A5.2: 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking

Deidra Darst
9/19/07

7 things you should know about social bookmarking (2005).  Educause Learning Initiative. Retrieved September 19, 2007, from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

TAP: 

The topic of this document is social bookmarking.  It was written to inform any interested party, especially those in an academic field.  The document’s purpose is to introduce social bookmarking to the audience:  what it is, who uses it, how it works, its significance, its downsides, what the future holds for its implementation and how it can impact teaching and learning. 

Claim: 

This document claims that social bookmarking is an efficient means through which users can “tag” worthwhile sites.  Because social bookmarking can be public via any social bookmarking website, it allows users to form connections amongst themselves, which makes searching the World Wide Web even more efficient and productive. 

Evidence: 

Social bookmarking allows users to bookmark their favorite websites and use keywords to “tag” them.  All of the user’s bookmarked sites can easily be accessed from a website such as del.icio.us or citeulike.  These bookmarks can be organized to reflect the users’ personal preferences.  This means of bookmarking is more practical than its more commonly used counterpart – bookmarking.  The “old” form of bookmarking meant creating a place for bookmarked sites on a particular computer.  These bookmarks could only be access from that particular computer which is often an inconvenience to those who work from numerous computers.  Bookmarks created with social bookmarking can be accessed from anywhere, as long as an Internet connection exists. 

Due to its public status, social bookmarking acts as a community for its users.  Users can designate their bookmarks as “public” which means that other users can see them.  Searching for a particular topic is more thorough when many people’s resources are utilized.  For example, a user is interested in ’small animals’ and they search through another user’s bookmarks.  This user has a “tag” labeled ‘chinchillas.’  The first user may not have thought to search chinchillas, but with the aid of the second user, he or she can further investigate this small animal.  Social bookmarking sites create a web of information that users can utilize to make connections to pertinent sources. 

Connections:
text-to-self:  This document introduced me to social bookmarking.  I often find myself on campus, searching through my “daily sites,” and I have to type each URL.  I am then forced to complain to myself, “this would much faster at home!”  Utilizing a social bookmarking site would be beneficial under these circumstances!

text-to-text:  This document made a particular point that I would like to address here.  It stated that social bookmarking is likely to have an impact on teaching and learning because of it makes finding information easier.  Many of the assigned readings for CD315 have made this point as well.  With so much information available today, an information literate person must be able to sort, filter and find pertinent information.  This is a necessary skill in today’s academic curricula; being about to find relevant information is key to success in today’s world. 

text-to-world:  As I have previously written, I can make my online world more organized by utilizing the various technologies available to me.  In my future profession of speech-language pathology, I could use social bookmarking to share my bookmarked sites with inter- and intra-professional colleagues.  Upon finding information that would interest other professionals, I could direct them to my social bookmarking site where I conveniently saved it for future use.  My bookmarks could also provide information for clients.  I could create “tags” for particular disorders, and then direct clients to those that may concern or interest them.