Apps, Apps, everywhere!

App # 1 for Personal, Pedagogical, or Professional Use-

Name of App: Snapchat

Description. 

I used this app very sparingly to communicate with friends that choose not to be on Facebook, and to exchange event pictures.

 

 

App # 2 for Personal, Pedagogical, or Professional Use-

Name of App: GroupMe

Description. 

I chose to use this app to communicate with a few groups of people from video gamers to christian bikers. I am not on their Groupme chat anymore since the conversations are nearly continual and very distracting if notifications are enabled. 

 

App # 1-Name of App: Snapchat

Description:

This application is used to chat with other individuals over the Internet. It is also used to send pictures and videos (Lo Bue, et al., 2019). It has a very unique feature in which as soon as a video is watched or a picture has been seen, the system will delete it.

Warnings.  

One of the major warnings is that even though the picture is deleted, someone can try to take a screenshot with their camera or another camera and have a copy of the picture or video. Another warning is that this application has no method by which to guarantee the age of the user in question. It also has an outstanding lack of parental controls (Lo Bue, et al., 2019).

 

App # 2-Name of App: Groupme

Description:

This application is used to be able to send messages and pictures to individuals or to set up a group of managed individuals that are able to interact on chat conversations.

Warnings.  

The standard warning for all chat methods of privacy is always a huge concern is still valid with this app. One of the benefits of managing your groups is that you are able to specifically add and remove people and those can control whether or not minors or in the groups that you manage (Hansson, et al., 2018). However, it has no parental controls.

 

App # 3-Name of App: Discord

Description:

This is an application that gamers use to communicate and collaborate with online gaming (Dubé, et al., 2020). One of the primary uses is to manage and communicate with guild members in the game World of Warcraft. This application has some streaming features like the Twitch application, but can only be seen by those people that have proper access.

Warnings.  

As with most chat programs, there are no parental controls and proof of age is only what information you provide to the registration system (Lo Bue, et al., 2019).

 

App # 4-Name of App: Twitch

Description:

This is an application used by many individuals called streamers to do a live video session when they are playing a video game, reviewing your product, doing a food challenge, and is very popular with tarot readers. The community on twitch is extremely self monitoring and if the platform is abused and someone is displaying potentially pornographic content, the streamer can be shut down and banned from the platform (Brandtzaeg, et al., 2019).

Warnings. 

 Again, no parental controls and age verification is only that for which you provide the information (Lo Bue, et al., 2019).

 

App # 5-Name of App: Twitter

Description:

This is an application that allows you to post 180 character messages called tweets. Other people can use the application to comment on your tweet for to retweet your tweet.

Warnings. 

It has been rumored that this application can track your location or share your information with the publisher (McGillan, 2019). Additionally, there are no parental controls and age cannot be verified.

 

 Frankly, none of these applications should ever be used for an educational setting. If teachers need to collaborate with students, they should do so using the Microsoft Teams platform due to the strict controls and integration with Microsoft exchange server.

References:

 

Brandtzaeg, P. B., Pultier, A., & Moen, G. M. (2019). Losing control to data-hungry apps: A mixed-methods approach to mobile app privacy. Social Science Computer Review, 37(4), 466-488. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439318777706

Dubé, A. K., Kacmaz, G., Wen, R., Alam, S. S., & Xu, C. (2020). Identifying quality educational apps: Lessons from ‘top’ mathematics apps in the apple app store. Education and Information Technologies, 25(6), 5389-5404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10234-z

 

Hansson, K., Johansson, B. A., Andersson, C., Rastam, M., Eberhard, S., Malmö University, Faculty of Health and Society, & Criminology (KR). (2018). Issues in child and adolescent inpatient assessment and evaluation after discharge: Protocol for app development and a randomized controlled trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 7(11), e10121-e10121. https://doi.org/10.2196/10121

 

Lo Bue, E., Maugeri, R., Iacopino, D. G., Somma, T., & Graziano, F. (2019). Other apps beyond WhatsApp. World Neurosurgery, 130, 567-567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2019.05.086

 

McGillan, R. (2019). 'spying' apps pose a dilemma. Nursing New Zealand (Wellington, N.Z. : 1995), 25(5), 22-24.