TW's Bog

 Thanks to this class, I have a new respect for Twitter and what it can offer towards not only a personal brand but also towards building and communicating with an audience.  I've only used it sparingly in the past, but thanks to a few assignments and Twitter threads with some fellow students, I really enjoyed using it.   Twitter has a huge population online and one community I've joined is the #AgTwitter group.  Tweets and users with this group share all sorts of agriculture info, tips, and other relevant content.  And since I'm trying to make a name for myself in the Ag world, I think this is a great place to start.  Even since I've been tweeting more, about ag and no ag topics, I've gained a few more followers which is always cool. I'll keep using Twitter and see how my tweets are received and learn new ways I can engage with others on the platform.

After using Miro as the main tool for my produsage assignment, I'm impressed by the tool but almost prefer Padlet instead.  Here's why: Miro is a very powerful tool and offers its users a wide range of options for creating and customizing boards.  But, Padlet offers almost the same tool set but with a much more friendly and pleasant-looking user interface.  This isn't a huge issue but does make the experience more enjoyable if I'm using Padlet.  Even the text editor in Padlet looks better and provides the user with more others.  In Miro, you don't have the ability to click and drag to resize a text box, which I just don't get.  It makes designing a board super clunky and frustrating.  That being said, I won't hate using Miro, I still offer a ton of tools for anyone looking to take advantage of all its offerings. I expect someone who works in Miro either every day or weekly, they can build a workflow and database of tools to meet their needs.  This is also so

After using Miro a bit for the produsage assignment, I have to say that I'm a big fan of the tool so far!  The tools available and included templates, make this tool extremely powerful with a very low bar for entry. Miro offers a ton of templates and tools that really help the user create a board that perfectly encapsulates their ideas.  The templates offered range from workflow to hierarchies, KWL charts, and idea boards.  Even using these templates or creating their own, users have almost unlimited customizability with each board.  This is a huge selling point for Miro in that you aren’t limited by tools and instead only by your imagination.  There are additional features like commenting, sharing, copying boards, etc.  These tools make collaboration a breeze on Miro.  The ability to create what you see fit and collaborate with virtually anyone makes Miro a perfect asynchronous educational tool that can and should be utilized as often as possible.  In past classes, I’ve used Miro

This semester has flown by, and now as we are finishing up the last two weeks, we have also started our final assignment focused on web 2.0 tools.  I've highlighted some of my favorite tools like Discord and Notion and I've also learned about some great new tools like Blogger, Badge List, and even how Twitter can be a great place for learning. For the final assignment, I've decided to focus on Miro.  Miro acts much like a digital whiteboard that allows users to design charts, graphs, and countless other templates to help organize and track collaboration. I've used this tool only briefly for a few other classes so far and was very impressed with what Miro offered.  The built-in templates range from workflows, brainstorming, and KWL charts just to name a few. For this assignment, I'm thinking of designing a lesson plan around researching sustainable farming practices as part of an agriscience course that will ask for students to research and discuss their findings.  M

Any time my wife and I travel internationally, we download Google Maps so that we can still get around even without cell service. It's a wonderful feature that really helps us navigate around. I love how handy these maps are and how you can even view street level or the insides of buildings.  One extremely cool map tool that I've seen is one from a video game called Assassin's Creed. The games are histotical fiction and usually take place during key events like the American Revolution or London during the Industrial Revolution. One of the latest games takes place during the height of the Egyptian empire and allows players to explore the kingdom and it's cities. One absolutely amazing feature was a mode specifically designed for education that allowed players to your the pyramids inside and out. The concept of this is so cool in that students can play a videogame but learn and step back in history. These games usually include historical figures from those countries and a

When doing research for this week on activism seen on social media, my first thought went towards things like protesting and fighting for rights.  But, a quick Google search reminded me of a famous movement from a few years ago that is a great example of activism that was started thanks to social media. A few years ago, we all saw viral videos of celebrities, athletes, and our friends and family pouring ice water on them all in the name of fighting ALS.  The disease targets the nervous system and causes irreversible muscle failure.  There still is no cure and no real consensus on what causes it.  In 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge was started and spread across every social media site as people would challenge their friends to pour ice water on themselves to bring awareness to ALS and help raise money for more research.  The challenge was able to raise over $115 million for ALS research.  This fun challenge united a huge amount of people and brought awareness to a disease many were not a