Hi all. I have to admit I’ve been doing the ToolKit activities and saving them in Word and returning to “top up” the posts. This is my adventure in social networking. Please review my comparison chart to help understand my reflection.
I investigated Picassa 3, Delicious, Facebook and Twitter because I use all of the applications. I have never used the applications in class. I’m am very pleased I followed through with this activity before suggesting the use of these as class materials. The privacy and terms of services (TOS) links are located at the bottom of the page for each application, well below the “download” link. I also discovered that the TOS were lengthy and required a great deal of consideration and thought. For example, Twitter asks that international users comply with local laws for online conduct. However, there is not a link to local laws and there isn’t a clear description of the consequence of breaking local laws apart from the termination of your Twitter account.
I also noticed that privacy policy and TOS were not clear cut. You had to link and jump to different pages to make sense of the policies and develop an “overall” picture. A quick search on the Internet led me to several blogs and sites complaining about the “evils” of TOS and privacy policy. Facebook is one of the most complained about, but also one of the most successful. I found Picassa disturbing because students would have to create a Google account and comply with the Google TOS, which were not set up to protect the user.
As an elementary teacher, I would only use Delicious. Delicious is a Yahoo! Inc. application but the TOS and privacy policy, combined with the age requirements, seems the safest and protected application. Having said that, my students are too young to take advantage of it. I would definitely use this application for high school students.
In the toolkit, we were asked what are the implications for education. I think the implications are that educators should investigate all of the TOS and privacy policies and make sure they suit the school’s policy on privacy rights. If you wouldn’t share student information with another teacher, how could you risk sharing it with the world? Schools need to educate parents, students and other teachers concerning these issues. In addition, students must be educated on the responsible and educational use of posted content. I say this because students likely use these tools outside of class time and have not been taught how to utilize them in an educational environment.
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SS/ TOS Properties |
Owner of materials |
Use purposes of materials |
Appropriate for students |
Representation of privacy interests of members |
Copyright |
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Picassa 3 |
You are responsible for your content: Google has worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to your content. Google can stop service at any time. |
Photo file sharing -photo management |
Need a Google account.
Generally, no. To manage photos, it seems fine. However, I wouldn’t use this in my class because of the privacy and sharing implications. |
Need a Google account and Google collects personal information in accordance with their privacy policy. -shares information with “trusted businesses” or with your consent. -saves your e-mail communications. |
Google respects copyright and trademarks – responds to reports of infringement. |
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Delicious |
Users are responsible for content but Delicious can use access and use it in connection with Delicious, even if it is licensed. Delicious can terminate or charge for commercial use in the future without warning. |
Users can access their web bookmarks from any location. -can share and exchange bookmarks -discover most popular/useful bookmarks -organize and manage bookmarks. |
Under 18: personal information is not collected. Yes: I think Delicious is a safe community for knowledge sharing. A class account could be created. |
IP, personal information and user’s use of website collected. Cookies store & track information. |
No reproduction of Delicious-originated content is permitted. Use of user-posted content must comply with terms of license and include a label indicating the terms. |
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Claims the user owns materials but states FB has been granted “royalty free worldwide license” to use your content. If deleted, a copy of content remains on FB server. FB can share your information with 3rd parties. |
Discussions, e-mail, file sharing, photo sharing, multi-media sharing. Users can add applications to stay up to date on other user’s account changes. |
Min age: 13 Minors (13-18) encouraged to have parental permission.
No: I don’t think this is secure or safe enough to use with a class. There is a great risk of privacy violation. |
Licensee of TRUSTe Privacy Program: Material . Browser and IP is collected. Personal profile and user content may be viewed by unauthorized people. Users consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the U.S.A. |
Provides tools to protect IPR. Respects copyrights and prohibits violation of copyright. |
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Claims the account holder is the owner but Twitter reserves the right to terminate or modify service without reason. |
Communication tool: 150 characters. A teacher could “tweet” homework or reminders to subscribers. |
Min age: 13 Account holder has sole responsibility of content . (I would not recommend this as a class tool unless the burden of responsibility was clear to the class.) |
User names can be reclaimed if they are trademarked or copyrighted. |
Claims no IPR over account holder’s material. “Progressive licensing” is encouraged. Public sharing is encouraged. Copyright laws are obeyed. |
References
Delicious TOS (Yahoo!Inc.): http://delicious.com/help/terms
Delicious Privacy Policay: http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/delicious/
Facebook TOS: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php?ref=pf
Facebook Principles: http://www.facebook.com/principles.php
Facebook Privacy Terms http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
Facebook Appeals Claims of Copyright Infringement: http://www.facebook.com/copyright.php?howto_appeal=1
Google Privacy Centre: http://www.google.com/privacy.html
Google Privacy Policy: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html
Picassa 3 (Google application) TOS: http://google.com/accounts/TOS?hl=US
Twitter TOS: http://twitter.com/tos
2 responses so far ↓
Sean McMinn // Jun 11th 2009 at 4:52 am
Great chart! Thanks, Erin.
A very useful resource. You are right, though; I often forget about TOS — This is something, as you said, that is very important.
Hmmm. I wonder … will we see more of Creative Commons type of services that give more freedom to users, yet still over protection for intellectual property, security, and privacy?
Sean
Erin Gillespie // Jun 12th 2009 at 7:43 pm
Thanks Sean! It took a while to make, but I’m really happy I investigated the policies. I recently had a friend ask me to read her thesis on Facebook. I told her to review the privacy policy and requested that she e-mail me a copy instead of posting it there. Access to your content for free and potentially, forever? Good to know about.
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