Prior to beginning this assignment I had never heard of Delicious or any other websites of this kind. I initially had a little bit of difficulty in trying to understand just what exactly the purpose of this website was or really how it worked. It took me a little longer than I imagined it would to fully understand what the purpose of the website was and how to properly navigate, however, once I did grasp these concepts the educational value of such a tool became very obvious very quickly. If you don’t have the time or patience to explore teach yourself how to use this website, the Youtube video below provides a quick and concise overview of Delicious basics.
Just by looking at the home page students are directed to a litany of links that span a wide variety of subject areas. There is almost certainly a link to an article that viewers will be interested in. The only thing that I did not like about the initial home page is that there wasn’t a scroll through list of articles. I wish that there was a longer list of articles to look through, although I guess the point of the homepage is to provide a snapshot of what is trending today and not from days or weeks before.
One obvious way that Delicious can be used in a classroom setting is to use it as a basic search engine. The user can search a vast array of resources and web pages that are currently relevant to their area of interest. For example, I used Delicious’ search function to search for articles that explained how ways to use Delicious in a classroom. Based on what I read in the articles that were tagged “Delicious, Education” I discovered that some teachers use this tool to create a database of websites that are useful for a particular course. One of these articles suggested creating a Bundle dedicated to a course, Spanish for example, and having students link articles, to this Bundle, using a very specific and universal tag that are related to what they are learning in that class. Delicious is also a great way for students to store and organize information that is relevant to something they are currently working on. In the same article linked before, the author suggests that students writing a research paper could create a tag that keeps all the websites with the pertinent information in one easily accessible place. Furthermore, with the comment section the user can write a short note on what exactly the website is about and how it relates to their paper or project.
I also found Delicious to be a great way to search blogs related to 21st Century teaching. While someone could certainly use Google to find these same blogs just as quick and easily Delicious allows you to store them in one, organized space for quick reference later on and it allows you to keep comments regarding why you bookmarked that page in the first place. I also really like the tag function. Although this is not something new or specific to Delicious, I found it to be a useful tool to use to branch off and explore multiple websites related to creating a 21st Century classroom.
Authored by: Jon
Wow!! This is fantastic Jon. You applied the actual tool by demonstrating the tool! I do use this tool often so I am not tempted to have my students just "google it". The beauty of it, is that all your links are saved online, rather then on your computer and that you can share your links publicly or privately.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this.