A Web 2.0 Learning Blog

 It was great connecting with different people and seeing different perspectives. All the different ways of collecting information, understanding the world, and understanding how Web 2.0 can connect us.  I enjoyed making the Voice Thread, creating a forum, analyzing how we build communities online, and gaining a snapshot of all the tools we can use in our professional and personal lives. The divide between digital natives and newcomers also fascinates me, as we head into several generations with a digital default. The difference in how we approach our online interactions and communities is already apparent. Learning more about productive and meaningful ways to engage with social media was also a game changer that I'm using to build my PLN and have more meaningful online experiences. Have a great final few weeks of summer everyone!

 Although the idea for my assignment only came during the last week, I'm really proud of the small but powerful forum I created.  It made me want to return to my forum roots, and was a welcome reminder of different ways we can accomplish our goals and build community without having to use the latest and greatest tool or platform.  A return to the slower forums of the past rather than the hypervisual connectivity of today probably would not be extremely popular. But I think it could have great potential for the workplace. What do you think? Here's the link to my concept execution:  https://fsuforum.freeflarum.com/

 It took me a while to think of a solid idea and platform for the Produsage Assignment. I finally found inspiration in looking backwards, not forwards. To a simpler time for internet and online community. Something that cuts the noise, the social media, and the modernity out of the equation. A platform that can work for performance and for classroom learning. A platform that is refreshingly simple and may draw on much of our nostalgia.  The classic internet forum. It's coming along great! On another note, this class has made me more mindful of how I spend my screen time. Going forward, I want to scroll less, interact more, and be more intentional with how I use my platforms and my time. Does anybody else feel the same?

 It's been a very busy few weeks here, so here's what I learned at the FACTE conference. -As demand grows for high-skill labor and older generations retire, a large emphasis is being placed on marketing within the schools, community, and social media. -There is a large market of vendors competing on certifications, skill assessments, and workforce readiness. -The web of CTE and workforce connections between the private sector, local school districts, state governments, and federal governments is massive. So much opportunity for funding, investment, and experience.  -Adult learners, and the ways they absorb information and interact, are different than traditional students. More Web 2.0 friendliness for adult learners is needed. -More work can be done to create and advertise pathways, on Web 2.0 platforms, that find candidates, link them with the right skills, and link them with the right employers. It will take collaboration between partners at every level!

This week, I'll be attending the Florida Association of Career and Technical Educators conference. These are teachers who work in school vocational, CTE, and other career/workforce programs and classes.  I'll be on the lookout for the presence of Web 2.0. Social media, simulations, and online communities are a big part of the CTE space now. Web 2.0 in previously "untraditional" places for it can build strong online and in-person connections. From farming to programming, CTE can be very broad.Web 2.0 is creating and growing communities that would traditionally only be spread by traditional media or stay contained in those regions. What are some untraditional areas you've seen Web 2.0 in? 

 Hey everyone, trying to get back into a semi-normal routine this week.  'Hu, S., Torphy, K. T., Opperman, A., Jansen, K., & Lo, Y. J. (2018).  What do teachers share within socialized knowledge communities: A case of Pinterest Links to an external site. .  Journal of Professional Capital and Community ." This study was focused on Pinterest. Interestingly, it used mathematical analysis to cross analyze cognitive demands, specific boards, and cognitive demand levels. Teachers make boards of math subjects to access instructional materials mostly connected to "Remember" and "Apply". More experienced teachers curate higher quality sources and develop higher thinking orders. They recommend that teachers need more support to curate higher quality resources and more worthwhile content that can engage both instructors and students at higher levels. I have experience with this first-hand - it's a lot easier to gather a lot of lower level info on an easier pl

 Things I learned completing my Knowledge Sharing: -Posting on LinkedIn does not have to be cringy or derivative.  -Other classmates made some fantastic items! I'm still going through  them. -Following certain hashtags can lead to an overwhelming number of posts and random spam users. It is best to keep things smaller.  -LinkedIn's free analytics tier is not anything incredible, but still pretty good for an average user.  It was a nice experience to reflect on a past experience and create something for the public beyond my limited personal social media audience. Did anyone else share something similar?

What stood out to me the most in this reading was the emphasis on wikis and blogs for a course. The use of blogs is something we're all familiar with now. But wikis is an interesting one. I've seen this discussed in other courses as a part of OER materials created by students for an class. An ever-growing repository of information, materials, projects, and resources that stays over the years. For the right subject material, giving student work a meaning beyond the disposable semester term is something that has a lot of appeal. Plus, they can exist in a student's portfolio. 

 I made a LinkedIn post collecting a presentation and some great links for my Knowledge Sharing Full Version. Please check it out and let me know what you think! https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7080354476439527424-lA7v?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

It's that time of life again, where I'm on the hunt for new jobs as I start winding down my current one. I've been looking at a mix of Instructional Design and non-Instructional Design related roles. My LinkedIn is polished and ready to go. What sort of Instructional Design interview, hiring, and jobs tips do you guys have? Any keywords or places I should look out for? Thanks in advance!

I chose to write the concept version of the community paper. Some takeaways: With the constant change in online tools and formats, it sometimes surprises me how the same original principles can apply. Tools change but people do not. The intersection of online criminal communities is interesting! Not the place to do a deep dive of research (although it would have been a great idea to have before the full version?) but communities that are focused on illegal and unethical activities would be really fascinating to look at. It could be a strange rabbit hole to look at carefully though.  A familiar pattern in this program continues where I've analyzed the "why" of places and concepts that I never thought too much about. My ideal community is a mixed one. I want in-person interaction and meetings while still having an online place to check and stay informed. The I4 IDs is helping to accomplish this! Somebody could write an entire book on the strange communities and practices of

Virtual meeting while I was home. Fire alarm inspections that whole afternoon in my building. #MemeMonday pic.twitter.com/zEvPg4kLMd — Brett (@BrettTweets314) June 14, 2023 I have a YouTube Premium subscription which is just the greatest. I’m also a big user of Microsoft To-Do and Microsoft Teams. #eme6414 #ToolboxTuesday — Brett (@BrettTweets314) June 14, 2023 Any free resources for building large curriculum documents and materials? #WonderingWednesday — Brett (@BrettTweets314) June 14, 2023 TBT to the first iMacs I used in school. Fun colors and designs. #eme6414 #ThrowbackThursday pic.twitter.com/D1r6FqsmvU — Brett (@BrettTweets314) June 15, 2023 I recommended @wirecutter for #FollowFriday . Great product reviews and comparisons for essentials and other items. #EME6414 — Brett (@BrettTweets314) June 16, 2023 This challenge threw back to the early days of Twitter and social media, where there were universal innocent trends each week. I'm starting to enjoy keep

 With all of out talk of privacy, targeted content, and ethics, a lot of people need to realize how free services and programs make money and function. You, the user, are the product. Other people and organizations pay the social media program for your data and to deliver ads and services to you.  This concept - "You are the product" began in the 1970s as television markets exploded in growth. TV is all about selling ads to the user. When we watch a program, we might pay for cable but the goal is to reach you and deliver advertisements. This short film is considered to be the first time this was used. Check it out! Many of these concepts can be applied to social media 50 years later. It's more of an art piece criticizing mass media and exploitation.     " Will Oremus   makes the connection   between Serra’s early 1970s tv and 21st-century Facebook: It was the everyperson’s refuge, a groundbreaking technology that had morphed into a mindless escape for the

One under-discussed aspect when it comes to online knowledge collection is group chats. Group chat can spring up among friends, family, jobs and classes, or in different online communication tools like Discord or Facebook. This is online curation in its purest form. People bring different evidence and artifacts to the chat and generate conversations based off it. People can choose whether to save them for their own individual use or let them slide into the void of an endless group chat. People bring their own expertise to these chats and will ask questions to the group chat and "crowdsource" information.  Never thought I would analyze a group chat for class. 

 This week was super busy and packed, so I'm only getting to my posts and interactions these last few days.  Mechanical Turk: Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk - Florida State Univ. (exlibrisgroup.com) I had vaguely heard of this before. It's like a Task Rabbit, Fiver, or Angie's List for complex research, lab work, and API work. A side hustle for lab work. Interesting!  The internet has been connecting communities and workers for income for a very long time. This is something that is now fully accessible, for all ranges of work, backgrounds, and locations. I'd like to see a study like this for cab drivers or delivery workers. Do we crowdsource information about a new city when we hop into a cab? Or is it just a service they perform for us? 

With the overwhelming amount of information we can find on a regular basis, organization systems are important to us for our personal lives, work, and education. In no particular order, here's the list of systems I us. This was fun to think about! -Photos: the iPhone does a great job auto organizing and sorting photos from certain times and locations. -Twitter Bookmarks - informative posts to come back to. They can be grouped and organized. -Web Browser Bookmarks - the classic bookmark. Syncs between different phones and computers. Usually through Google Chrome. -Instagram Bookmarks - Can also be grouped. Used to organize or archive certain posts.  -Reddit Bookmarks - Bookmarking informative and relevant posts.   -Microsoft ToDo - I use a To Do list to keep track of things sometimes. What are some other tools or strategies you use to stay organized?

 Free Rider Challenge: https://alheme23.blogspot.com/2023/06/week-3-free-riders.html " We're seeing a version of the free rider problem with the rise and fall of all the streaming services. Studios have realized that these services are a money pit and are having a hard time making their money back. At the same time, customer expectations have changed. So they are tightening the content available, raising the prices, and looking for more revenue streams. The golden age of the internet is going the same way" Bloggy Blog: https://eme6414bloggyblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/linking-up.html You can try connecting with people you personally know first and taking it from there. Chaewon Kim: https://chaewon0225.blogspot.com/2023/05/week3-reading-reflection.html?sc=1685895788055#c7082684891570058334 Your unique global perspective on micro-blogging and online communication is great to have. There are billions of people using blogs and sites and services that most Westerners would never

I recently joined a new Central Florida group for Instructional Designers. We named it the I4 IDs (the name was my idea). It is a revival of a previous group that existed in 2019. I created a LinkedIn group for the organization, and the goal is to have a website down the line. It's still early but actively engaging in the creation of a new network that exists as an in-person group and online community is exactly what this course is about! Feel free to join if you're in Florida at all.  Links:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12835226/ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/i4ids-orlando-learning-design-group-articulate-storyline-interactive-jam-tickets-630999375117 \

The Impacts of Personality Traits, Use Intensity and Features Use of LinkedIn on Bridging Social Capital | SpringerLink   LinkedIn is a valuable tool for many middle-market professionals, like it or not.  This study discusses how LinkedIn can be used to gain social capital. Social capital is "the collection of resources owned by the members of an individual's personal social network and that may become available because of the history of these relationships." Translation: We can use LinkedIn to gain access to to the social capital of others. How can we use LinkedIn for this? Become a more extroverted and intense LinkedIn user.  Ways to increase capital: React, share, and follow, forward articles, make comments, and deliberately add new contacts. Less passive lurking and more active engagement.  Just like putting yourself out there and "going outside" can create connections and open doors, putting yourself out there on professional social media can lead to reward

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qehR5lgATDY&ab_channel=Howfinity Recently, Florida Governor Ron Desantis had a digital "campaign kick off" using Twitter Spaces. Twitter Spaces is an interactive voice chatroom that users can host and join. This event crashed the Twitter servers several times and the Space kept crashing due to bandwidth and swarms of users.  I've seen other accounts host Spaces with small accounts, prominent accounts, CEOs, New York Times roundtables, and all sorts of different communities. This feature is heavily pushed on the mobile app too. These spaces are recorded and archived automatically too. What do we think of this voice-first approach to Web 2.0 interactions? 

 Inspired by Huong's post documenting what she saw and interacted with on her TikTok for a hour, here's a brief scroll of my "Following" feed on Twitter: -Chicago District Police Scanner -Trump vs DeSantis discourse -Barstool Sports and NBA ref burner accounts -Quentin Tarantino asking "What even is a motion picture anymore?" -More Zelda creations  -UCF sports at Times Square -5 quick fitness tips -Information about the debt ceiling fight and the looming deadline -Automated Amazon deal notifiers This is a pretty curated and diverse list. Maybe I'll log my interactions next time.

  Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (marcprensky.com) The concept of a digital native, as written in 2001, has already seen a lot of changes in 2023. One interesting thing to note is the technical ability of young people. For my generation, we had to learn how to navigate computers designed for adults, complete with dial-up, forums, and many assumptions of knowledge. If you knew how to use the internet, navigate a file system, or troubleshoot, you had genuine skills. Today, the barrier for entry is so low. Many students never have to touch a file system. Everything is supposed to just work, and everything is simplified for apps and smart devices. Are young people today upskilling technically like we were forced to do in the late 90s and 2000s, or are they getting stuck using anything beyond a Chromebook? The myths of the digital native and the multitasker - ScienceDirect I had heard of this concept before in a prior class. We pretend that we can multitask with technology and we reall

Since Canvas is a hot topic of discussion these days, I decided to take a look at Web 2.0 tools in Canvas. Let's go back and try to the new discussion format too!  https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/K12-Canvas-Users/Embedding-Web-2-0-Tools/ba-p/273053 https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2022/11/07/the-best-web-2-0-applications-for-education-in-2022/ Some patterns I noticed in these tools: -An emphasis on collaboration and "participation" -Polls and opinions being displayed visually and organized -Collaborative spaces that mimic real spaces -Assessment and activity creation -Streamlining web searches into a curated app -Converting text into more interesting formats or dimensions Now, most of this is for K-12 users (which is crazy to me since I always saw Canvas as college only). But I have to say that in my time at UCF and FSU, it was pretty rare to use an external tool within Canvas for any of the purposes mentioned above. I have used Flipgrid a few times though. Was it ju

  Bruns, A. (2008).  The future is user-led: The path towards widespread produsage Links to an external site. .  Fibreculture Journal, 11 . This ties directly into my thoughts about users forming bubbles. The thing that makes it so different these days is the use of algorithms that help keep users in the bubble. These bubbles used to be by choice - now most people have feeds that spit bubble content back at them.  Dennen, V. P. (2020).  A brief overview of key concepts for EME6414 . This was a nice overview of some concepts I had some background knowledge on. Looking at my old (2016) blog posts when I was in a similar course, the pace of change is so rapid that it's hard to keep up. These concepts and networks are so fluid and constantly changing. It seems difficult to draw conclusions on what they are and how people use them because both ends of the equation keep changing. Even just looking at K-12 classrooms, the technology used in them is equivalent to college classroom technolo

 I only recently started using Twitter a lot - since the rumored buy out, purchase, and general transformation. Supposedly I'm not alone here. The platform has way more of an "old internet" feeling now, which is a positive.  One interesting trend is the inclusion of a "For You" tab. Mirroring other platforms like Tiktok or Instagram, For You captured people you follow, but also recommends tweets, accounts, and content to you using the open source algorithm. This leads to endless content that can be pulled from anywhere. It has pulled me outside my bubble and also pulled me into accounts related to my bubble. Just having content from accounts you manually chose to follow is not enough anymore for any social media platform. Some let you separate between the two, and others blur the lines together. As the internet keeps transforming and evolving, I'm excited about how smarter feeds can let users really have a "choose your own adventure" experience onl

Turns out I already had a Blogger account from a previous Online Rhetoric and Digital Communities course. Relevant! I'm interested in revving it up again with all my new knowledge and skills for EME 6414.