What’s Your ‘Personal Brand’

Most of us don’t think of our name as our ‘personal brand.’ Perhaps it is time we should think along those lines and help our students think of their name as their ‘personal brand.’

In her blog, Librarian by Day, Bobbi Newman talks about ways to use Twitter and Google Alerts to monitor ones ‘personal brand’ in her post, “How to Monitor Your Personal Brand (for free)“

 

Microblogging – 23 Things Kansas

As a school librarian with the added task of maintaining the school’s computers and network, I probably spend more time with technology than most school librarians. Because the technology side of my job changes rapidly, I try to take advantage of chances to learn about how to apply new technology in a school setting. For me, this has been library conference and the MACE conference. For those who have never attended MACE, it is an excellent opportunity to learn about a variety of tools, many of them freely available, that can be used in a school setting. It is thru MACE that I first got introduced to Twitter and Plurk.

I have Twitter, Plurk and Google Buzz accounts but prefer Twitter as a microblogging tool. Because Twitter has such a large base of users, I’ve found it easier to locate people and organizations I want to follow than on Plurk or Google Buzz. Another feature that I like about Twitter is the ability to follow a topic thru the use of hashtags. Thanks to a mention by WIBW’s weather team, I discovered Hootsuite. Hootsuite not only allows you to see all of your Twitter activity but allows you to create a panel showing only the public tweets on a topic. For example, during the summer I used Hootsuite to follow the hashtag #ksstorms. Because meteorologists and storm chasers use that hashtag to post storm information, I was able to track approaching severe weather while at work.

Another advantage of Twitter is the ability to integrate it. Since I don’t spend my day glued to Twitter, I have a gadget on my desktop that shows tweets from those I follow. I’ve also recently discovered ways to connect Diigo to Delicous and Twitter and Twitter to Facebook.

• Tip of the Day – Using Diigo and Delicious Simultaneously
• Tip of the Day – Diigo’s (Annotated) Twitter This
• Twitter to Facebook – 5 Ways to Post

Sometimes, one of the challenges to using Twitter is finding people to follow. When I participate in a webinar or attend a conference, I will often try to find the presenter on Twitter and follow them. Sometimes, that is a challenge if they don’t disclose their Twitter identity and don’t use their name as their Twitter ID. During this year, I’ve added Linda Braun (lbraun2000), YALSA, VOYA and EdWeek to my ‘following’ list. Because of a personal interest in H1n1, I also added quite a few people and organizations active in tracking the worldwide spread of this disease.

Even though I rarely have the Twitter website open, I am a Twitter fan because of its ability to push information to my desktop. Recent research, however, indicates that teens do not see a need for Twitter. In their world, text messaging and Facebook are the primary ways to share information because they are more private. In contrast, it is the public aspect of Twitter and the ability to quickly share information that I find valuable. Thus, for now, I’ll remain a fan of Twitter and Hootsuite.

Evolving Facebook

As one who has had a Facebook account for several years, it is just in the past year that I’ve personally become somewhat active on the site. As I’ve become more active on Facebook and other web 2.0 sites, I’ve witnessed the tearing down of walls that separate various aspects of my life. Five years ago, I was very concerned about separating my personal activities (primarily genealogy and church) from my school related activities. I’ve had separate email accounts, blogs and web sites. However, I’ve found that I can’t keep up with all of these separate accounts — especially if I tried to have separate “personalities” on Facebook and Twitter.

As I’ve become more active on these sites, I’ve found them to be great tools for communication.

http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/facebook-as-tipping-point/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879169,00.html

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2009/03/12/social-networking-web-20-and-learning-what-the-research-says/

Building Research Skills with Social Bookmarking

<a href=” >Diigo v3As a user of Del.icio.us, I enjoy the ability to use tagging to take my favorites with me to whatever computer I happen to be using at the time. I’ve also benefitted from Del.icio.us’ networking features as I’ve used tags added by members of my network. Because of my positive experiences with Del.icio.us, I’ve encouraged my students to create accounts and utilize this aspect of the Web 2.0.

However, I’m learning about another tagging site, Diigo, that goes a step further and may be more beneficial for use when doing research. According to their website, Diigo offers the following features:

• Highlighting of the web
• Adding sticky notes
• Searching findings from any PC or iphone
• Creating groups to pool resources
• Discovering quality resources on any subject
• Getting personalized recommendations

Diigo V3: Highlights

Exploring Web 2.0

Web 2.0 – What is it? Why should I care? How can I use it?

by Jerry Fort (Summer Mace 2008) http://www.cchs.ccsd.k12.co.us/teacher-resources/index.html

Videos of interest

• thewebisus.mov or thewebisusingus
• airplane.mpg (video)
• injuredbad.mov
• National Geographic podcasts (excellent video quality) — example: Polar Bears, Tornadoes, Insect Candy, Lizard Wrestling
• video – stuck on escalator (and not taking initiative to get off)

Web 2.0

• read/write web
• tag cloud – web 2.0

Web 2.0 sites

• Digg
• Wikipedia
• YouTube
• Citizendium
• Wikispaces, pbwiki
  • http://www.budtheteacher.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_page (individual wiki)
  • http://trailfirstpeopletechers.wikispaces.com (collaborative wiki)
• Maps
  • Google maps / Google earth
  • http:/labs.reuters.com/newsmaps — interactive live map of current news stories
  • Flickr Maps — get photos based on location
  • http://www.epodunk.com/top10/diaspora — where people went after Katrina
• Blogs
  • Journal format
  • Chronologically arranged
  • Usually one person’s writings
  • Technorati – search engine for blogs
  • Business — http://businessweek.com/technology/byteoftheaple/blog/
  • New York Post Blog
  • Gateway Pundit — politically oriented blog (gatewaypundit.blogspot.com)
  • Big Lead – sports blog
  • Teacher Magazine Blogboard — http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/blogboard
  • Gawker — culture
  • Daily Kos
  • Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.coom
• Social Networks (go to Wikipedia to see list of ones available)
  • classroom 2.0 — for teachers
  • linkedin – business social network
  • facebook
  • my.9rules
  • ning – lets you create a social network
  • xanga
  • classmates.com
  • humblevoice
  • friendster
  • myyearbook
• Video
  • Google Video
  • YouTube
  • University videos
  • Admission videos
  • Brightcove
  • Zippy Video
  • Flixya
  • Jumpcut
  • Eyespot
  • Crackle
  • Flixya
  • Vimeo
  • Photobucket
  • TeacherTube
  • zamzar.com — submit video url / get downloadable video
  • Real Player – latest version will let you download YouTube videos also
• Beyond Video
  • hulu — full length tv shows and movies
  • Joost
  • veoh — network tv / documentaries
  • free internet tv — more international flavor
  • Photos
• Photos
  • Picassa
  • Photobucket
  • Webshots
  • Bubbleshare
  • KodakGallery
  • Flickr
  • Shutterfly
  • SnapFish
  • KoffeePhoto
• Online Apps
  • Zoho — Projects, Meeting, Invoice, Creator, DB & Reports, People, Business, Wiki, Planner, Chat, Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook
  • Google Apps
  • Gliffy — Flowcharting, diagrams
  • Mindomo — free tool like Inspiration
  • Office Live Workspace (must own MS Office – possibly 2003 or greater)
• Podcasting
  • Podcast.net
  • Podcasting news
  • Podcasting tools
  • Podscope (search engine for podcasting)
• Communication
  • Yahoo! Messenger
  • Skype — chat / transfer files / video
  • Jabber.org
  • Aim.com
  • ICQ
  • iChat – 4 way video allowed
  • Google Talk
• Social Bookmarking
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • reddit
  • blinklist
  • StumbleUpon
  • furl
  • spurl.net
• Rss
  • Bloglines
  • iGoogle
  • Google Reader
  • Netvibes
  • Pageflakes
  • Top 100 Most-subscribed to RSS Feeds (http://radio.xmlstoragesystem.com/rcsPublic/rssHotlist)
• Tags (tagCloud – visual of what site is about)
  • http://www.tagcloud.com
  • http://tagcrowd.com
  • http://www.petefreitag.com/item/396.cfm
  • http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/11/07/tag-clouds-gallery-examples-and-good-practices
  • http://chir.ag/phernalia/preztags
  • presidential speeches site — http://chir.ag/phernalia/preztags — creates tag cloud from presidential speeches — current thru historical
• Second Life

What Makes a Web 2.0 Site

interactive feature

http://www.go2web20.net

http://web2.ajaxprojects.com

http://www.webware.com/heml/ww/2007.html

http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0

http://web2magazine.blogspot.com/2007/01/thanks-for-web-2.html

Web 2.0 Ideas for the Classroom

Online writing tips

In the May issue of Learning & Leading with Technology, the article, “Don’t Feed the Trolls,” discusses being civil when writing blogs or commenting on blogs. Below are some recommended guidelines for use when participating in any form of digital communication.

• Use “I” statements to make it clear that you are speaking for yourself.
• Don’t use name calling.
• Avoid labeling groups of people.
• Discuss ideas, not people.
• Don’t respond to provocations.
• Stay on topic.
• Be willing to realy listen to points of view that are different from your own, recognizing that others are allowed to have opinions different from yours.
• Realize that what you say and what others think you said may be two different things. If there is a misunderstanding, try to clarify your position.

Think first,

Then post

 

Social Networking

Why join Facebook (or any other social network site)?

Our students are way ahead of us when it comes to social networking. Most of the seniors started participating as freshman on Xanga. From Xanga, they migrated to MySpace and are now primarily on Facebook. For our students, the use of Facebook is a daily activity. Several students recently completed essays on the value of social networking. Below are some of the reasons why students believe social networks have value:

• Organizing events and invite anyone on his/her friends list. This is done frequently around Seneca
• Serve as a way to keep in touch with friends. … With a social network I keep in touch with kids that … range as far to Kansas City, Wichita, Manhattan, and Emporia.
• Personally, I find it very entertaining to read some students in our schools interests or their summaries about themselves.
• Can be a great chance for a person to express themselves.
• Schools and social networking are starting to become more intertwined. Personally I have at least three classes in which we use Moodle to give out assignments, information, and other things needed for the class
• Stay in touch with my friends and classmates … share photos and videos with them … compete with them in gaming applications.
• Keep up with what’s going on in my friend’s lives –stay in contact with everyone I’ve met through out forensics
• Schedule events easily … click on a link to an interactive calendar with a list of upcoming events.
• Keep up with the music business, … I can keep track of tour dates, new music releases, and any other information they choose to release.
• Games and other fun activities
• When creating an online profile, people have the chance to show their best qualities and interests. They do not worry about being judged or made fun of because they are not “cool”.
• Social networks allow people who share interests to become friends.
• My aunt who lives in Alabama sends us photos of her children since we rarely see them. We get see how they are changing and growing up without actually seeing them in person.

Social Networks in Plain English