However, we then discussed how many people are using sites like Twitter and Facebook to network with other professionals in similar careers or with those whom share similar interests in order to build up a network of connections. These connections might prove to be beneficial to people when they are looking for jobs or other opportunities. To develop these connections however with sites like Twitter, users must begin to follow others whom tweet and share similar interests or job skills. They also need to start allowing other users whom they do not know personally to follow them so that these people have access to their tweets and can begin to share information, ideas, news, reflections, or other insights with their online community. Once they do this, they may come upon jobs or other opportunities being tweeted by people or companies they follow. They could also just put out their own tweet - "I need a job!" Read this article for more detailed information about how people are using social media to get a job they need or want.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Twitter - Purely Social or a Way to Get a Job?
Goday in class we discussed http://www.twitter.com/ and reviewed the security settings available to its users. Students learned that they can "protect" their tweets so that only users who they approve to follow them can have access to their profile and tweets. Students saw this as a good way to use Twitter if they were going to use it for purely social reasons with friends and family. Watch this video about using Twitter to connect socially with followers.
However, we then discussed how many people are using sites like Twitter and Facebook to network with other professionals in similar careers or with those whom share similar interests in order to build up a network of connections. These connections might prove to be beneficial to people when they are looking for jobs or other opportunities. To develop these connections however with sites like Twitter, users must begin to follow others whom tweet and share similar interests or job skills. They also need to start allowing other users whom they do not know personally to follow them so that these people have access to their tweets and can begin to share information, ideas, news, reflections, or other insights with their online community. Once they do this, they may come upon jobs or other opportunities being tweeted by people or companies they follow. They could also just put out their own tweet - "I need a job!" Read this article for more detailed information about how people are using social media to get a job they need or want.
However, we then discussed how many people are using sites like Twitter and Facebook to network with other professionals in similar careers or with those whom share similar interests in order to build up a network of connections. These connections might prove to be beneficial to people when they are looking for jobs or other opportunities. To develop these connections however with sites like Twitter, users must begin to follow others whom tweet and share similar interests or job skills. They also need to start allowing other users whom they do not know personally to follow them so that these people have access to their tweets and can begin to share information, ideas, news, reflections, or other insights with their online community. Once they do this, they may come upon jobs or other opportunities being tweeted by people or companies they follow. They could also just put out their own tweet - "I need a job!" Read this article for more detailed information about how people are using social media to get a job they need or want.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
20 Tech Skills Every Teacher Should Have....Do you?
http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/tools_technologies/20_technology_skills_every_educator_should_have
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Google Docs in Plain English
Today in Web 2.0 class I took my students on an exploration of Google Docs to see the power they have at their fingertips to create, edit, and save files online....in the "cloud". We discussed the benefits to moving our files to the cloud - access from any Internet connected device...including mobile phones, secure file backup, intuitive organizing tools, as well as other things the students thought of. But the most powerful and important feature that we discussed was the ability that Google Docs gives its users to collaborate and share with others. Students saw the benefits of this when working with other peers on group projects and for sharing study guides and reflections when preparing for exams.
The video below is a great short explanation of what Google Docs is and how it can make its users more efficient and effective with their work. Most interesting is the brilliance the developers had when they switched the thinking around in regards to email attachments. Rather than sending email attachments back and forth with others when collaborating on a project, why not create one document in the cloud and give everyone you wish access to it. Now you can work simultaneously or at different times and see everyones edits immediately. I am now reconfiguring my class curriculum to incorporate the use of more Google Docs versus having students email me their work. With over 100 students per day emailing me I think I may be able to save at least an hour per day by moving to this format. Just go to my Google Doc "home" and check all the work right their one single document versus say.....34 student emails. Even if I just spend 1 minute per email this is a time costly practice so it is exciting to explore how this can better serve my classes while at the same time teach my students extremely relevant 21st century technology skills!
The video below is a great short explanation of what Google Docs is and how it can make its users more efficient and effective with their work. Most interesting is the brilliance the developers had when they switched the thinking around in regards to email attachments. Rather than sending email attachments back and forth with others when collaborating on a project, why not create one document in the cloud and give everyone you wish access to it. Now you can work simultaneously or at different times and see everyones edits immediately. I am now reconfiguring my class curriculum to incorporate the use of more Google Docs versus having students email me their work. With over 100 students per day emailing me I think I may be able to save at least an hour per day by moving to this format. Just go to my Google Doc "home" and check all the work right their one single document versus say.....34 student emails. Even if I just spend 1 minute per email this is a time costly practice so it is exciting to explore how this can better serve my classes while at the same time teach my students extremely relevant 21st century technology skills!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Music Students at Truckee High Doing Great Things
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Google Reader - Stay Informed Efficiently
Now, with all of your blogs archived in this cloud based utility you can access them on any Internet enabled device like your desktop computer, laptop, iPad, or Smart phone. So, whenever you have a few extra minutes you can peruse through a lot of information specific to your interests. This will really help anyone to stay more informed with topics important to them.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Facebook and our Social World - Online and Offline
My wife and I debate Facebook and its relevancy in our lives on a regular basis. We both have Facebook accounts (along with 1 out of every 10 people in the world) but only I use this social media site on a regular basis. I enjoy connecting with friends on a daily basis online from close by and with those who live far away. My wife on the other hand seems to still want that face to face contact with her friends and is not interested, nor necessarily comfortable with sharing her life with them online. Needless to say, it provides for some interesting and passionate conversations at the dinner table. Even more interesting when my 12 year old daughter joins in the conversation.
Some say Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, had a simple but revolutionary idea that resulted in 600 million people signing up for his companies web site, http://www.facebook.com/ - "where others saw the Internet as a network of computers, Zuckerberg saw it as a network of people." Time Magazine
He is reshaping the Internet into a system based on gathering information from trusted social connections versus random data providers. He is connecting people together to continue their daily lives online versus the Internet of the past where users were living virtual lives hidden behind screen names and avatars.
As I reflect on the recent article in Time Magazine, Person of the Year: Mark Zuckerbeg I find this social concept of the web quite enlightening. One of my students told me after reading the article in my web 2.0 class that; "it makes perfect sense Mr. Halvorsen, I don't buy clothes that the fashion experts tell me to wear, I buy what my friends are wearing." Looking at that, I guess the fashion as well as all industries now have to move quicker and embrace this online social networking phenomenon because they can not wait for word of their products to spread from trade show, to the big city stores, and then to the stores in neighborhoods across the U.S. or the world for that matter. These companies who first have "our" friends talking about their products on Facebook and other social media sites are the ones who are most likely to succeed since Zuckerberg seems to have proven that three "likes" by our trusted connections online is worth more than a thousand recommendations by experts and corporations. I think we still want to know what the experts think; we just seem to want to hear that source of information through our friends network. Today, users of the Internet are expecting, possibly demanding, that the news come to them via social networks versus requiring them to go out and research it on their own. This transformation taking place, lead by Facebook and other sites like Google, is creating an entirely new set of skills and knowledge for today's workforce. Students today should be aware of this and be exploring what it is that they need to learn in school to be successful in this new tech-social era. All kinds of new jobs are popping up like social media management and programming web 2.0 applications.
Not convinced that this concept is a powerful one? Watch what takes place each minute on Facebook 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year all across the globe!
Some say Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, had a simple but revolutionary idea that resulted in 600 million people signing up for his companies web site, http://www.facebook.com/ - "where others saw the Internet as a network of computers, Zuckerberg saw it as a network of people." Time Magazine
He is reshaping the Internet into a system based on gathering information from trusted social connections versus random data providers. He is connecting people together to continue their daily lives online versus the Internet of the past where users were living virtual lives hidden behind screen names and avatars.
As I reflect on the recent article in Time Magazine, Person of the Year: Mark Zuckerbeg I find this social concept of the web quite enlightening. One of my students told me after reading the article in my web 2.0 class that; "it makes perfect sense Mr. Halvorsen, I don't buy clothes that the fashion experts tell me to wear, I buy what my friends are wearing." Looking at that, I guess the fashion as well as all industries now have to move quicker and embrace this online social networking phenomenon because they can not wait for word of their products to spread from trade show, to the big city stores, and then to the stores in neighborhoods across the U.S. or the world for that matter. These companies who first have "our" friends talking about their products on Facebook and other social media sites are the ones who are most likely to succeed since Zuckerberg seems to have proven that three "likes" by our trusted connections online is worth more than a thousand recommendations by experts and corporations. I think we still want to know what the experts think; we just seem to want to hear that source of information through our friends network. Today, users of the Internet are expecting, possibly demanding, that the news come to them via social networks versus requiring them to go out and research it on their own. This transformation taking place, lead by Facebook and other sites like Google, is creating an entirely new set of skills and knowledge for today's workforce. Students today should be aware of this and be exploring what it is that they need to learn in school to be successful in this new tech-social era. All kinds of new jobs are popping up like social media management and programming web 2.0 applications.
Not convinced that this concept is a powerful one? Watch what takes place each minute on Facebook 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year all across the globe!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Even the President of the United States has a YouTube Channel
Why would students need to study digital portfolios and learn skills to use services like YouTube, Facebook, and blogging.......hmm....maybe we need to ask President Barack Obama.
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