Welcome to Day Seventeen of Digital January. Today we're going to take a look at Snapchat - an increasingly popular tool allowing short-lived video and image messages to be exchanged...which disappear almost as soon as they've been viewed.

If you've got a moment and you're enjoying Digital January - and lots of people are, according to our statistics - why not give us some feedback on our Padlet (and see Day Three for an introduction to Padlet).

What does it do?

Snapchat was an effort by its inventors to try and develop a messaging tool which was more akin to the 'real' world - conversations, once they've happened, are gone, except in the memory. Most social media tools remain in cyberspace to be revisited in the future - which can be a double-edged feature, as users would not necessarily want every social media interaction preserving in time for all to see.

A message or snap can be a photo or a video, with an additional feature being the ability to add to the visual content by way of a caption editor or drawing tool, or the creation of visual effects.

Snaps can be sent as individual messages, or strung together to create stories with a narrative or time-based element. They self-delete around 10 seconds after viewing.

When would you use it?

Snapchat is, on the surface, one of the more personal and private social media applications. However, some Higher Education institutions are using it in an educational context;

• iSocialFanz discusses 5 potential uses of Snapchat in Higher Education
• The US journal Education Week Teacher discusses how students are using Snapchat and how it might find a role in the classroom
• The Times Higher Education compares its impact to that of Twitter
• An article on Snapchat as a marketing tool in HE

This latter article is important because it alludes to the high percentage of younger people who use Snapchat at least once a day, a prevalence which makes it a crucial marketing tool to reach potential students and raise the profile of a University among its target group.

Are you a students? Do you use Snapchat?

For a good introduction to Snapchat see the video below (10 minutes);

How do you access it?

You can access it as an App for Android and Apple smart devices.

Where can you get help to use it?

In addition to the shorter video above, here's something a little more in-depth (15 minutes);

What Digital Literacy skills will Snapchat help you to develop?

The University of Dundee has a Digital Literacies Framework which sets out what sort of digital skills you should have, whether you're a student or a staff member. It's unlikely you'll have all the skills contained in the Framework (yet!), but this project can help you get started in developing some new ones. To see the Framework click here and click on Digital Literacies Framework at Dundee University to download a copy.

Using a digital tool such as Snapchat as a messaging tool is an aspect of DIMENSION 1 - Understand and engage in Digital practices as outlined in the Framework.

COME BACK TOMORROW AND THROUGHOUT JANUARY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GOING DIGITAL