Blogging & Tweeting
Hello! I am Samantha Flaherty. I was born and raised in New York City in a chaotic household with five brothers. I decided to branch out and dorm at Stockton University in hopes of becoming independent and finding myself.
I am a sophomore majoring in Health Science with a concentration in Communication Disorders. My interest in this field was sparked when I was only 6 years old. At the time my two younger brothers had speech, physical and occupational therapy daily. Therapists were in my house constantly and I had the opportunity to watch them. This caught my interest from a very young age. I loved seeing my brothers progress and learn. They went from having very minimal skills to being your typical crazy and active 2 and 3 year olds. Most children want to be astronauts or singers when they grow up but unusually, I was confident I wanted to pursue this career when I was a little girl. Seeing my brothers progress throughout their childhood was heart warming. I knew I wanted to help make a difference in peoples lives just like my brothers therapists did for them.
We live in a generation where social media is prevalent and it would be foolish not to use it to our own advantage. For insight, I chose to read an article called Developing a Personal Learning Network. It is written by Ellen Lague, a kindergarten French Immersion Teacher. Ellen explains how at first she felt uncomfortable posting on Twitter. I can relate to this because at times social media seems intimidating to me as well. After a few months she decided to break out of her shell and tweet. Ever since then she has used twitter as a tool to network and meet new people. She has gotten in touch with other teachers in different communities and has learned from them over twitter. Social media is an easy way to interact with anyone at anytime. It is an excellent way to expand your personal learning network. I never realized how useful sites like twitter could be for school, work purposes and job opportunities. I am determined to develop a PLN that can ultimately help me just like it helped Ellen!
Another article I found very useful was Utilizing Twitter Lists by Jessica Johnson. Jessica is a Principal and District Assessment Coordinator who uses Twitter to her advantage. In this article she explains that it is important to follow a broad range of people on twitter. For example, If I became a Speech Language Pathologist in the school system it would be useful for me to not only follow other SLP's in schools but follow all different speech pathologists in general. Having a lot of followers can make it difficult to find specific information, however, twitter lists solves this issue. Under twitter lists you can type in specifically who or what your are looking for and it will come up, rather then having to search your home page. I never knew this was an option so I will definitely take this into consideration as I begin to develop my own personal learning network. I think its interesting that you can make private twitter lists specifically for one group of people. Jessica also added that you can follow everyone from a specific list just by subscribing to the list. All these little tips will help me network and create a name for myself!
As a first time blogger I felt the need to read the article Introduction to Blogging. This article explained that a blog is a webpage relative to a specific topic. Blogging is used for all different reasons such as politics, educational purposes and entertainment. As the writer stated, "A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other websites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order." Most blogs are set up with a main page for articles, old articles, comments and links to websites that are relatable. I liked how the writer of this article gave a bunch of tips for others bloggers or new bloggers to reference. They went in depth about archives, feeds, syndication and managing comments.
As a first assignment in our class, Exploring Your Digital Profile, we were required to read a chapter of LOL...OMG! by Matt Ivester. Although, this assignment was required I actually thoroughly enjoyed reading the first chapter. LOL...OMG! provides useful advice to college students about the use of technology and social media. Matt explains how being a college student in this generation is much harder and more stressful than in past generations because of social media. Technology has advanced drastically and although, this is very helpful in many cases, it can also have the opposite effect. The internet is so easily accessible and can negatively impact your "name" or reputation. Anything you post can be viewed and "will be stored online forever." The same way social media can help you network and get a job it can also do the opposite. For example, if I posted a provocative picture on twitter and I was looking for a job, the employer could easily type in my name and see the picture. To think that social media could be the reason you can be denied job opportunities is an eye opener. College students fail to realize how impulsive decisions on the internet can negatively impact their future. It is up to us to make smart choices in not only the real world but the digital world as well. In this chapter Matt Ivester stresses how important it is to create a good name for yourself. As a college student, I appreciate his effort to help individuals of today's society and I am very excited to continue reading his book!
I am a sophomore majoring in Health Science with a concentration in Communication Disorders. My interest in this field was sparked when I was only 6 years old. At the time my two younger brothers had speech, physical and occupational therapy daily. Therapists were in my house constantly and I had the opportunity to watch them. This caught my interest from a very young age. I loved seeing my brothers progress and learn. They went from having very minimal skills to being your typical crazy and active 2 and 3 year olds. Most children want to be astronauts or singers when they grow up but unusually, I was confident I wanted to pursue this career when I was a little girl. Seeing my brothers progress throughout their childhood was heart warming. I knew I wanted to help make a difference in peoples lives just like my brothers therapists did for them.
We live in a generation where social media is prevalent and it would be foolish not to use it to our own advantage. For insight, I chose to read an article called Developing a Personal Learning Network. It is written by Ellen Lague, a kindergarten French Immersion Teacher. Ellen explains how at first she felt uncomfortable posting on Twitter. I can relate to this because at times social media seems intimidating to me as well. After a few months she decided to break out of her shell and tweet. Ever since then she has used twitter as a tool to network and meet new people. She has gotten in touch with other teachers in different communities and has learned from them over twitter. Social media is an easy way to interact with anyone at anytime. It is an excellent way to expand your personal learning network. I never realized how useful sites like twitter could be for school, work purposes and job opportunities. I am determined to develop a PLN that can ultimately help me just like it helped Ellen!
Another article I found very useful was Utilizing Twitter Lists by Jessica Johnson. Jessica is a Principal and District Assessment Coordinator who uses Twitter to her advantage. In this article she explains that it is important to follow a broad range of people on twitter. For example, If I became a Speech Language Pathologist in the school system it would be useful for me to not only follow other SLP's in schools but follow all different speech pathologists in general. Having a lot of followers can make it difficult to find specific information, however, twitter lists solves this issue. Under twitter lists you can type in specifically who or what your are looking for and it will come up, rather then having to search your home page. I never knew this was an option so I will definitely take this into consideration as I begin to develop my own personal learning network. I think its interesting that you can make private twitter lists specifically for one group of people. Jessica also added that you can follow everyone from a specific list just by subscribing to the list. All these little tips will help me network and create a name for myself!
As a first time blogger I felt the need to read the article Introduction to Blogging. This article explained that a blog is a webpage relative to a specific topic. Blogging is used for all different reasons such as politics, educational purposes and entertainment. As the writer stated, "A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other websites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order." Most blogs are set up with a main page for articles, old articles, comments and links to websites that are relatable. I liked how the writer of this article gave a bunch of tips for others bloggers or new bloggers to reference. They went in depth about archives, feeds, syndication and managing comments.
As a first assignment in our class, Exploring Your Digital Profile, we were required to read a chapter of LOL...OMG! by Matt Ivester. Although, this assignment was required I actually thoroughly enjoyed reading the first chapter. LOL...OMG! provides useful advice to college students about the use of technology and social media. Matt explains how being a college student in this generation is much harder and more stressful than in past generations because of social media. Technology has advanced drastically and although, this is very helpful in many cases, it can also have the opposite effect. The internet is so easily accessible and can negatively impact your "name" or reputation. Anything you post can be viewed and "will be stored online forever." The same way social media can help you network and get a job it can also do the opposite. For example, if I posted a provocative picture on twitter and I was looking for a job, the employer could easily type in my name and see the picture. To think that social media could be the reason you can be denied job opportunities is an eye opener. College students fail to realize how impulsive decisions on the internet can negatively impact their future. It is up to us to make smart choices in not only the real world but the digital world as well. In this chapter Matt Ivester stresses how important it is to create a good name for yourself. As a college student, I appreciate his effort to help individuals of today's society and I am very excited to continue reading his book!
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