Weekly Report & Reflection Post #4

Hello again everyone,

This week we explored various curation tools throughout the Web. A resource we learned about this week is bookmarking. Bookmarking is a way to gain easy access to frequently visited websites. I am pretty familiar with this process as I use this tool to save important websites such as BrockU and Sakai. I found that bookmarking and tagging to be useful for educational purposes because it allows me to easily retrieve information from these websites which are constantly being updated. Having these websites bookmarked is also a great reminder to myself to frequently check my Sakai or my E-mail. 

Diigo

Diigo is a bookmarking tool that we were introduced to this week. This tool allows you to gather all your favourite webpages and information and store them on one place. This storage takes place in the cloud allowing for easy access from any electronic source. After exploring this tool, I found that Diigo can also be accessed on my iPad or on an android. All the information is synced so that you can continue reading an article that you have bookmarked from your computer on another device. I also enjoyed the highlighting feature on Diigo. This feature allows you to highlight specific text on an article you are reading and save it as a screenshot so that it can be shared to others. 

Valid and Reliable Information
It is important to consider the authenticity of the information that you bookmark so that it builds your knowledge in a positive way. Throughout university, professors always emphasized using 'valid' sources when writing a paper. This means that the information is credited, unbiased, and reliable. 

I am sure that many people have heard of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a website where you can get information about almost anything. However, the downside is that anyone has access to alter the information on the topic. Therefore, Wikipedia is not a reliable resource and does not contribute to your knowledge. To ensure that the information you bookmark is reliable, look for peer reviewed articles or journal articles. Recognizing which resources are reliable is important for your knowledge to ensure the information you are using in a research paper or an essay is correct. 


Exploring Curation Tools
This week I explored curation tools such as Diigo, Scoop it, and LiveBinders. All these tools will definitely be on my new PLE diagram under the educational and social category. I really enjoyed using LiveBinders because enables you to create a 'virtual' three ring binder where you can organize all your websites, articles, images into separate tabs. Here is a brief tutorial I found that explains how to set up LiveBinders and all its unique features:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfxj6QeF08A

Article of the Week
Best Tips for a Successful Interview As I have mentioned before, graduation is right around the corner for me. This means job hunting, and preparing for interviews. This article on my Feedly this week provides tips for a successful interview from the interviewers perspective! 


Until next week,

Heidi 

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #3

Welcome back everyone,

So this week we learned explored a new tool called Feedly. Feedly is a great tool that allows you to keep up to date with any blogs or news website posts that you have expressed interest in. Instead of having to look-up each website separately, this tool allows you to get all that information on your feed reader. All the information is presented chronologically, so it saves us a lot of time having to open tons of web browsers! 

Now that I have created my Feedly, I am able to keep up to date with all the blogs and websites that I subscribed to. A blog that caught my attention this week was about food. As a university student I think we can all relate when I say that cooking can be a hassle at times, and following a recipe is not always the easiest. On my Feedly I subscribed to Laura In the Kitchen. This presented me with her YouTube channel in which I was able to follow along to her recipes while watching her cook! This informed me that there are so many platforms on the internet where you can get information. News articles, blogs, and even Youtube are great learning environments. 

RSS Feed Readers are a great tool to contribute to my work in building knowledge about digital literacy, responsibility, and citizenship because they introduce me to new tools and information that I might have overlooked in the past. There were a few sites that I was familiar with before being introduced to Feedly, but the RSS Feed Readers have broadened my range of learning platforms. In my previous post titled "My Experience with RSS Feeds," I mentioned that there was a blog post on my Feedly about how social media affects job- hunting. It touched on topics that we learned about in Week 1- Digital Footprints. Reading this post definitely reaffirmed the importance of digital responsibility and citizenship as everything we present on the internet can affect our future. 

Feedly will be a new tool added to my PLE map! I would consider this an educational and social tool. Not only do you receive information from Feedly through blogs and news articles, but it allows you to connect with people on different social platforms such as Youtube. 

Until next week,

Heidi 

My Experience with RSS Feeds

This week we were introduced to a new tool called Feedly. But what is Feedly exactly? Feedly is a tool that allows you to manage information from multiple web browsers. It sums up a number of articles based on interests, and websites that you enjoy. Feedly is definitely a useful tool as it saves you time from looking up information- all the articles and websites of personal interest are located in one spot. 

This tool reminded me of Twitter as it provides you updates on all on one application. Twitter provides you brief status updates based on the people you follow. Feedly, on the other hand, provides you content that is website based on one application. 


On my Feedly, I found a blog called Get Rich Slowly that really intrigued me. As a fourth year student, ready to graduate in a couple months, looking for a job is constantly on my mind. This blogpost that was on my Feedly talks about how your media presence can affect your chances when job hunting. As this course is widely based on our digital footprint, it explains how to leave a positive digital footprint so that your chances of scoring an amazing job are greater. This blogpost can be found here: 

How to curate your social media presence when job-hunting

Heidi 

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #2

Hey everyone,

This week’s session I found to be very hands on as we were exposed to many different tools that would help us create a mindmap of our PLE and word clouds. But first, what is a PLE? PLE stands for Personal Learning Environment, and it is a system that helps learners take control and manage their own learning.

We were told to reflect on where we saw ourselves 5-10 years from now compared to where I am now and the changes that we need to make in my learning environment to help me reach my goals.

My Future

In 5-10 years from now, I hope to have graduated from university, completed all the professional Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) exams, and furthering my career in finance. I see myself working in downtown Toronto in the financial district and interacting with new clients daily. I also hope to be settled in this firm for a couple years and have developed seniority so that I can continue to work my way up and achieve a managing position.

Where am I Now?

Currently, I am finishing up my finial semester of my undergrad at Brock University. I am now taking three finance courses that will prepare me for my Level I CFA exam next December. I have looked into a program at the University of Toronto that helps students prepare for this exam and I am definitely considering this because I will take all the help I can get. When people ask me how I feel about graduating (only a few more months away), I have mixed emotions. I am unquestionably excited to be finished university, but I am also nervous for the “real world.” Nonetheless, I do believe my experiences thus far have prepared me for whatever my future holds.

Changes in the Environment

In order to reach my future goals, there are some changes that need to be made in my learning environment. Although I like to study alone, to prepare myself for the CFA exam, I want to work in study groups. I find that working with others who are also preparing to write this exam will be more helpful because this information is self-taught. The courses we take in university were not designed specifically for these exams, but were intended as tools to help with the process.

After creating my PLE Concept Map I realized I used a lot more social media tools than educational tools. I am interested to see what others tools people are using as I am opened expanding my knowledge through these digital forums. The tool I used was Popplet (http://popplet.com ). This was the first time using this tool and I found that it was really simple to navigate the different functions, and this website also provided a small tutorial for new users. Here is my PLE using this tool: 

Fung, H. (CC) 2014.

Finally, I was introduced to Wordle that is a tool that creates word clouds. From this tool I learned I enjoy the artistic and visual aspect of these tools. I liked that I was able to customize the colour palette of the word cloud and adjust the shape. I like the artistic aspect of blogging as well. I tried to make my blog visually appealing so that I can capture the audiences attention and engage them when reading my thoughts. 

Fung, H. (CC) 2014.

Until next week!

Heidi 

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #1

Hello again everyone,

In this week’s session, we began to look at digital footprints and netiquette. A digital footprint is the collection of data that is left behind by users of digital services (social media, online shopping, online web chats, and more). I have made myself a digital footprint by being active on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook; however, this week I learned that it is very important to create a positive digital footprint. This means protecting yourself from the dangers of the Internet and not exposing private information that could affect you negatively in the future.

http://sandipdagli.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/digitalfootpring.png

Here’s a video that I found that helps us get a better understanding of what a digital footprint is, and how to manage one http://youtu.be/OA6aiFeMQZ0. To ensure that you are creating a positive digital footprint, some suggestions are to not share passwords, keeping your location services on your cellphone turned off, making your social media sites are set to ‘private,’ and most importantly, think before you post. The cyberspace contains billions of users that can gain access to your information; it’s important to leave a footprint that will have a positive impact.

Next we looked at the term ‘netiquette’ (network etiquette), which are the set of rules for behaving online. This website that we were provided gives us the 10 core rules of digital etiquette http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html. The one I found to be most important was Rule 1: Remember the human. When you communicate with someone electronically, you are looking at a device and tend to be more expressive about our opinions or feelings (and they may not always be positive). We must remember that there is also another person behind that screen and engage with respect as if we were communicating with them in person. This is also another tip to remember when creating a positive digital footprint.

After taking the “Digital Driver’s Licence” exam, I gained a better understanding of what it means to be a digital citizen. The areas that I will be focusing on the next couple weeks are “Digital Law” and “Digital Commerce.” I think Digital Law is the most important area to expand our knowledge in when becoming a digital citizen because there are many rules and regulations that are overlooked when entering the digital world. These rules are crucial as they are meant to protect us and protect the people who share their information to the world. This topic covers everything from pirating software, copyrighted material, and online privacy. It is essential that we are aware of these rules because everything that is on the Internet is permanent and if we are caught violating these rules, they can have serious consequences.

Digital Commerce is also another area that I find particularly interesting because it involves the electronic buying and selling of goods. Online shopping is a trend that has been increasing within the last decade. I am always wary when it comes to online shopping because you are sharing personal credit card information online and that is something I was always taught to keep private. From this course I want to gain a better understanding on how to protect this information and making sure that the information I share is safe. As the ADED mentions, this topic is difficult to address in classrooms so I hope to gain more knowledge of this topic in the next couple of weeks.

See you all again next week!

Heidi

My Introduction

Hello everyone!

My name is Heidi ad I am in my fourth year of the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program at Brock University. During the third year of my undergrad, I had declared my concentration in Finance as I have always had a passion for numbers. After graduation, I intend to get my certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

I grew up in Toronto so I love living in a large city so transitioning to St. Catharines was an adjustment. These past two summers I worked for a large firm in the financial district of downtown Toronto and fell in love with the city in even more. I really hope to jumpstart my career there upon graduation and find a successful job that will help with my future.

From this course I hope to gain knowledge about the advancing digital technologies in our society as the world of social networks, blogs, and other digital tools are constantly evolving.

I have never written a blog before so this will be my first experience. I have found the blogging world has really grown these past few years and you now hear about people who started their  successful career from their blogs. They say blogs are a great way to express personal opinions, but also interact with people all around the world. I also enjoy the fact that blogging is more of a relaxed setting compared to a lecture where we can feel more comfortable voicing our opinions.

I look forward to working with you all these next couple of weeks and have a great semester everyone!

Heidi