TCCfx 2014 Conference: Tweeting of minds--Week Nine

Week Nine

TCCfx 2014 Conference: Tweeting of minds

It was the meeting of minds and the tweeting of minds at the TCCfx 2014 conference. This was a delightfully new experience for me, which lead to exploration on the ramifications of tweeting during an academic conference.

For me it was awkward at first, not knowing what to do or where to jump in to respond to the flow of tweeting of minds. Prior to the start of the conference, Dr. Bert posted tweets on handy tips for using social media during a conference as well as guidance for using Twitter to monitor events. Even though awkward initially, it gave me a sense of hope in doing it right and direction.

Bert Kimura ‏@kimubert Oct 21

Tips for Using Social Media During Conferences http://mashable.com/2014/10/21/using-social-media-events/#:eyJzIjoidCIsImkiOiJfc3BpMWY4bDRtc3N2YXJ0diJ9 … via @mashable #tccfx #642fa

Bert Kimura ‏@kimubert  Oct 22

Guidance for using Twitter to monitor professional events such as #TCCfx. http://etcjournal.com/2012/11/10/twitter-for-professional-use-part-4-participating-in-a-live-event/ … #642fa @Melissa_Venable

My first tweet of the TCCfx 2014 Conference came because I didn’t know how to get to the next room.  

My tweet, “How do I get to the next room? International Research in Educational Technology. #tccfx #642fa.” No response. I felt as no one was listening.  I felt frustrated. So, I tweet again. This time I directed tweets toward two participants “@jgcellist @bigislemom Do you know how to go to the next room after this? #tccfx #642fa.”

James G. @jgcellist tweets:

“James G. ‏@jgcellist Oct 22 @faith_SMi @bigislemom I just quit and switched tracks. Put in the code for which track you wanted. :)”

Terry Saragosa quickly follows. Her tweet: “@faith_SMi @jgcellist—stay in the room if you are going to stay in track 1. Exit and re-enter with tccfx2014_track2 if not#642fa #tccfx.”

Before exiting, I tweet back; “bigislemom @jgcellist Thanks! #tccfx #642fa.”

While my tweeting skills are yet to be honed, the most beneficial meeting of minds and tweeting of minds came by my tweeting exhange with Mark Yap. He tweeted, “Tips by Gavon.” #TCCfx Articulate Storyline is AWESOME.

Mark Yap ‏@markyap501 Oct 22

Tips by Gavon. #TCCfx Articulate Storyline is AWESOME!!

I followed by tweeting “Articulate storyline is incredibly valuable. #tccfx #642fa.”

Mark tweets @faith_smi—agreed!

To which I tweeted, “@markyap501 How do you keep up on the different products that Storyline offers? Now there is Storyline 2. #tccfx #642.”

Mark tweets, “@faith_smi—we’ve purchased maintenance on the software so we get the updates for a much lower cost.” Mark tweets again, “@faith_smi—depends on ur organizations structure. We have a multimedia dev person who does this.” 

What came as a surprise shortly after the “tweeting our minds” was what Articulate Storyline (the company) did and that was re-tweeted my tweet, “Articulate storyline is incredibly valuable. #tccfx #642fa.” I thought that was rather amazing. It all happened so quickly and in real time.  

How would I rate the overall experience? I’d give it an 8/10. This is not because of the conference, it is rather that I felt I could have tweeted more, responded more, re-tweeted more. Tweets move fast while presenters present. TCCfx 2014 was a terrific experience; however, long before the conclusion of the meeting of minds and tweeting of minds,  the balance/imbalance between actively listening and tweeting was a “fait accompli,” because of my lack of “tweeting” skills. 

In the final tweet analysis, 

"@LTEC 642 E-learning community#practice makes perfect@kimubert#next time! ;)"

Content Curation Tools & Service: MyCurrator

Week 8

I feel as though I’ve walked into a supermarket this week and am looking at cereal shelves lined with so many choices, but in reality it’s not actually a supermarket. Rather, it is a page with an assortment of content curation tools and services. All of which are very appealing; all of which seem to call out to me, the potential user, about its usefulness. The line up; Curated.by, Curchew, Flipboard, Google Currents, Keepstream, MyCurator, Paper.li, Pearltrees, Pluggio, Scoopt.it, Squrl, Storify, Summify, Themeefy, and Zite. Having infinity toward WordPress, MyCurator is the one that captures my curiosity. And this is where I began my exploration of content curation tools and services.

Powerful tools, I get it! I especially got it with MyCurator’s training videos that took me through a step-by-step narrated experience to train me on how to curate articles. MyCurator allows the user to import content via RSS. The question that I raised is what are the pluses and minuses of using this content curation tool and services?

The Pluses:

As a user, I am able

*  to import content quickly

*  to get images automatically from each post

*  to set post status as a draft or pending review is easier

*  to assign each feed to specific categories

*  to get a complete post- through editing I was able to keep what I needed and to delete that which I did not need.

* to manually process each feed in lieu of the feed occurring automatically. The process lessens the potential frustration and a feeling of being overwhelmed by so many feeds.

The Minuses:

* Unnecessary deleting of undesirable posts and images. Even though it’s possible to manually control feeds, having to continually delete unsolicited posts can be a bit much.

  *Issues that can be challenging- videos can be difficult to import and/or embed.

After perusing the site and examining the pros and cons, I think to myself, is MyCurator a beneficial curation tool?  I believe it is. I believe, even in the face of minuses, it has the potential to do much of what I need on WordPress.  Now that’s a plus!

Resources

http://c4lpt.co.uk/directory-of-learning-performance-tools/content-curation-tools-and-services/

Reflections on the productive use of Twitter

Week 7

In this week’s assigned reading, Attention, and other 21st-century social media literacies, Rheingold made three salient points.

The first point made is that Twitter requires knowledge of your public. What I learned from this is that for Twitter to be effective as a learning environment, an instructor would need to understand the way in which a student perceives its usefulness and then harness that perception into a valid learning experience. Hence “knowledge of your public.”

A second point of the productive use of Twitter, and social media in general, is how your participation meets their needs.

My understanding of this is that there is something to be learned about how to participate in a way that's valuable to others as well as to myself. For example, if I want ab initio pilots, whose first language is not English to learn radio communication, I would post on Twitter an image of relevant aircraft followed by a LiveATC audio stream of the control tower communicating to the pilot in command. I tweeted this recently on Twitter when President Obama flew in Marine One to the Santa Monica airport. Why did I do this? I did this because I knew that my participation in using an image of Marine One and the LiveATC audio stream would meet the needs/interests of my constituents.

The third point to takeaway is what I got in return for having tweeted a relevant news piece. The return on my effort was an overwhelming response to something that was useful and a valid learning experience for my audience. 

In short, knowing my audience, how my participation meets their needs, and the return on investing in what’s relevant to my constituency makes Twitter and social media an effective learning environment.

Tweet on! 

Resources

Rheingold, H. (2010). Attention, and other 21st-century social media literacies. EDUCAUSE Review, 45(5), pp. 14–24. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/attention-and-other-21st-century-social-media-literacies

What is that Ning thing all about?

Week 6

Ellen Hoffman in Social Media and Learning Environments: Shifting Perspectives on the Locus of Control states that,  “the growth of large-scale, freely available Web 2.0 social media applications offered a range of options. As with any design vision, none met every criterion for the ideal discussion environment. Ning, which was being used in other contexts outside of courses by some faculty in the education school, emerged as the best choice (Hoffman, 2009).”

What is the Ning thing and why was it considered the “best choice”? Ning claims, unlike other social platforms, that you and your fans can connect, converse, create content together in a place that’s truly yours. You decide how it looks and works. Not only does Ning have an easy-to-use threaded discussion Forum tool, it also has social tools such as profiles, “friending,” comment entry, blogging, areas to share images and video, and more (EducauseConnect, 2008).

In 2009, it was perceived the best choice because as Hoffman points out, “it allowed an instructor the ability to create a private Ning space to limit membership to class members and restrict outsiders from viewing, something considered desirable as students explore new concepts.” (Hoffman, 2009).

While innovative for its time, and even with the new Ning 3.0,  I believe the idea of creating your own social network has been surpassed and supplanted by Facebook and/or Google + and others, which has similar features and capabilities. The question I raise, why should I use Ning if my users are already on Facebook and are able to see feeds there? Hence, the Ning thing might have created a big stir, but now it seems to have become a Ning thing of the past that is losing ground in the competitive eras of web 2.0.

Your thoughts?

References 
Hoffman, E. S. (2009). Social media and learning environments: Shifting perspectives on the

                 locus of control.Education, 15(2), 23-38. Retrieved from 

                 http://ineducation.couros.ca/index.php/ineducation/article/view/54/533