Posts in Category: EDCI 336
This is a category for the EdTech course. Please add this category in addition to the relevant edtech assignment category(ies).
Weekly Reflection #1
My Social Media Experience
Hello!
I chose to make my first blog post about my own personal experience using social media because hey, what better way to start a blog!
I remember downloading Facebook on my 13th birthday (because the law was you had to be 13 and I have strict parents) and I was SOO excited. I remember updating your feed everyday was the thing to do back then, why? I’m not too sure, but it was. From then on, I always enjoyed using social media, whether it would be to see what people were up to, to watch hilarious videos of puppies and babies or to communicate with long distance friends. Growing up I moved a lot, I didn’t live in one country for more than a couple years until I turned 11, so social media was the only way I could keep in contact with old friends. It also made making new friends a whole lot easier.
Image by Adem AY
After I moved to Cranbrook and started my first job here, I quickly incorporated my love of social media into my job and became the social media manager for that company. I worked at a dog daycare and boarding facility so essentially, I was the only resource pet parents had to see pictures and videos of their fur babies enjoying their vacation. I took this job very seriously, because as a dog mom myself I know how scary it can be being away from pets especially for the first time. After managing this for 5 years, I finally stepped back and handed off the platform I had grown to the assistant manager knowing I was going to leave that job shortly. It was very difficult giving away what I had spent so long building on my own, but I love being able to teach other people skills I have learnt myself. I felt confident in the team I left the platform to, and they did a great job continuing it on, and occasionally ill see their posts pop up on my feed, as a little reminder of what I started!
If I were to ever have a professional social media again, I think I would keep it more professional than that specific account was. Although it depends what the account is for, the account I had on both Facebook and Instagram for that job were very bubbly and giddy, but if I were to do it again, I think I would keep it more professionally focused.
Like mentioned in this Tik Tok video, social media has developed especially with the new forms, into more of a pleasure form of social media.
Welcome and Introduction
Before proceeding with this first blog post, we expect you to consider your privacy preferences carefully and that you have considered the following options:
- Do you want to be online vs. offline?
- Do you want to use your name (or part thereof) vs. a pseudonym (e.g., West Coast Teacher)?
- Do you want to have your blog public vs. private? (Note, you can set individual blog posts private or password protected or have an entire blog set to private)
- Have you considered whether you are posting within or outside of Canada? This blog on opened.ca is hosted within Canada. That said, any public blog posts can have its content aggregated/curated onto social networks outside of Canada.
First tasks you might explore with your new blog:
- Go into its admin panel found by adding /wp-admin at the end of your blog’s URL
- Add new category or tags to organize your blog posts – found under “Posts” (but do not remove the pre-existing “EdTech” category or sub-categories, Free Inquiry and EdTech Inquiry). We have also pre-loaded the Teacher Education competencies as categories should you wish to use them to document your learning. If you would like to add more course categories, please do so (e.g., add EDCI 306A with no space for Music Ed, etc.)
- See if your blog posts are appearing on the course website (you must have the course categories assigned to a post first and have provided your instructor with your blog URL)
- Add pages
- Embed images or set featured images and embed video in blog posts and pages (can be your own media or that found on the internet, but consider free or creative commons licensed works)
- Under Appearance,
- Select your preferred website theme and customize to your preferences (New title, etc.)
- Customize menus & navigation
- Use widgets to customize blog content and features
- Delete this starter post (or switch it to draft status if you want to keep for reference)
Do consider creating categories for each course that you take should you wish to document your learning (or from professional learning activities outside of formal courses). Keep note, however, that you may wish to use the course topic as the category as opposed to the course number as those outside of your program would not be familiar with the number (e.g., we use “EdTech” instead of “edci336).
Lastly, as always, be aware of the FIPPA as it relates to privacy and share only those names/images that you have consent to use or are otherwise public figures. When in doubt, ask us.
Please also review the resources from our course website for getting started with blogging:
- WordPress resources
- Using RSS feeds to read blog posts from your networks (e.g., Feedly)
- Privacy resources
- Copyright resources
- Finding images you can use
EdTech Inquiry
This is where Assignment 2: Educational Technology Resource Development will be presented when complete.
Free Inquiry – Getting Rolling..
This is where you share your updates and creations for Assignment 1: Free Inquiry Project.