Social Bookmarking and Calandars

Both social bookmarking and calendars are useful pieces of technology. For my personal and professional use I would use social bookmarking so I could have all of my favorite sites, or sites that are useful to me in one place to be able to access anywhere. The thing I like about social bookmarking is that no matter whose computer I am on I can access that list, unlike with bookmarking/favorites on my personal computer. I could also use it in my professional life by finding sites for my students to use in one place and allowing them to use them as a reference. Calendar is also a great tool for both my personal and professional life. In a personal aspect it can keep me more organized, which is something I tend to not be all the time. In a professional aspect I can put the homework assignments and announcements all on a calendar and make it public to view for my students and their parents. I can also print these out and place them around the classroom so everybody knows whats going on. Field trips, assignment due dates, students birthdays, test dates are all things I would put on these calendars.

Students will find these tools very useful. They can access my social bookmarks in order to do assignments or they can form their own to show where they got their information for research from, sort of like a bibliography. They will also be able to share information to one another this way. Calendars will allow them to always have access of assignments and announcements. If a student is absent they will not have to worry about what they are missing because it would be right on the calendar for that day. Students themselves can make their own calendars as well. They are very easy to do and they will be able to put their own important schedules and reminders in a calendar. This will help them become more organized and aware of the things they need to get done. It might also be a fun activity to perform as a class if computers were available to the students.

Parents can use social bookmarking to see what types of sites are available to them from their child's teacher. The teacher can put up sites that will appeal directly to parents. Parents can also see what type of work is going on at school by looking at what type of sites are bookmarked on the teachers social bookmark account. Calendars will be very useful to parents. They will be able to always have access to due dates and events at school. The age old question from parents is, "What did you do at school today?", and usually the most common response is "Nothing". We all know this is not true, we all went through school and their was never a day we did nothing. This is a way to keep the parents involved even if the student is not making as much of an effort to.