TW's Bog

 Web 2.0 is done and I have to say this has been the best class I have taken this far at FSU ISLT.  The design of the course, the activities, and the involvement with the professor, have all been second to none.  Had a blast and learned a ton about technology that's been brought to us thanks to Web 2.0!  I was recommended this class by a past student and am so glad I took this when I did!  

 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...

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....

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...

 I'm not much for protesting.  Instead of marching around or even going door to door, I'd rather have discussions with friends and family and of course, vote on issues of importance.  That being said, I am extremely grateful for our right to freedom of assembly, which allows citizens to protest and bring awareness to countless issues.  It's a right we all should be extremely thankful for as others around the world don't have this luxury. As we've talked about this week, social media has transformed activism around the world.  Now, at the drop of a single tweet, people from around the world are able to bring awareness and stand up for countless issues.  The entire globe can protest or campaign on a single issue.  This unified voice is something the world hasn't really seen before.  It's a great power that we all shouldn't take too lightly. This week, I'm planning on learning more about activism and examples of social media being the driving force b...

 When it comes to creating online learning communities, it's pretty neat to see that no two groups work the same. This goes for both how users communicate as well as the tools and social media sites they are on.  I've seen many communities work on Facebook while also trying to grow on other sites like Reddit but have little success. And of course, there are many cases of the opposite being true. The trend seems to be that the ideal audience tends to somehow find the community, and they usually gravitate to one tool. Once that tool is the norm, it's pretty hard to have a decent amount of the learners move to other sites or even just use those sites periodically. Once the audience is established, everyone seems comfortable with the established parameters.  I recently wrote a out Discord for a paper and how it's a very unique communication tool. I plan on trying to use it to build a community for my podcast, Farm Traveler. The ability to create different channels on our Di...

 What if classes could seamlessly integrate with social media sites for lessons, videos, etc and add questions quizzes, or even short responses to what students just watched?  I think this might be a direction we can head into if we focus on using social media sites as a main item for student interaction. It also seems that more sites are focusing on educational content. A friend of mine that works in digital marketing recently told me that a contact from TikTok states that the company is focusing more on short educational content instead of just viral dancing videos. And I can really see the chance this had led to as most of the videos I see on my feed are different short form videos that focus on cooking tutorials, wood working tips, etc. It's very neat to see this change as our time on social media can be much more impactful and not just a time draining thing. Although we still need to spend less time on social media than we currently do, so maybe that can be worked on as w...

Social media sometimes gets a bad rap, but the tools are wonderful at sharing ideas and building community.  For last week's assignment, I discuss how tools like Discord have helped foster countless online communities thanks to its easy yet powerful chat features.  Many tools like Discord formed out of necessity as some communities failed to grow without having the necessary tools for communication and collaboration.  With Discord, for example, users are able to create servers for online communities and then, create even more specific channels on those servers for chats, video calls, and voice chats.  This organization's ability has transformed online communication.  There are many communities centered around gaming, education, and even influencer-focused that have gained huge followings thanks to Discord. I think tools like this have made it easier for social media tools to build and sustain communities around the world.  Instead of those sites having to i...