Social Networking and Blogs

I love sweets. In fact, I love them enough that after a brief exchange of words with my professor I was given the privilege of waltzing out of the classroom with a pink box full of Luscious & Sweet Gourmet Bakery cookies. Is this a proper way to introduce myself? I wouldn't know because I'm an introverted, socially awkward college student, but from those several sentences I'm sure many can at least begin to imagine the type of person I am. And from this sentence as well.

Moving along to the bits that the majority would find uninteresting. I am a student studying in Richard Stockton University and my hobbies include drawing, gaming, reading graphic novels, pretending I can perform martial art techniques, and relaxing with a cheap plastic cup of tea while occasionally watching cartoons. You may have noticed that these hobbies tie into specific majors, and the sharper or luckier ones may have realized what my major is. Right. It is visual arts. My dream occupation is simply a digital illustrator, specifically focusing on character and environmental design and book covers. I also have a strong interest in 3D modeling and animation.

Recently, I have read many articles related to education and found several that interested me. I have no plans to become an educator, but I do believe educating others will help me reinforce my current skills as well as discover new knowledge. However, I’ve learned that there are better methods. The most appealing appears to be the idea of integrating social media, a tool that almost everybody with technology has access to, into education through the concept of developing a personal learning network. According to chapter 6 of Sheryl Nussbaum-beach’s, The Connected Educator, many professionals have already begun to create networks through social media to interact with communities and share ideas. This system of give and take is essential to building a foundation for digital learning. The more diverse the community the more ideas.

Starting these networks is quite easy but also takes time. Nobody begins with a vast digital base of knowledge and ideas. The most important step to establishing a network is to begin by making yourself more recognizable. This can be done simply by using the same username for your different networks. The next step would be to wisely pick the people you want to follow because they will be providing the stepping stone into the community. Through their connections, you will be able to find other people who share similar interests. The next step would be to try meeting new people, connect with them, and share ideas and inspiration. Eventually, this will lead to a well maintained network.

To my surprise, even schools such as St. Julian’s School in Newport have begun to incorporate social media into their learning systems. Twitter is used to inform students and even faculty members about events, new technology, techniques, and more. This is extremely convenient because students can keep in touch with teachers in an extremely convenient manner. Parents are also able to keep in touch with teachers as well as receive regular updates on their child’s progress. The staff claims that schools should keep up with technology instead of shunning it.

On the topic of twitter, an elementary school principle confronts an interesting topic that I have never put much thought into. What is the point of using Twitter for educational purposes when following a large number of people causes a massive and chaotic information stream? Unfortunately I haven’t used Twitter extensively enough to reach that extreme, but I then wondered how people would be able to organize something so chaotic. It turns out the answer was simple. PrincipalJ brings up a convenient tool: Twitter list. Users group their connections into different lists and choose the list they would like to view. Other users can also follow your lists.

Lastly, because this is my first blog, I found an article by Emily Hill and Eleanor Jones on the possible blunders that I could, and possibly have made, to be interesting. Several expected blunders included poor grammar and frequent misspelled words, poor presentation, rehashing articles, and lack of links. Other mistakes that caught my eye were lack of visuals, like this blog, and not including social media. Although these last two mistakes seemed like common sense, because it’s hard to read a wall of text as well as navigate to a blog without any sort of promotion, it never occurred to me to actually think about such things while I wrote my blog. I have always been someone who would listen, and I would be extremely surprised, and maybe devastated, when I made a mistake that I had been warned about. For me, some things just don’t click until I have actually made the mistake myself, just like my experience with this blog.