Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a relatively new way to share information that is growing in popularity every day. Social bookmarking allows people to bookmark websites on a website. They can access these bookmarks from any other computer. They can also share these bookmarks with others in order to share the websites they have found. The implications of social bookmarking in society are amazing, however, I am more focused on the implications in education.

Finding valid and reliable sources for education can be challenging. This is especially true when the topics being researched are new and most available information can only be found on the Internet. Social bookmarking can create a more effective way to search for content. "Rather than ranking the position of a page within a search engine list by the number of external websites that link to it, or some other highly complex algorithmic basis, applying a simple metric such as 'perceived utility' is far and away more accurate" (Winder, 2007). This organization will allow people to find what they need in a much shorter time. Allowing them to spend their time and energy dealing with content instead of on irrelavent research. This will also help educators find the exact content they are looking for without having to search through many unhelpful sites. It will also help educators with sites that are extremely short lived (Riddell, 2006).

One of the most exciting things I found in my research of social bookmarking is the site www.brainify.com. This site is dedicated to the convergence on higher education students and faculty to create an immense social bookmarking site. All members are asked to contribute to the site by adding high quality web addresses. The member then categorizes their new site by academic subject. Then when a person needs information on a specific topic or area of study, they simply go to that category or subcategory where they will find all of the web addresses that other students and faculty found helpful.

This is just one of the many ways that social bookmarking can increase learning in an educational setting. Teachers can also create a social bookmarking page for their classes. This allows students to add websites for other students to use in the future. This would also allow the teacher access to the quality of research that the students are finding on a topic, thus allowing the teacher to monitor quality levels before a final project is turned in. I am very excited to see how the world of social bookmarking will impact the world of education.

References

Brainify (n.d.) What's brainify? Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.brainify.com/About/

Rindell, R. (2006) Social bookmarking makes its mark in education. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=42069&CFID=13150662&CFTOKEN=40950658

Winder, D. (2007) Back to basics: social bookmarking. Information World Review, (240), 29-32. http://search.ebscohost.com