Exploring Digital Media (260) Reflection

     All in all, I am very glad that I took this course. Coming in, I was pretty confident on my grasp of social media and my skills with a computer. However, I learned so much over the four months I was enrolled in the class. Before this, I never viewed Twitter as a professional platform that could benefit an elementary education major. I had no idea how to build a website, and I thought that blogging was something that was fading into the past. I didn't know that young, aspiring students could benefit from joining LinkedIn, and I had no interest in posting a YouTube video, or in sending out surveys to gather information. Looking back at my naive self, I am so glad that I enrolled in this course, and I feel more prepared for my future as an elementary education teacher because of it.
     With social media and technology becoming such a large part of our society, everyone needs to have these skills if they want to be successful in their future careers. The world is shifting to a digital one, and I am so glad that I took the time to attend this course. I know that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to the interent, but I feel that this has been a great starting point.

Farewell!

     Well, everyone, our journey around the world wide web is complete! It's funny how in the process of exploring areas around the internet, I also managed to actually become more connected with people around the globe. This is the end of my blog, and I thank everyone for sticking with me until the end. It's been a great journey, and I have learned a lot along the way. Blogging has been quite the experience for me, and I am sure that I will find this skill useful in the future.
     When I get my own classroom, I am hoping to start a blog to keep both parents, students, and future self updated on what is going on. I know that parents love to see pictures of their kids at school, so hopefully that blog will be mostly photograph-based. Thanks everyone for sticking with me, and I hope you all learned as much as I did along the way!

I'm All LinkedIn!

     With the requirements of my LinkedIn project getting checked off, I realized that this will be a project that I am hopefully never done with. As my professional life takes off, my profile will be constantly changing and edited to reflect all that I have done in my career, and the steps it took for me to get there. The great thing about becoming familiar with LinkedIn at this stage of my life is that it will be a tool that I can and will use in the future.
     I am excited to see where my LinkedIn will take me, and how it will impact my future professional life. I have already told my friends about the benefits of the site, and they have began crafting their profiles as well. I will post my profile link at the bottom of this post, and please contact me if you have any questions!
Kelli's LinkedIn Profile

Get LinkedIn to Employment Opportunities!

    As the semester comes to a close, our journey around the world wide web is also coming to an end. However, we have one last stop to make before wrapping everything up. LinkedIn is a professional site that allows potential employers to create and appropriate online presence and make connections to hopefully get hired. Employers and companies can also create profiles to recruit future employees.
    I do not have any previous experience with LinkedIn, but I have heard many great things about how useful it can be. I have done a bit of research on what is appropriate to include in my profile, and I am gearing up to accomplish this task and begin creating my professional online persona. The one thing that I must keep in mind is that it is a professional form of social media, not a personal form like Twitter and Facebook. I will work to put only professional content on my profile, and I will continue to keep you updated as I go! Thank you for sticking with me on our last adventure, and it is sure to be a great one.

Teacher Resources is Up and Running!

Hello again everyone! After a few weeks of hard work, my exploration of creating my own website is complete! As mentioned earlier, a group made up of me and three of my classmates settled on creating a website focused on young, aspiring elementary school teachers by providing them with various activities and resources in a fun, light atmosphere. I was in charge of the home page, my about me page, and the classroom layouts page.

 Since this was my first time creating a website, I learned a lot from the project. I now fell a lot more confident creating my own web page, and I feel that I have the necessary skills to be successful. I know that this attribute will come in handy as I begin teaching, so I can keep parents and students up to date with everything going on in my classroom easily and effectively. If you would like to view our web page, click the link below! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns, please email us at teacherresources@hotmail.com!

http://tamipage02.wix.com/teacher-resources

Next Stop: Websites

   With the conclusion of the YouTube project, we are ready to take our journey to the next place on our itinerary, websites. For this project, I will be working in a group with three other girls to complete a professional, functional, and easy-to-use website. We have settled on using wix.com for creating our site, after seeing the vast number of layouts and easily adaptable interfaces that it provides for free. One downside is that this site only allows for one collaborator, so multiple group members cannot work on the project simultaneously. This will require a little out of class work, but hopefully we will be able to finish in time.
   The theme and purpose of our website will be educational resources and activities targeted to teachers, both primary and secondary. Three of the four group members are education majors, so we hope that we can learn a little more about our future professions throughout the course of this project. I can't wait to post the final project! Stay tuned...

...And That's a Wrap!

   Hello everyone! With the conclusion of my YouTube project, I am checking back in to report on my progress. Overall, the project was a success, and I learned some important things in the process. My video, "Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle in College," was fairly easy to put together, and my prior knowledge of video editing really came in handy. I had some trouble figuring out how to incorporate adequate closed captioning on my video, but with a little help from the Internet, all crises were averted.
     As an elementary education major, being able to make videos will come in handy, whether it be putting up lessons online for my students or being able to document fun activities in the classroom. I am positive that the set of skills that came along with creating this video will be very useful in the future, and I am excited to see what else lies ahead.

To watch my finished video, click the link below! Enjoy :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUjJ1VLYIHE

Lights, Camera, Action!

 

     Next stop on our voyage is going to be an exciting one! After exploring blogging, Twitter, and surveys, it is time to begin something completely different: YouTube videos! Although I have wasted quite a few study hours watching videos online, I have never uploaded one myself. I have a bit of video editing experience from a high school graphics class, and I hope that my prior usage of iMovie and camera angles will assist me on this next journey. We have been instructed to create an informative one to two minute video to post on YouTube, and we have about three weeks to complete this. I have been brainstorming ideas for a few days now, and I think that I will be shooting a piece about maintaining a healthy lifestyle in college, because it is something that I am knowledgeable and will be able to complete here on campus.

     Before I pick up a camera and start shooting, I am required to make a storyboard and completely write out my plan for my video. This is the part of the project that I am most worried about, because I have never storyboarded before. I am the type of person who likes to jump right into things without much planning, and alter my strategies as I go along, so this will be something new for me. I hope that it will help me avoid mistakes and save me time in the long run.

 

And the Survey Says....

Hello everyone!
  After a few weeks of hard work, my survey results regarding Parental Influence in College are finally in. I used the website QuestionPro to design, administer, and analyze my survey. The best part about QuestionPro was the way that automatically put all of my results into individual graphs for easy analysis. It created a results page in an easy-to-read manner, and I was easily able to view all of the responses I got. I learned a lot through the survey process, because I had never created or administered an online survey before. I learned a lot about biased questions and different question types. All in all, I feel that this project was a success.
  The objective of my survey was to discover how parents impact a student's life while he or she is away at school. I asked questions regarding homesickness, plans to go home, and distance from home to get a better understanding about my survey group. Most of my results came from freshman, so I can assume that the majority of the answers are typical for a first year college student. The majority of my survey group (40%) is anywhere between 61-120 miles away from home. Most students (56%) answered that they planned to go home once a month, and work commitments and the not wanting to miss out on campus events were the main two reasons given for why one would not go home on any given weekend.
  Overall, my survey yielded the results that I thought it would. Freshman students experience more homesickness than sophomore, junior, or senior students, due to the sudden change environments.Students overall who remain in contact with their parents are much more likely to tell them about positive things, such as good test grades or exciting plans for the weekend than they are to tell them about negative college experiences like a heavy workload and stress. As a freshman myself, it is nice to confirm that fact that feelings of homesickness will more than likely be gone after the first year of school, and that St. Cloud State University will begin to feel more like home the longer I am here. To view the exact results for each of my survey questions, click the link below!
http://questionpro.com/s/1-2354977-3651149

Surveys! Get Your Surveys Here!

Hey everyone! In order to successfully complete my survey assignment, I need willing volunteers to complete it! It will take less than a minute, and I could really use your help! SCSU students only. Thanks again! Please click the link below to begin. I appreciate your help!

START SURVEY

Surveying New Ground

  Next stop on our social media journey is surveys! Surveys are a way for companies, corporations, or anyone to get information from the public on opinions, preferences, or habits. Surveys have been used for a long time. Surveys can be as elaborate as a town census, or surveying your family on their favorite meal. Surveys are a great way to gather information! Our next in class project is to conduct an online survey of our choice and to gather and interpret the data.
  I am familiar with taking online surveys, but I have never made on before. This could prove to be a little difficult, but I am up for the challenge. I am looking forward to reading articles online about which survey site will yield the best results, as well as learning how to create an effective survey that will yield accurate information. Due to my inexperience, this could get a little bit rough. So please fasten your seat belts and hang on for a crazy ride!

Professional Tweeting: Rough Terrain

 

When I began the Twitter project, I was convinced that it would be a piece of cake because I was familiar with the territory and layout. While my previous experience did help me in the initial setting up my profile and general housekeeping items associated with the site, it did not prepare me for professional tweeting!
  It took me awhile to get the hang of what content professional tweets should have, since they only time I had ever used Twitter before was for personal reasons and entertainment. However, by following other professional organizations, I eventually got the hang of it and began tweeting on my own. I attached various links to my tweets, with topics ranging from social media in the classroom to classroom management, and even writing lesson plans. I learned a lot from the links and articles, and I hope that others will, too.
   Twitter is a great professional media tool. I found many ways to incorporate it into my classroom, and I cannot wait to try it out! Thank you for joining me on my adventure, and I am excited to see what lies ahead!
 

Home Tweet Home

    

 Hello again! After exploring the blogging world, it is time to move on to something new. Next on our itinerary is the popular social media site, Twitter. For me, the concept of using Twitter is nothing new, as I have a personal account that I check at least five times a day. It is a way to stay connected with not only friends and family, but celebrities and organizations all over the world. I am very familiar with the layout and mechanics of Twitter, and I hope that this experience will help me navigate this next challenge.

      I have been assigned to create a professional Twitter page for myself and my future career. I have only ever used Twitter for social engagements, and never for professional advancement, so this will be something new. I am excited to explore this new side of Twitter, and I am confident that it will be smooth sailing because of my prior experience on the site.
     I feel right at home with the basics of the Twitter interface, and I am looking forward to this next project. I think that I will be able to follow education foundations as well as current and past teachers, and hopefully be able to receive teaching advice and ideas. I am curious at how current teachers are integrating Twitter into their classrooms, and I am looking forward to learning new teaching styles. I have been doing a small amount of research about how to successfully create a professional Twitter account, and clicking on the info graphic above will provide you with helpful tips that I took into account when creating mine. Thanks again and enjoy your journey!

 

All Aboard!

     Today I am beginning my venture around the Internet! On any voyage, the first thing you must get in order is transportation. This blog will serve as my ship, and I am doing my best to get it into tip-top shape. I am a bit apprehensive as this is my first blogging experience, but with the help of many different Internet websites with helpful tips I am confident that I will get the hang of things soon.
     Before this, I have not had much exposure to the blogging world. Sure, I have looked at various blogs, but I had never attempted to create my own. I am now learning that blogging is an important part of social media. It is a way to expose yourself and your ideas to the world, and it is a way to share your knowledge and learning experiences. It is also a great way to get connected with other people with the same interests as you, as well as promote a business or organization.
     After doing a bit of in-class research, I chose Blogger as the home for my blog. It looked easy to use, customize, and access. While it took me a few hours of playing around to fully understand the various tools and features of this site, I am ultimately happy with my choice. Thank you for accompanying me on my journey!