When looking at the social software sites (Flickr, Delicious, World of Warcraft and Twitter) I wanted to look at two sites I was a member of and two that I was not. I was surprised about the things that I found. The Terms of Service link is always available at the bottom of the screen, but who reads it? ( What do you mean you just clicked yes without reading all of the terms and conditions?” – South Park, Human Centipad episode). I discovered that I was actually impressed by the privacy policies that each of these sites have created, protecting users if they wished to, and at times not even asking for much information to become members. I think many sites could be applicable to education, as long as we could find a curriculum connection (I couldn’t think of one for World of Warcraft), but it terms of fear for protection of students it seems that most sites do this. However, I was surprised at how hands off Twitter was, many comments on how “you” are responsible, could be a slippery slope for younger, impressionable students. I think that there are still many Terms of Service that school districts need to develop before students jump head first into these websites.
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