Week 4 Report and Reflection: Diigo

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone's week is going well! I had a very eventful week myself with turning 20. It is amazing to think about not being a teenager anymore! I am sure there are people of all ages reading this so emotions toward my statement of feeling old will present a different reaction in some than others!

Feedly
This week, an article that instantly caught my attention on Feedly was about fugitives escaping from a California Jail an being caught 8 days later. Since prison breakouts are not very common, it was interesting to find out that they had managed to escape in the first place. Law and crimes is a subject that I have always taken an interest in and enjoy to hear about in the news. I related this article to the television series called Prison Break because that one of the only other successful breakouts that I have heard of which was fictional. I have continued to enjoy using Feedly and seeing the articles that come up from the websites that I have subscribed to.

The link to the article can be found below if any of you are interested in reading...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/us/remaining-california-jail-escapees-are-captured-in-san-francisco.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

https://interarma.info/tag/φοίβος-χαρίσης/?lang=en

Diigo

This week I explored Diigo as another tool to add to my digital environment. While exploring Diigo and what the website had to offer, I discovered many things. Diigo is basically the same concept as Feedly except it has may other features. On Diigo, you can create side notes off of the webpage using highlights and sticky notes. These tools can be quite beneficial to take down ideas throughout an article. Sometimes when you are reading an article, it can be difficult to remember all of the important ideas that came up while you were reading. By using Diigo, you are able to take down the idea that is in your head without losing the spot that you are at to read. By using bookmarks, you can open yourself up to new topics and interests that you did not know existed.

Curation tools such as Diigo, Feedly and Delicious are all very useful when trying to limit the overflow of information that is available through social media, the internet and other digital sources. Curation tools allow us to tailor content specific to the interests of certain people. This can be a useful tool in the future to give people exactly what they are looking for. These tools also help us to eliminate information that is irrelevant or of no use to us. We can conveniently look through sources of information that we want to look at rather than searching many pages for something that may interest us.

http://www.mathedup.co.uk/creating-a-positive-learning-environment/

Personal Learning Environment

Diigo is a crucial tool to include into my personal learning environment because of its convenience. I would include this website under research as well as social media because of the dual purpose that it serves. It is an information source as well as a source to view other peoples interests and bookmarks that they have created. Many of these tools are alike in the way that they are all used for sourcing information and tailoring the needs to what your personal interests are.

I hope everyone enjoyed learning about their personal learning environment and finding another tool that they can use to enhance their learning environment. Have a great week and good luck with midterms!

Samantha Wilson

Week 3 Report and Reflection: RSS Feed Readers

Hello everyone!

Throughout this week’s session, we explored a website called Feedly which is a newsfeed that allows you person to organize publications based on what you want to read. I found feedly very interesting as I did not know that such a website existed. I enjoy reading the news but the local newspaper can often be boring. Therefore, you subscribe to what you want to see and get to read about things that interest you. I will now use feedly more often now that I know it exists. 

As I had mentioned in my last blog post, I found an article that is of interest to me about Brock University Athletics. I am sharing this article with you today because many of you will also find it to be relative to your own lives. Since we are all Brock University students, we can all understand the depth of this article. To have such great recognition by one of the staff members in Athletics at Brock, I thought it would be interesting to all of you!

RSS Feed Readers

This news article along with all of the other publications on feedly allowed me to stay easily informed on the most updated content from the sites that I am interested in. This activity allowed me to expand my digital learning by using another online tool to learn effectively about what is going on in the world around me. RSS feeders contain a sufficient amount of information that is enough to understand the subject but also not overwhelm the reader with extra information. They allow us to spend our time reading about things that interest us so that we are informed on the things that we most care about. 

RSS feeders also provide people with convenience. It supplies articles for you to read so that the reader does not need to spend time searching for something that interests them. It is interesting to see that we can gain more knowledge on things that interest us by using RSS feeders. RSS feeders also allow the reader to stay aware and mindful about what is happening in the word around us so that we can make more conscious decisions. By reading the article about Brock Athletics, it might spark an interest in a reader to go to a game based on what they have read. 

http://www.mediachange.ch/news/rss-news-feed/

Adding Feedly Into My Personal Learning Environment

An RSS feed reader is a tool that I could add to my personal learning environment because it allows me to take control and manage my own learning. I would add feedly into the heading of social media for a few reasons. It allows me to create, share and exchange information based on my personal hobbies and interests. I would consider it a type of social media because I am grouping all of my interests together under one digital media platform. I would consider Feedly to be very similar to Twitter in the sense that there is a newsfeed filled with information of things that I wish to follow. 

http://www.etrainingpedia.com/students-say-they-are-more-motivated-in-digital-learning-environments-than-traditional-ones/

This week was very informative and allowed me to gain another tool that I can use for digital learning. I will continue to use feedly as a way to inform myself of the most recent stories around the world. I hope everyone enjoyed this activity and I look forward to learning more about RSS feeds next week.

Bye for now!

Samantha

My Experience with RSS Feeds

Hello everyone!

I found it very interesting completing the feedly activity this week using an RSS feeds of which I did not know that they existed. When I was searching through the most popular stories in my feedly today, I found an article of interest that is a news article from The Brock News. The article is titled 'Ontario women's basketball championship trophy to be named in honour of Brock's Critelli.

As many of you may already know, Chris Critelli is the Assistant Athletic Director at Brock University. She is the only player in basketball history to have won an NCAA and a CIS championship. For those who do not know intercollegiate athletics very well, this means that she won a championship with a University in the United States and with a University in Canada. She also went to the Olympics for basketball. This article was quite interesting to me because I was at the presentation before the game when the trophy was renamed to honour Chris Critelli and her excellence in basketball. I am also a member of the Women's Volleyball team at Brock therefore, I see all of the hard work that she does in Athletics now that she is a retired athlete.

It is interesting that this came up first in my feed as it was something that was of most interest to me because I was very knowledgeable about the topic of the news article. This news article also helps Brock University to become more patriotic and proud to be a badger when a member of our Athletics Department is recognized like this.

http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/2016/01/ontario-womens-basketball-championship-trophy-to-be-named-in-honour-of-brocks-critelli/

The link to the article can be found below!

http://www.brocku.ca/brock-news/2016/01/ontario-womens-basketball-championship-trophy-to-be-named-in-honour-of-brocks-critelli/

I hope that everyone enjoyed completing this activity and was able to see what showed up on the reader based on their interests.

Have a good week!

Week 2 Report and Reflection : Personal Learning Environment and Goals

Hello again everyone!

It is great to be back at blogging this week and being able to share my knowledge of my Personal Learning Environment with you. I have learned many things this week through the many activities that were completed. We focused on many topics this week including a personal learning environment, social networking and web tools. A personal learning environment is a digital toolbox that involves sharing content online. It involves using technology for learning by using tools that support learning.

Where do I want to be in 5-10 years?

In 5 years, I hope to be completing my masters in Sport Management and have a career in the sport industry. My goal is to find a job that suits my interests which may take time after I am done school. I hope to be involved in the Brock University community and contribute to the school in any way I can. I also see myself moving out of the province because I enjoy changing my environment every so often. In 10 years, I hope to be employed at a full-time job that I enjoy. I want to enjoy going to work everyday therefore I will never have to work a day in my life. I also hope to have a family and if I do not live near my parents and siblings, I hope to visit very often. 

At this point in time, I am living with 5 other girls that also attend Brock University. I have no job and cannot travel due to lack of funds. I pay for all of my education on my own therefore I do not have a large discretionary income. I hope to be settled down in the future and not be worried about money in 10 years.

Present to future

In the next 5 years, I hope to learn more about how to be more independent. I am independent now but I go home often because I miss my hometown and family. I also want to learn more about the aspects of a business. There are certain skills needed to work in a sales job which is what I hope to do. This includes persuasion, knowledge on the products and hard work. I hope that i can be successful in the future and the skills listed above is how I will meet my goals.

Changing my environment

In order to gain more knowledge, I need to change certain aspects about my life. For example when I am studying for an exam, I need to leave my living room full of people and go in a quiet space. By studying harder for exams, I will retain more information about the sport industry which is crucial to my future. I can also plan out my days more effectively by leaving study time and social time. If I get up earlier instead of sleeping in when I do not have morning class, I can accomplish a lot more.

My PLE

This is my personal learning environment. I created four categories that I thought best fit my life and what I share online. To summarize my personal learning environment into words; I use many independent networking websites such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter. From the social technographics ladder, (resource from session 2 this week), I put myself into the conversationalists part of the ladder which is the second highest rank on the ladder. I participate in social network websites to converse with people in the social world. I enjoy posting statuses and pictures but do not create my own pages therefore I am not a creator. I contribute to others ideas and comment on other people’s posts therefore I was above the level of a critic.

When conducting research, I use Google Scholar, Google search engine and the Brock University Library. To create slideshows for educational purposes, my favourite choices are Prezi, Google Docs, and Powerpoint. When I am communicating with others outside of phone calls and texting, I use FaceTime, WhatsApp and Skype. All of these aspects of my learning environment focus on the idea of lifelong learning as discussed in session 2 activities. These websites have and will continue to provide me with many tools that support learning.

Wilson, S. (CC) 2016

Wordle 

This is a word cloud that I created from my first reflection post about digital footprints from last week. This is an interesting representation of my blog posting from last week. It was interesting to see what the most common words that I used were. This is also more eye-catching than reading a page of text for viewers. Many people would prefer looking at something like this rather than a page of text as they can learn more from it. I learned that words can be more creative than plain text and that a representation like this can be quickly engaging. It is easy to develop themes about last weeks post based on this wordle. The common themes I can see from this are about networking, the digital world, data and social networking.

Wilson, S. (CC) 2016.

Anyways, that is it for this week! Hope everyone enjoyed discovering many things about themselves this week as much as I did. Bye for now!

Week 1 Report and Reflection : Digital Footprints

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone has been enjoying their semesters so far. I have found it challenging thus far to change from in-class learning to working in the online world. I think I will eventually be successful in this type of learning environment as the class continues. 

We focused on many topics this week including digital footprints, digital etiquette, and blogging. In my reflection, I am going to focus on two main ideas about digital footprints that stood out to me. Following that, I will discuss the results of my own digital footprint by searching my name on Google. I will then discuss my results of digital drivers license exam.

What is a Digital Footprint?
My digital footprint is something that I have always been very conscious of. My parents work in law enforcement and have seen the effects of a person having a negative digital footprint. Something that I found quite interesting when investigating the material about digital footprints, is that a digital footprint exists even before a person is born into the world. From the minute that the ultrasound is taken when a person is in the mother's womb, the digital footprint is created. As a person grows up, their digital footprint grows with them as they go through life. Digital footprint can be described as a trail, traces or footprints that people leave on the web about their personal information. Sometimes it is not up to the person to post something, as they could be tagged in it by one of their friends. Social media websites turn information and pictures into cookies on your computer which are forever traceable.

https://kurtishewson.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/evolution-of-digital-footprints/

Positive Digital Footprints

The previous thought in society was to have no online footprint, but as long as people make sure it is positive, there will not be an issue. Keeping a positive digital footprint involves making conscious choices about what is being put on the web for everyone to see. If a person does not feel comfortable with a future employer seeing something that they want to post, the best option is to keep it to themselves. People need to be careful what you are posting because future bosses tend to search up their potential hires on the internet before offering them the job. If their first impression of this person was a photograph that was seen on the internet of them being intoxicated, they are most likely to not be called for an interview. The content that is seen on the internet can either discourage or encourage a boss from hiring you. If the information on the internet is strictly professional and educational, having a digital footprint can be positive.

Another issue with digital footprints is that people are disclosing too much information about themselves to the public. On Facebook for example, there is an option to make the profile private or keep it open to the public. If there is information about where a person lives or they are posting on their wall where they will be in the future, someone who does not know them could see the profile if it is public. A digital footprint tells a person where you’ve gone, where you are going and what you have left behind. Another example of disclosing too much personal information about one's self is when posting an advertisement on Kijiji. When posting an advertisement, you have to fill in the address of where you are selling the item from. Many people do not realize that this can be unsafe. It was until last year that a man gave his exact address and he was abducted when meeting up with someone that was looking to buy something through a Kijiji ad. When posting an advertisement, there is an option to just type in the name of the city where it is being sold and meet up with someone in a public place. This is what people will do now to protect their own safety after the incident that happened.

My Own Digital Footprint
What I found most interesting about digital footprints was the results that came up by typing my name in on google. I had expected to see links to my social media profiles including Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. What amazed me was seeing newspaper articles that had dated back to 2007 about my sport accomplishments. Every article that had my name in it from my hometown had came up because my name had been mentioned in the middle of the articles. Google also came up with websites that had tracked my running career in high school when I used to run cross country. It was very interesting to see that they had grouped all my results together with other athletes in Ontario.


Digital Driver's License
I was happy to learn that I had no areas that needed to be worked on to obtain my digital driver's license. Since I did not get any questions wrong, I am being responsible with what I share to others using technology. I want to continue to have a positive digital footprint by keeping private information private and not disclosing too much information about myself to the online world. Although I did quite well on the exam achieving 20/20, my goal throughout this course is to learn how to continue to use technology in the most responsible way possible.

https://otis.coe.uky.edu/DDL/launch.php

Introduction

Welcome to my blog!

About Myself
My name is Samantha Wilson and I am a second year Sport Management student at Brock University.  After my undergraduate, I hope to pursue a MA in Sport Management. My career goal is to work in sales or event management. I am from a small town called Stratford, Ontario and am very family-oriented. I am a member of the Brock University Women's Varsity Volleyball team and I very much enjoy playing a high level of sport. Playing on a varsity team while being in school allows me to manage my time more effectively because I do not have much free time during the season.
When I am not at school or playing volleyball, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. I have a big family consisting of 5 siblings; 3 brothers and 2 sisters. Being a big family, we are very close with one another and take part in many family activites with one another. I also enjoy playing the piano as it has always been a hobby of mine. I also enjoy being outdoors whenever possible. Some of my outdoor hobbies include long distance running, snowboarding and soccer.  I enjoy trying new things because I believe that you will remember those moments in your life rather than the common occurrences.

I have signed up for this blog as a part of a class I am taking called ADED 1P32. I am very excited to have the opportunity to engage in this class and learn more about the role of technology in our world. I hope to also learn about how technology can play a positive role in our world. The part of the class that I am looking most forward to is blogging. I have heard of blog posting but I have never taken part in it until today. It seems very interesting that people can write about their interests or hobbies, then other people will read their opinions on it. This is why technology can be a very useful tool when it comes to information sharing.

I plan to use the information that I learn in this class to assist me in achieving my academic goals. For example, I hope to learn how to manage my online resources in a more efficient manner. I  As an individual learner, I learn in a combination of many different ways in order to be knowledgeable on a topic. I enjoy listening to an instructor teach me about the concepts because I often think back to a lecture when writing an exam. I also tend to write things down repetitively until I know the topic through and through. I like to ensure that I understand the topic completely before moving on, and that it is not just memorized.

This is a recent photo of myself: