Tuesday, March 07, 2006

You're It! - Tagging in the Elementary Classroom

Tagging in the Elementary Classroom

This article will explore “tagging” and its use in an elementary environment. First, a word to the kids who may read this article. Why should we try tagging and what is tagging? Tagging is simply keeping track of web pages that you use. It is like using bookmarks but some tagging programs allow you to share your favorite sites with family and friends. Some popular tagging and bookmarks programs are:

· flickr –“Flickr is a way to get your photos to the people who matter to you. With Flickr you can:

    • Show off your favorite photos to the world
    • Blog the photos you take with a cameraphone
    • Securely and privately show photos to your friends and family around the world . and much, much more!”

Some ideas for using del.icio.us for our students

  • Working on a research project – “Your teacher assigns a project that involves internet research. You and your friends each start a del.icio.us account. You decide to split up the research into various areas and each take a section. Then you use the for feature in del.icio.us to send your information to each person on your research team! Now that’s what I call “teamwork”!
  • To explore your passion. Your passion is what makes you want o get out of bed in the morning. What are you passionate about? Soccer, penguins, movies, painting? The possibilities are endless. A good place to start is del.icio.us using the search feature. Why? These are tried and true sites. Sites that people like you found on the web and thought it was worth book marking.
  • Planning – Are you going on a trip and wanting to plan ahead? Use del.icio.us to plan your trip, find hotels, research sight seeing possibilities. This is an easy way to help your parents and a not as hard on the back as mowing the lawn or taking out the garbage!
  • What do you think? Can you give me some more examples of using del.icio.us in your life?

The book mark program listed above and also ideal for the features I have listed for del.icio.us but are not as easily shared with family and friends. I have an ikeepbookmarks account and a mybookmarks account. What I like about these sites are that they keep my bookmarks accessible from anywhere I have web access and they are easy to organize using folders.

Tagging for Teachers in the Elementary Classroom

I am finding that more Technology Tools that Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers use with ease can be adapted to elementary level teaching. Some tools need to be adapted for the student (See Using Moodle in the Elementary Classroom) and serve as wonderful organizational aids.

Tagging as an organizational tool can be used to prepare an unit rich in internet content. Because tagging is made so simple with del.icio.us you can tag as you surf. It’s as easy a clicking the del.icio.us tag button that you can add to your browser. Later you can organize your tags into bundles. For information on the specifics to doing all of this see del.icio.us Help

You can use del.icio.us in some of the same ways listed above for students. From the del.icio.us site I am cited the following:

“What is del.icio.us?

del.icio.us is a collection of favorites - yours and everyone else's. Use del.icio.us to:

  • Keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, restaurant reviews, and more on del.icio.us and access them from any computer on the web.
  • Share favorites with friends, family, and colleagues.
  • Discover new things. Everything on del.icio.us is someone's favorite - they've already done the work of finding it. Explore and enjoy.”

What are some ways you can use del.icio.us in your classroom?

posted by Sister Deborah Timmis @ 8:48 AM

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