Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #3

This weeks activities with feedly readers have been great! in just a few steps I've learned so much and have gotten acquainted with the tool very quickly. Many of my subscriptions deal with education, specifically for college students. One that I have been paying most attention to is the 'Living a Successful College Life' blog. In this blog it discussed how it is very easy for us students to feel overwhelmed and stressed but t in order to overcome such behaviors, we should help our minds by simply doing the tasks we have to do. The author expresses that "brain-dumping" is probably the best way to keep students from feeling overwhelmed. At the same time, students should "relax & START", do the work little by little and before you know it majority of the tasks are done and your stress free. As a student I know this is one thing that I struggle with at times that is why I strongly encourage students of this class to follow this blog, it will be beneficial in your studies.

Permalink: http://studysuccessful.com/start/

RSS Feed Readers contribute to my work in building knowledge about digital literacy, responsibility, and citizenship. This is because in today's media rich environments we must expand our knowledge, values and most importantly critical thinking which is central to both digital and media literacy. There are tons of available resources online and the RSS Feeds are a great way to get these resources on just one website. This not only allows learners to collect and organize their feeds, but to also discover much about the world and others thoughts on certain topics.

Additionally, in terms of digital citizenship RSS Feeds conveniently and consistently displays many news articles and blog posts making it easy for me to see what popular topics are being discussed daily. Through these posts I am able to grab a sense of what the authors are like and if I click on relating topics of that author I am able to see even more things they have written. All this to say, it that it is important to keep a positive digital citizenship in order for bloggers to have returning readers and followers. RSS Feeds have helped me to personalize my own educational needs. It helps me to organize my thoughts and interests that best matches my learning style.

Moving on, RSS Feeds are aggregate tools that help you to be organized with the way you learn. It is a tool meant to bring you educational convenience by providing users with the option to categorize specific tools otherwise known as "subscription tools". On my PLE diagram I have categories such as collaborate, organize, and aggregate, on my PLE I would place RSS Feeds in the organization category being that I have categories on my RSS Feed that correspond with those on my PLE.

As I continue using my RSS Feed reader, I hope to learn a lot of new things that I can apply to my personal experiences and share them with other readers!

My Experience with RSS Feeds

My first time using RSS feeds and it's really interesting. One thing I found enjoying to read was an article I subscrubed to from THESTAR. The article just talks about how father's gain 'baby-weight' without even realizing it at times and ways to not forget about their physicality when caught up in 'daddy' stuff. I like how it shows a preview of each article to help you decide which ones are worth reading. Additionally, I really like how simple it is to use, when I look at it, it reminds me of the widgets I have on my phone. Really cool tool!
http://www.thestar.com/life/parent/2016/01/07/dads-have-post-baby-weight-anxiety-too.html

Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #2

Hello again!

To jump right into it, I'm first going to discuss my thoughts on PLE/PLN.

At first, I thought PLE was an acronym for (P)precise (L)learning (E)evaluation. I don't know why but I just thought it made sense being that this is an online learning course. Anyway, after figuring out that I was all the way off, I learned a few valuable things; the first obvious one being that PLE actually stands for (P)personal (L)learning (E)environment. Upon learning this, I did some more readings and understood that it is a system that we learners use to aid, control and manage the way we learn. I also learned that according to digital study skills article, a PLE can pretty much be anything, that there is no specific way to have it but to your own liking. I think PLE's are a great way to get organized and stay organized especially for post secondary students because it is a brilliant way to help them

1) Set their OWN goals

2) Manage their learning, and

3) Communicate with others while in the process of learning

Addo, J. (CC) 2016.

Addo, J. (CC) 2016.

This week we were asked to create our own PLE diagrams and compare them to the other resources that was provided. My PLE (shown below) is based on the learning tools that I am currently, and majority of the time am always, using when on my laptop or phone. I used five different categories, similar to the one in MALAN'S Prezi, to explain my tools. However, when I looked at MALAN'S Prezi and my own and compared it to Drexler's 2010 diagram I noticed that she included A LOT! more detail. As Scott Leslie described in his analysis, Drexler incorporated all the orientations that strengthened her diagram. I realized that in order for my diagram to be just as compelling I have to incorporate categories that "show how information and connections can flow between tools and people in their networks" and also have a hybrid orientation - according to Leslie "For me these are typically the richest diagrams in that they depict PLE as dynamic processes in which tools and resources have uses and flow into and out of systems and conversations."

Moving forward, I made a word cloud using the 'Wordle' word cloud tool. This was a fun activity where I learned that it counts the number of times a word was used and makes it larger with respect to the frequency of use. For example the word 'digital' was most frequently used in my blog post last week, hence, it's the biggest word in my word cloud. Also, other words like 'footprint', 'online', 'readers' etc. were frequently used. Wordle is a good website and very user friendly!

Personal: In 5-10 years from now I hope to see myself graduated from Brock and completed my MBA. I hope to be working in a hospital or bank as an HR assistant whilst working my way to becoming an HR manager. I have a lot of hope in myself and know that I can get to that point. Everyday I stop and think about my future because it's exciting and makes me want to work harder to be able to get where I want to be.

Learning: In order for me to reach that point of my life, I need to learn. I believe that my communication skills will definitely help with that. The more I practice my writing and giving formal presentations the better I become. Not only that, but the courses I am taking here at Brock University are also factors that play into my success for the future. Tools such as networking, collaborating, and resources will also help.

Environment: To better meet my learning needs I must change my environment to a strictly learning environment only. This way I can become a stronger independent learner and my focus will be placed on the positive aspects of learning.

Habits: By now I know that in order to have effective learning I need to disengage in bad habits. For instance, I know I get easily distracted and persuaded into doing other things besides school work when I know if I get it done earlier I'll have enough time to do the other things I want to do. Instead, I do the unnecessary things and my work is left to the last minute. I've tried balancing the two but that approach doesn't work, However, recently I have found that if I just do the work first then reward myself after, I have enough time to relax or go out with friends, which is a better way to help me stay on top of my work.

Week 1 - Introduction

Introduction

Hello!
My name is Jacqueline Addo. I am currently in my second year of post-secondary education and so far, I am loving it! On my spare time, which is hardly ever ;), I enjoy watching my recent favorite t.v. show called “Power” and I also like to try new cooking recipes. This is my first online digital learning course, therefore, I hope to broaden my technological skills. As a digital citizen, I am ready to learn all I need to know about digital contexts. I am very excited to have created this blog and hope to not only share my thoughts on specific topics but to also inspire my readers that visit my page to think about certain issues/ topics differently. 

The main purpose of this blog is to have a number of reader’s engaging in my content; to me, if I can get a number of readers engaged it gives me the opportunity to satisfy other objectives due to the attention being given. Additionally, I would like for my blogs to be of useful information for readers and to bring in more readers and even other bloggers (in this class), and finally for them to revisit my page. Through blogging, I hope to connect with each reader on various topics, giving information, as previously stated, and share tips.

Reflection

So it's 11:11 p.m. meaning that the day's pretty much done and I've just about completed all assignments that I have due for next week. At first the week started off pretty slow but after Wednesday it came to an end so quickly. I've learned a lot this week, but the one thing that really struck me was the video of the "Digital Dossier.” To begin with, I had no clue of what it was but after watching the video, I not only gained knowledge on something important, but I now have it in the back of my mind whenever I’m using technology. To resume, the video explains how our digital dossier is the accumulation of our digital tracks we leave behind. I was surprised to learn that it stems from the time we are in our mother’s womb and continues as we enter certain stages of life. This video had me thinking of the amount of “tracks” I’ve used and not even being made aware of them. What is even more incredible is that even when we die our digital dossier is still alive and ongoing do to the interactions family members have with the internet. When children, friends, parents, extended family members, etc. share photos online, it is this activity that keeps the digital dossier alive. This was a very eye-opening topic. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79IYZVYIVLA

Report

Link - https://jessiehmann.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/df2.jpg

Furthermore, our digital footprint was also looked at this week. A digital footprint is the trail, traces or “footprint” people leave online. It is the transmission of emails, videos, photos, attachments, etc. all of which are traces of personal information of ourselves we make available to others. In my opinion, we all need a digital footprint, it is the picture that paints who we are. Of course there are precautions we must make in order to be safe and avoid unfortunate events such as the use of others information. One way I try to avoid such problems is by limiting my use of online activity in regards to social media as it relates to my privacy and safety. I find this to be one of the strongest ways to manage my digital footprint while being able to have fun and feel safe online.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro_LlRg8rGg