My Plan for Online Presence Management

Here is the Prezi on a plan to manage your online reputation and safety

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Managing your Digital Presence

It seems as if the embed codes that work one week, do not work the next. That is one of the issues with changes in different blogging platforms. While I didn’t address this in the presentation, compatibility is an issue that you should consider when you choose your blogging platform.

Credits:

Fox News. (2013, February 24). Defending your digital turf – Online safety tips [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veXIlksQqZIJacobs, D. L. (2013, May). How an online reputation can hurt your job hunt – Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/05/17/how-an-online-reputation-can-hurt-your-job-hunt/

Kujawski, M. (2012, May). Managing your personal digital footprint. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/mikekujawski/tools-and-tips-for-managing-your-personal-digital-footprint?qid=f9517ea2-7942-4394-8c92-7c7324616b06&v=default&b=&from_search=1

Lowenthal, P., & Dunlap, J. (2012, June). Intentional web presence: 10 SEO strategies every academic needs to know | EDUCAUSE.edu. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/intentional-web-presence-10-seo-strategies-every-academic-needs-know

National Education Association. (2014). Manage and maintain your personal learning network | NEA Member Benefits. Retrieved from http://www.neamb.com/professional-resources/maintain-learning-network.htm

McGinnis, S. (2012, August). Online reputation management: A how-to guide by @seanMcGinnis Spin Sucks. Retrieved from http://spinsucks.com/communication/online-reputation-management-a-how-to-guide/

Solis, B., & JESS#. (2008, August). Conversation prism [Infographic]. Retrieved from http://http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conversationprism.jpeg

Taub, A. (2012, June). 5 key things needed to improve your digital identity – Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/alextaub/2012/06/07/5-key-things-needed-to-improve-your-digital-identity/

Vizzini, T. M. (2013, May). Digital presence and managing your virtual brand: What you need to know :: Financial Women’s Association. Retrieved from http://fwatest.org/event-archive-event/digital-presence-and-managing-your-virtual-brand-what-you-need-to-know/

 

Digital Footprints – ones that don’t wash away with the tide…

I am a curious person by nature, so I track myself online every so often just to see how easy it is to find me. It is actually quite scary how easy it is, especially if you live in a small town. Sites like Instant Checkmate are quite accommodating; they provide an address along with a Google image, and map to the person’s home.

When I did the search today, it didn’t matter if I used my married name or maiden, PeepYou still found me. It could be because my first name is not very common. I did notice that it had me living in two places in Iowa. I have lived lots of different places, several not listed, but never in the state of Iowa. That bothers me, a lot… Google, on the other hand, didn’t have very much information on me using my married name, and some fairly old work information with my maiden name. The only thing Google Alerts had listed were a few comments I have made on other student’s blogs, a board agenda for an out-of-state travel request, and LinkedIn. There was one more, but that is definitely not me! Fortunately, the person does not even closely resemble me, so I am not too worried about a case of mistaken identity. One thing I did notice that is a bit different is you can now do a reverse lookup and track someone using email addresses.

Maybe it is just me, but I find the whole notion rather unsettling. If I felt so inclined to spend money, I would actually pay for some of the reports just to see what these reports have to say about me. Overall, I just find it quite disturbing; no wonder people think they are being watched!

I did run the digital foot print app. It placed a cute green foot with a rapidly moving counter on my screen. Based on my little green foot, based on a conservative estimate when I started this post, my footprint is size 313,430,327,304-bytes. That is just for this year alone.

Image:

Delmen, N. (2011). Maldives 00147foot print on earth [Photograph]. Retrieved from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maldives_00147_foot_print_on_earth.jpg

 

Twitter, Hashtags, and PD oh my!

Twitter and I are getting more closely acquainted. I was introduced to Twitter, kicking and screaming, this summer. I can’t say I have jumped in to the blue pool just yet as I am still trying to adjust to this form of communication. As I sat here working on my portfolio video script on my big screen, on my laptop’s screen the columns of my tweet deck were scrolling along as new posts came in. It occurred to me just how “now” Twitter really is. I read the slide share presentation and such but watching the posts go by on the monitor was more impactful.

The hash tags I opted to follow for this course are: #symbaloo, #infolit, #flipclass, #edutech and #edtechchat. I may decide to change it up some if I see that there is too much overlap, or a category just doesn’t suit my needs. That is one of the great things about this forum, we have control over what we choose to vest our time in.

From following these hashtags I have found:

1. A cool quote generator from #edutech called Quozio. You simply type/copy a quote and then select the background settings from a gallery.
   
2. #edtechchat had a posting of the 25 edtech terms a connected educator should know that included a great infographic.
   
3. From #infolit, courtesy of Emerald Library, I found 15 Lesson Plans for Making Students Better Online Researchers.
   
4. #flipclass had a great resource on how to set up a flipped classroom
   
5. Through the #fetc stream I added, I found this article at Daily Genius that fits very well with this module How to use Google Classroom for professional development.
   

Just in time PD does not and should not mean a throw-it-together-10-minutes-before-the-meeting-professional-development activity. It does mean that it is the training a person needs when they need it. As a former leader of professional development, I like the notion that each person can be responsible for their own learning, tailoring it to suit their own specific needs. The canned presentations where one size/style really doesn’t fit all is ineffective and often a waste of time. Yes, you can usually pull something out of a presentation that is useful, but that isn’t the point. Time is a valuable and non-renewable resource, so why squander it sitting through a workshop that doesn’t apply to you? Stop and think about it…we try to differentiate our instruction to meet the needs of our students, but how often is the instruction we get differentiated to meet our professional needs? Using Twitter and other such sources for on demand PD makes more and more sense. It not only provides a cost effective solution, it is timely and meets each person’s specific needs. Monitoring participation and learning is feasible, we are doing it for module 3, so why not for professional development? The more I read and learn about real-time learning, the more I think it is just want we need “now.”

 

Communities of Practice, Connectivism, and Personal Learning Networks

Here is my non-linguistic view for Module 2 – A Creative Expression of Your Understanding of Communities of Practice, Connectivism, Personal Learning Networks.

Communities of Practice are groups we learn from, either as an active participant or an observer. For example, take the first image in my Prezi it is of women of various ages quilting. These women not only are teaching others the craft of quilting, but more than likely sharing some wisdom as well. As the less skilled quilters watch and practice, they develop greater skills. Another example could be a new girl at school, she may often stand back and observe how the students dress, interact, and behave before engaging in activities or conversations. This behavior is also common for students who are learning the language. They are learning by observing. Whether we realize it or not, we are involved in and learning from many “communities” throughout the day (Smith, 2009).

Connectivism is all about cooperative networks. Each person may learn or take away something completely different from the same learning experience. According to George Siemens learning begins at a cellular level and builds from there. It is a social process about “how we connect, build, and improve” (Siemens, 2013). While the learning may start with face-to-face interactions, it is not limited to physical connections. The learning environment has expanded with the advent of communication technology into the global mainstream. For example, going back to the new girl, as she adjusts to her new school she begins to make friend and adds them to her social media network, sharing her outside connections and information with her new friends. As the new friends can now see the old friends, they too begin to interact blending information and forming new connections.

Personal Learning Networks (PLN) are the connections we make to enhance our learning. Going back to the quilting example, suppose one of the women in the picture is reading a quilting blog one day and learns there is a quilting expo in a town nearby. She attends the fair and meets another quilter who shows her a new technique. They exchange their contact information and begin to share patterns and information with each other, which they each in turn share with their quilting circles.

As you can see from the two examples, these three concepts do not exist in isolation; they are interwoven with shared connections. Each of our communities of practice are impacted by how we are connected to and learn from others, which builds our personal learning network, which in turn is build more connections to others PLN and communities of practice. Learning is ongoing and ever expanding process.

Resources:

Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009) ‘Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice’, the encyclopedia of informal education,www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm.

University of the Sunshine Coast. (2013, August). Overview of connectivism – Dr George Siemens [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx5VHpaW8sQ

 

Module 2 diigo posts

For this module one of the assignments included finding at least ten resources that would further our understanding Communities of Practice, Connectivism, Personal Learning Networks concepts. These are the 10 resources I found:

1. Helping Students Develop Personal Learning Networks

   Technology is changing the face of education. The Internet and communication technologies are rapidly expanding learning networks for educators and students alike. The article explains why learning no longer needs to be linear but can take on whatever shape suits the learner.

2. Helping Students Develop Personal Learning Networks
   

   Interesting article on how PLNs relate to self-directed student learning. The author,Bernard Bull, provides some background on learning theory and self-directed learning to clarify how PLNs could be incorporated into any curriculum. The article includes a few how-to tips at then end.
   

3. Connectivism
   

   This article has several videos explaining what connectivism is and the relationship to personal learning. The author also includes a reminder that learning isn’t done by an individual in isolation but through networked connections.

4. elearnspace. Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation
   

   An explanation of a the basic components of a network – nodes and connections and how the relate to learning. The article explain how connections can grow stronger or lose relevance over time.

5. 20 Tips for Creating a Professional Learning Network – InformED
   

   A quick view of how technology is changing our world making it much smaller by allowing for global communication that is changing how we network and learn. The article includes two list of 10 different tips for using and establishing PLNs.

6. Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them

   I read this article awhile back and found it informative. The authors provide insight into how and why we build learning networks. The illustrations throughout the article are helpful as they summarize the narrative sections that describe the PLN model.

7. Grow Your Personal Learning Network: New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload

   Personal Learning Networks are nothing new, they have been around since the beginning ofcivilization. This article highlights how communication technology enables the expansion of your learning networks without going into overload.

8. Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

   This article was written by George Siemens the father of connectivism, focusing on how learning occurs through networking especially through the use of technology. The article also explains the differences between connectivism, behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism in a simple to read manner.

9. Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice

   Detailed article that describes the communities of practice philosophy that Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger developed the in the late 80’s that proposes learning comes from the social interactions in our daily lives. The article further explains how the interactions with various groups causes the learning, whether it is as a core member or a bystander.

10. Introduction to Communities of Practice

    An introduction by Etienne Wenger-Trayner on the theory of communities of practice, the components of a community, and what a CoP looks like in various settings.