Sound Off

http://tinyurl.com/d6yp7mr

According to the co-founder and CEO (Alex Ljung) "... the site now gets 10 hours of sounds uploaded for every minute of the day." I was surprised to discover that SoundCloud definitely focuses on music, but also on "... speech, comedy, stories, crying babies and even presidential addresses." (Rooney, 2012) SoundCloud describes itself as the "YouTube of audio" and from what I can tell, could be extremely useful from a training and development perspective.

Great Google's Forms!

Google Drive certainly trumps Microsoft’s Sky Drive by including the Google Forms option! It’s simple to create a form and then send it via email or share its URL or embed it (as I did with my blog user survey). In addition to collecting responses in a spreadsheet, Google provides a graphic summary of responses.

Chapter 4 Overview: Communicating with........ everyone!

Even though telephones were the primary means of communication in the 90’s, e-mail is now “… one of the most popular online communication tools.” (170) E-mail can be used for both personal and business communications and actually outweighs paper mail! Not all email is legitimate. Some of it may be Spam or junk that you don’t want or need to read. E-mail is faster, easier, and less expensive than other means of communication. To receive e-mails, a user must have an e-mail address. The address must have a user ID, host name, and top-level domain. The user ID identifies the receiving party while the host name identifies the receiving party’s server that houses the account.

http://tinyurl.com/c8n5cfz

Social Bookmarking is PEOPLE (with apologies to Soylent Green)

Social Bookmarking doesn’t deal with the resources themselves; rather it creates bookmark links. The beauty of these sites is that it allows people to add descriptions to the resource links in the form of free-text comments, a tally of votes that indicate the resource’s value from the perspective of other people who have used it, or tags or keywords. Sometimes, the bookmarking site creates tag clouds to group individual tags into relationship groups. The more a tag is used, the larger the font in which that tag is displayed.

Tag cloud
http://www.winnefox.org/blog/tagcloud.gif

“From the point of view of search data, there are drawbacks to such tag-based systems: no standard set of keywords (i.e., a folksonomy instead of a controlled vocabulary), no standard for the structure of such tags (e.g., singular vs. plural, capitalization), mistagging due to spelling errors, tags that can have more than one meaning, unclear tags due to synonym/antonym confusion, unorthodox and personalized tag schemata from some users, and no mechanism for users to indicate hierarchical relationships between tags.” (Social Bookmarking) For example: learning-organization, learning_organization, learningorganization are all used as tags by Delicious users in addition to learning:organization and think of the possibilities when you turn the singular noun into the plural form: organizations! Without the fixed vocabulary of traditional databases, this could become quite a tiresome search!

It's not just WHAT you say but HOW and WHERE you say it: Netiquette



http://bit.ly/T9yNW8



While NETiquette IS just common-sense courtesy, it is amazing how many people seem to forget their manners when they go online. Therefore, a review of the core rules as outlined by Virginia Shea almost twenty years ago is a good place to start your review. For some reason, people find it easier to be less than polite when they are on the Internet, which is why Rules 1 and 2 are so important.

A great resource that covers all the major Internet forms of communication is NetworkEtiquette.net.

Rebekah's Web 2.0 Tools User Survey

Please provide feedback on my blog!

What's a QR code? [Belated Mobile Devices posting]

While doing my mobile devices research, I came upon this video, which I wanted to share.

Reference:

What's a QR Code? May 20, 2011. ConnectMe QR. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. http://youtu.be/b8EpazIwFys.

On Finding the ‘Sweet Spot’: Taking Charge of YOUR OWN Development (both Personal & Professional)

One of my Google Reader Subscriptions is Harold Jarche’s blog. (You can tell from his banner what he’s all about.) On October 19, he was interviewed by Robert Paterson, who recorded their discussion as a podcast. [If you want to listen to the podcast]

Jarche and Paterson spoke about the changing nature of work: its Increased complexity; the Impact of automation (robotics eliminates jobs); and the Trend toward outsourcing (using labor at the cheapest rate). Work that has become more important includes: Creativity, Development of New Ideas, and Problem Solving ability. (These spring from that ever-increasing complexity.)

Another change is that we will most likely not remain in our present positions or be with our current employer for the balance of our working lives due to: uncertainty, volatility, innovation, evolution. Work is changing and evolving. Jarche quotes Louis Pasteur: “Chance favors the connected mind.” And training alone is not the answer. Jarche has observed: “Training is a solution looking for a problem” and believes that we get 5% of our skills from training and the rest from informal learning. He also notes that “Learning is not dependant on teaching” and advocates the practice of ‘free-range’ learning.

Are You LinkedIn?

LinkedIn has been referred to as “Facebook for professionals.” And, since “Success is not just about what you know; it’s about who you know,” LinkedIn is a way to connect with some of those ‘right’ people. Most of the articles I read recommended the same ways to leverage LinkedIn and the connections made through that network into opportunities. The best summary was LinkedIn's own - How to Network Professionally Online, which offers ten suggestions:

1. 100% complete = 100% more likely to get noticed: “Your LinkedIn profile is your online business card, your résumé, and your letters of rec all in one.” According to Doyle, “The more robust your profile, the more you will get noticed.” “It should have all the same information that is on your resume including your qualifications, your experience, and your skills” (Doyle) You can just copy and paste from your résumé. Doyle also recommends adding a headshot: “Do be sure the photo represents the professional you and isn't too casual” and selecting an industry (often used by recruiters). Include links to your website or weblog if they represent the ‘professional’ you.
2. You’re more experienced than you think: “Think really broadly about all the experience you have, including summer jobs, unpaid internships, volunteer work, and student organizations. You never know what might catch someone’s eye.” Doyle recommends adding the Volunteer Experience and Causes field to your LinkedIn Profile and notes that “41% of the professionals surveyed stated that when they are evaluating candidates, they consider volunteer work equally as valuable as paid work experience.”
3. Use your inbox: Start with people you know. “Start building your LinkedIn network by uploading your online address book and connecting to friends, relatives, internship colleagues, and professionals you know in the “’real world’.” MindTools recommends requesting “an introduction to people in your extended network through your mutual contact” or forwarding your profile page to contacts on their lists.
4. Get personal: “customize your connection requests with a friendly note and, if necessary, a reminder of where you met or what organization you have in common.” And selectively solicit recommendations with a personalized request. Doyle believes that “Recommendations from people you have worked with carry a lot of weight. To a potential employer, a LinkedIn recommendation is a reference in advance.”
   

   
5. Join the “in” crowd: join LinkedIn Groups to meet people who share common interests. Make use of Groups You Might Like (GYML).  Walsh led me to join e-learning 2.0, a group discussing instructional design techniques and technologies of eLearning.
   

   
6. Lend a (virtual) hand: Answer questions or make comments through group discussions, mention when you’ve read something really pertinent, forward job listings if you know someone is looking. And take the time to write recommendations for your contacts.
7. Update your status early and often: “Stay on other people’s radar screens by updating your LinkedIn status at least once a week—you can do this directly on LinkedIn or by linking your Twitter account and marking tweets with #in. Mention events you’re attending, projects you’ve completed, and other professional news.” Doyle notes you can change activity feed viewer settings.
8. Question (and answer) everything: seek advice and answer questions through LinkedIn’s Answers . “With tools like LinkedIn Answers and groups, you can establish trust with those in your network and improve your reputation, while keeping up-to-date with industry news and trends.” (MindTools)
9. Do your homework: Before an interview, “Access Company Pages to research organizations and their employees, and use Advanced Search to find things you have in common with people you’re meeting.“
10. Now step away from the computer...”: When possible follow up with real contact. “Set up phone calls, attend live events, and send snail mail notes to people you interact with on LinkedIn. Remember that online methods should supplement, not replace, in-person relationship-building.”

Find more ‘Do’s & Don’ts’ in Ryan’s article.

Some Interesting LinkedIn Graphics

To LinkIn - NOT to LinkIn - WHO LinksIn?

To LinkIn or NOT to LinkIn? [Didn't I ask the same question about Twitter?] Some people get their networking in other ways; some people don't feel that they need to network; and some people [me included] don't have enough hours in the day to do so regularly. Were you LinkedIn before taking this class? What benefits might it offer you? I'm still sitting on the fence and honestly don't have the time to actively use LinkedIn on a weekly basis!

http://higheredcareercoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/linkedineducatorsinfographic-e1333421900838.jpg

http://8.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/linkedin-infographic.jpg

SOURCES:

Cook, Sean. "Why Educators Need to “Get” LinkedIn." Higher Ed Career Coach. N.p., 3 Apr. 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://higheredcareercoach.com/2012/04/03/why-educators-need-to-get-linkedin/.

White, Charlie. "How Are People Really Using LinkedIn? [INFOGRAPHIC]." Mashable Social Media. N.p., 9 July 2011. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. <http://mashable.com/2011/07/09/linkedin-infographic/>.

Agility (Trying to Keep up with Mobile Devices in Business)

Mobile devices are portable technology: iPhone and iPad, devices running Google Android and Windows 8 or using RIM Blackberry. They use “transmission media such as: radio wave, microwave, infra-red, GPS and Bluetooth to allow for the transfer of data via voice, text, video, 2-dimensional barcodes and more.” (Daichendt) "To take advantage of the value mobility brings to employees and customers, companies are redesigning the building blocks of their business." (Smith)

Several sources report that the average mobile marketing campaign response rates are typically 12 – 15% (as opposed to direct mail which averages 2 – 3%) with some companies seeing response rates as high as 60% or more. It is anticipated that, by 2013, the U.S. will top 100% per capita penetration of mobile phone use! According to Forbes, “Mobility is about how your customers are increasingly getting things done.” (Michele-Ross) Therefore, to remain competitive, business MUST take advantage of the opportunities that mobile technologies afford them. Businesses need to understand how mobility will change their customers in order to plot a plan for keeping their own business relevant. They must stay informed about mobile developments as a way to plot their own path to the future; they must stay ahead of the curve and be flexible.

http://bit.ly/U2NuK0

[My mother, the librarian says:] October is National INFORMATION LITERACY Awareness Month

Before the month ends, my mother (the librarian) wanted you to know that October is National Information Literacy Month! (The President recognized the importance of information literacy on October 1, 2009 and issued a proclamation to that effect.)

President Barack H. Obama – National Information Literacy Month, October 2009

“Every day, we are inundated with vast amounts of information. A 24-hour news cycle and thousands of global television and radio networks, coupled with an immense array of online resources, have challenged our long-held perceptions of information management. Rather than merely possessing data, we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation. This new type of literacy also requires competency with communication technologies, including computers and mobile devices that can help in our day-to-day decision making. National Information Literacy Awareness Month highlights the need for all Americans to be adept in the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age.”

Much of what we are learning in this Web 2.0 course concerns Information Literacy (IL) in addition to Information Technology (IT) fluency. The IT gives us the tools we need to develop our IL. As professionals, we need both these skill sets to develop and maintain our PLN – our lifelong learning. We should strive to make every day Information Literacy Day.

Chapter 3 Overview - I'm Searching for...



http://bit.ly/XBxSSx

Typing in the URL for a Web page or selecting it from a list of favorites are some of the more common ways to find the information you’re looking for on your browser, but you won’t always know the URL you need or have something saved to your favorites. Shelly and Campbell mention that Internet Explorer 9 has a new search feature to help you find the correct URL by just entering keywords or taking a guess as to what the URL may be. There are several Internet search tools available for use. I’m a Google user myself, but Bing is out there, along with others. Each engine offers different features and these are continuously changing and developing. The authors advise that each “… user’s search needs might vary from one search to another, making one tool more appropriate for that type of search.” (112)

Want to Learn More Tools?

Jane Hart and her C4LPT website are an important part of my PLN. Check out the slideshare presentation on the website or review the HTML list.

I found a new tool - TACKK - and used it to create this poster. You can link to the poster or try creating your own Tackk.

Search ‘Wisely’: Using Advanced Search Features

Don’t confuse a web browser (a software program that helps you find, display and read a variety of document types) with a search engine (a web site that collects and indexes content from a vast array of Internet websites). A search engine sends its spiders to crawl the web and bring back page images to the search engine, which then indexes their content – therefore, when you search, it is NOT in ‘real time’ but is rather time-delayed, based upon when that search engine’s spiders last captured the web page and when that page was last indexed by the search engine! [For more detail, I recommend “How Does a Web Crawler Work?”

For the sake of brevity, I’ll limit myself to the “Big 3” search engines: Bing, Google and Yahoo!. When you search the Internet, do you use BASIC search?

BASIC searching is just that – it’s basic! It doesn’t take advantage of a wealth of limiters (if you read my Boolean search blogpost , you know that these help to refine your search or narrow its scope.) BASIC searching is great for a quick definition, the weather, an address or phone number, or a currency conversion, etc.

ADVANCED searching, however, will give you a smaller, more targeted result set. But your favorite Search Engine might not make ADVANCED Searching easy for you to do.

Before You SEARCH, Think about WHAT You are SEARCHING FOR

Even if you are an Internet wizard, this site  will assist you in identifying Internet search tools that help you:

• Find a topic, understand the scope of a topic, investigate alternative or related topics, or refine and narrow a topic.
• Identify quality results (authoritative and scholarly sites chosen by a subject expert or sites ranked or tagged as valuable or relevant).
• Conduct research in a specific discipline.
• Do research based upon the timeliness of information.
• Identify facts or find opinions and perspectives.
• Look for specific media.

For more information on how to formulate your searches, limiting your results using special search commands, and numerous special search engines, look at the Guidebook to Internet Searching.

Register on the MakeUseof site (http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/guide-internet-searching) to download or download directly (http://bit.ly/5mA8Um)

References:

Abilock, Debbie. "Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need." NoodleTools. N.p., 22 July 2012. Web. 22 Oct. 2012. http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html.

Sherwin, Dean. Guidebook to Internet Searching. MakeUseOf, 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <http://manuals.makeuseof.com.s3.amazonaws.com/MakeUseOf.com_-_Searching.pdf>.

Boolean Logic is NOT Logical

“Boolean logic refers to the logical relationship among search terms, and is named for the British-born Irish mathematician George Boole.”

“Boolean logic allows you to combine words and phrases into search statements to retrieve documents from searchable databases.” (Cohen) 

To use Boolean logic, you have to stop thinking in the English language or in the language of math.  When we say the word AND or when we use the plus sign (+), we make more - we expand our  universe. Dogs AND Cats (Dogs + Cats) contain more animals than just Dogs or just Cats, right?

But in Boolean logic, AND actually limits your results - you end up with less: Dogs AND Cats (Dogs + Cats)  gives you only the intersection of the two (as shown in the Venn diagram).

And in English, when we use the word OR, we are limiting our universe so that we have less. Either Dogs OR Cats (but not both of them together). Well,  guess what? the Boolean OR expands your results - that's right...you get more as a result:

The Boolean OR is useful when you want to search for synonymous terms at the same time (example: personal learning network OR PLN).

Even a Hungry Hippo Knows How to Surf the Net! [GoAnimate Assignment]

Hungry Hungry Hippo by beets1278 on GoAnimate

Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

This was fun. Hope you enjoy.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet – That is the Question

I’ve pulled back from social networking and hardly ever go on FaceBook any more. However, this Web 2.0 class has given new meaning to the concept of social networking: it’s not just about keeping up with your friends and family – it’s about developing professional connections, keeping up with professional trends, and having a group of colleagues to use as resources. So I was encouraged to set up a Twitter account.

According to the Social Learning Centre [you have to become a member to access this link], “One of the key reasons for joining Twitter is to become part of a community. A “community” can take several forms. It might be: your Personal or Professional Learning Network (PLN); a Community of Practice (CoP) – a collection of like-minded people who join together to improve their practice; a Learning Community – a body students/learners and others who learn together.” The trick is finding the people and groups to build your community and then learning how to use that community! That meant I had to learn about hashtags (#), lists, shortened URLs, etc.

I agree with Noel, there are numerous cons to Twitter: “There isn’t a clear concise message with twitter. All twitter posts are erratic at best and don’t have a common style.” “…Twitter posts are only 140 characters and can’t really tell the story of what’s going on. Which means that it is more or less used as a starting point for driving people to another source in which you can read more about it.” I disagree with his statement that “the major usefulness for Twitter is primarily for business marketing and brand awareness and for news reporting.” Surely educators and trainers believe that it should be a part of our PLN and/or our PKN. 

While I do TXT my friends and family routinely, I honestly don’t know that I’m still comfortable in the Twitter world. While I grew up with the sound-bites of Sesame Street, I prefer my learning to be by the plateful. To follow the analogy further, I can see myself using Twitter when I need a snack, but not when I want to eat a meal.

Works Cited:

"How to use Twitter for Social Learning." Social Learning Centre. Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. <http://sociallearningcentre.co.uk/activities/how-to-use-twitter-for-social-learning/>. [You must register as a user to access this resource.]

Noel, Jason. "Do you think that Twitter will last?." Pros And Cons Of Twitter. N.p., 16 July 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. <http://www.mavenwebsites.com/pros-and-cons-of-twitter/>. 

 

 

 

Branding: Creating Your Identity Visually

Your Logo is the first "face" people see and should convey your aims & ideas. A successful logo should have the features of appropriate, practical, graphic, simple, and UNIQUE. This is a great overview and lasts less than 2 minutes.

A Guide for Baby Birds

http://nonprofitorgs.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/twitter-viral.png

If you, too, are new to the wonderful world of Twitter, here’s an abbreviated list of terms/concepts you should know [or click for the complete Glossary]: 

• At symbol [@] : used to call out usernames in Tweets if you are tweeting an individual. When a username is preceded by the @ sign, it becomes a link to a Twitter profile. When you use the @username, the message you write appears in that person’s inbox on Twitter.com and on any of the desktop or mobile clients they might be using. According to Suster, “… if you’re really responding to somebody and you don’t want all your followers to see it (but you don’t necessarily want to send a private message via DM or you can’t because they don’t follow you) then start with an @. Otherwise make sure it has text in front of it.” [See Direct Message below for really private Tweets.]

• Bio : Describe yourself in 160 characters. [Talk about creating a 90 second commercial to introduce yourself!]
• Chat : Twitter conversations already in progress. Some include gathering on specific days and times. [See Hashtags for more.] Read Don Power’s Twitter Tip Join a Twitter Chat.
• Direct Message [DM] : these Tweets are private between the sender and recipient.
• Email Notifications : Preferences you set to receive notifications via email about events on your account, such as new followers and new direct messages.
• Favorites [represented by a small star icon next to a Tweet] : used when you like a Tweet. Favoriting a Tweet can let the original poster know that you liked their Tweet, or when you want to save the Tweet for later reference.
• Handle : A user's "Twitter handle" is the username s/he has selected and its accompanying URL [mine is: http://twitter.com/Beets1278]. [See Also User Name.]
• Hashtags [#] : A clickable link and convenient way to become part of chats and discussions that share the latest news, resources, and ideas. If you click the hashtag in any tweet, you’ll display a live feed of every tweet that has that hashtag in it. You can find the most up to date tweets by clicking the bar that says “x new tweets.” According to Power , hashtags have to be one continuous keyword, with no spaces in between words are not case sensitive. To find a hashtag, try 20 Hottest Hashtags for Teachers on Twitter or take a look at the Twitter chat schedule, which includes a description of hundreds of chats, their host/moderator, a link to the chat, and a calendar of days/times you can participate in real-time chat. 

• Lists : Curated groups of other Twitter users (does not include yourself) creating a group on your Twitter account. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the users on that list. [Lists are used for reading Tweets only. You cannot send or direct a Tweet to members of a list, for only those list members to see.] List names cannot exceed 25 characters, nor can they begin with a number. 

• Retweet [verb] : The act of forwarding another user's Tweet to all of your followers. Abbreviated RT and placed before the retweeted text when manually retweeting a message. Some articles have a widget that allows you to Retweet without having to sign into your Twitter account and do a manual post. 

• Search [Integrated Search] : A box on your Twitter homepage that allows you to search all public Tweets for keywords, usernames, hashtags, or subject. Searches can also be performed at search.twitter.com. 

• Timeline : Real-time list of Tweets on Twitter. When you log in, your Tweets timeline view will appear on your homepage. The home timeline is a long stream showing all Tweets from those you have chosen to follow on Twitter displayed in reverse chronological order with the newest at the top. Interact with Tweets from within the timeline by hovering your mouse over a Tweet to reply, retweet, or favorite. 

• Tweet [verb] : The act of posting a message on Twitter. 

• Tweet [noun] : A message posted via Twitter containing 140 characters or fewer. 

• Twitterer: An account holder on Twitter who posts and reads Tweets. [I am now a Twitterer!] 

• URL Shortener: Used to turn long URLs into shorter URLs. Twitter automatically shortens URLS but you can also use services like Bitly to do so before posting your Tweet or even referring to a long URL in a paper, email, or your blog. 

• Username : Your Twitter handle must be unique and contain fewer than 15 characters and is used to identify you on Twitter for replies and mentions. While your username appears in your profile URL and is unique to you, it’s not the same as your real name, which is also displayed in your profile page and used to identify you to friends, especially if your username is something mysterious [like Beets1278].

• Widget : Bits of code you see on websites  that allow you to Like on Facebook or lead you to a Twitter Homepage. [Did you notice the Twitter Updates I added to the sidebar of my blog?]