Social Networking

Social networks can be a very useful tool professionally.  Social networks gives me the opportunity to communicate with educators in the same department and provides something like a team.  I am able to receive feedback from many professionals and their thoughts and opinions about a topic. 

Personally, social networks connects me to friends that I haven't spoken to in years.  The connections made and the tools that are provided by social networks, like a Facebook, syncs you with people the network thinks you may know.  That tools using the information that you input and relates it through the entire network to link you with friends and family.  I am able to talk about hobbies that I enjoy with people who have the same.

As a student, social networking is larger than life to them.  Constantly students are looking to communicate through various social networking sites.  It gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility.  They feel the need to keep themselves current and up to date to allow their friends of their status.  Whether its going out, watching TV, or just laying around the house, their network can see this and respond.   Giving them the opportunity to watch the same show and laugh about it via status updates or ask if they want to go somewhere together.

Social Networking is here and here to stay.  Each year there is a new mega social networking tool that takes the world by storm.  If we can stay afloat and use it to our advantages, educators will become that much closer to bridging the learning, teaching gap between students.

RSS Reader Page

BEFORE RSS Reader SCREENSHOT

 
 

 

 

AFTER RSS Reader SCREENSHOT

 

 

 

      

      I chose to comment on the post “The Short Lifespan of a Tweet: Retweets Only Happen Within the First Hour”, since we are in the process of exploring Twitter with direct messages and re-tweets. The gives data found about how many tweets are re-tweeted. The post says that 29% of all tweets are actually re-tweeted, only if done within the first hour. Many people who want replies to their tweets will often tweet the same thing over four times to receive a response from followers. I commented the following: Those are interesting facts and I have never really thought or paid any attention to that. Does that mean that only 29% of the tweets having meaningful content? I usually re-tweet something that has meaning or is related to me.

      Tracking the the changes to my RSS Reader Page – After I tweeted my response to the topic, there has been one person that has replied. She stated a fact that was not mentioned in the article about how twitter has its moment where it is at its peak. If you are tweeting during those peak hours, you do have a better chance of someone seeing and replying to your tweet. I have noticed that no new content from NCTE for 2 years, and the times the feeds were posted. NCTE does not show the posting without having to click on the link and going to the website to view. The days displayed for the age of the feeds, goes to 6 days, then by weeks. My reader is set up to keep 7 feeds at a time. When you log in to you reader, beside the Feeds title is a count of the new feeds that there are. When you view a feed, that number goes down each time you view a topic. Feeds that I have previously visited, are a different font color than those that I have not explored.

      I have learned from the contents of the news feeds that you are given what you asked for. You are able to view the contents without having to go to the actual website, but you have the option to. You are able to distinguish which subject that you want feeds from and nothing more. The content is related to what the title of the feed is.

      I will be able to apply the content of my RSS Reader page throughout my daily life. I didn't realize how valuable RSS reader pages could be. Some of the feeds that I am following, I can use for classwork. Most of them at some point have mentioned blogs, twitter, facebook, and has looked in depth the uses of each network. This information can be used if I am deciding which network performs better over another by reading the content of the feed, and looking at comments that have been made about the topic. As teacher, instead of students having to browse the Internet for assignments such as “current events”, if students have an RSS reader page at the disposal, you know as the teacher that the events will be up to date and credible instead of leaving it up to the students to perform a blind search. RSS Readers gives you information to subjects that are important to you and saves you time. You have all the news that you want all located at one site and eliminates advertising and other jargon that is not of any use. It gives you what you want, and information that is up to date.

      I chose the ReadWriteWeb blog because the information that was provided from the blog was related to topics that we are exploring now in our course. I wanted to use feeds that I could actually use on a daily basis that would provide support and further understanding of the topics learning in this course. The other three feeds that I subscribe to relates to the classes that I am teaching now in school. I subscribed to the New York Times – Technology and TechNewsWorld feeds because they offer information that can be used in class discussion about Podcast, Flickr, and other similar sharing networks and media pools. Students can easily relate to the feeds because each feed offers insight to the networks and media they are exposed to throughout their daily lives. CNNMoney offers tabs about personal finances that goes well with my Money Matters class, which students learn about personal financing, budgets, and gives insight to products that students are in the market to buy. Students can get reviews on the product from comments that are posted without having to search endlessly on the Internet.

Blogs VS Web Pages

Blogs are created by individuals who have something to say about whatever they want.  Blogs give individuals freedom to talk about what is important to them.  Blogs allow people to become reporters and writers.  Blogging allows us to communicate freely and express our ideas on matters such as politics, our daily lives, and allows us to have an opinion.  Guests are allowed to leave comment on material that you post to your blog and opens a steady line of communication.
There is not much difference in having a web page.  A web page is designed to be more complexed.  A blog is set up to be simple and precise.  A blog is more of a journal, whereas a web page is for entertainment, to sell and draw attention.  In deciding which is better, you must look at what it is that you are trying to show.  If its simple, go with a blog.  If you are looking for a more expanding way of communicating, go with web pages.