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Presentation: Social Media #BUCareersForum

Presented at today’s BU Careers Forum (organised by an excellent set of BU students, thank you very much!) the slides (including YouTube videos) were well received and sparked an interesting debate that continues from the debate and comments received after previous presentations on Social Media.

Myself and Deborah Sadd (@deborahsadd) received the brief of developing a 40 minute workshop that would;

“inform students on the benefits and disadvantages on social media. So for example how students should monitor Facebook with potential employers, using Linked In, Twitter, etc. and how to use these to create an advantage rather than disadvantaging their appearance. If possible, we would like to put a focus somewhere along the line on how to use Linked In as we have found students are struggling when trying to use it. “

Please click the image to view the slides.

What students (and all of us, for that matter) need to realise is that everything online is preservable; what we say, what we buy, what we ‘like’, what we moan about, what we upload, who we’re tagged with and where, etc. We have a digital footprint that, for the most part, we have no control over. I am not saying “don’t do … ” or anything of the sort, just merely that you should be aware of what you are doing, consider it, act accordingly and accept the consequences (if there are any that aren’t justified).

… and here is the happy team!

From L to R: Mary-Beth Gouthro, Debbie Sadd, David Hopkins, Masters student, and Karen Ward
From L to R: Mary-Beth Gouthro, Debbie Sadd, David Hopkins, Masters student, and Karen Ward

Posted in Presentations, Social Network.

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By David Hopkins – March 14, 2012

Self-Service Custom Infographics (@visually) in education

Visual.lyLike Infographics (I do), then you might like to try out Visual.ly, a tool that enables you to create your own (basic) infographic quickly and easily.

As reported on Mashable this week:

“The tool will eventually use APIs from sources including ESPN, the Economist and social media sites to compile and create data visualizations. At its launch, the startup is offering templates that use the Facebook or Twitter API.”

How great is this – use a one-stop tool to generate an information resources for use in learning materials? OK, it is a little basic at the moment, and you’ll need to be clever about how you input the details of information, hashtag, etc but you can get some good results, using the standard templates provided.

I see this as something that could grow into a valuable classroom resource, whether it is something we use to create and generate for the students to use or discuss, or something the students can use to generate work for a classroom activity, discussion, etc. how do you use infographics, and do you see this as something that you would use (if so, how?)

Here are a couple I created earlier (click to enlarge):


Visual.ly infographic for @hopkinsdavid

Visual.ly infographic comparing the Twitter accounts of The Eden Project and National Trust

However, be warned. I have not found it easy to create these, nor was it straight forward at all. On many occasions the infographic simply did not work, I was not able to download or embed it, I kept having new windows popping up all over the place, I was logged out countless times, and it is only through sheer determination that I continued and got these two above done – I would normally have given up long before now! I am sure the service will improve … ?

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By David Hopkins – March 14, 2012

‘Keep Calm’ Poster App

Keep Calm (iPhone): This is an app that will keep you entertained for a while. Brought to you from the book shop who found the original poster in a box of old books they bought at auction, this app lets you create your own for use in a fun family way, for parties, for classroom or presentation slides, staff room jokes, etc.

“From Barter Books, home of the original Keep Calm and Carry On poster that started the whole phenomenon – a wonderful selection of icons, backgrounds, and colours to create posters for every occasion in the Keep Calm style! Plus a unique little film about the history of the poster and its rediscovery back in 2000 in a secondhand bookshop in England.”
‘Keep Calm: Home of (Free) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keep-calm-home-of/id503844820

There are other apps that will let you do this, I have only tested this one as (a) it was free, and (b) it is from the bookshop who started it all up again over 50 years since the original ones were produced (but not used).

This video is also available through the app, but as it’s loaded to YouTube I wanted to share it here because, if anything, it’s a great history lesson for us about how the Government was thinking they could affect moral during the WWII bombings, and how a simple idea (the poster) can catch on again over 50 years later. Enjoy.

The Story of Keep Calm

Here are a couple of screenshots from the app, and a poster or two I created. it’s just for fun but if you’ve used it in the office, classroom, corridor, motivation corner, etc then please share with us by leaving a comment below with a link to where you posted it (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc).

Poster: “Keep Calm and call the Ghostbusters”!

Gallery of created posters

Pre-created poster/quote

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By David Hopkins – March 5, 2012

Where is reflection in the learning process? (@jackiegerstein)

I found the following post by Jackie Gerstein recently, and wanted to share it with you – “Where is reflection in the learning process?”

Why am I sharing it … because it is the student voice, or lack of it, that I found most interesting. Jackie was getting frustrated at their inability to ‘reflect’ until

“a major AHA struck me … They are products of a standardized system where they were asked to memorize standardized information and spit that information out on standardized tests. When finished with one unit of information, they were asked to quickly move onto the next unit.  They were not given the time, skills, and opportunities to extract personalized meanings from their studies.  Reflection was not part of their curriculum as it cannot be measured nor tested.”

Jackie continues to discuss her work as well as that of Stephen Brookfield and the realisation that, in order to encourage reflection in our students, we (educators and/or facilitators) also need to be able to reflect:

“The only way that educators can teach and promote reflective practice by their students (of all ages) in their own classrooms is to engage in, embrace, and fully understand this process themselves.”

I am also in this process of reflection, needed for my PG Cert last year and for the (ongoing) CMALT application. I do not find it easy, especially when critical reflection is needed on something that occurred a while ago, but it is a worthwhile exercise and it does improve how I view and review my role as a Learning Technologist.

Read Jackie’s work on her User Generated Education blog on Twitter (@jackiegerstein), you’ll be better for it.

 

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By David Hopkins – February 29, 2012

Social Media Policy

A previous post of mine (Policies for Staff use of Social Media and Social Networks) from June 2010 has received some interest and reposting on Twitter lately.

In response to my retweeting of the psot I had a reply from @simfin linking to the below video.

“A short video for staff of the Department of Justice (Victoria, Australia) explaining the key elements of their social media policy.”

Here’s the video – it’s great!

What do you think? What is your Institution doing to encourage (or discourage) it’s staff use of social media networks? Do you have a framework of policy or guideline to work within, or are you winging it?

 

Posted in Social Network, Video.

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By David Hopkins – February 18, 2012

Everything is a Remix

This film of ‘Everything is a Remix’, part 4 in the series, covers various aspects of intellectual property, copyright, originality, ownership, etc. the film is introduced as:

“Our system of law doesn’t acknowledge the derivative nature of creativity. Instead, ideas are regarded as property, as unique and original lots with distinct boundaries. But ideas aren’t so tidy. They’re layered, they’re interwoven, they’re tangled. And when the system conflicts with the reality… the system starts to fail.”

It starts a little slow (and off-topic) but bear with it as it all comes together and you’ll see the importance of the first few minutes.

Everything is a Remix Part 4 from Kirby Ferguson.

What I like about it is;

  • Evolution is “copy, transform, combine” … and so are Memes (ideas, behaviours, skills) that “copy, transform, combine” = Social Evolution (00:50)
  • Although not mentioning Creative Commons in as many words, the ideas behind it are covered throughout the whole film when dealing with ideas, intellectual property, and demonstrations on ideas being a commodity. (02:00)
  • “When we copy, we justify. When others copy, we vilify!” – using examples of Disney and Steve Jobs to demonstrate they both use others work and pass it off as their own, and are happy to do so, but “go thermonuclear war” on those who copy them. (03:40)
  • “The belief in intellectual property has grown so dominant it’s pushed the original intent of copyright and patent out of the public consciousness. But that original purpose is still right there in plain sight.” (10:25)
  • “We live in an age with daunting problems: we the best ideas possible, we need them now, we need them to spread fast. The ‘common good’ is a meme that was overwhelmed by intellectual property. It needs to spread again. If the meme prospers our laws, our norms, our society, they all transform. That’s Social Evolution, and it’s not up to governments, corporations, or lawyers.  It’s up to us.” (11:10)

It is worth watching the previous 3 episodes too, as they demonstrate that, deliberate or not, very little we know is as original as we think it is. It is also fair to say that I am quite disappointed that much of what I loved about some films and songs for their ‘originality’ is just rubbish, and they’re a re-hash of someone else’s work.

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By David Hopkins – February 17, 2012

‘Prezi’ App

Prezi (iPad): I like Prezi and yes I like the rotation and zoom effects you can use (I also try to use them as little as possible as I know some people get a bit queasy!).

“View and present your prezis anywhere with simple, intuitive multitouch gestures. Drag to pan and pinch to zoom in or out of topics, just like you do in any map apps. Revise and retouch your prezis, correct typos and adjust your presentation on-the-fly. Prezi Viewer is the perfect companion to your Prezi experience.”

Prezi Free: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prezi-viewer/id407759942

I haven’t used the iPad to actually present one of my Prezi’s yet, I’d need to get one of the iPad Dock Connector things to do that if I wanted to present to a screen or projector.

Prezi have produced a great video highlighting the Prezi Viewer App:

I’m not going to write about Prezi itself, this is covered in other posts (see ‘related links’ below) but the app is good and, if used for nothing else other than downloading and viewing a Prezi, is really good.

The following is a Prezi created on the iPad (not by me, but by David Oliveira) called ‘unBoxing’:

unBoxing on Prezi

It’s free, try it out if you’re a Prezi user (and don’t forget the recently launched PreziU if you’re an educational user!). How are you using Prezi?

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By David Hopkins – February 16, 2012

Social Media in Universities (Infographic)

Another great Infographic, this time on the ‘research’ (I use the term loosely) on the ‘Pros and Cons of Social Media in (Higher) Education’.

Click here or on the image below for the full infographic highlighting how social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc). I do like the final section which actually highlights some of the benefits/successes and challenges that Universities will encounter as they try and implement a social media campaign.

“It is not enough to simply have a profile on a site like Facebook – it requires daily maintenance and interaction with students. Students, current and potential, will judge the school based on their experiences with the school’s social media accounts.”

Very true, and not just limited to how an Institution handles their acocunt(s), it is true for each and every one of us.

I just wished that the creators of these infographics realised there was a world outside of the USA!

Posted in Social Network, Technology.

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By David Hopkins – February 14, 2012

‘Noir’ Photography App

Noir (iPhone/iPad): I downloaded this a while ago now and keep coming back to it. It can make some amazing and moody photographs out of the most ordinary and mundane (and even boring) shots.

“Noir Photo lets you transform your photos with beautiful, dramatic lighting and instant results. Peel away the color to a cinematic black-and-white, apply a lovely tint, and then light up your subject. Touch and pinch the brightness Vignette and spin the Contrast and Exposure dials for white hot thrills and shadow-rich drama.”

Noir Photo $2.99 / £1.99 : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noir-photo/id429484353

I like this as it enables me to be dark, moody, and melancholy and to get some amazing results that I can share online or in photo albums (yes, I still like to have a printed copy, often created with something like Bonus Print or Jessops online picture book – which make excellent Christmas or Birthday presents by the way!).

Here are my boys walking on the beach at Hengistbury Head a few weeks ago!

Original

In ‘processing’

Final

The app does not support (yet?) upload to different social networks (as do other photograph-enhancing apps) but it will save a good quality image to your camera roll, and you can use other installed apps to upload to your preferred network, or share via email or SNS with friends and family.

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By David Hopkins – February 9, 2012

Why do people connect? #edtech

“Technology is like a mirror: if an idiot looks in you can’t expect an apostle to look out” so says Stephen Fry in this witty and engaging video on ‘why do people connect?’

This is a great video  on why people connect, where Stephen Fry talks about social media and people. Enjoy!


Stephen Fry: What I wish I’d known when I was 18 from Peter Samuelson on Vimeo.

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By David Hopkins – February 9, 2012