We are seeing the effects of social media unfold right before our eyes in a very personal way.
We have a severely disabled daughter, and she has a chance to get life-changing (for her and for us) transportation. (more…)
Tag: twitter
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To split or not to split: keeping separate Twitter identities
Note: this post mirrors one I posted on the PSCC Mobile Fellows blog. I think it will interest this audience also.
Brandon Ballentine and I talked about this a bit on an episode of our new podcast, Mobile Talk. (Promotional bit: you can subscribe on iTunes or via RSS feed, or look at the Podcast category for past episodes.) Twitter can be quite a useful tool for sharing information among colleagues and students, and there are a number of mobile tools for managing it. (My favorite is Hootsuite, available for iOS and Android.)
There is a practical question for teachers, though: do you maintain a separate account for professional-interest tweets, or do you simply tweet as yourself from one account for everything you’re interested in? (more…)
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The real advantage of social media: it makes it easier to ask for info
Yesterday I worked with a colleague from the college on a new podcast for faculty using emerging technology in higher education. I really love what doing something like that does for my own mind. The cliché (which is true, even if cliché) is that to really learn something, teach it to someone else. Because we were putting together something to teach others about social media in education, it has changed the way I’m looking at social media myself. (more…)
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Audience buzz means different things
Student speakers worry about hecklers, but that seldom happens to speakers at all. (Comedians have a different situation.) Much more common are the side conversations that go on, to which social media has added another dimension. (more…) -
It’s a small world after all*, part 1
One of the great wonders of the Internet age is the ease with which people of like minds can find one another. When people say they don’t understand Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, it just means they haven’t found the “like minds” hook that matters to them yet.
I joined Twitter four years ago, but only really started using it about three or four months ago. I joined Facebook in Jan. 2007, and then went for a year before I posted even read anything. I also joined LinkedIn in 2007–February, to be exact–but went even longer before really using it. It just took awhile to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Though this blog focuses on effective communication rather than social media, social media is a growing form of communication. If you remain confused why anyone would use these services, or if you ignore any of them because you prefer face-to-face communication, read on. I also prefer face-to-face communication, but these services help form genuine connections and friendships. (more…)
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Students need to get a jump on social media
photo credit: HonestReporting.comIt’s easy to assume college students have social media all figured out. Experience shows, though, that while many are savvy about Facebook, they may not realize they need to build a social media presence in other avenues before graduation rather than after. Sue Murphy notes in her article Social Media Success Tips for Students two particular areas that seriously need attention while a student is still in school but looking to the outside world.
Many students believe they don’t need to worry about getting their profiles up on LinkedIN until after they graduate. But nothing could be further from the truth. You need to get on there. Now. LinkedIN is one of the best places to connect with the kind of companies and people you want to eventually end up working for. And the only way you’ll be able to find and connect with them is to start building your profile there.
She also builds a case for starting a blog–and she’s not talking about a chatty personal journal you share with the world.
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Publishing student work via Flipboard
As I write this, I’m at the Innovative Professor Conference at Austin Peay State University, getting ready to do a presentation about a method of publishing student work for Flipboard, one of the most popular apps available on the iPad.
I have this theory that “out loud” is best for big picture information–establishing context, talking about meaning, etc.–while detail is best communicated via writing. In keeping with this, in the session I’m mostly trying to show what’s possible and point to resources, while developing the details on the “how to” via a public Google doc. I’m also pointing to this post for people to be able to find these resources:
- My Twitter feed: @donnellking
- The Google doc how-to
- The Prezi from the session
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Reducing clutter huge challenge
Reducing clutter has always been a communication challenge. I’ve been teaching accuracy, brevity, and clarity since manual typewriters were the standard among journalists. Today’s media increase this challenge exponentially, however.
A current student who is following me on Twitter helpfully sent along a link to an article that talks about this very thing. While all the techie types are focusing on Web 2.0, we’re already thinking beyond it. Erick Schonfeld expands on this in his article “Web 3.0 Will Be About Reducing the Noise—And Twhirl Isn’t Helping
