{"id":75,"date":"2009-06-06T19:53:32","date_gmt":"2009-06-07T02:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronketec565\/?p=75"},"modified":"2009-06-06T19:53:32","modified_gmt":"2009-06-07T02:53:32","slug":"toolkit-social-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/2009\/06\/06\/toolkit-social-software\/","title":{"rendered":"Toolkit: Social Software"},"content":{"rendered":"

Analysis and Reflection on Social Software<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nFacebook<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook is careful not to say that they own any of a user\u2019s personal information or materials but they do state that a user grants Facebook non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable and royalty free licence to use IP content (video and images). They state that the user owns their content and information but that they have to control how Facebook shares it through privacy and application settings.<\/p>\n

I would NOT use this with my students. I don\u2019t see that Facebook can provide anything that I can\u2019t find elsewhere in a more educational setting. I know that some teachers use Facebook in order to create a group and post homework assignments but I would rather put my students on an email group or give them read only access to a Google doc. I also think that there is a thin line with Facebook in regards to inappropriate access to communication between teachers and students. Students use Facebook to communicate how they wish with friends and to post personal photos. Teachers have the right do to this too without fear of their students viewing their personal information and images. That being said, I do have former students that have added me as a \u201cFacebook friend\u201d. I created a \u201cfriend list\u201d for them whereby they can only see my basic information and they can\u2019t see what my friend\u2019s write on my wall or see any photos of me (the last thing I want my students and their parents seeing is a photo of me in a bikini drinking beer on a beach \u263a).<\/p>\n

I think that overall, Facebook does a fairly good job with their privacy options. They have many privacy settings that allow you to be as open as you want to viewers or virtually invisible. The only place where I take issue is the fact that they can use your images. I wouldn\u2019t mind if they used a photo I posted of the Eiffel Tower but I wouldn\u2019t be too pleased if the aforementioned picture of myself ended up somewhere other than where I posted it. That being said, I no longer upload images. I think that as long as users are aware of the terms of service, they can make informed decisions.<\/p>\n

Delicious
\n<\/span>
\nOwned by Yahoo, Inc., Delicious states that user\u2019s have the ability to mark their content as private or public but says that they are not responsible for how third parties access or use public content. Delicious allows a user to retrieve and\/or remove posted content but does not guarantee this with regards to backup copies of said materials.<\/p>\n

I would definitely use Delicious with my students. It is certainly an appropriate site and is great for teaching students how to organize research, categorize information and share links. Since no personal information is openly posted it is one of the safer social software to use with students.<\/p>\n

I think that privacy issues are represented fairly. I don\u2019t really see any areas that are lacking.<\/p>\n

Flickr<\/span><\/p>\n

Owned by Yahoo, Inc., Flickr is similar to Facebook in that by submitting content such as photos, audio or video, Flickr has the right to use, distribute, reproduce or modify the content via world wide, royalty free and non-exclusive license. They do acknowledge that Flickr does not claim ownership of this content.<\/p>\n

Flickr is something that I would consider using with my students depending on what other resources I had access to. I wouldn\u2019t see Flickr as a \u201cmust have\u201d but I think that it is an appropriate site for students as long as the photos being posted were not of people.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like the fact that Flickr can use your content without permission. There is also a stipulation in the terms of service that allows Yahoo to disclose a user\u2019s content information and content in order to comply with legal process, enforce the TOS, respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties, respond to your requests for customer service or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Yahoo!, its users and the public. These are such broad reasons that I think the disclosure of anyone\u2019s information and content could be remotely justified which I see as a conflict with user\u2019s privacy interests.<\/p>\n

World of Warcraft<\/span><\/p>\n

Owned by Blizzard, World of Warcraft expressly states that a user does not own his\/her account and that that account is forever the property of Blizzard. Since user aren\u2019t uploading content, there are no policies regarding it but there are very strict regulations about how to proceed in chat and what appropriate names for characters are.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think this is appropriate for my students (intermediate elementary aged) although I know that many teenagers play this game at home.<\/p>\n

The privacy interests of members seem to be represented logically.
\n
\nOverall Impressions<\/strong><\/p>\n

This assignment definitely had me on my toes with regards to processing the legalities of site usage. I wasn\u2019t that surprised by the amount of control that these sites can wield over personal information and content but I was surprised that each site seemed to have a very generalized set of conditions whereby they could disclose a user\u2019s information. I think there are a lot of great social sites out there but I have been operating with the policy that if I don\u2019t want something to be public, I won\u2019t post it on one of these sites. I think many people (read: kids) operate too freely with these sites, especially Facebook and MySpace without really understanding the terms of service. This assignment further validated the fact that I show my students how to change their privacy settings in Facebook and have a discussion with them about public access. As a teacher, I operate with the knowledge that my students use these sites and that all I can do is teach them how to use them safely and responsibly. I may be biased, but I think that educators should follow suit with this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analysis and Reflection on Social Software Facebook Facebook is careful not to say that they own any of a user\u2019s personal information or materials but they do state that a user grants Facebook non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable and royalty free licence to use IP content (video and images). They state that the user owns their content […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3865],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-learning-toolkit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/bronk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}