tagging4learning

=How Tagging and Social Bookmarking can be used for learning= I think tagging/social bookmarking would be of great use to learners and in the classroom. It allows readers to 'tag' or 'bookmark' a site, web-link, digital photo etc, by using a keyword. It is intended to make a body of information increasingly easier to search, discover and navigate over time. By using a keyword to tag a site etc, this will help readers/learners to collate a list of useful resources. I feel it would help new learners to navigate themselves around information, that has already been previously reviewed. By using a keyword, then a series of sites, links etc can be stored under that name. (Almost like having a filing system/cabinet on your computer, to store similar information under certain headings/categories (keywords)) Very similar to the 'favourites' link, where you can file web-links etc under categories. An example of a site that uses tagging is http://del.icio.us/tag/wiki Keyword or tag being 'wiki'


 * Use by Teachers** - Teachers can use social bookmarking/tagging to locate and classify resources. Once they have tagged items (news stories, web articles, web pages etc) and added them to their account they can be seen by other teachers. A group of subject teachers can then share links/tags etc by sending colleagues to the list.

Teachers can also benefit from the tags of other academics – and can see clearly the most popular tags on subjects. As most of the lists are publicly accessible, anyone else with similar interests can view the links created by category, tags or randomly and add them to their list. Imagine the amount of time saved from being able to access a valid, up to date list of resources for a given topic, that you know other academics are already using. Imagine also the collective resource library that could be created when each teacher shares their tags with others.

Teachers can also direct students to their tag lists, so students can do more background reading on topics, or gather real world examples of theory.

There are also specific tagging sites for academics, such as citeulike. Social bookmarking can be very useful for collecting resources that are to be shared with others. Instead of a teacher having a physical folder of newspaper or web articles on a topic that students can only use in the classroom, these can simply be tagged and then students can access them from anywhere via the internet - perfect for those students who like to stay up all night to complete that assignment last minute.


 * Use by Students** - Students can use tagging/social bookmarking for extra study and also for co-operative learning, they can each research a portion of a topic and then share their tag lists to give a complete picture of the topic.


 * Advantages** - An advantage of tagging/social bookmarking over many other forms of bookmarking is that some sites are capable of verifying that bookmarks are still valid and will notify users when they are no longer current. This could save teachers and tutors from giving out invalid web references to students and colleagues.

Other advantages are that the tags themselves are created by humans for humans, not by a machine attempting to behave like a human. In the case of citeulike, the tags are created by academics for use by other academics. Also as more people bookmark the same resource it shows, and those with the most tags are ranked higher than those with fewer tags, so you can immediately see the most relevant resources for a given tag.

Many social bookmarking services also allow subscription to RSS feeds that are based on tags. This allows subscribers to be notified of new resources as they are tagged by other users.

In a social bookmarking system, users store lists of Internet resources, which they find useful. Often, these lists are publicly accessible, and other people with similar interests can view the links by category, tags, or even randomly. Some social bookmarking systems allow for privacy on a per-bookmark basis. They also categorize their resources by the use of informally assigned, user-defined //keywords// or tags (see [|folksonomy]). Most social bookmarking services allow users to search for bookmarks which are associated with given "tags," and rank the resources by the number of users which have bookmarked them. Many social bookmarking services also have implemented [|algorithms] to draw inferences from the tag keywords that are assigned to resources by examining the clustering of particular keywords, and the relation of keywords to one another. This would be particularly useful for teachers as it means they categorise topics or units or work for future reference.

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