social bookmarking and the questioning historian
TRANSCRIPT
Social Bookmarking and the Questioning Historian
Dr Jamie WoodUniversity of Lincoln
History Lab Plus, March 14th 2013
Digital T&L at Lincoln: http://makingdigitalhistory.co.uk Twitter: @MakDigHist
Research into Technology use in History HE teaching
• Virtual learning environments predominate
and are viewed positively by students and
staff
• BUT danger of ‘miscommunication’
• Independent learning + research skills vs. access to resources
• Limiting features• Consistency? ‘Getting all lecturers to embrace technology would be a step
forward’ (student)
• Staff AND students think that it doesn’t help much in certain areas (e.g. team-
working)
• Narrowing/ a closed body of knowledge? Esp. for weaker students perhaps
• Can promote transmission approaches (even when not intended)
Digital literacy, active online learning and disciplinary identity
• How to overcome some of shortcomings of over-reliance on VLE? – Use social media to facilitate engagement and
collaboration– Design activities that require active work/ thinking
by students= a constructivist approach, actually making stuff
Social bookmarking
• Internet users manage bookmarks of web pages online (not an individual
browser) using tags/ descriptions, not folders• Active engagement –
students have to do something
• Online/ social element – enables collaboration, sharing and visibility
See Taha and Wood (2011) for more on this
•Diigo education edition•Private, separate logins•Sharing•Highlighting •Sticky-noting
Basic weekly activity
• Students find online resources relating to the weekly topic
• Students ‘tag’, describe and share resources
• Then post questions based on reading to discussion forum in diigo
• Resources + questions = my seminar plan
• For some of resources see: https://www.diigo.com/user/pagansxtians
But variety is key...Locating and bookmarking source(s)• Find and bookmark primary/ secondary source• Add description and tags
Essay writing• Respond to feedback on essays by bookmarking a relevant site • Revise thesis statement from first essay and post to discussion forum
Non-written sources• Find and bookmark a non-written source (YouTube; Flickr)• In description, explain why this source is relevant to the seminar
Highlighting • Highlight and comment on relevant sections of a pre-selected document
Questioning • Post a (specific kind of) question based on reading to the discussion forum
...otherwise it gets boringSee appendix to Wood, 2011, for more on this
What happened
• 19 students• 147 posts to the forum
(over 11 seminars) • 314 bookmarks, using
590 different tags
STUDENT FEEDBACK1. Practical: for preparing
essays2. Independence: enjoyed
opportunity to find sources
3. Freedom: ‘There is more freedom of choice about what to read’
4. Variety: ‘it is much more interesting, and because you are not only reading, it is easier to absorb information’.
LEARNING FROM OTHERS• ‘it has been good to see what
other people have put and there was probably more variation in the questions than if the tutor was to set them.’
• ‘it allows you to see a wider range of issues that come up from sources - some that you may not even have thought about.’
+ 12 out of 15 students felt that their research skills had improved
Setting questions – 3 conceptionsBy tutor: reassuring; makes sure what you are doing is relevant +
useful; student questions might not be challenging enough; more likely to lead to a ‘good’ answer; helps with new areas of study
Mixture: “A mixture is best to make sure key themes are not overlooked
by setting your own questions gets yourself and others thinking more.”
By students:“I like the fact that we've got to set our own questions as it
means that we focus on areas that I or other members of the group are unsure about. I think I've learnt more from it.”
POSING QUESTIONS AND SOURCES• ‘it forces you to think
about the source material and be analytical in response to it’
• ‘it […] opens up the area of reading to different paths of thought.’
‘I used to prefer having the questions set for me but I think it has been more useful setting them myself as it has made
me think about the reading more.’
• Models disciplinary processes (= what historians do)– [+ it’s realistic and honest]
• Develops – Disciplinary skills:
summarising; using sources
– Knowledge: students have to read AND think
– ‘Generic’ skills: technology; information literacy; research
For more on this see Wood, 2011 and Wood and Ryan, 2010
Concluding thoughts• VLEs support learning and are viewed positively• Gaps may be addressed by thinking more about
active online learning and student-generated/-curated content
• Not about replacing the classroom, but about augmenting it
• Develops useful skills and knowledge that are NOT necessarily opposed to developing historical skills and understanding
• …and it’s fun…
More
On social bookmarking at Lincoln, Sussex and
LJMU, see:
Wood, Matthews Jones, Taylor et al (2014)
My email: [email protected]