Tagging...A new tool for me

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-tag-someone-on-tumblr-4058537

Tagging..Tagging..

Actually, it has not been long for me to know about tag function on Facebook and Instagram. I still remember when I used the tag function for the first time in 2015. One of my friends asked me to tag her when I posted photos on Facebook. I did not know about tag function and she said that if I tag her, she can see my posting at the same time. I found the tag button and I was surprised that it was so comfortable and easy to share our memories together. After the people tag function on Facebook, I learned how to use the tag function on Instagram naturally checking other tags used by other people. 

Tagging is a sharing process enabled by social bookmarking tools. Strohmaier et al. (2012) said that tagging refers to a "voluntary activity of users who are annotating resources with term-so-called 'tags' – freely chosen from an unbounded and uncontrolled vocabulary." I was unsure that we can apply this concept into educational settings, but this week I have read some articles which used tagging as a learning activity. Dennen, Bagdy, and Cates (2018) explored how students tagged learning resources and students' perception of the utility of tagging while collaborative knowledge building for five weeks. They compared students tag usage by types of tagging approaches such as dictionary only, freestyle only, and a combination of the two types. The results showed that the dictionary only group generated fewer tags than freestyle tagging groups. Even though freestyle tagging groups did not show useful tags for class but the tags reflected relative interests and more specific themes. Lastly, they perceived the tagging activities in a meaningful way. Also, another article was about using collaborative tagging techniques into online tutoring system (Milicevic, Vesin, & Ivanovic, 2018). Because the formula they used was difficult to understand I read closely introduction, results, and discussion section. The authors provided a recommendation for personalization that involves use of most popular tag algorithms. The developed system brought satisfaction from students. Also, students used the recommended list of tags in learning. 

From those two cases, I learned that tagging could be an effective and efficient instructional method in education. What I remember this week the most is that tagging is related to collaborative learning, authentic learning, knowledge building, knowledge sharing, etc. Tagging has potential representing components of social constructivism. However, we should consider that the topics of this week such as crowdsourcing and tagging are up to participants expertise or willingness.



Klašnja-Milićević, A., Vesin, B., & Ivanović, M. (2018). Social tagging strategy for enhancing e-learning experience. Computers & Education, 118, 166-181.
Strohmaier, M., C. Körner, & R. Kern. (2012). Understanding why users tag: A survey of tagging motivation literature and results from an empirical study. Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web,17, 1-11.