A reflective moment...

It feels like only a couple of weeks ago I was just creating my introductory post and already I am reflecting on the term coming to a close. And even though right now I am stressing about finals and last minute papers, it is an interesting exercise to reflect over what I have really learned in this course and what I am taking away from it.

 2012. SEO service group, San Fransisco, CA. http://www.seoservicesgroup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/socail.jpg. April 11 2012

In the start of this course, I was completely new to most social media, only ever using facebook and even then to the bare minimum. In all honesty, I had no interest in twitter, believing that it was only a way to help one's self be vain, announcing to the world every thought and emotion one could possibly have. This course has aided me in seeing that twitter could be a more useful tool then I originally thought. I have seen that it can be used as a signifigant tool in the science community and it provides the ability to quickly share new information with others who are concerned in the same field. When I was reading a fellow ALES students blog, Rima also disscussed how ALES 204 has helped her see that twitter can be effective for connecting with other individuals in her field. Furthermore, I have learned that general news can be passed to people through twitter about world  events. The other day I was reading how twitter can dispatch storm warnings to communities. This news post discussed how it is being examined by federal government agencies in the USA if twitter can be an effective tool for informing the public quickly about certain situations. I think that without this course, I would have not been as aware of the possibilities twitter and social media have.

With that being said though, I do not think I will keep my twitter account. Although I agree with the perspective this course has shown me and how twitter can be a great tool, it is the responsibility of each tweeter to utilize twitter as this tool and I still think that it is used by the majority just to talk about random topics. It just personally is not my thing and I know I will use it rarely after this course either way. In other social media topics such as Delicious and LinkedIn, I learned what they were about in this course, which otherwise I would have probably never had learned about. I think I have learned how each of these sites can benefit me further down the road in my professional career.Finally I would say this course has helped me learn about others perspective on the subject matter and gave me the opportunity to comment on others blogs about their experiences in these topics. Some other student blogs that I engaged in were:
Brittany's blog
Curtis"s blog
Karen's blog
Chau Chin Yo"s blog
Deanna's Bog

In the conclusion to this course, I would sum up that I have opened my eyes to many different forms of social media and how they can POSSIBLY be used to aid one in their future career/education. The only thing that still has me a little sceptical about social media is its resemblance to Wikipedia. We learned that people have the ability to say what ever they want so there still is a possibility of faulty information being passed on through social media. In addition, it is the individuals responsibility to utilize social media as a tool for progressing themselves to their career. With this being said, I do believe it was a great term and a refreshing change from typical university course style.

Discovering a "wiki"

So this week in ALES 204, we learned a little bit about something I'm sure everyone has come across, Wikipedia. Now speaking mainly for myself, I have always used Wikipedia to look up just minor information on subjects I was unfamiliar about. I've never used it as a source when creating an academic work, but I use it regularly to look up quick bio's or current events. It wasn't until this week that I really came to understand what Wikipedia was indeed about. It was interesting to see how it actually works and made me question a little more deeply about where the information that I resort to so readily is in fact coming from.

I chose to write my article on Green Weddings. This was something I didn't really know a lot about and just doing this project taught me a great deal about this subject matter. When I was browsing other student blogs I came across Rebecca's blog. When I was reading her post "get involved", it really made me consider how important it is to help out in an area that is really important to you. As someone who cares about the environment, a green wedding is great way to bring awareness and show that being eco-conscious is possible in all aspects of life. When Rebecca talked about looking up on delicious about virtual volunteering, I started looking up Green Wedding articles. Given, a lot of these articles were not something I used in my actual research, still I found it helped provide me with a great starting off point to commence with looking at what were the basics. By doing this, I found that my research after was a lot more focused.

 At first I found it really confusing to try to write my article while trying to work with the wiki code. I didn't really appreciate the work that has to go in when a contributor wants to write on a page. After working with it for a bit (and clicking the "preview" button a million times), I started to get the hang of it. I found the most challenging part of this project though to be trying to find reliable sources that would provide me accurate information that I could cite. It really gave me an appreciation for how hard it is to find reliable and non-bias information and how easy it is to just grab a quick website to cite just so it appears researched.

Navarro, Mireya. 2010. Green Weddings, Planning your Eco-Friendly Celebration. Article. March 20 2012. http://simplycouturewed.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/green_weddings_book.jpg

By doing this assignment, I really saw how important it is to really inquire about where the information you gather is coming from. It is so easy for something to appear factual and be nothing more than just some words someone threw together. It also helped me see how important it is to keep your writing voice neutral when creating an article. When a large amount of people are contributing to a wiki like Wikipedia, it is so easy for someone to throw in their own bias to steer public opinion, rather than presenting neutral facts. By doing this assignment, I have come to learn that in the future, I need to be more wary about my information that I come across. Not only for academic purposes, but in all aspects of my life including my career. It is hard to be knowledgeable if your information has no real knowledge in the first place.

Interested in "Pinning"

The other day when I was out with my mother shopping we were talking about social media and how it is influencing our professional life. I started telling her about ALES204 and she asked if I had done anything in this class on Pinterest. I replied no and she began telling me about it. Pinterest is a social media photo sharing outlet where members create electronic photo pin boards. These photos can be from their own computer that they took themselves or from other websites that they liked. The photos range from recipes to clothing to funny pictures. People are free to share whatever they want with the rest of the world. I was so intrigued by this I even requested a membership. (To be a member you need to either be invited by another member or request an invitation.)

I even saw other ALES204 students discussing this website on their blog and in class. While doing so research on Pinterest, I came across Brittany's blog, a fellow ALES student, that also discussed Pinterest. While I found this site amusing and a great way to connect and share ideas through visual means, I never really though of how it could help me in the future with my career. Reading her blog encouraged me to consider how this social media website could be used as a tool in my future.

http://pinterest.com/vallih/for-my-future-dream-home/ 

I am working towards being an interior designer thus making visual representations and ideas of the upmost importance in my future job. Therefore, Pinterest can be a great tool for me later on. I went and looked at pin boards with words like "interiors, design, bedrooms" and I came across millions of pin boards. One even named, "My Dream House", where the user pinned all her favourite details of houses together to share the look of her fantasy home. Even some businesses are on Pinterest, showing pictures of homes they had already designed and different tools and ideas they used. All of these photos are a great way to share abilities and ideas that could be useful in the future of interior design.  I defintly see a lot of possibilities in the future with Pinterest. I think it is a new and even better way to share information to others around the world.

Facebook pages

Hi to all again. So this week I made my first ever facebook page, and probably the only one because lets face it, I'm not famous so who else will make one for me. The one I made today was a professional page that would be used to show employers my skills and abilities I would bring with me to a job.

I found this concept interesting considering how last week I added that link to the CNN article that talked about how employers check out possible employees to see if there was anything that showed they were a bad hire. When I read this article, I only say facebook as an obstacle that could hurt my chances with a career. I never saw it as a positive aid, no instead I ran home and increased my security settings. But after reading facebook the new resume, I have started to change my previous mindset. Facebook could be a great tool when it comes to the professional world.

When people think of social media, especially facebook, they think of networking. My facebook page has all the same information as my resume would, with a few added bonuses of convienece and a wonderful picture to add some aesthetic appeal. The ingenious part though of using facebook as me new way of winning over employers though is its not limited like a paper resume. The only person that would see my original resume is a person I would directly hand it too. Facebook gives me the ability to share my self with a larger amount of employers in the professional world than I could probably reach in person.

Before I only thought that famous people were the ones that had pages to talk about themselves. I wasn't surprised when I heard Bill Gates had a facebook page because he has a lot more re known than I do (and hes a computer geek). But know I see these pages (when used properly) can aid someone more than a piece of paper can when it comes to my future career. I might even keep my page intact after this week to use later.

Introductory Blog

Hi to all! This is my first blog not only for the class ALES 204, but my first one ever. So please bear with me as I explore this digital landscape.
I am currently in my second year at the U of A, although this is my first year in the faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental sciences. I am taking Human Ecology with a major in textile and material culture and a minor in interiors, ultimately leading me at one point to have a career in interior designing.


From what I've already gathered from sharing this earth with social media such as Facebook, is that this type of communication is not only starting to control almost any interaction between personal relations between people, but it is slowly creeping into other worlds that previously focused on traditional means of communication, the business and academic world. I find that this communication is already important to me when I am trying to communicate with friends and relatives that otherwise would be more difficult and most importantly expensive. But now social media is starting to leave its mark on more than just communication on a personal level. I found it interesting when I was reading in At SciAm for #scio12: Blogging and the Next Generation Science Conference, an article off http://scientopia.org/blogs that now scientific communities are using social media to exchange ideas and discoveries in the science world.


So I have started to consider how exactly it affects me and most importantly how it will affect me in the future. A while ago I read this article about employers stalk potential employees on Facebook to see if there is anything on there that warns them why they would not want you working for them. So here is one example this communication can affect me in the future. My social media pages are a window to who I am and how I communicate with the world. But this is pretty general so out of curiosity I went to Google and put in "interior design and social media", and I came up with this site: interior design and social media. This website along looked at how social media can aid an interior designer and their business. I believe its safe to say that if I could find a site talking about social media being a means of communication for interior designers, there are probably a lot of other professionals and business that use it too.


So to end all this, I think it would not be too crazy of me to think that this communication will have an impact on my future (even in more ways too) just like it already affects me in the present. Social media is not diminishing at any rate; in fact it is only growing and seeping into almost any area that involves some type of communication. So pretty much, it won't be long till we don’t even need to open our mouths anymore to talk.

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