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**I. Overview: What is Social Bookmarking?**
Social bookmarking has been around for quite some time. It is simply a way to save links to any online sites you want. Instead of saving these sites on your desktop or writing them down somewhere on a piece of paper, you are saving them to your own online library. This site allows you to share your bookmarks with others. By using tag words when you save each site, you can search for them later.This convenience is something that most people who use social bookmarking really appreciate. Since we are often time-deprived, being able to just take a few seconds to save a site is a valuable tool. You can then go to your bookmarking library later and review the site, when you have the time.

You can easily share your bookmarks with family, friends, and other bookmarkers. You can have groups of people join and collaboratively work on building a library to access. This provides a wealth of resources that everyone can use. Be sure to view the video clip below for more information on social bookmarking. Some of the more common social bookmarking sites include Diigo.com and Delicious.com. These are both free to use. At the bottom of this page is a link to a list of social bookmarking sites, so you can see which one you prefer.

A Videoclip on Social Bookmarking: []

**II. Reasons For Use in School: For the Teacher and the Student**
Social bookmarking sites provide a way for students or teachers to save all of their links in one place on the Internet. These links are saved with one or more tags to help find the site in the future. For example, if a teacher found a site with valuable information about a book taught in the classroom, he or she might tag the link with “Hamlet” and “Shakespeare” and “lessonplans.” All web sites that are tagged this way would then be easily found. An individual can save these bookmarks in his or her private collection, and share them with the entire community.

Social bookmarking sites are locations where students and teachers can save links to sites they find interesting and useful. It is like a library where all of your links can be stored, along with tags which help you search and retrieve sites on specific topics. Use of social bookmarking sites are especially helpful for not only storing your sites in an organized, retrievable form, but it allows you to save them for review later. In our busy day we often do not have the time to review a website to evaluate its usefulness. With this bookmarking tool, you can save it in a few seconds and review it later, when you have more time.

A particularly valuable way of using a social bookmarking tool is when you collaborate with a group of individuals to all save, or bookmark, sites to one location. Then, you can all access them. This can be especially helpful if you all teach the same subject. An example of this would be if I am teaching biology, I can join a common social bookmarking site with other biology teachers from my school or district, or beyond, and we can all access the bookmarked sites.

**III. Examples of Bookmarking Sites and Actual Lesson Plans**
Below are some bookmarking sites which you may find useful. Two of the more commonly used bookmarking sites include Diigo and Delicious.

Social bookmarking sites: [] Delicious -- [] Digg -- [] Stumpleupon -- [] Diigo -- []

Bookmarked sites can include any you find on the internet, including lesson plans, like those found on the link below:

Lesson plan ideas -- []

Privacy and security issues are of the upmost importance to social bookmarking sites. Most sites require personal information to set up an account. These sites might share your information on an aggregate basis according to the Social Bookmarking Network. Spammers have also noticed social bookmarking sites. They will bookmark the same webpages several times or tag each page of their web site using popular tags. Developers are constantly adjusting their security systems to deal with the abuses.

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**V. Related Links**

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To access Page 2 use the link below: Advantages to Teachers