Social Computing and Media has been a very educational module as it explores the impact of social media in everyday lives. We reviewed articles and topics of interest that provided the basis for our virtual classroom discussions. Sometimes this was replaced by a discussion board, showing different opinions on certain subjects. We were provided with a step by step guides on how to complete tasks essential for learning new tools and completing our badges. With this module, I completed four badges involving social computing and social networking tools. To begin, I created a WordPress blog which displayed the results of each badge required. Grading would be focused on this blog so it was important to understand this platform and how to navigate around it, using its various functions and tools. Blogging was new to me, I was quite nervous about using this platform but with practice, I discovered it was not such a daunting experience.

Badge 1 required me to research academics that use blogs and how this could help me with my studies as “blogging is increasingly being used as a platform for scholars to voice ideas in a less formal setting” (Powell, Jacob, & Chapman, 2012, p. 272). This was a new tool for me and it has been a real asset to me throughout his module. I will use this tool continuously with all of my subjects to enhance my learning. Badge 2 introduced me to social bookmarking platforms such as Pocket and Pinterest. These platforms gave me an insight into how to use and manage information on social media, rather than relying on the typical Facebook and Twitter platforms. I also completed a Google map mash up, giving me extra confidence that I was capable of utilizing new tools. Badge 3 was the most imaginative as I created an info-graphic and discovered the tools necessary to produce a YouTube video, such as screen-cast-omatic. This gave me different perspectives on how social media tools can help to visualize information.

For Badge 4, I felt more comfortable in approaching this task with a sense of self-confidence. It involved creating a LinkedIn account which can display your CV and link you with colleagues, employers and associates globally. This platform broadens your prospects and helps you to network in a professional capacity if searching for employment or a change of career. This badge was the most personal one for me, as a mature student and a previous employee of a professional company for 13 years, I already had a LinkedIn account that was unused for many years. Completing this badge immediately put me back in contact with colleagues and employers that I had no contact with for six years. This was an emotional experience as I chatted with people that I had lost all contact with. This can benefit my future prospects as “It’s entirely possible to reconnect with people, even if it seems preposterous after years gone by, the passage of time is not a good enough reason to let a potential connection go to waste” (Arzooman, 2018).

Badge 4 also required a reinvention of a social media privacy policy, this was quite revealing to see tactics used by companies to lure users into giving access to personal data. This made me critically evaluate the clauses I had to include or not include whilst reinventing my chosen platforms policy. Another aspect of badge 4 was to review the control of your digital reach and how to manage your digital footprint. This was a valuable task to examine and I feel that being very careful what you share online, should be addressed routinely and taught to primary and secondary schools for children’s safety. In fact, I feel that it should be a subject of its own, in this rapidly evolving technical society that is challenging to both children and adults alike. In completing this badge, my cumulative learning was progressing and I was significantly more aware of the range of opportunities for users that are available without any cost.

My learning was evolving each time I participated and engaged with new platforms and tools. Our discussion boards involved trends in social media, how it plays a role in our studies, and how visual approaches or visual information can aid our studies. These discussions were very beneficial to me and I enjoyed the information that I gained from people’s views and I agree that “the online discussion board can be an incredible effective teaching tool” (Fitzgerald, 2016). The phenomenon of social media platforms and its popularity has been substantial. The ease of participating with these social networking tools creates an ever-increasing growth in members. By participating in this module, I have joined platforms that enabled me to discover new tools and apply them to my weekly badge activities. These tools have given me the skills to solve information problems and represent myself positively online, improving my profile with future employers or future colleagues.

Badge 5 is my review of this learning experience. Going forward, I will have more confidence in myself as a digital citizen as “digital confidence is complex and multifaceted, and is about having confidence to use skill and knowledge levels to navigate other digital domains” (Passey, et al., 2018, p. 430). I will be more willing to try social media tools and platforms in order to benefit my learning. I feel that I am more familiar with social computing applications and how to utilize them. These are essential skills for me to use in any organisation. The social, political and ethical issues have been the most interesting for me and I will continue to keep up to date with future trends and issues within social media. I will use the tools that I have discovered when searching for future employment and will not be scared to leave my comfort zone when I encounter future challenges regarding social media tools and networks.  I will continue to use my blog as evidence of overcoming challenges and to showcase my experience with future employers.

References

Arzooman, J. (2018, January 26th). Do’s and Don’ts for Reconnecting—When It’s Been a While. American Management Association. Retrieved from https://playbook.amanet.org/training-articles-reconnecting-former-colleagues/

Fitzgerald, D. (2016, May 13th). Using Online Discussion Boards. University College Cork. Retrieved from http://instructionaldesign.ucc.ie/2016/05/13/using-online-discussion-boards/

Passey, D., Shonfeld, M., Appleby, L., Judge, M., Saito, T., & Smits, A. (2018). Digital agency: Empowering equity in and through education. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 23(3), 425-439.

Powell, D. A., Jacob, C. J., & Chapman, B. J. (2012). Using blogs and new media in academic practice: Potential roles in research, teaching, learning, and extension. Innovative Higher Education, 37(4), 271-282.

It is possible to control your digital reach by giving yourself additional opportunities to increase your profile with social media platforms. For instance, employment searches could enhance your options by using professional networking platforms to digitally reach a wider audience. LinkedIn has more than half a billion users in over 200 countries. When creating and tailoring my profile, I discovered LinkedIn is a clear leader for potential hires and B2B prospects (Borden, 2018). Other suggestions to control your digital reach with social media platforms is to post often, use images, engage to build your audience persona and promote your social channels (Borden, 2018).

Borrowing Liroff’s phrase “you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube” is a good concept to bear in mind whilst developing your digital footprint (Liroff, 2017). Employers can track your digital footprint so it is imperative to keep your private and public personas separate. This can be facilitated by setting your privacy to the highest levels on social media. Social media tools such as prohibiting tags can achieve high privacy standards. However, there are still methods to circulate your data, such as screenshots. I included this in reinventing Facebook’s privacy policy as a right to be notified of such actions.

References

Borden, T. (2018, October 12th). 9 Best Ways to Grow Your Network on LinkedIn. Retrieved from http://www.weidert.com: https://www.weidert.com/whole_brain_marketing_blog/best-ways-to-gain-more-connections-on-linkedin

Liroff, M. (2017). Managing your digital footprint. Back Stage, 58(38), 9.

Facebook is accessed by all ages, so this policy needed a professional yet easy to read approach.  The clauses included were based on what was relevant to me as a frequent user of Facebook and what I feel is necessary for the control and protection of my data. I excluded age restrictions and parental consent in order to keep it short and contained to on page for ease of reading. I am aware that people do not have time to scroll through pages of data, especially children who are even less interested than adults with policies and regulations.

This platform enables you to professionally present yourself and connects you with colleagues and employers worldwide. The CV that I have created via LinkedIn tells potential employers about my education and my work experience so far. My personal CV tells employers that I have 20 years experience in Office Administration and that I have returned to education twice to further my career and to upgrade my skills. It tells employers that I successfully completed to date my education with high grades. My last employment was nearly 12 years, proving that I am committed, reliable and always willing to learn more.

This is a valuable social media tool that you can control within privacy and settings in order to represent yourself to the best of your ability within your career. Some of the benefits include recommending people you know, adding activity, experience, education and interests. Other benefits are created within the connections that you make to achieve your personal networking community. You can also upgrade to a premium account which allows you to see extra benefits such as who has viewed your profile.

My LinkedIn Link is
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carina-byrne-68487b3a/

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Social Media tools are essential for representing visual information in a variety of methods. With the ever-increasing amount of social media platforms, the options for visualizing information are more accessible and comprehensible to society. A 2015 Google report stated that tutorial-based videos on YouTube were increasing 70% year over year. It had 135 million instructional videos online, with 300 hours of video added to YouTube every minute (Lumb, 2019). This method of educating yourself through social media tools is essential for people who may find other learning methods challenging. Those who have learning difficulties would find these tutorials invaluable.

Text based visuals often leads to video content once the basic information has been conveyed. Infographics achieves this by providing visual images of statistics in order to promote a program and can combine this information with a YouTube link. “Aiming to understand usage of image and video-based platforms may benefit from combinations with data from other social networks” (Weller, 2016, p.259). The role of social media tools in our digital world is becoming more available, dependable and interchangeable as technology progresses. These tools are a vital addition to assist people regardless of age, experience or capabilities.

References

Lumb, D. (2019, March 06th). youtube viewers really want to learn how to kiss. Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com: https://www.fastcompany.com/3046271/youtube-viewers-really-want-to-learn-how-to-kiss

Weller, K. (2016). Trying to understand social media users and usage. Online Information Review, 40(02), 256-264. doi:10.1108/OIR-09-2015-0299

This video was created using screencasting and YouTube to experiment with these creating and editing tools in order to communicate a visual and audio tutorial, and to publish from these social media platforms.

References

http://www.google.com

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com

http://www.youtube.com

An infographic is a visual representation than can distill complex and large amounts of information using pictures, words, graphs and other visual items to present information quickly and clearly. An infographic should tell a story so for my infographic I have chosen to highlight the campaign against drink driving. Once complete, the infographic can be saved in its full format of six segments and often hard to read as it shrinks to fit the page. It can also be saved in blocks which contain each segment making it easier to comprehend. I will show both formats to display this example.

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References

Road Safety Authority. http://www.rsa.ie

Piktochart. http://www.piktochart.com

There are many ways that social media tools can help us to use and manage information we find. In my opinion, as a student, these platforms can produce additional resources for learning and research, but only if managed well. In participating on platforms such as Pocket and Pinterest, the benefits of curating the information found in boards, pins, lists and favourites are useful aids. However, I found that it can also be an obstacle as the temptation to explore these sites is quite distracting.

Communications Team (2015) stated that “Social media tools can help keep course information organized and accessible by saving, curating and sharing resources using collection-building tools such as Pinterest”. While this is true, I find that the vast collections on these platforms can allow students to lose focus, so time management must be a factor here.

Rolland et al (2013) described the benefits of social media as having “access to themed communities and the ideas and creativity of internet users”. I agree with this statement, particularly for personal use. These platforms are invaluable for storing information on different topics and themes that can be easily retrievable. They can provide access to extensive quantities of information, helping us to develop and enhance our learning substantially.

References

Communications Team. (2015, May 09th). How social media can help students study. http://www.mheducation.com: Retrieved from https://www.mheducation.com/blog/thought-leadership/how-social-media-can-help-students-study.html

Rolland, S.E., & Parmentier, G. (2013). The benefit of social media: Bulletin board focus groups as a tool for co-creation. International Journal of Market Research, 55(6), 809-827. doi:10.2501/IJMR-2013-068