Week 6 - Thing 13

Del.icio.us is yummy! I've been using it for quite awhile and cannot imagine internet life without it. Here is a TeacherTube video with great visuals and clear audio for teachers. Why reinvent the wheel when promoting these applications for teachers. Convenient, on demand training ...and someone else has done the work.
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=7c623fbd095b4a565b5b

Last school year, two eighth grade teachers, science and social studies, used Del.icio.us with students for research projects. The science teacher's project involved students determining if NASA funding was worthwhile. The social studies teacher's project involved four different topics selected by the students for Project Citizen. In order to be able to use Del.icio.us, the technicians had to install the shortcuts on the library computers, but once that was completed, it was a matter of creating an account and password. Since the teachers were on the same team, they used the same password. Last year teams established new names, so to reinforce the team name it was used as the password. We modeled how to log on, how to tag and make notes, and how to access at home. What we failed to do at first - experience is always the best teacher - is to limit the tags used and use one word or joinThem_inSome_way. But, we took some time and organized the tags by bundling them. The students caught on quickly and loved that they could find their search at home to continue working on their projects. They were creating their own accounts and sharing it with their parents.