RSS feeds are defined to be asynchronous from other social media sites because the internet is a multitasking system but RSS feeds are able to proceed independently from other social media sites. They are able to act independently while searching the entire web to find accurate information used for research.
Asynchronous is defined to mean not occurring at the same time, or as having each operation started only after the preceding operation is completed . In a computing dictionary, asynchronous is defined as a communications system in which data transmission may start at any time (indicated by a start bit) and ends with a stop bit. A continuous marking condition is maintained until data resumes.
Information from dictionary.com
Thursday, July 28, 2011
RSS
This week our task was to explore Google Reader and learn about Real Simple Syndication. (Once again it was a program that I didn’t know anything about.) However, I realized that RSS feeds make life much easier, because once you figure out what you want and subscribe to a topic of interest, everything is right in one place. Once I linked my blog to my Google Reader account and subscribed to my organization (PETA) everything was right there on my RSS feed. At first I didn’t really know what to subscribe to, but I decided to subscribe to my organization that I am researching for a project and a few Vera Bradley discount sites (I’m in love with Vera Bradley and am just searching for coupons). Finding subscriptions was a little difficult because you had to search for the ones that you wanted, but adding them was very easy because you just had to press the button that said subscribe. The most important thing that I was looking for when I was subscribing to websites was how many people were already subscribed to them and I read the description first.
I didn’t really know who or what else to look for in Google Reader. So, I just searched for physical therapy and I found a profile for Ultra Physical therapy. This profile had a link to another website for a company that specializes in physical therapy. This website was very well developed that provided a lot of information about the company. However, the Google Reader profile of this company was not very well developed and very simple.
It was very helpful to use Google Reader to get updates on other people’s blogs and wikis because it was all right there in one place. It wasn’t all muddled like it is on blogger and it wasn’t a maze like it is on wikispace. It is nice, simple, and self-explanatory on Google Reader. It was much easier to only go onto one website rather than the two.
I added two custom links to my Google profile, a link to my blog and a link to my wikispace. I did this so that now classmates would be able to simply go onto my Google profile and find access to all the materials that we need in this course.
My organization, PETA, does have RSS feeds prominently displayed on the home page. It has a list of current news releases and new articles displayed on the top of the page. However, a better place for RSS feed on PETA’s webpage is under the feature tab where it has a list of articles (title and brief summary) to go through and pick which interests you.
I think that overall, having everything on one home page makes everything much less time consuming and easier in itself. I think that once I navigate the page more often it will become easier and easier. I think that gradually learning more and more will make the site easier and make it easier to be doing so many things all at once. It is a change of pace to have everything in one place. It makes multitasking much easier because you don’t have to keep on clicking through tabs and keeping on searching through information.
Overall, my experience with Google Reader was okay. It wasn’t the best experience ever, but it wasn’t the worse. In the end, I feel more comfortable using the social media tool and believe that it will be an asset to my future studies because it provides a place where everything is together all in one place.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Now getting to something I know..
I knew nothing about blogging, I knew nothing about making a wikispace, but Twitter and Facebook..now we're talking!
Response to Twitter:
Although I had never "tweeted" on my Twitter account before, I had my first task of making my account completed. It took me a little while to figure out how to navigate around the page since I had never done it before, but soon enough I figured out how to follow Bistra and make my first tweet. Once I actually started "tweeting" I realized how different it was to blogging. When blogging, I can just ramble on and on and not have to worry about a character limit (which is makes blogging very good for me because I am a rambler). I feel as though "tweets" are more of just short bursts of feelings without explanation or reason, where as blogging describes your feelings and gives an explanation for things. I feel like "tweets" are so everyone knows what you're doing at every instance of your life, compared to blogging where readers are allowed to enter into your mind and can actually read enough to learn detailed information.
I created two separate lists on my Twitter account for the purpose of this class. I created a list for my classmates and a list for the organizations that I needed/chose to follow (CNN and PETA). I played around a little bit with the trends on my sidebar to see what everyone was looking at on Twitter. I thought it was pretty funny that Toddlers and Tiaras was one of the worldwide trends! I haven't chose to retweet anyone's tweet yet because I am timid and don't think I would ever send a post to everyone that I am following on Twitter. However, I have replied to people's tweets because I think it's a nice way to interact and makes you feel like you aren't tweeting to no one.
Response to Facebook:
After a little use, Twitter started to become really easy to navigate, just like Facebook. I have been using Facebook for years now, so Facebook comes really natural to me. The one thing that I had trouble with was linking Facebook to my wikispace page. I had to go into Facebook help to figure out how to insert the icon. I have always had a very private Facebook, I have all of my settings so that only friends are able to view anything that I post, see my wall, and view my pictures (at least, that's what I've aimed for). However, I still always have had a little doubt and worry that people are still able to access information that I don't want them to have access to. On a side note, I love how Facebook provides so many different options to protect your privacy. As a user, you are allowed to choose who is able to view your pictures, your interests, your biography, have access to your contact information, and who is able to see your family and your relationships. However, I do not like the fact that your profile picture, gender, networks, and username are available to everyone on the internet. I feel like this could lead to some issues especially since most everyone is under their school's network..couldn't this lead to some issues in stalking and unwanted people knowing information? I think that it also is a good thing that Facebook issues warnings out to people engaging in behavior deemed incorrect such as annoying or abusive, when opening applications not affiliated with Facebook and are taking access to your account information, and when trying to access content that has been marked as abusive.
I had never actually asked myself the question of how my status updates and my wall posts make me look as a person. I'm not really on Facebook that much anymore to play around with status updates, but I do write on people's wall and reply to them on my wall. My wall posts show that my birthday was yesterday, because about 165 people wished me a happy birthday. But other than that, my status updates show that I miss my boyfriend, love my friends, and work a ton. But other than that, I don't believe that my wall posts reveal anything bad, just that I work too much, use my iPhone to send updates and write on people's walls, and take way too many pictures. I think that this information could work both ways for me while applying for a jobs. I think it could work to my advantage due to the fact that it shows that I'm a hardworking employee and student. However, I think it could also work to my disadvantage because future employers may think that I love spending time with my friends too much and would never get work done. It also might be a disadvantage that since I do use my phone so much, they may think that I will always be on it and be distracted from my job at hand.
When I began to follow news organizations on Twitter and Facebook, I constantly found things on my news feeds regarding current news. The difference was that Twitter only provided short information in their tweets but provided a link to the full article where as Facebook provided the summary, a link, a picture, and a title. The homepage of the news station provided a feature section with the beginning of an article, a picture, and then a link to the full article. I believe that by putting news on Facebook and Twitter, people are allowed to participate more in responding and making news stories. Facebook and Twitter are sources of ambient journalism because users are now able to comment and participate in the news, rather than just having to read it in a newspaper.
Overall, I honestly don't know how Facebook and Twitter can be used as professional channels into my field. Since I am trying to get into Physical Therapy, and not many offices use computers with internet, the only possibility that I can think of is their ability for social networking and opening many doors to many colleagues that may be potential employers. I do believe that Facebook is a great utility to help remain in touch with past friends, which may in the end open up new doors of possibilities in the career that you are pursuing.
The organization that I am researching (PETA) uses both Facebook and Twitter to update stories of animal cruelty to keep on reminding the world that animals need to be helped. This constant reminder, I believe, will help people to want to help the animals more and help put a focus on the unethical treatment of animals.
Response to Twitter:
Although I had never "tweeted" on my Twitter account before, I had my first task of making my account completed. It took me a little while to figure out how to navigate around the page since I had never done it before, but soon enough I figured out how to follow Bistra and make my first tweet. Once I actually started "tweeting" I realized how different it was to blogging. When blogging, I can just ramble on and on and not have to worry about a character limit (which is makes blogging very good for me because I am a rambler). I feel as though "tweets" are more of just short bursts of feelings without explanation or reason, where as blogging describes your feelings and gives an explanation for things. I feel like "tweets" are so everyone knows what you're doing at every instance of your life, compared to blogging where readers are allowed to enter into your mind and can actually read enough to learn detailed information.
I created two separate lists on my Twitter account for the purpose of this class. I created a list for my classmates and a list for the organizations that I needed/chose to follow (CNN and PETA). I played around a little bit with the trends on my sidebar to see what everyone was looking at on Twitter. I thought it was pretty funny that Toddlers and Tiaras was one of the worldwide trends! I haven't chose to retweet anyone's tweet yet because I am timid and don't think I would ever send a post to everyone that I am following on Twitter. However, I have replied to people's tweets because I think it's a nice way to interact and makes you feel like you aren't tweeting to no one.
Response to Facebook:
After a little use, Twitter started to become really easy to navigate, just like Facebook. I have been using Facebook for years now, so Facebook comes really natural to me. The one thing that I had trouble with was linking Facebook to my wikispace page. I had to go into Facebook help to figure out how to insert the icon. I have always had a very private Facebook, I have all of my settings so that only friends are able to view anything that I post, see my wall, and view my pictures (at least, that's what I've aimed for). However, I still always have had a little doubt and worry that people are still able to access information that I don't want them to have access to. On a side note, I love how Facebook provides so many different options to protect your privacy. As a user, you are allowed to choose who is able to view your pictures, your interests, your biography, have access to your contact information, and who is able to see your family and your relationships. However, I do not like the fact that your profile picture, gender, networks, and username are available to everyone on the internet. I feel like this could lead to some issues especially since most everyone is under their school's network..couldn't this lead to some issues in stalking and unwanted people knowing information? I think that it also is a good thing that Facebook issues warnings out to people engaging in behavior deemed incorrect such as annoying or abusive, when opening applications not affiliated with Facebook and are taking access to your account information, and when trying to access content that has been marked as abusive.
I had never actually asked myself the question of how my status updates and my wall posts make me look as a person. I'm not really on Facebook that much anymore to play around with status updates, but I do write on people's wall and reply to them on my wall. My wall posts show that my birthday was yesterday, because about 165 people wished me a happy birthday. But other than that, my status updates show that I miss my boyfriend, love my friends, and work a ton. But other than that, I don't believe that my wall posts reveal anything bad, just that I work too much, use my iPhone to send updates and write on people's walls, and take way too many pictures. I think that this information could work both ways for me while applying for a jobs. I think it could work to my advantage due to the fact that it shows that I'm a hardworking employee and student. However, I think it could also work to my disadvantage because future employers may think that I love spending time with my friends too much and would never get work done. It also might be a disadvantage that since I do use my phone so much, they may think that I will always be on it and be distracted from my job at hand.
When I began to follow news organizations on Twitter and Facebook, I constantly found things on my news feeds regarding current news. The difference was that Twitter only provided short information in their tweets but provided a link to the full article where as Facebook provided the summary, a link, a picture, and a title. The homepage of the news station provided a feature section with the beginning of an article, a picture, and then a link to the full article. I believe that by putting news on Facebook and Twitter, people are allowed to participate more in responding and making news stories. Facebook and Twitter are sources of ambient journalism because users are now able to comment and participate in the news, rather than just having to read it in a newspaper.
Overall, I honestly don't know how Facebook and Twitter can be used as professional channels into my field. Since I am trying to get into Physical Therapy, and not many offices use computers with internet, the only possibility that I can think of is their ability for social networking and opening many doors to many colleagues that may be potential employers. I do believe that Facebook is a great utility to help remain in touch with past friends, which may in the end open up new doors of possibilities in the career that you are pursuing.
The organization that I am researching (PETA) uses both Facebook and Twitter to update stories of animal cruelty to keep on reminding the world that animals need to be helped. This constant reminder, I believe, will help people to want to help the animals more and help put a focus on the unethical treatment of animals.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wikispace
I thought setting up my wikispace page was rather easy, although it took a little time to figure out by playing with different settings. The site itself was very willing to help, and offered a lot of tools to make my wiki easy to set up.
I didn't put anything in my personal wiki about PETA (the organization I'm learning about for my wiki project); rather, I kept that information solely on my group's wiki. That way, everything will be in one place and I don't have to keep looking back and forth between the two.
My group kept our wiki very simple for this week. All three of us chose three basic categories to start researching and began from there. We individually wrote our information down in the wiki and our page started developing. I added a video to the end of the wiki because I saw that was an option and I was curious to see how that would go. Our organization (PETA) seems to have a lot of information on the internet, and I do not believe that it will be very difficult to develop its wiki page.
Overall, balancing class and work is difficult. I work two almost full time jobs and my life can get pretty hectic with just that. Adding this class onto it was a bit of a struggle for these first two weeks. But, I think that I'm getting the hang of it, and next week will be much easier. But otherwise, this coursework is what I expected, and I'm looking forward to the future assignments that we'll have on new "mediums."
I didn't put anything in my personal wiki about PETA (the organization I'm learning about for my wiki project); rather, I kept that information solely on my group's wiki. That way, everything will be in one place and I don't have to keep looking back and forth between the two.
My group kept our wiki very simple for this week. All three of us chose three basic categories to start researching and began from there. We individually wrote our information down in the wiki and our page started developing. I added a video to the end of the wiki because I saw that was an option and I was curious to see how that would go. Our organization (PETA) seems to have a lot of information on the internet, and I do not believe that it will be very difficult to develop its wiki page.
Overall, balancing class and work is difficult. I work two almost full time jobs and my life can get pretty hectic with just that. Adding this class onto it was a bit of a struggle for these first two weeks. But, I think that I'm getting the hang of it, and next week will be much easier. But otherwise, this coursework is what I expected, and I'm looking forward to the future assignments that we'll have on new "mediums."
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Learning-acquiring skills to blog
First, I want to introduce myself. My name is Cara Fowler, I am an Applied Exercise Science major at the University of New England, and my career goal is to become a physical therapist and help people that are suffering from pain that is unnecessary to become pain-free. I have a bubbly personality and I love to smile. If I had to choose one thing to keep forever, I would choose my friends and family because I have been blessed to have such wonderful people in my life that give so much and have shaped who I am today. I'm a hard-worker, and currently work at McDonalds, as a crew trainer, and Old Navy, as a sales floor associate.
I hope that this course will help me become more active on blogs, because I believe that they're a wonderful way to explore society and to get more in-sight to what is actually happening within communities.
Originally when I heard about this summer class, I didn't think that blogging would be difficult. However, I was mistaken. Setting up my account to this blog was very simple, but choosing a design and making it what I want was a little more difficult than I expected. The easy part of customizing this blog was describing myself--but I guess most everyone finds talking about themselves pretty easy..So, I chose to write a little bit about myself first. Next, I chose to conquer the more difficult task-designing a layout that suited me and choosing a picture to place on my profile. I decided to not make an avatar of myself, because I just wanted to make my life simple, even though I am not too keen on having my face on the internet. My original goal was to also keep the design simple simple, however, once I started the process I found so many interesting things that this site offers, and could hardly choose what I wanted to do. In the end, I finally chose a pattern that suits me-a fun and pink pattern that's really busy in order to keep you on your toes.I also chose to do three columns because my favorite number is three. I also think that the three columns allows the blog to be more spaced out and puts emphasis on my blog posts. I believe that the layout is one more thing that allows personalization to a blog, and will really make it your own.
Next on my to-do-list was to customize the privacy settings of my blog. I am a very firm believer that too much should not be put on the internet, which is why all information on my Facebook is private and why I chose to make this blog as private as possible as well. This is why I chose to not have my blog in Blogger.com's listings, to not have search engines find my blog, and to not allow visitors e-mail my post to other friends.
I believe that learning to blog will help me in my professional career by allowing me to keep in contact with other physical therapists. By doing so, I will be able to learn about how different PTs are using different exercises for different injuries. This will help me to be a better physical therapist because I will have a broader range of knowledge and will be allowed to learn from different colleagues rather than only the things I learned in school.
I hope that this course will help me become more active on blogs, because I believe that they're a wonderful way to explore society and to get more in-sight to what is actually happening within communities.
Originally when I heard about this summer class, I didn't think that blogging would be difficult. However, I was mistaken. Setting up my account to this blog was very simple, but choosing a design and making it what I want was a little more difficult than I expected. The easy part of customizing this blog was describing myself--but I guess most everyone finds talking about themselves pretty easy..So, I chose to write a little bit about myself first. Next, I chose to conquer the more difficult task-designing a layout that suited me and choosing a picture to place on my profile. I decided to not make an avatar of myself, because I just wanted to make my life simple, even though I am not too keen on having my face on the internet. My original goal was to also keep the design simple simple, however, once I started the process I found so many interesting things that this site offers, and could hardly choose what I wanted to do. In the end, I finally chose a pattern that suits me-a fun and pink pattern that's really busy in order to keep you on your toes.I also chose to do three columns because my favorite number is three. I also think that the three columns allows the blog to be more spaced out and puts emphasis on my blog posts. I believe that the layout is one more thing that allows personalization to a blog, and will really make it your own.
Next on my to-do-list was to customize the privacy settings of my blog. I am a very firm believer that too much should not be put on the internet, which is why all information on my Facebook is private and why I chose to make this blog as private as possible as well. This is why I chose to not have my blog in Blogger.com's listings, to not have search engines find my blog, and to not allow visitors e-mail my post to other friends.
I believe that learning to blog will help me in my professional career by allowing me to keep in contact with other physical therapists. By doing so, I will be able to learn about how different PTs are using different exercises for different injuries. This will help me to be a better physical therapist because I will have a broader range of knowledge and will be allowed to learn from different colleagues rather than only the things I learned in school.
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