Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Social Bookmarking and Skype
Imagine starting a new unit that includes extensive research. How could social bookmarking and/or Skype allow students to collaborate and communicate in unique ways in a 1:1 classroom?
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4 comments:
In an elementary school setting social bookmarking is a valuable resource. Our school uses ikeepbookmarks.com. All the kids have a shortcut to the link on their desktop. In my room it eliminates the endless searching on the web and the potential for inappropriate sites popping up--even with our filters and blocks.
I am able to search sites, assess the value of the information on the site and post only the sites that I feel will benefit the instruction in my classroom. All the teachers at our school have folders on the site and we have curriculum folders with sites that are valuable across grade levels.
What a time saver! For a class starting a particular unit to have an established list of reviewed web resources is invaluable. Not only to guide the research, but free up more time for collaboration. (I love the idea of the folder access for teachers that Christine mentioned.)
Skype can be used to collaborate with folks anywhere. We have used Skype to collaborate with people in other countries.
I can definitely see the possibilities for using Skype and social bookmarking for extensive research, especially collaborative research. Certainly for students in traditional schools it can be difficult to meet outside of the school day in order to work together on projects. Skype definitely provides a means for doing that. The social bookmarking provides another layer to that collaboration. Because each student can share what they've found, there is little overlap and perhaps students can get a more full picture of an idea or topic because of the organization social bookmarking provides.
I have been part of a social bookmark for a long time now. All the technology facilitators in our district were part of a workshop where we set them up and we have been using ever since. I have used them for such a long time, that I would be lost with it.
I have been using SKYPE for several months now. I use it to work with new teachers in our district. Our district uses the MACs with the built-in cameras and we have utilized SKYPE for a while. I am a traveling teacher and the teachers can contact me no matter where I am. They can SKYPE me and talk to me about any situation that my arise. It is great.
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