Assignment 1 - OLJ Creation and First Entry

(a) define what social networking is (in your own words);

Social networking involves finding ways to connect and interact with others. It may be for personal, recreational, professional or educational purposes, but whatever the reason social networking allows for easier and greater communication and collaboration between people with similar interests.

With regards to this subject (and library professionals), social networking is about using online tools to find, connect and collaborate with others in the library field (and beyond). It enables the sharing of ideas – in the form of written words, pictures, videos, websites and other media – in an online, interactive community where users are active contributors, rather than passive viewers/consumers of information.

(b) list what social networking technologies and sites you already use (for personal, work and study purposes);

Competent/frequent user of:

Facebook

Youtube (viewer only)

Edmodo (Education SM site)

CSU Forums 

Member of, but not a confident or frequent user of:

Slideshare

Twitter

 

Recently signed up to: (for INF506)

Delicious

Second Life

Flickr

LinkedIn

 

Intend to look into:

Pinterest

QR Codes

 

(c) describe what you expect to learn from completing INF506.

Through studying INF506, I am hoping to expand my current repertoire of Social Media tools. There are so many out there, and I would like to gain the confidence and skills to be able to discern which are going to be the most suitable to meet my needs and those of my colleagues and students.

I’d like to gain a better understanding of how these technologies can be incorporated into a school library setting to not only improve the services of that library, but also to invigorate and inspire its users to become more active in using and contributing to the library, and in collaborating with each other.

I am hoping to gain a better command of and find new potential for the social media technologies that I am currently using. Once I have this confidence and knowledge, I am looking forward to being able to share it with those around me – colleagues, students and their families.

QR Codes - interesting

I looked at some of the INF506 Module 2 content on QR Codes this morning. The slideshow (Tactica Interactive 2011) was great to help me understand just what these weird little boxes were all about. I knew they existed, but never really knew why or how they could be used.

My first QR code!!

Could be just me but they do seem to have dropped off a bit since their introduction in 2010 - I just don't tend to see as many these days. I downloaded the app to my phone and got quite excited when I was able to scan the only QR code I could find in the house - on the back of our Weetbix packet! The excitement soon dropped off though when I was informed that the "Bix" was down for scheduled maintenance and that they would be back in an hour - we'll see.

Might be time to head down the street for some shopping and to see if there are any QR codes out there to be scanned!

References:

Tactica Interactive. (2011). Voir QR: The history, use & abuse of QR codes (Slideshare Presentation), Tactica Communications. February 25, 2011. Retrived 25/11/13 from http://www.slideshare.net/tactica_inc/voir-qr-the-history-use-abuse-of-qr-codes?from_search=1

Ideas on SN Tools at this point

When I look at Frank Cavazza’s Social Media Landscape 2011 I see a number of sites that I am a comfortable user of (Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, Club Penguin). There are other SN tools/sites that I have dabbled with, but am not a constant or confident user of. They include Slideshare, Living Social, Groupon, Vimeo, Twitter. Many of Cavazza's examples I have never even heard of. I also came up with a number of SN sites that were not listed - Taste, Moshi Monsters, Edmodo - I'm sure there are more, as 2 years (since the diagram was done) is a lifetime in the digital world.

Here's  my ideas on and use of some of those SN tools currently:


Facebook - currently used by me for personal, social, sport and now study purposes. I do enjoy the ability to connect with family/friends who I am not in regular physical contact with. Being able to have mini-conversations with nieces, nephews etc who are in QLD, NT, ACT or even overseas is fabulous. I love seeing what my old school mates are up to or viewing photos/videos put up by friends/relatives that I would never normally get to see.

As the primary means of communication within this subject Facebook is fabulous! I have to agree with student comments noted elsewhere - the CSU forums are clunky and not particularly flexible or easy to use. Being able to upload videos, images, links and to comment (or even just like) quickly & easily is wonderful. The only "glitch" I have noticed is when I click to access the most recent post in our "OLJ URLs doc" (for example) Fb takes me to the top of the list of posts, rather than to the bottom where the most recent entries have been made.

Taste.com.au - although I don't use it super-regularly, I really love the way this site meets my needs - not only can I look up recipes, I can also see what others who have made those recipes have said about them - extra things to add, leave out, substitutions, tips etc. The collective wisdom of the crowd at its best! (Surowiecki 2005) The recipe rating system is also a feature. I can store my favourite recipes for future use and participate in forums with those with similar interests. Love it.


Twitter - I really have been unable to see the attraction or benefits of this SN tool. There must be some really good ones because there are obviously a lot of people who use it. I have recently pledged to try to become a more proficient user of it - in the 3 and a half years I have been a member, I have made 3 posts, sorry 3 tweets and have had 4 tweets done for me on behalf of an Australian Open Tennis promo I was involved with! I am following a couple of people and I have got 1 follower – a local real estate agent! I’m not sure how or why he decided to follow me, because I am really a waste of space on Twitter at the moment! Have a good friend who is a bit of a Twitterer so he may be able to assist me in becoming an effective user of it.

Delicious, Second Life, Flickr, LinkedIn – I have recently signed up to these as part of the INF506 course and will be interested to see how they go. I like the concept of Second Life, but to be honest, am disappointed at the number of "skanky" people walking around in sometimes bizarre and often suggestive or sexy clothes!! When I tried to adjust my own avatar's wardrobe I was presented with a lot of slutty looking outfits and not many that I really liked the look of. The platform does not operate very well on my computer (could be that I don't have a decent enough graphics card, I don't know...) so I did not persevere with the clothing. Have a feeling that (perhaps) people may use this site to live out some of the things they don't have the guts to do in real life - you can be risque and naughty, without every really having to face anyone in real life.....

I have used my Delicious account a couple of times since opening it. Great idea to have a place where you can store web links that you want to come back to. Up until now I have stored them in various Word Docs depending on the nature of the site - which sometimes results in me having to spend time searching my computer as I could not remember where I had filed them. I'd like to think that I will find a way in Delicious to categorise my links so that I can put them into some sort of order. Will have to check that out later - when I get time.

Which leads me to my last point for today - finding the time to check out everything that's out there! Obviously you can't, but I do often find myself overwhelmed with the amount of sites and possibilities out there. They are all screaming at you "Try me! Try me!" or "I'm the best for what you need." It's really hard to find the time to go through all of them and work out which ones are actually the best for what I need to do. I guess it's a matter of trial and error. See something, try it - like it and use it or don't like it and move on.

Moving on......

References:

Cavazza, F. (2011). Social media landscape 2011. Fred Cavazza.net. Retrieved 29/11/13 from  http://www.fredcavazza.net/2010/12/14/social-media-landscape-2011/

Surowiecki, J. (2005). When social media became news. Ted Conferences LLC. Retrieved 25/11/13 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/james_surowiecki_on_the_turning_point_for_social_media.html

YAY!! Paragraphs are back on track

Worked out that if I am in HTML mode I can't do the paragraphs thing easily. By simply switching over to Compose it becomes so much more user-friendly and allows me to add paragraphs to my writing.

Sad to get so excited over this, but it was bugging me...

Loved the online meeting!

I was unable to attend the online meeting last night (was out playing night tennis - great balmy night for it!) so watched it online this morning. How great is that? I feel as though I was able to get so much more out of being able to listen to the lecturer's take on expectations for the assignments and also learning from the comments and questions of other students. It was SO much better than just reading through the written description. I was somewhat disappointed to see that only 4 of my classmates were in attendance, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Even if Carole was the only one present (which would turn it into a podcast right?) it would be a worthwhile endeavour. I am now a little concerned that the (vague) ideas that I had in mind for the assessment project may not be suitable, since they both require the participation of and interaction with students - which is a bit tricky given we only have 2 weeks of school left for the year. I was thinking of trying to set up a wiki-style book club for different ages/interests at the school that I currently work at. The other thought was to try to invigorate the Literature Circles unit that I do with a Yr 5 teacher at the school. The success of both of these projects would be unknown unless they are actually implemented. Will have to email Carole to discuss. The (minor) negatives regarding the online meeting were that a little time was spent trying to sort out audio issues - it may have been better to have gone with the chat feature only and not worry about voice contributions, but then I guess it was also nice hearing real human voices! I've never been involved in a "Skype" type meeting - which I guess is the next step up from the Adobe online meeting (with video as well as audio) - and although would feel quite nervous, even intimidated by the idea, would be prepared to give it a go. Onwards..... (still not happy about lack of paragraphs)

I like paragraphs....

Have just looked at my first post and am a bit annoyed that my paragraphs have not been displayed. That's annoying

Online Journal beginning ...... now!

OK, so I seem to have set up this online journal thing now. I've not been a great blogger to date - my only experience with blogs so far is through my TL Masters blog - which has been added to fairly infrequently. I must admit though, it is very interesting reading (well for me at least, maybe not everyone else), to look back at how I was feeling along the way and the turmoil, trials and tribulations that I have experienced so far in my TL course. So, we'll see how this one goes. I am looking forward to this subject, although am tentative about how it will go over the Christmas/holiday period. I've had positive feedback and encouragement from others - both about studying at this time of year and also about this particular subject, so remain optimistic that it will go well. So, the concept of Web 2.0. It seems that the use of the internet has (for some time now) moved away from static pages where users simply browse passively and enjoy the content that is presented to them. Now instead of just watching a video clip, people can watch it, comment on it, like it or dislike it, share it and even report it if they think it's breaching the rules. They can even make and upload their own clips. We are no longer consumers of information, rather we have become active contributors and producers of it. Web 2.0 also allows so much more collaboration and networking than ever before. As a teacher I can hook up with other teachers on the other side of the world and share resources, discuss strategies and methods. I love it! I can also get my students connected to other classes across the globe to share culture and friendship. What a great way to learn. Till next time.....