Social Bookmarking tools are the modern way to save and share web links. They have a number of advantages though the biggest one is that your links are available to you on whatever computer, tablet phone or any other device that you happen to log in on. Sharing is the other primary advantage of social bookmarking, through there are a lot of ways to share information on the Internet.
Big strengths of Scoop.it! are that it is very visual and requires very little typing. This makes it easy to use and easy to learn. For students in special education at any level these are important attributes, and are especially important for students who have trouble with multi-step processes, difficulty typing, and/or spelling. In addition to high marks for its ease of use it is compatible with Apple and Android mobile devices, a great plus. You can also install a browser tool to make scooping very easy.
An annoying feature is that Scoop.it! pesters you to upgrade. While i doubt that anyone would inadvertently upgrade, having dialog boxes that pop-up detracts for the overall visual appeal of the site and makes it less user friendly, plus it's just annoying.
I see Scoop.it! as a potential research tool for my students. At first students could familiarize themselves with the tool by scooping and sharing links of personal interest. However they could then create and curate a new page with links related to a class project or paper assignment. You can have up to 5 pages and 10 scoops per day so it would require them to use good judgement when selecting the links to save.
For personal use I prefer Diigo which is less visual; but Scoop.it! has a lot going for it and would probably appeal to my students more.
Here is a link to the website: Scoop.it!
Happy Scooping!
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