If you teach English for Academic Purposes, college students, or even young learners and teens, get them to use an online social bookmarking tool to begin saving the websites. The sites are free and allow students to categorize their research and what they learn online for easy finding later. Many of the sites also provide a visual way for students to curate their bookmarks. They can do this in a digital notebook, on a digital board, or in an online magazine. Below are free websites, apps, and extensions to help students bookmark websites and research. For more ideas on how to use web tools and apps to help learners become digital researchers, check out our webinar recording, Research in the Digital Age.
To learn more about integrating technology to support English language learners, attend our TESOL webinars.
Curation Websites, Apps, and Tools
- Diigo is a web tool, iOS / Android app, and extension to annotate, curate, and bookmark resources found online. Diigo also allows students to annotate pdfs and tag their bookmarks.
- Pearltrees is a web tool, iOS / Android app, and extension to categorize, curate, and visualize bookmarks. The bookmarks turn up as thumbnails on a board. Students can move them around and name their boards of thumbnails.
- Livebinders is a web tool, iOS / Android app, and extension made for educators to place bookmarks as tabs in a digital notebook. Students can also make each tab look like a web page.
- Educlipper is a web tool, iOS app, and extension to annotate, curate, and bookmark resources. It looks a lot like Pinterest, but with many more features and made for educators. Educlipper is a great tool to use with young learners to adults and supports easy delivery of assignments and grading.
- Pinterest is a web tool, iOS / Android app, and extension to annotate, curate, and bookmark resources visually. I use this tool with my college language learners. Check out my students’ Pinterest boards of their digital portfolios here.
- Scoop.it is a web tool and extension to annotate, curate, and bookmark resources on a digital board.
- Storify is a web tool and extension to annotate, curate, and bookmark resources into an online gallery or magazine interface.
- Cube for Teachers is a new web tool I recently learned about. Teachers create a free profile to share a list of bookmarks with other teachers.
- List.ly is a web tool and extension to curate and bookmark resources. Users can vote and rank the bookmarks.
- Flipboard is a web tool, iOS app, and extension to curate bookmarks into a digital magazine.
