Weekly Report & Reflect Blog #5

Learning from others

Kathleen Carey. (CC) 2015.

This week we looked at Twitter, this is a tool I have been using for years. I have also used Twitter for other classes too (that’s why my Twitter name is @Kat_2F00), but I have never gotten much out of using it for academic purposes. To me Twitter is for fun, it’s to follow celebrities to see what they are doing and to occasionally keep up with world news. After reorganizing my account to reflect my professional desires (changing my description to describe my major), and by posting relevant topics I wasn't just getting random followers anymore. I was getting followers from the academic world, people I want to follow back and learn from. It was at this time that I started to see Twitter in a new light.

I can use it for my professional advancement, school or more serious topics. Suddenly it wasn't just in my PLE as Entertainment and Communication, now I have added it to school and professional. Connecting to these people or groups gives me a new network of people that have shared interests as me and more knowledge on the subject. By looking at their posts and what they link I can start to develop my teaching strategies and personality.

Pedro Aparicio. (CC) 2014.

One reading we did this week really stuck with me (I even saved it to my computer and Diigo), this reading is about using Twitter for teachers. Being an inspiring teacher myself and a lover of social media this was a great find! I will definitely take this information with me into my career.

This is what a PLN is to me, a network that I can learn from. Kate made a point in her blog that really stayed with me: 

When you have a large group of people combing through vast amounts of information and collectively identifying the most useful, entertaining, or valuable parts, it only makes sense to tap into this collective knowledge!

When she says it like this I almost feel stupid for not hopping on this bandwagon earlier. Being a digital citizen means contributing ACTIVELY not PASSIVELY. I am very guilty of being a passive contributor (if you could even call me a true contributor), but through this course it is becoming more clear how easy and rewarding it is to be active in the digital world. I mean I can be an active digital citizen with TWITTER! That is actually pretty cool, I though coming into this course that I would have to use all these boring tools that I would never touch again. Already though we have used Pinterest, Twitter, Blogger, and Diigo; and I love them! I guess becoming a valuable digital citizen won’t be as painful as I originally thought, I could keep this going into my professional career.

I also have realized that I should stay up-to-date with new social media, so many of these tools have so many benefits for me as a learner and future teacher. If I stay connected and active I will be able to connect better with my students and teach them proper digital etiquette. 

Feedly

This blog by David Chiles talks about Netiquette. I found this really interesting because he talks about the site NetworkEtiquette and gives a small review of Netiquette and the mobile market. I found this interesting because it gave me an idea of how I am able to promote a site or tool that I like. 

Weekly Blog and Reflection #4

This week we learned about content curation and bookmarking. At first I was confused about this topic because it seems so simple. After going through the readings especially Erica's I realized I am a “link sprayer”. I use Pinterest and twitter and I use them to share information I find on the web. However, all I do is just click “pin it” or “Retweet”; I never write my own little annotation telling people why I shared this. This is mostly to do with laziness I think and also I forget that these sites are social I forget that I’m not the only one with access to what I post. In order to be a true digital citizen I need to start effectively sharing. I want to start using Beth's SEEK, SENSE, SHARE; the main step to focus on being Sense.

Diigo was basically a lifesaver for me. I can say that this will be something I will utilize long after this course. My bookmarks bar is a bit of a mess, yes I have folders for things but often I forget what was so important on the site saved as “”. Diigo is a cool site that I could see myself using just for fun. It collects all my favorite sites so that I can access them from anywhere (as long as I have the internet), I can personalize each site I save by highlighting and adding notes. This is truly an awesome tool!

I feel like I can add Diigo to my PLE and truthfully I feel like it could go under all my categories (school, professional, entertainment and communication). The information that I bookmark could fall under school and professional, the tool itself keeps me organized and practicing quality rather than quantity (skill that I believe fall under school and professional). For me this site will fall under entertainment and communication because a lot of what I bookmark is meant for entertainment also I find the organizing of my bookmarks fun. Since this tool also allows you to access other people's bookmarks it allows me to share my interests and treasure finds with other people who have the same interests (provided I keep things organized and easy to find).

Feedly

This week I found a interesting article on my Feedly account. Ways Students Can Save Money, this article is great I think, even though I am in my last year of university it's a little useless to me now because I've already figured these tips out. I decided to mention this article because this is information I wish I knew when I first started university. The post only has about 5 tips but that doesn't mean it doesn't help. My little brother is at an age where he is in the process of applying to universities, so I posted this with him in mind. All these high school students coming into new found independence will need to know a couple of tricks that can keep their bank account from going in the red. The one tip that I actually learned from this post is to cook with friends, this is something I would have never thought of. So many students can benefit from this post, that's why I chose to talk about it this week.

In total I feel pretty accomplished this week I found my new love for Diigo and I figured out how to contribute to the web rather then clutter it.

Have a good week

Thing 15: Diigo

This week we worked with an online bookmarking site called Diigo. This site is great I am able to save my favorite sites, write annotations and highlight text that sticks out the most to me. I was afraid that using this tool would be very difficult however I find it is way easier to use then I thought. Especially since I can add Diigo to my tool bar, allowing for quick and easy saving and editing. All I have to do is go to a webpage click save and it allows me to label the bookmark right away, and that's it! I can also edit, highlight add annotations and more right on that webpage after I save it. If that doesn't catch your attention then I don't know what will.

My favorite part of Diigo is that I can access it ANYWHERE (as long as I have internet). I am always finding sites or wishing I had a bookmarked site, but it always seems to happen when I am away from my computer. Diigo lets me access these sites without worrying about having my laptop.

Here is a link to My Diigo page feel free to explore it. I will say most of it is nonsense but they are sites that I either enjoy or use for my career.

Enjoy!