Who ever checks the Terms and Conditions anyway?

I have to admit I rarely do and I don’t think I’m alone on that one. Having admitted that, I will say that knowing the T & C’s does influence my decision making process. I think I’m about the only one I know who doesn’t have the Facebook App on my mobile, if only because I don’t like the idea of granting Mr. Zuckerberg access to my text messages. Of course this might happen anyway, especially with the increased connectivity between Twitter, Outlook Express, Facebook etc. but for now I am happy to keep my distance (see, such a Luddite).

Because of some of these restrictions, but more so because of parental concerns, I avoided Facebook and started using Edmodo with my students. Its format, mobility and ease of use were contributing factors. Because this was for school I did in fact read the conditions before signing up. I liked applaud the informal yet informative language they have adopted. For once I wasn’t about to fall asleep :-). The instructions for deactivating your account were straight forward and easy to follow. They stress that all content will be lost should you choose to cancel.
Because of this, while I would recommend Edmodo to other educators I would stress that all unsaved information would be wiped should they decide to deactivate their account.

Another online service I use is Scoop it! This is an online curation service. http://www.scoop.it/

Basically it allows you to select and store a variety of online links, articles etc in an attractive magazine style format. To sign up requires a full name, telephone number, D.O.B, nationality, gender, password and email. You can also log in via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (which I didn’t do because I wasn’t sure if that gave them access to more of my details – yep, there’s that Luddite creeping in again).

Initially, I did not realize when I first joined was that this service is restricted to those over 13 years of age. It makes sense though. Some of the suggested content can be a bit heavy sometimes. As a result this is not a tool that could be used for primary school students. For senior students however Scoop.it! has lots of potential, although it would be up to the teacher to ensure their class was aware of proper online behavior (which is another post in itself).

One of the reasons I would recommend this tool is because it can work on so many different levels. At its simplest it can be used as a search engine – with no need to sign up at all! Benefit from other peoples hard work and search for topics you are interested in.
If you decide you want to give it a crack, then sign up and create a topic. This could be for your own individual benefit (i.e. a librarian in a law library might collect articles on legal cases), or you might decide to share it with your professional network or clientele. Because this is open (at least on the free version, I can’t speak for the paid versions), other Scoop it! users can comment on the articles and links you have “Scooped”. This taps into the principles of Web 2.0 with emphasis on sharing, creating and collaborating.
If you are an educator you could also share or collaborate with your students. They could select items to be “Scooped”, justify why and comment on what others have chosen. While this can be done in a traditional way (such as cutting out/printing off articles, hand writing comments etc.), the Scoop.it! format is easy to navigate, allows access to resources world-wide and encourages interactions with people both in and outside the school. This makes this online tool more transformative when considered within the SAMR framework.

Here is a Scoop.it! I have created Language Links for the Classroom.
I have also embedded it on out Library Website if you wanted to check out the widget.