Reflection of Last Week

As we begin our 3rd week of EME 6414, I feel less overwhelmed but satisfied with my learning experience so far. The tools I explored last week were Instagram, Reddit, SnapChat, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Out of the five, I'm more familiar (and a fan of) Instagram, SnapChat, and YouTube. However, as I explained in previous posts, I've become more interested with LinkedIn for networking purposes and can identify many reasons of why one would want to use it. It has great connection/networking benefits in that it makes it easy to locate people with similar backgrounds, interests, or experiences.

I've utilized YouTube before, but enjoyed the specialized topics geared towards EME 6414 as well as the questions.

I think the social media site I enjoyed the least was Reddit. I was immediately overwhelmed because the topics were all over the place. However, after using some of the search features, I realize that it could be a helpful tool in identifying similar interests among people, posting helpful tips or instructions, or connecting with others. For fun, I searched "EME 6414" and found a discussion thread for "Relay for Life". It was a year or so old, but it was interesting to find at least one search result. To me, this demonstrated that it's likely there's a topic (or similar topic) out there on this site.

Diving into this week, I look forward to the other tools we'll be testing, and even more so on the community paper we're all writing. I bid you all good luck this week and am excited to see your discoveries as well!

Disclaimer: Typically this would be done at the end of the week, but my week was so hectic I wasn't able to collect my thoughts and post them last night.

The Beginner's Guide to Reddit | Mashable Explains

This was very helpful in learning the basics and objectives of Reddit. When I first used this site, I was overwhelmed by the various threads and and topics posted.

Do you even SnapChat?

I'm an avid SnapChat user--mostly because I'm obsessed with my dog, but that's besides the point. At the beginning of this course, I was especially interested in how this application could be used for learning, and how educators were using it.

I found an article with recommendations, and I could see this being a fun tool for students and teachers. I've linked the article here so that you all can read it as well, but figured I'd outline the key points.

Snap-Pros
1. Topics of the day/for the next day can be briefly covered
2. Discussion questions can be posted for later that day
3. Tips for homework/studying

Snap-Cons
1. Limited age group (at least 13 years old)
2. Negative stigma of social media

Personally, I'd be hesitant to use the app in a classroom with as many concerns there are with teacher-student relationships, but I think the article did well to point out that the account could be set up as one-directional: students could follow the account, but the account wouldn't be allowed to follow students.

Another potential issue I could see is requesting students to participate. It was mentioned in the article to make it seem like the students would be missing out, but I fear it may cause students to be limited. For example, if SnapChat was used to give students tips for the quiz/test, other resources would need to be provided to the students who didn't follow the account. The teacher would need to ensure that students were provided the same opportunities as others.

All in all, I believe that SnapChat should be reviewed as a potential resource. I could identify many benefits, but the cons would need to be further analyzed/discussed before implementing.

Let's Get LinkedIn!

So I'm a tad excited about trying LinkedIn. Many of my colleagues use this social media site to grow their professional network, and I've even heard of some using it as an online resume/CV of sorts (which I could not see myself doing).

With that being said, I took a 10-15 minute break of playing around in the application and am pleasantly surprised with how inclusive it is in regards to education and work experience. This tool would be ideal (in my opinion) for someone working within marketing/advertising, always updating their connections and posting projects to their "experience". I can also see a great deal of researchers utilizing this tool to keep up with their most recent articles/research (I actually saw a few of my work colleagues appear as suggestions when I entered that I was a student at FSU).

To get a full grasp of the app, I complete the entire suggested fields, but set my profile to private. I'm not particularly keen on my work colleagues befriending me on this since it is supposed to be utilized as a tool for my classes. But, I also didn't want to limit myself in terms of what to include on the page. I've included a screenshot below of what I've added on the page (sorry for the poor quality).

This probably looks like the bare minimum of what people typically add, but I think it's amazing how similar the layout is to a resume/CV. Plus--it's very user-friendly (good for me!). 

Has anyone utilized a LinkedIn account for professional or personal connections? Please let me know! I'm seriously considering keeping this after the course is over. 

#TwitterGotMeLike

So the first week of #EME6414 was brutal for me. Taking what little I know about social media and immersing myself in it was difficult and often at times frustrating, but I'm glad I stuck it out.

One of the biggest hardships I encountered (other than creating this blog) was using Twitter. I've never been much to post on social media--I'm much more of a "lurker/consumer", as I like to keep up with friends and will post/share things that are helpful for me to use (recipes for later, tips on home-improvement projects, etc.), so posting to Twitter was kind of a struggle. The below picture encapsulates my overall attitude with using the app.

I think the biggest struggle for me was not knowing what to use Twitter for, or how to use it. I wasn't as concerned with how the mechanics of it worked as much as what the proper Twitt-iquette was (Twitter etiquette). Half of my thoughts were, "Oh my gosh I'm so lame for posting this," or "I hope people actually think I'm genuinely interested in this because the 140 character cap is really holding me back," that I often felt embarrassed for posting at all. As silly as that sounds, that's why I rarely post on social media. I don't really like people knowing my personal interests because it puts me as a target for attention (negative or positive). If I can share something, there's a greater chance that someone won't react as poorly or overly excited about it; thus not drawing attention to myself.

However, after using Twitter, I do have to say that I found some useful functions from it. Something I really like is searching for hashtags related to my interests and reposting them for later (kind of what I do on Facebook). What I enjoy more from Twitter is that I can filter through what the articles are about and decide if its worth the read, whereas Facebook allows users to write lengthy posts about something their reposting and I end up losing interest quickly.

Another feature I liked was that the connection seemed more expansive. If I searched "DIY", I received hundreds of results on different topics. While this may seem overwhelming, I felt a bit more secure in that I had various sources available (whether it be opinion- or fact-based).

While I'm not totally comfortable with using Twitter, I recognize that this course is pushing me out of my comfort zone (for the better). Fingers crossed #EME6414 will help settle my fears with social media and that I can survive the other tools we'll be using for the rest of the 5 weeks.

I hope everyone in #EME6414 had a good first week and look forward to reading your discoveries as well!

eLearning for Businesses

I've linked a source similar to what Daphne Koller was talking about in the TED Talk I linked (check it out if you haven't already--it's only 20 minutes!).

This is another company/organization that invests in eLearning. I see the course offerings based more on life skills versus higher-education.

I've noticed that there have been many more businesses and sites focusing on eLearning as a profit. This is genius since it's convenient for a more widespread and larger audience, plus you can include a variety of courses to appeal to many.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-elearning-courses-revolutionize-valuation-and-financial-training-by-bringing-advanced-comprehensive-instruction-access-at-any-time-to-any-person-around-the-globe-300480924.html

Daphne Koller: What we're learning from online education

This is AMAZING. It's incredible what eLearning can accomplish. Serious goals right now.

It's crazy to imagine that we have so many resources available that allows others to learn at the tip of their fingers. Could you imagine if everyone in the world had access to technology, how much learning could be done?

The accomplishment that Daphne Koller illustrates is truly astounding. People around the world have access to the best resources (teachers and lessons taught from places like Stanford) for minimal costs. This provides everyone the opportunity to learn and grow professionally.

I believe this is what makes eLearning so critical for society. As everyone knows, education is not as easily accessible like it is in the United States, and even in the United States, not everyone has the same opportunity to go to college. Providing resources through means of online modules personalized to each persons learning truly helps advance our society for the better.

I hope to be apart of these achievements some day.

Which Web is Which?

I started taking Web 2.0 because I thought it'd be a great introduction in utilizing technology (in a fun way) for learning and instructional design. I did little to research the name when I signed up for the course, but am glad that the first week of classes is spent covering this concept. While I'm still a bit hesitant to say that I understand the full concept, I believe I can somewhat differentiate the webs (1.0, 2.0, and 3.0).

In terms of Web 2.0, I turned to O'Reilly's article (2005) which I've linked here. What was really helpful was this meme map that O'Reilly and colleagues put together (obtained from the link above):

In times of doubt, I will utilize this map to identify which sites are which web; and for further review and discussion of which web is which, I have Brian Getting (2007) to thank (linked here). 

Social Media Sources for Education

To start off, I found a blog that gives some tips/tricks to utilizing social media for learning (linked here: https://elearningindustry.com/5-ultimate-tricks-using-social-media-learning-tools).

As a summary, the blogger mentions using Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest,Twitter, and blogs for incorporating learning into the classroom. Outside of the classroom, I'm interested in how these may be utilized. I never utilized these tools in my educational experiences, so I'm not sure how they would translate to the work field--which is where a majority of my time is spent.

I currently use Facebook for advertisements, but I'd be curious in using it for learning purposes (how-to's, articles, etc.). This may be worth pursuing depending on who the followers are (employees/non-employees).

"New Blog, Who dis?"

This is my terrible and somewhat punny introduction to my first blog post. I've never been much to keep a journal or diary, but am excited to take on this new challenge (for myself), especially since I can utilize it later to see how far I've come in my learning!

To start off with, I'm personally excited to see the multiple and various ways that social media can be used as a tool for learning. I don't recall many of my educational experiences involving social media--other than when my peers and I would work on homework together online--so I'm curious in what ways is most easy, as well as which method is most favored/well-received.

Looking forward to 6 weeks of blogging and a ton of learning!