Week 7 Report

Hey everyone,

after a week off for reading week it’s difficult to get back into the swing of things. I find March to be a particularly stressful month, when all of my assignments seem to be due around the same time. This week we got to practice our digital literacy while exploring Google Drive. Once again this tool was new to me, however I’m surprised I haven’t heard of it before. Google Drive allows you to create documents in which you can allow others to view and work collaboratively with you. Google Docs can turn off-line articles into online versions making them readily available to the general public, or the select few you want (Lefever, 2007).

Retrieved from:
https://educatorsweb2-0.wikispaces.com/3+Collaboration

While exploring this tool I found it extremely easy to use. It resembles the Microsoft document layout that many of us use on a daily basis. It also saves your work automatically. This feature is useful for forgetful people (like me). For those of you wondering how this tool might be useful to you, I thought of a number of ways in which this tool could be used in various settings. For starters this tool will be especially useful for educational activities. How many times have you had to work on a group project and continually send group members an updated version? With Google Documents you can create one file and collaborate with all member on your project in one spot. It gives you the option to add comments in which you could make suggestions to other group members without actually changing their work. You’re able to see your project come together right before your eyes. You can also use this tool professionally for whatever field of work you’re in. You and colleagues could develop a list of topics you’d like to address at the next work meeting. This would ensure everyone’s voices are heard during the meeting. Often in the workforce you work in teams, so once again this is a great tool to collaborate ideas and work on presentations. Lastly you can use this tool for personal use. One of the immediate things I thought of is using this tool to organize dinners with family members; this would help keep track of who wants to bring what. You can also use it to keep track of personal to-do lists. No matter how you plan on using this tool one common theme can be seen- collaboration.

Retrieved from: http://www.droid-life.com/tag/google-drive/

This is yet another tool that I can add to my PLE. As I mentioned in my last post I thought of adding a new “production” category. I think this tool would fit in nicely to this category. I can see myself using this tool to create various documents and keeping track of my work. However because this is a collaborative tool I think you could also place it under the social category. This tool allows you the chance to interact with other people and work together to produce a final product. I’m very happy that I got to learn about and explore this tool this week, I only wish I had learnt about it sooner.

As always, I’d like to conclude by sharing a post I found on Feedly. As I mentioned earlier, March is a particularly busy month for me, so how can I keep up with my blog while I’m feeling overwhelmed with school work? This blog post by Stacey Roberts gives pointers on how to blog effectively when feeling overwhelmed.

Enjoy!

Reference:
Lefever, Lee. (2007). Google Docs in Plain English. http://youtu.be/eRqUE6IHTEA

Week 6 Report

Hey everyone,

I can’t believe we’re already at the mid-way point for this course! The semester seems to be flying by. This week the topic was Collaborative Notes and Documents. Once again I was not familiar with the various collaboration and note taking tools available online. Throughout my 3 years at university I’ve only ever used Microsoft word to take notes and store information. Having completed this session I’ve become aware of various tools that make the note taking and research process so much easier and organized.

Let’s start by determining what it means to have collaborative notes and documents. This tool allows us to work on and add to our notes from any device that has access to the Internet. You can access documents you were previously working on and pick up right where you left off. This is extremely convenient for students who often work on assignments from various devices. Not only can you type in your own notes, but also you can save information directly from the web. The greatest feature is that you can share your notes with other people. This comes in handy for when your doing a group project.

Retrieved from: http://evernote.com/evernote/

The collaborative tool I explored this week was Evernote. When I was first getting started with Evernote I have to admit I had a difficult time trying to figure out how to use it. It took me a while before I got the hang of it, however the site provides a number of tutorials to make the learning process simple. You can store a number of things into your Evernote account such as notes, to do lists, camera phone snapshots and emails (Hamilton, 2010). I also found it neat that you could use this tool with some of the other tools we discovered in the course such as Twitter.  One of my favorite things about Evernote is that is automatically saves your notes and syncs it with all your devices. This means you don’t have to worry about forgetting to save your latest document or worry if your computer randomly shuts off (one of a students biggest fears!).

This is a tool I definitely see myself using even after the course concludes. I believe it will make the process of searching for information and writing papers an easier and more organized process. I can also see myself using this tool with other classmates when working on a group project.

When thinking about where I would place this in my PLE I think I would classify it under research, as I believe it will be most useful to me when I’m working on a research paper. Being able to store all articles I find in one spot, or having the option to save a part of an article I find important adds a convenience level that no other tool does. I was also thinking about adding a “production” category to hold things like Microsoft word, PowerPoint and Evernote.

To conclude my post this week I’d like to share an article I found on my Feedly. I thought it would be useful to those who have really taken a liking to blogging and wish to perhaps make their blog more successful. The post is titled "3 Lesser Known Blogging Tips to Create a Massively Popular Blog"“ Enjoy!

References:

Hamilton, B. (2010). http://www.slideshare.net/theunquietlibrary/introduction-to-evernote-fall-2010

Week 5 Report

Hello everyone,

this week the major topic was microblogging and building our PLN. If you’ve been following my blog you should be familiar with the term PLN (Personal Learning Network). PLN is a two way process in which you enhance your own learning as well as contribute to your network so others can learn from you (Dickens, 2012). It is such an amazing thing to be apart of as you can interact with people all around the globe, and though you may not meet many of the people you interact with you can still learn from them. Personal Learning Networks are becoming more established in a number of professional fields.  Like myself, some of you might be wondering how do I start building my PLN? Well, first you have to think about what you can offer (knowledge, insight and ideas). Secondly you must consider what it is you want to learn (Dickens, 2012).

To get started on creating your own PLN you can use a number of different web tools such as facebook, blogger, google reader and twitter. The tool I explored this week was Twitter. Almost everyone has heard of twitter, it has become a worldwide phenomenon over the past few years. Though it is extremely popular, prior to this week I’ve never set up a Twitter account, so the entire process was new to me. Through Twitter how can we set up our PLN? You must find people, whom you admire or think you can learn from, after searching for them simply follow them on Twitter (Weisgerber, 2011). It seems easy enough right? I found that while setting up my account it was extremely easy to navigate and I quickly got the hang of it. For those of you interested you can see my twitter account here.

Image retrieved from: http://projecttgm.com/2013/04/3-reasons-i-may-or-may-not-follow-you-on-twitter/twitter-followers/

Prior to this session, I didn’t really see any value in having a Twitter account. I thought why is it important to follow people who are simply going to tweet about their day or how they’re feeling. After having completed this session I learnt that Twitter is so much more than reporting on your daily life events. Twitter is extremely useful in sharing and learning about new knowledge as well as contributing your own thoughts. I’ve followed a number of  people in the field of psychology. This will be beneficial to my education as I can read about the latest developments in the field. I can learn from Psychology educators from various Universities even though I will never actually attend their classes. Twitter is such a great tool to stay connected and build your PLN.

Twitter is yet another tool that I can add to my PLE. Throughout the course I’ve been adding a number of online tools to my PLE that will be useful to me in both my education and future career. I would classify twitter as both a social and research tool. It’s a social tool for obvious reasons; it allows you to connect with friends, family, educators and many others. You can actively engage in conversations with people from all around the globe. It could also be considered a research tool as you can search for any topic using hash tags and be shown a list of tweets that contains information on that particular topic. Many users provide links to various sites in which you can learn additional information.

To conclude this post I’d like to share a link to an article I came across on my Feedly. The article is titled Flappy Bird Can Make You A Better Blogger. For those of you who have never heard of flappy bird, it is a highly addicting game you can get on your phone or tablet. Who would have thought that a game like this could actually contribute to our blogging skills? It’s kind of neat!

Take care,

Emily

References: 

Dickens, S. (2012, Feb.). How to Build Your PLN (Seth Dickens). Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A667plNCzwA&feature=youtu.be

Weisgerber, C. (2011). Empowering students through personal learning networks. Retrieved from: http://www.slideshare.net/corinnew/empowering-students-through-learning-networks

Week 4 Report

Hello everyone,

this week I had the opportunity to learn about another useful technological tool- curating the web! Once again, this was a brand new tool for me, as I’ve never heard about it before. For those of you who are also unfamiliar with this tool I’ll provide a bit of background information. Ahuja (2012) describes the process of content curation as “finding the most relevant content about a topic online and listing all the relevant links found on that topic after a thorough research on the web.”  So why is this such a valuable tool for people today? Now more then ever people are sharing information via the web, everyone second new content is added. A content curator offers value to anyone looking for good content (Kantor, 2011). Finding accurate and reliable information requires more time and attention, as there is just so much to look at. This offers a high level of convenience to Internet users.

One of the curation tools that I explored was Google Alerts. Google alert allows you to be aware of the newest content that’s added to the web. I found this tool fairly easy to use as you simply type in what your interested in monitoring. It also allows you to make your search more specific asking how often you want it updated and how many results you want to access. It allows you the opportunity to hear about events that may not have even gone through other media outlets yet.

Retrieved from: http://websuccessteam.com/WSTblog/2011/09/content-curation-market-brand/   

Another tool I was able to explore this week was Diigo. Diigo is a bookmarking tool that allows you to store and keep track of websites you want to revisit. The thing that makes Diigo better than a regular bookmarking tool in our browser is that it allows you to access your bookmarks from any device. Users have to option to add sticky notes and highlights to pages your reading, when you re-visit the site on another device you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off.

How will Diigo be useful in my educational activities?

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to learn about Diigo. I guarantee that this is a tool I will continually use throughout the duration of my education. Today a lot of students use multiple devices to do their readings and school work. I personally use my laptop and tablet on a regular basis. However sometimes when I’m not at home and using a friend’s computer I feel as though I can’t do work because I don’t have access to my notes. Diigo allows students to work from any device and access their material. This provides a high level of convenience not only to students but people in the workforce as well. If your travelling and want to take a moment to do some work you have the option without having to bring all your devices.

Retrieved from: https://www.diigo.com/about

What type of tools are these? How would you categorize these tools as part of your PLE?

As we are continually adding to our PLE in this course it is important to consider how each of these tools would fit in. Based on my own PLE I would categorize both Google Alerts and Diigo as research tools. Google Alerts allows me to learn about new knowledge on whatever topic I wish to learn about. The fact that I can get the most recent news updates on a particular topic makes me feel confident that I can write an accurate paper. Diigo will help me improve on my educational and research skills as it will keep my resources organized.

I’m continually learning about new tools that will help me become a better digital citizen. Both these tools are new to me but I’m able to realize how they will be useful to me in my future studies and career.

Before concluding this post I’d like to share a link from my Feedly reader. I’m sure everyone is busy getting ready for the super bowl today and I’m sure many of us are trying to come up with some last minute snack ideas. I found a link to you can make 8 Awesomley Healthy Game Day Dips you can make! Super bowl food can be both healthy and delicious! Enjoy the game everyone!

Emily

Resources:

Ahuja, B. (2012, October). If you can't be a creator, then be a curator. Retrieved from http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2221068/If-You-Cant-Be-a-Creator-Then-Be-a-Curator

Kantor, B. (2011, October). Content Curation Primer. Retrieved from http://www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/