Introduction to Exploring Your Digital Portfolio
My name is Tamika Martinez Austin and I am currently a senior at Stockton University. My major is Criminal Justice. One of my final graduation requirements was an additional writing course. While browsing through the course catalog I found Exploring Your Digital Portfolio. After reading the course description I was intrigued to learn how this course could benefit me and increase my knowledge of online networking. During our first class, I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information relayed in our two hours of time.
First, we were introduced to a new learning management system called Schoology. Access to this site would give us all of the information needed for the course such as the syllabus, links to resources and assignment updates. I am new to this particular site and find it to be very user-friendly and easy to navigate. The next online tool that we were advised we would be using was Blogger to create a blog. Our weekly assignments are to be turned in as blog entries (this being my first blog). I must say that this was a pleasant surprise as I have wanted to learn how to create and write a blog for some time now. The site was fairly easy to navigate and user-friendly. Finally, we were introduced to Twitter and Tweetdeck. We were instructed to create professional Twitter accounts that would be used to develop our PLN (Professional or Personal Learning Network).
A PLN can be described as a way to connect using different social networks (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs) with like-minded professionals to share and receive information. According to Shelly Terrell on her video Connect to the World Using Twitter; ,you use your PLN to engage, educate and report. Using an 80/20 rule she explains that the most important of these is engagement. She advises that 20% of the time you can tweet your blog posts and other things about you but 80% of the time you should be having conversations, establishing relationships, participating in projects and retweeting other people's resources. She also discussed the importance of using hashtags to easily share in a conversation and have people associate you with that area of information.
According to Ellen Lague in her blog post Developing a Personal Learning Network , there is a scale of ways to connect using networks. "You can use them to tune in, you can use them to connect to peers and you can use them to create and join. This scale seems to work with Twitter. You can be a passive observer where news media, celebrities and entertainment sites generate content for you to tune in to. The next step on the scale is to connect to others, sharing similar backgrounds or ideas. The third scale would be creating groups and content."
I look forward to learning how to manage the process of developing my PLN and have begun by uploading a professional photo and searching for like-minded professionals to add to my network. I have also tweeted a link to this blog to share this information with other professionals and fellow students.
I have used Twitter occasionally since 2013 (admittedly only to stalk my teenage children) but have never been very active because I find there to be too much information to follow. After being introduced to Tweetdeck I now have a way to categorize and have lists that I can prioritize, making it less daunting to find the information that is of interest to me. Another helpful resource to create Twitter lists was a blog post by Principal J called Utilizing Twitter Lists which provides very simplified instructions for doing so along with links to other helpful resources.
Our first reading for class was the first chapter of the book LOL...OMG What Every Student Needs to Know About Online Reputation Management by Matt Ivester. In this chapter, the author provides the positive and negative impacts of attending college with access to so much information via the Internet. He describes the Internet as being the same age as many college students and as such is still being developed. Not only is there access to receive information but the ability to provide information in this digital age has created an open place for lies, gossip, bullying and poor judgment. The fact that once information is on the Internet, it cannot be erased is a one that more teenagers need to understand. The actions that they take online can have detrimental consequences and potentially haunt them for the rest of their lives. The author hopes to educate students on being good "digital citizens" and think about how the content that they post will affect them and others.
With just one class, Exploring Your Digital Portfolio has been very informative and the content is sure to be engaging and resourceful. I look forward to the all of the tools and information that I will learn throughout the semester.
First, we were introduced to a new learning management system called Schoology. Access to this site would give us all of the information needed for the course such as the syllabus, links to resources and assignment updates. I am new to this particular site and find it to be very user-friendly and easy to navigate. The next online tool that we were advised we would be using was Blogger to create a blog. Our weekly assignments are to be turned in as blog entries (this being my first blog). I must say that this was a pleasant surprise as I have wanted to learn how to create and write a blog for some time now. The site was fairly easy to navigate and user-friendly. Finally, we were introduced to Twitter and Tweetdeck. We were instructed to create professional Twitter accounts that would be used to develop our PLN (Professional or Personal Learning Network).
A PLN can be described as a way to connect using different social networks (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs) with like-minded professionals to share and receive information. According to Shelly Terrell on her video Connect to the World Using Twitter; ,you use your PLN to engage, educate and report. Using an 80/20 rule she explains that the most important of these is engagement. She advises that 20% of the time you can tweet your blog posts and other things about you but 80% of the time you should be having conversations, establishing relationships, participating in projects and retweeting other people's resources. She also discussed the importance of using hashtags to easily share in a conversation and have people associate you with that area of information.
According to Ellen Lague in her blog post Developing a Personal Learning Network , there is a scale of ways to connect using networks. "You can use them to tune in, you can use them to connect to peers and you can use them to create and join. This scale seems to work with Twitter. You can be a passive observer where news media, celebrities and entertainment sites generate content for you to tune in to. The next step on the scale is to connect to others, sharing similar backgrounds or ideas. The third scale would be creating groups and content."
I look forward to learning how to manage the process of developing my PLN and have begun by uploading a professional photo and searching for like-minded professionals to add to my network. I have also tweeted a link to this blog to share this information with other professionals and fellow students.
I have used Twitter occasionally since 2013 (admittedly only to stalk my teenage children) but have never been very active because I find there to be too much information to follow. After being introduced to Tweetdeck I now have a way to categorize and have lists that I can prioritize, making it less daunting to find the information that is of interest to me. Another helpful resource to create Twitter lists was a blog post by Principal J called Utilizing Twitter Lists which provides very simplified instructions for doing so along with links to other helpful resources.
Our first reading for class was the first chapter of the book LOL...OMG What Every Student Needs to Know About Online Reputation Management by Matt Ivester. In this chapter, the author provides the positive and negative impacts of attending college with access to so much information via the Internet. He describes the Internet as being the same age as many college students and as such is still being developed. Not only is there access to receive information but the ability to provide information in this digital age has created an open place for lies, gossip, bullying and poor judgment. The fact that once information is on the Internet, it cannot be erased is a one that more teenagers need to understand. The actions that they take online can have detrimental consequences and potentially haunt them for the rest of their lives. The author hopes to educate students on being good "digital citizens" and think about how the content that they post will affect them and others.
With just one class, Exploring Your Digital Portfolio has been very informative and the content is sure to be engaging and resourceful. I look forward to the all of the tools and information that I will learn throughout the semester.
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