It is a bit bold to say that any tool is essential for learning, but I think the advantages this tool brings are clear and decisive. The major feature of social bookmarking is that one's bookmarks are stored on the internet and are available from any computer. This is a huge advantage. Few people work exclusively on one computer. The second feature is that bookmarks are categorised by tags and searchable notes so there is no need to put bookmarks in folders in order to locate them. Tags are the way of the future. There is no need to be worried about having too many bookmarks, so long as you have some order in your tags. The third feature is that social bookmarking is social. Your collection can be shared with people you learn, work or play with. In a formal teaching situation this is very valuable learning opportunity if teachers use it.
There are many social bookmarking applications. Delicious is the best known. I like Diigo because it has some extra features and it is quite education-friendly. The video below gives a very brief introduction to the basic process of creating a bookmarking and using tags to organise your collection.
Teachers can log their student into Diigo as a group. They can the work as a private group to share bookmarks on topics they are studying. This means that students can get feedback on their selection of bookmarks and the comments and tags they use. They can develop the quite sophisticated categorisation and selection skills involved in this process.
Diigo is distinctive in that it has an additional feature, that it allows web pages to be annotated with sticky notes. This means that if student are searching for web information on a class topic, not only can they bookmark it and share this with their classmates, but they can also attach notes (annotations) to the actual web page that are only seen by members of their class group. This creates some very interesting opportunities for discussion about web sites.
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