Using+Social+Bookmarking+with+students+with+Learning+Disabilites

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Using Social Bookmarking with Students with Learning Disabilities

While students with learning disabilities have average to above average ability levels, a discrepancy between their potential to learn and their achievement in a specific academic areas exist. Students with learning disabilities may experience executive functioning difficulties preventing them from performing basic expectations within the school setting. The inability to successfully engage in activities such as sorting, organizing, retrieving and using information may prevent students with learning disabilities from being successful.

Social bookmarking is a Web 2.0 technique that can assist students with learning disabilities to overcome some of the obstacles they encounter. Social bookmarking is, as defined by the Ed Tech Glossary, a way of storing, classifying, sharing and searching links through the practice of folksonomy techniques on the internet: that is, the use of tags or keywords. Social bookmarking provides a structured framework to store valuable information for students with learning disabilities.

Students with Learning Disabilities could benefit from social bookmarking for several reasons. Social bookmarking can aide with organizational skills by providing storage for valuable information in one place. Having information stored in a specific location will help eliminate the potential for losing or misplacing educational related materials. Social Bookmarking sites also provide students with a social platform where peers can share resources and collaborate on projects. The social bookmarking site of Diigo provides students additional options to add annotations to resources by highlighting or adding sticky notes. Using the features provided by Diigo, students can practice finding the main idea, outline or summarize resources. By using a social bookmarking site such as Diigo, teachers can assist students with learning disabilities by providing students with list of useful resource, highlighted notes and study guides for class. Students can also work collaboratively make annotations on resources for class.

In order social bookmarking to be used successful with students with learning disabilities, it should be introduced before high school. Teachers will need to model the use of each feature and students will need to have adequate time to practice using the technique.

One of the barriers of using social bookmarking is the lack of consistency and control when developing tags to identify resources. For a person who may have a limited vocabulary or understanding of language, finding a specific resource may become challenging.

** Resources: ** ** ED Tech Glossary ** ** [] ** ** Social Bookmarking for Learning ** ** [] ** ** Web 2.0 and New Media Tools for Organization and Planning ** ** [] ** ** How to use Social Bookmarking for Educational Purposes ** ** [] ** ** Diigo in Education ** ** [] ** ** Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Bookmarking Sites ** ** [] **


 * Symbaloo- Opening Up the World of Social Bookmarking to More Learners **


 * __ Intro: __**

The Internet has become a place where there is so much information available to individuals and is such an amazing resource. “Everything is just a few clicks – and a search engine – away, provided that you know how to find it. But the problem with the Internet is not about finding information. It’s about managing those mountains of data that you find.” ([])Yet, when you have too much info it is difficult for some people to figure out how to get started with a task. It is like a student that can’t seem to get their papers in the right place and they just start piling up. No matter what they do everything seems to just get more and more overwhelming until they don’t know where to go. With some Learning Disabled students this is the situation. The approach that may work for other students in the classroom might not fit and they need a new and more personalized strategy.


 * __ Benefits: __**

Symbaloo.edu is geared for this type of learner, in fact it is geared towards all learners. It is a Web 2.0 tool that allows the user to have a lot of creative control over how they set up their bookmarks while at the same time giving them easy to follow form and structure. Some individuals organize more effectively with colors, others with images, and others with words. Each one of these elements can be built into a tile that takes the all confusing http URL and packages it in an approachable tile that is very similar to an app button on an iPhone or iPad. Symbaloo has the ability to set up “webmixes” which can be theme based pages where teachers can make mixes and share them with their students. This allows them to give a starting point for the entire class and then students can customize or organize them to fit their needs. “Basically, any time you need to share links in an easy, intuitive, way Symbaloo has some value.” ( [])


 * __ Barriers: __**

Although Symbaloo would benefit many users there are some that may not be able to find use in it. It would not be effective for a student with visual learning issues or a blind student as there are no sounds associated with it. A student that is colorblind could still benefit from the site as there are images and words that could help with the organizational elements. Symbaloo will not necessarily be the right venue for all students but can reach a wide variety of learners.

Symbaloo []
 * Resources: **

[] Create Your Own Virtual Learning Environment Using SymbalooEDU