Wanted: Help

Dear Cyberpaper Educator,

I need help! I have been a teacher and a teacher-librarian for many years and I have never felt so overwhelmed in my entire career. My staff expects me to be a learning leader and to be able to help the students and staff to stay organized on the web. But, there is just so much Information available on the internet these days and I can’t seem to find a way to keep myself organized. How can I teach them?  At school, I use the bookmarks tab on internet explorer but then I can’t access my bookmarks when I go home. I have been attending a lot of professional development opportunities and I am constantly learning about new web 2.0 tools and other teacher-librarians are sending me links to learn about new tools. I don’t know where to begin and there are so many tools and so much information. People say that some of the tools are delicious. I can’t see a tool being very tasty but maybe I just need to sink my teeth into some of them. But, how do I know what to choose? Where does someone new to all of this begin?

I feel like I am sinking instead of floating in cyberspace. Please help me before it is too late.

Sincerely,

Lost in Cyberspace


Dear Lost in Cyberspace,
You are not alone. The 21st century has brought about tremendous shifts in the information landscape and students, professionals, and adults are all looking for ways to stay organized in this digital world. Some of the best advice that I ever received was to “ stop thinking of technology in terms of nouns (powerpoint, Twitter, YouTube) and instead think in terms of verbs (presenting, sharing, and storing)” (Fisher & Frey, 2010, p.227). When thinking about Social Bookmarking it might be helpful to consider what the functions or verbs are associated with it. I have brainstormed a few:

It is important to realize that every day there are new tools created and it is impossible to stay abreast of every tool. What is important is to become familiar with the functions for which the tools were developed and to choose tools that suit our needs. Therefore to better assist you I will review some of the current social bookmarking tools that you could use in your personal life, and in the role of teacher, teacher-librarian, and as part of a learning community. I hope that by sharing the purpose, value, and noteworthy features of social bookmarking you will be able to move forward in social bookmarking.

Sincerely,
Cyberpaper for an Educator

Where To Begin With Social Bookmarking
I remember when I first experimented with social bookmarking when I was on the executive council of the Saskatchewan Middle Years Association. We all had to post some of our favourite websites that we used in the middle years classroom. I joined delicious and started adding my favourite websites that I had bookmarked in my favourites toolbar. I had no understanding of what I was actually doing, and why I was doing it. I knew that I was bookmarking useful sites for other Middle Years teachers but I didn’t know how it worked. So before you make the same mistake here is a short information video about what social bookmarking is.




Where to Start: Choose a social bookmarking tool that works for you.

There are many social bookmarking tools to choose from but the most popular are: Delicious, Diigo, and Evernote. How do you know where to start? Here is a glimpse into my own personal discoveries and frustrations using Delicious, Diigo, and Evernote.

Delicious

As previously mentioned, Delicious was the first social bookmarking tool that I experimented with. I was so excited to discover that I no longer had to e-mail links to myself or worry about not being able to access my favourites at home or school. In the midst of transferring my favourites over I failed to recognize or understand the value of tagging. Creating an account with delicious is easy, but does require you to have a yahoo ID. Once you create an account you can start saving bookmarks by entering a URL. You can add other important information such as: a title, keyword, notes, tags, and you can also send your bookmark to friends or post to twitter.

What I found to be the important features of Delicious:


• Allows you to tag, save, manage, and share web pages

• Share bookmarks with friends that also use Delicious

• Add –on options for firefox, google chrome, and internet explorer.

• Easy introduction to social bookmarking

• Access delicious bookmarks on your mobile phone

• Use delicious in itunes


Diigo
Diigo has been my staple over the past few years and I have had the most success with it. Creating an account with Diigo is simple, you only need a username and an e-mail. Here is an overview of what Diigo can do for you.



I found that once I created my Diigo account I had to spend some time thinking about what I wanted my lists to be such as: library, literacy, web 2.0, etc. This helps organize your bookmarking and is not as messy as tagging. Diigo has some extra features that Delicious does not have and one of the options is to be able to annotate text by: highlighting, sticky notes, and comments. Below is a Guide To Annotating with Diigo


Diigo V4: Research ~ annotate, archive, organize from diigobuzz on Vimeo.


What I found to be important features of Diigo:

• Easy to use

• Diigo toolbar can be added to any search engine

• Diigolet is a floating toolbar that can be added to your toolbar

• Diigo allows you to clip videos and view from your notepad

• Diigo groups

• Read later option allows you to mark a page for later reading

Evernote

I started using Evernote this summer and I found that it had even more diverse features than Diigo and Delicious. Evernote is a far more visual tool. Evernote has a multitude of tutorials from organizing information to handy extras in Evernote.




What I found to be the important features of Evernote:

• Capture everything from webpages, photos, and even screenshots

• You can add tags and organize notes into different notebooks

• Search for notes by keywords, titles and tags.

• Can be used on your mobile, ipod touch, and ipad

• E- notes

• Ability to access on or offline

How Can Social Bookmarking Help You Stay Organized in Your Personal Life?

Since I am passionate about reading I am always interested in learning about books that others are reading. I would typically record any book suggestions into my blackberry or notebook. Now, I can create booklists with Diigo by: bookmarking the page, clipping the front cover image and ISBN number, creating an appropriate tag, and creating a list.

So often I access the internet to find recipes. I need to start bookmarking and tagging some of the recipes. In the end I could my very own cookbook.

In the past I have used Social Bookmarking to plan for a trip. Some of the advantages are: more than one person can add to the list, you can save all of your necessary information to one place including tickets, and confirmations.

Where to Begin Using Social Bookmarking in Your Professional Life

Audience: Teacher

Value: Using social bookmarking tools to teach students how to manage and organize information meets the following Standards for the 21st Century Learner.

• 2.1.2- Organize knowledge so that it is useful

• 2.1.4- Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information

• 3.1.4- Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use and assess.


Noteworthy Features:

• Allows students to access information at home and at school

• Students no longer have to copy and paste websites into a word document

• Groups of students can network when collaborating for group projects and assignments

• As a teacher, you can view what your students are bookmarking and annotating

• There is a Diigo for Educators that allows you to create student accounts for an entire class

Applications for the K-12 Classroom: 

Social bookmarking tools “support 21st century learning skills as they offer a structure that is intellectually engaging, encouraging students to not only locate but also collaboratively tag, organize, and evaluate resources and thinking more deeply about the process” ( Berger & Trexler, 2010, p.50). Diigo is the only social bookmarking tool with an educators account that enables you to create safe and private accounts for students who are under the age of 13 and can’t sign up for their own account. Social bookmarking tools can play a pivotal role in the “investigate and search phase” of the inquiry process. During this phase of inquiry we want our students to think critically, apply, evaluate, and analyze the information that they discover.

Personal Learning Networks

Having students create a Personal Learning Network allows them to keep organized. Vicki Davis, author of the Cool Cat Teacher Blog mentions that, “personal learning networks are virtual lockers for school kids.” Having students create personal learning networks allows them to be in control of their digital footprint as they can have all of their channels and pages linked to one webpage. Examples of personal learning networks are: igoogle, pageflakes, and netvibes.

Would I recommend using social bookmarking in the classroom?

We all know that students in the 21st century need different skills than prior generations, and that today’s schools are not necessarily preparing them for a future that we can’t yet imagine. Social bookmarking allows students to participate collaboratively, share and collect knowledge, track their thinking, and as a result create new knowledge and understandings.

Audience: Teacher-Librarian and Learning Leader

Value: “By positioning themselves to lead the future of information organization, teacher librarians will be able to select the best emerging Web-based tools and applications, become familiar with their strengths, and leverage their usefulness to guide users in organizing internet content” ( Visser, M, 2010, p. 34).

Noteworthy Features: Teaching students how to, “effectively use technology to organize information is a required 21st century skill (Berger & Trexler, 2010, p. 50). Therefore it is absolutely imperative that teacher-librarians ensure that our students have the necessary skills and tools to do so.

Conventional methods of reaching our patrons are no longer relevant in the 21st century. Teacher-librarians must discover other ways to create an online presence and to consider more innovative approaches to accessing information such as: Live Binders, pageflakes, Jogger, and TrailFire. These tools can be used to create pathfinders, and to share information and links with both students and teachers. Here is an example of a  Jog the Web that I created about the Floods in Pakistan.

Creating groups in Diigo could allow you to share your lists with both students and staff. As a teacher-librarian I am always coming across links that I know another teacher would appreciate. Having the entire staff on Diigo would allow me to share my resources with them via e-mail and by tags.

Recommendations:

• Look at your curriculum to discover where social bookmarking would best support learning

• Open an account and begin to explore by adding and joining groups.

• Dabble with the different tools and become comfortable with them before teaching them


Audience: Learning Community
So often we become infowhelmed with new ideas, resources, and applications for education.




Value: By demonstrating and using social bookmarking for professional learning will allow others to see how powerful social bookmarking is.

Noteworthy Features:

• Larry Ferlazzo has come up with a list of the Best Social Bookmarking applications for English Language Learners. Share these with your Spec.Ed department.

• Common grade alike teachers could share their bookmarks for different subject areas

• As Saskatchewan continues to introduce new curricula with limited support and resources teachers could support each other by creating groups in diigo or delicious.

Applicable:

Another application for social bookmarking that would be useful in a professional learning setting is Live Binders. Live Binders is your “three ring binder to the web” and allows you to web-based resources. This would be a great way to share information with other educators. For example, here is a livebinder that a teacher librarian created about Google.

GOOGLE

Closing Thoughts About Social Bookmarking

It is my hope that you will no longer be “lost in cyberspace” and that you have the necessary skills and understanding to become organized in a digital world. Don’t forget that as humans, we have an innate desire to be organized, and that over time we have tried many different tools to aid us in the organizational process. My advice to you, Lost in Cyberspace, is to dabble, play and explore with each of the tools listed above and remember to consider your purpose when selecting the tool that is just right for you and your instructional needs.



References

Bellanca, J & Brandt, R (2010). 21st Century Skills:Rethinking How Students Learn. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Berger,P & Trexler, S (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Visser, M. (2010). Tagging: An Organization scheme for the internet. Information Technology and Libraries, 29(1), 34-39. Retrieved October 11, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1967168931).

Peltier-Davis, C.. (2009, November). Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Library User 2.0, Librarian 2.0: Innovative Services for Sustainable Libraries. Computers in Libraries, 29(10), 16,18-21. Retrieved October 11, 2010, from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source. (Document ID: 1895896931).