Part B – A reflective statement on your development as a social networker as a result of studying INF506, and the implications for your development as an information professional.
In the words of the great song ‘We’ve only just begun’ (Carpenters, 1970) I feel that this subject has started me on my way in the social networking field well armed and ready to face anything in the social networking arena.
On reflection I noted that I chose this subject as I knew nothing about social networking and was quite skeptical about its uses and benefits. I felt that as an information specialist it was important to broaden my views as to how to use the tools that are available. As noted in my first OLJ post (Drury, 2011) apart from my blog, a wiki I worked on and email I had absolutely no experience with social networking.
Since beginning this subject I have been amazed at the world that has opened up to me and how much more informed I am. My first major foray into social networking was to open a facebook account (Drury, 2011). I did this kicking and screaming because I felt it an absolute waste of time as really it was only useful for teenagers and for keeping up on the latest gossip. I have changed my thinking considerably on this as I have discovered lots of useful information that has been shared by other members of my INF506 group. I have also learned lots of not so useful information, yet still interesting that is posted constantly by my new facebook ‘friends’. I also discovered some great shopping experiences by being on facebook.
Now that teachers are able to use facebook (Patty, 2011) at school the implications for my teaching are endless. I have already used it to share some articles with colleagues in a staff meeting.
Twitter is a tool that I have found beneficial. Prior to this subject I had read about celebrity use of Twitter but I didn’t think it was beneficial to the everyday teacher. I am currently following over twenty people. Mashable has been great at providing current social media news with their constant stream of information. A number of other tweeters I am following also provide useful information for use within the classroom which has been beneficial in my teaching. I have also included the odd celebrity for input of useless yet interesting information.
Flickr has been more useful than I initially thought as it has been a fabulous resource to use in my teaching. I have been able to access photographs to use in presentations within the classroom to provide a greater number of photographs of an area of study. While aware of this site prior to this subject I had never used it as I am not a great photographer and thought it was only useful for posting photographs for your family to view. The use for this site is endless.
Creating a voki for my OLJ was fun and was a totally new experience for me. It can ensure anonymity on the web which is a good thing. I was unable to master Second Life though. From reading the various facebook posts it seems to be a tool that takes some time to get used to but can be quite beneficial and can provide meaningful learning opportunities.
Prior to beginning this subject I had noticed the RSS feed symbol on many sites but had been uneducated in its use. Since learning about it I have implemented RSS feed in my own learning for keeping track of posts made by several different sources as well as implementing it at school in regards to the library blog. This has helped my development as an information professional as I conducted staff training at school on RSS and many teachers have now adopted it so that they can keep up with posts made on the school blogs.
I have begun to develop an understanding of online identity, privacy and trust during this course (De Rosa et al. 2007). These issues impact the students I work with as well as my immediate family. Issues and news articles have been shared amongst our facebook group and it is mentioned often by many of the tweeters that I follow.
While trialing all of these social networking tools I have discovered that you need to treat people as you would in real life which is supported by Bax (2011). It is similar to networking at a party, but on a larger scale. It is also available 24hours a day.
I feel empowered to continue using social networking tools and finding creative ways to integrate them into my teaching. I feel as if I have grown quite rapidly in my knowledge during this subject and believe that I know where to look to stay informed about all of the current trends in social networking as a result of studying this subject.
References
Bax, A. (2011). Importance of social networking. retrieved from http://www.gaebler.com/importance-of-social-networking.htm
Carpenters. (1970). We've only just begun. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27ve_Only_Just_Begun
De Rosa, C., Cantrell, J., Havens, A., Hawk, J. & Jenkins, L. (2007). Section 3: Privacy, Security and Trust. In Sharing privacy and trust in our networked world: A report to the OCLC membership. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC. [ebook] Available http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/sharing_part3.pdf
Drury, C. (2011, February 15). The beginning of a new semester - INF506 assessment 1.Posted to
http://cathyslibraryskillsprogress.blogspot.com/2011/02/beginning-of-new-semester-inf506.htmlDrury, C. (2011, February 17). Facebook, and what next? posted to
http://cathyslibraryskillsprogress.blogspot.com/2011/02/facebook-and-what-next.html
Patty, A. (2011, April 29). Facebook opened up to school teachers. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-opened-up-to-school-teachers-20110428-1dyxa.html
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