Use del.icio.us to Create a Class Resources List for Online Research
The internet hass a wealth of information. The problem is, sometimes there's too much. Students can easily get caught up in all of that gibberish, and they may not have the research skills necessary to wade through and find something useful.
One way to scaffold this process is to pre-build a list of resources for your students to use. You could simply type up a list of approved websites and hand it out. Or, you could create an online list at del.icio.us.
What is del.icio.us?
del.icio.us is a website. It might look a bit strange because it uses the '.us' extension instead of the familiar '.com.' It also has a subdomain – which means that there is something (del) in front of the domain name, where 'www' would normally go. 'del.icio.us' could easily have been 'www.icio.com' – although it wouldn't have sounded as cool.
Now that we know it's a website, we can focus on what the website does – it's a social bookmarking website. It's a place for you to store all of your bookmarks on the internet, where they can be quickly and easily shared to other computers and other users.
There a number of ways you can use a del.icio.us list in your class, but today we're focusing on how to create a simple list of resources for online research. If you want to see an example of how this might turn out, check out this short del.icio.us list I made for my US I history class.
Step One – Register at the Site
Here's the del.icio.us registration screen. In the top-right corner, you can see the "Register" link circled.
Like usual, you need to register for an account before you can do anything else. Don't worry, it's free. Just go to the del.icio.us website, click on the 'Register' link on the top right, and follow the directions.
When you choose your username, make it something short and memorable. This is what people will type in to get to your bookmark list. So something like 'mr-rock', 'mrs-jones', or 'mrs-jones-english' would be good.
After you register, you should get a confirmation e-mail. You'll need to open that and click on the link to activate your account. After you've done that, we're ready to get started.
Step Two - Installing Some Buttons
After you finished the registration page, you should have been given an option to install some buttons for your browser. The del.icio.us website automatically detects what browser you are using and points you in the direction of the right file to download and install.
These buttons make it easy for you to add websites to your list. When you click on the “Add to del.icio.us” button, it will open up the form you would use to add a website and fill it in with information for the page you are currently browsing. Then, you just add a description and send the information to the database.
On this screen, you see the two "bookmarklets" that you can drag and drop onto your bookmark toolbar. You can also see one of them installed on my bookmark toolbar.
You could install those buttons, but I prefer the “bookmarklets.” When you click on the link in your e-mail to activate your account, you should be taken to a page that shows you two “bookmarklets” - a special type of button that goes in your bookmark toolbar or folder.
To use these buttons, you simply drag them onto the toolbar that holds your bookmarks. It does exactly what the regular button does, but you can move it around more and make your toolbar look the way you want it to. The choice of buttons is up to you.
Step Three – Start Bookmarking
Now that you've got your buttons installed, you can start bookmarking. You can start with this tutorial, just to see how it works.
Read the rest of this section, and then click the “Post to del.icio.us” button. You'll be taken to the del.icio.us website, and you should see a form with four options - “url,” “description,” “notes,” and “tags.”
The URL should be filled in for you – just leave that alone. “Description” is the way the name of the site will appear on your list. If the title of the page isn't descriptive, you might want to change this. If you type in any “Notes,” they will appear as a description of the site in your bookmark list.
This is the form you'll fill out to add a bookmark to your del.icio.us list. Get here by clicking the "Post to del.icio.us" bookmarklet.
”Tags” is the important field, though. In this field, you should type in words or phrases that describe what the website is about. Then, when someone is browsing your bookmark list, they'll see all of the tags you've created on the side of the screen. If they click a specific tag (i.e. 'education'), the list will be pared down to only those sites tagged 'education.'
For right now, tag the site 'education, lesson plans, methods' – to see what happens. Then hit 'Save.' You should be sent back to the page you bookmarked – this tutorial. If you want to see how your bookmark looks in the list, open up a new window and click on the 'my del.icio.us' button.
You should see one item (this tutorial) and three tags on the right – education, lesson plans, and methods. If you were to add other sites to your bookmark list, you could use those tags to browse the list and narrow your search.
Step Four – Bookmark Sites for Your Students
This is what your list should look like after adding one item. I added a bunch of tags and circled them on the right side of the screen.
Now that you know how to use the buttons, go out and bookmark the sites that you want your students to use.
For example, if your students are doing a research project on slavery, you could find four or five good sources and bookmark those.
Alternatively, if your students have different topics to choose from, you could find four or five sites on each topic – and tag each one with the topic it is associated with. You can also use tags to distinguish between sites for different assignments – so you might tag a set of sites “slavery project” and another set of sites “civil war project.”
Go crazy. All you have to do to share this list, is tell your students to go to http://del.icio.us/YourUserName. Pretty easy to remember.
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