Challenge Based Learning Resources | Scoop.it.

Several months ago I came across a program still in beta called ‘Scoop.it.’ Rather than shout out straight away, I thought I would give it some time to see if I continue using the program. After several months, and a few improvements later, I am still a keen user of Scoop.it!

So what is it? Basically, it is a form of visual bookmarking tool, but that is really underselling its variety of uses. The social nature of this program and its extensive search functions is what sets this tool apart from others.

Scoop.it allows you to create a ‘site’ where you can store links to resources. It has the capacity to search key terms from social media sites such as Twitter, Youtube, Digg to name a few, which can then be easily added to your page. It also allows you to ‘follow’ and other people’s ‘scoops’ and even offer recommendations for their page.

One of the big advantages for me is the visual nature of the page. You can easily insert images to represent each site, add a description of the resource and choose the size and layout of the link in your ‘site.’

I have been using Scoop.it for a variety of situations;

- gathering resources shared from the tweet stream when in a conferences. You can easily ‘scoop’ links from hashtags and add them to a site you create for the conference. You can then share this collection of links with everyone. Better yet, other Scoop.it members could even add to your page! Rather than all having our own collection of links, we can share and recommend links to one central place

- creating visual bookmarks for our primary school students. One link added to our school website and there is a huge library of links for the students and teachers to explore. The visual nature of it makes it easy, even for our Preps, to find what they are after

- creating a library of iPad apps for our iPad trial at school

- creating collections of resources for further reading and research

- sharing links as I post them to Twitter and now even WordPress

- following other people’s Sccops

I have linked this page to my library of ‘Challenge Based Resources’ that I have started to collect so as to give you an idea of what it can do. I look forward to sharing links with you, and receiving some recommendations from you, if you join Scoop.it!