The annual NOEL Conference looks like it will be packed full of great opportunities to connect and to learn. I’ve never been to this conference before, so I know that I’ll be busy taking notes on everything.
Jenni Scott-Marciski and I will be presenting a few items about Social Bookmarking to complement the Hands on Media session. She has prepared a fantastic resource that provides several descriptions and links regarding various Social Bookmarking tools. *I’m using her document as my main resource for this post*
So… what is Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking sites “…give you a place to organize your favourite things online where you can find them no matter where you are physically or what computer you are working on. But they are also social networks. You can share your favourites with others so they can get ideas and information from you and you can search what other people find important so you can learn from them.” (Jenni)
Sometimes it can be a bit tricky to read information online. There is simply so much to read, that it helps to organize all of the articles and sites that you’d like to keep track of.
Let’s Look at Some of Our Favourite Tools…
Pinterest is one of the most user-friendly and visual social bookmarking sites. “[it] is a website where people can collect (pin) all of their favourite things on a variety of pinboards. Its popularity has exploded and the topics people are pinning are varied. Educators are flocking to Pinterest because it is easy to use.” (Jenni)
Some of my students have recently started using Pinterest to help them come up with ideas for new projects. *Take a look at Olivia & Hanna’s posts.
I am not really familiar with Zite, but Doug Peterson uses it like a pro. I was thankful for his post, which described how to use Zite productively:
The power of Zite is not necessarily in the neat way that it presents the content and you flip through it with your fingers but in the way that it finds material to read. Unlike a regular RSS reader, Zite goes out and grabs content from places that I would never frequent or, heck, even know about. It gets smarter the more that you use it and giving thumbs-up to a story ensures that there will be more like it in the future! (“Zite as a Conversation Starter“)
I noticed that Grant Montgomery uses Scoop.It quite regularly, so I wanted to get his opinion on why he finds it useful:
Scoop.it allows me to curate content that I read into defined areas of interests/passions. The Scoop.It community has many amazing curators and the content that they find for different educational areas is often superior than articles found through a Google search. Scoop.It is also searchable and often you can find many great articles in the area of interest by using this function. (Grant)
Honestly, all the sites listed above are very handy tools. The best way to find out which one you like best is to play with them. Depending on your interests, learning style and browsing preferences, you will find a site that ‘fits’ you a bit better than the rest. Have fun exploring!
**Update: Doug Peterson has created a great resource that covers many social bookmarking tools to help those who are interested in professional reading. Please explore “My #ECOO13 Session“. You’ll be provided with a link to Doug’s slides from October’s conference, which help to explain the reasons why he chooses to use a variety of social bookmarking tools.
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