An Eye-Opening Experience

I came into this class, read that the class would be focused on the use of social media for communication and immediately became skeptical of the concept. I thought I already knew everything there was to know about social media and how it was used to communicate. I thought I would breeze through the class with no issues but I was very, very wrong. I came into the class believing that social media was for catching up with your friends online, posting silly comments about your daily activities and thoughts; generally, I thought social media was just a medium for people to be self-indulging. From where did I get this idea? Who planted this idea in my head? I’m not sure but I have a feeling it was my own prejudices towards social media and my limited knowledge about social media that led me to be so narrow minded.

Hull, D. (2009). PLoS: The Public Library of Science

 [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.

flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/3928195989/

This class forced me to be open minded and I really appreciate that. In the very first week we were asked to open a Twitter account and start a blog, two things I’d never touched before this class. This was only the beginning. Every class after that I was being informed of some type of social media that I’d never heard of before such as the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Blog. Out of all the sites I was introduced to, I think this particular site had the largest impact on me. In class we were directed to a blog called Neurotribes which integrates science and culture. They have blog posts about many different topics but they also have a recently, reoccurring theme on Autism where they provide their views on how society is handling (or not handling) this topic. This particular blog has nothing to do with the author’s daily activities or minute-to-minute updates on their every move. This blog has everything to do with important scientific topics that are currently circulating our society. I had never known about the PLoS blog and yet upon entering this class I thought I knew it all. I was so wrong!

Once our class got to the topic of verbal communication, speeches, and presentation skills I (again) had the nerve to think I already knew everything there was to giving a great speech or presentation. You would think by this time I would have clued in not to be so presumptuous, but no, not yet. MC, a TA, opened my eyes to an entirely different way to give a speech or presentation. She spoke about the amount of information that should go on a slide as well as the importance of fonts and colors and the effects your choice can have on your audience. MC went in-depth and highlighted quite a few things I’d never given a thought. Once MC was finished her presentations I was pretty humbled by my lack of knowledge in general. I decided it was time to listen and learn.

From that point on I sat in class and learned as much as I could about the uses of different social mediums. I no longer think I know it all when it comes to using social media and I no longer believe that social media is a vacuum for self-indulgence. Yes, chatting with friends and posting updates about daily activities is one aspect of social media but, it’s not the beginning and end. Social media is used in so many aspects of business, science and culture. Our class dabbled in as much as we could in the time we had and I think it did a pretty good job. One of the biggest appreciations I have for this class was the integration of CSL. As I mentioned in my previous post, CSL gave me the opportunity to apply what I learned in this class in the community. Being able to do this further emphasized the uses of social media and opened my mind that much more. Thanks to ALES 204 for asking me to do things I wouldn’t have attempted on my own and educating me way more than I thought it could.

Finally, check out Marisa’s blog for her experience with this class.

Blogs I’ve commented on include

Kendra’s ALES 204 Blog

The Bacon Enthusiast

Social Media

Welcome

Ales 204 – Evelyn’s Blog

Green Hectares - Community Service Learning Placement

Kovacs, S. (2009). Communicate! [Photograph]. Retrieved 

from http://www.flickr.com/photos/rekasara/5535507597/

My placement with Green Hectares was a great learning experience, possibly more than I originally thought. Community Service Learning (CSL) aims to integrate learning done in classrooms with experiences in the community. My experience with CSL demonstrated this very well. Many aspects of communication I learned about in ALES 204 I integrated into my project. My placement did challenge me in many ways such as learning to use online communication tools, learning to sift through the multitudes of information on the web to find relevant and useful resources and improving my verbal communication skills. Thankfully, many of the challenges I faced in my placement were made easier by different lectures I had in ALES 204. Very early in the semester our class taught us how to use social media sites professionally as well as to search for important, relevant and reliable material. We were taught to be critically literate! This came into great use during my placement.

My coordinator, partner and I used Basecamp to communicate and bring the project together. Basecamp is an online tool used by companies to manage projects and it allows different people to collaborate on projects in progress. Although we did not look at Basecamp in our class, we did talk about the many benefits of coordinating online and how companies have been pushing for more and more online content. Basecamp is just one more way in which the online department of companies is growing. Through Basecamp we were able to work on our CSL project on our own time, in our own spaces and everyone was able to watch the project progress every step of the way. I think this way of doing the project was very valuable since university students often have packed schedules which can make it hard to do projects in groups and in person. Green Hectares also takes advantage of Facebook, Twitter, and their own website. Their website offers a great deal of information about the organization, it’s purpose and how to get involved. Their Facebook page is mostly used to share different videos, blogs and articles about agriculture, agricultural business, communication, presenting ideas and extra tidbits of information about themselves. Finally, their Twitter account offers many different links to websites designed to educate people on how to effectively communicate and pitch their ideas. This aspect was the core of our project.

Sparklefish (2006). Group work [Photograph]. 

       Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/

       38795936@N00/308014588/

Our project focused on traditional styles of communication presented through modern communication forms. We developed a tip sheet for entrepreneurs consisting of 5 points centered on in-person communication (confident, effective public speaking and presentation tools) and all points were supplemented with online resources. We searched for online resources very carefully, selecting only those that were relevant to our points and those that came from reliable resources. In our ALES 204 class we learned how to sift through information on the internet, be critical of what we find and to always dig deeper into resources we think we’ll use. I used these skills when searching for online resources to supplement my points. These points are meant to help agricultural entrepreneurs develop and present their ideas to experts but the points are also broad enough to help all aspiring entrepreneurs. I won’t give too much away here, you’ll have to watch our Pecha Kucha presentation on April 13^th in our ALES 204 class!

CSL is a very valuable aspect of the ALES 204 class and I found the project really allowed me to apply my learning to a real life experience. Had I not done the CSL portion of the class I know I would still be wondering exactly how I’d used my ALES 204 knowledge. 

In response to my last post about the Edmonton Humane Society I'd like to direct you to Lauren's blog which has a great post about Dogs with Wings (a group I've mentioned before) and how they've helped our community, just like the EHS.

Spotlight: Edmonton Humane Society

Kwan, P. (2007). Adopt a Pet, Live Longer!
[Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.
flickr.com/photos/sayheypatrick/1140020132/ 

For blog of my choice I’ve decided to focus on the Edmonton Humane Society (EHS), a registered charity that works to prevent cruelty to animals as well as find forever homes for animals in their care. The Edmonton Humane Society was first organized in 1907 as a welfare educator and then in 1910 it was established as a nonprofit organization working for the welfare of animals. The EHS has gone to great lengths to integrate themselves into the available online social media sites in order to get their message out to Edmontonians, Albertans and potentially all of Canada.

Salt Lake County Animal Shelter/Services (2010). Pit Bull

Hiking - Faulein ID# A331920 [Photograph]. Retrieved

from http://www.flickr.com/photos/maplegirlie/4411979229/

The EHS has an incredibly well developed, easy to navigate and informative web site. The site offers a side bar with bright easy to read headings for easy navigation. As we’ve learned in class, font choice is crucial when writing blogs or developing websites. All of the headings offer a large amount of information about adoption, donations, programs and services (such as doggie daycare), education on animal welfare and much more.  The website also has a link to their blog which offers viewers even more in depth knowledge into current issues and events occurring in the domestic pet world. An example is a blog post about pit bulls. This post is in response to the municipal government reviewing restrictions on pit bulls. The Humane Society points out that restrictions on certain breeds may result in unregistered dogs leading to even more problems. An informative web page is incredibly useful to a business or nonprofit organization as it encourages repeat business. People who can easily navigate a website and find information are more likely to return to that website and suggest it to others. As well, the EHS website has a “.com” domain which establishes it as a professional, stand alone website as opposed to if it were “.blogspot.com”. This may be noticed by website viewers and could add credibility to the website. As we’ve learned in class it is very important to remain professional and to have professional pages on several different social media sites to represent you. Potential employers (or pet adopters) will be able to judge professionalism based upon how well a web page, blog, etc. is used. 

The EHS has expanded to other uses of social media including Facebook and Twitter. Through the sites the EHS has been able to integrate themselves into the everyday lives of Edmontonians. Their Facebook page encourages people to share stories about their pets as well as comment on questions the EHS proposes. The page is also used to feature events occurring around the city and feature certain adoptable animals. Their twitter account @EdmontonHumane offers the most up-to-date information on the society. This site is also used to highlight pictures of animals and stimulate discussions about different topics. Through these sites the EHS has been able to feature certain animals which could potentially diversify the viewers they have to their site. I think it’s a great business strategy for an organization to be involved in Facebook and Twitter since the population uses these sites heavily. By having numerous tweets or posts per day the EHS stays in the forefront of people’s mind. By encouraging people to comment and share their stories the EHS becomes more personal and helps people to connect with their cause. They are also able to better disseminate information about adoptable pets by having feature pets on each site.

The EHS has come a long way from 1907. While they still maintain their nonprofit status and work for the prevention of cruelty to animals they, through their uses of social media, have been able to connect to Edmontonians like never before. This has been a great business strategy that can only continue to help them in the future. 

Another student in this class, Becky, has an interesting wiki article about double muscling in cattle and she also speaks about the uses of wikipedia, another online tool.

Professional Pages for Professional People

Wheeler, J. (2012). Professional Page [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/75258161@N03/7068201739/in/photostream 

This week's adventure involved creating a professional Facebook page for myself. I think it is very important these days to have a professional page somewhere on the Internet because the Internet has become our main form of communication. This means that potential employers (who probably use the Internet just as much as we do) could be tempted to search up our forms of social media (ie. Twitter and Facebook accounts etc.). The problem with this situation is that personally, I do not monitor my Facebook account to ensure it remains professional. I look at my Facebook account as being my place to express who I am and have fun with what I’m doing. I do not have my personal Facebook account to present myself to potential employers. Therefore, if I’m not ensuring my personal social media accounts are professional then the chances are that many other people aren’t doing it either. Therefore potential employers might be taking a peek into your personal life without boundaries and may come to judge you on criteria not pertinent to the job. So how do we fix this situation? We have professional pages we can direct potential employers towards. This way we are able to have an online page where we pay attention to what is posted and ensure the page remains professional. This is what the employer needs to see. Our private and social lives stay separate from our professional life, just as they would have been before the Internet was around.

What do we put into a professional page? Well a professional page is essentially the online version of your resume. However, on the Internet we can make it that much more interactive. By having links to other professional pages we may have allows a viewer to get a more complete picture of you. As well, by adding links to organizations in which you’re involved (as I did with Dogs with Wings and Green Hectares, two volunteer positions I’ve held/hold), you allow viewers to look into the organizations themselves and learn more about them. Having a professional page does not mean you can’t let your personality through. Adding pictures with professional content help to further personalize the page.

Personally, my new professional Facebook page will be my way to show potential employers my focus on an animal health related career. In it I’ve included the volunteer positions I’ve held, all of which are animal or agriculture related. I’ve given a work history as well as transferrable skills I possess. As previously mentioned, I included links to the organizations I worked with as well as some information on those organizations. This way I can show potential employers I don’t only promote myself, I promote the organizations I work for as well! I also included a few of the awards I've received throughout my university career which could help show employers that my efforts have been recognized by the academic world.

Kendra is also interested in an animal health related career so check out her blog here

My First Ever Blog Post!

Hi Everyone! I'm Jenn and I'm currently majoring in pre-veterinary medicine in the Agriculture BSc. I would really like to go on to become a veterinarian in the near future! Being an aspiring vet, I absolutely love dogs. Here is one of the dogs I've had in my life:

Wheeler, J. (2011). Tank [Photograph]. Retrieved from

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/75258161@N03/7006676961/ 

His name was Tank and he was a purebred Maltese weighing about 7 or 8 pounds. Unfortunately he recently passed away but he was a great dog of 14 years!

Currently communication has played a huge role in my life. Working to become a veterinarian is not easy and involves getting your foot into the door with other veterinarians, barns, clinics etc. However, social media as a form of communication has not had such a major role. Since I have never had a blog or a twitter account I’ve relied on my verbal communication skills thus far. However, in future work as a veterinarian, social media as a form of communication will become huge! Twitter and Facebook will be perfect forms of advertisement for veterinarian services. As well, a webpage for a clinic or blog would allow clients to read up on the clinic and become familiar with services offered and even pictures of the actual facility.

Communication is important all the time! In 2012 having your own designated spot in the world wide web is the perfect way to get yourself and your message out to potential employers. It’s also the perfect way to keep in touch with friends and families in other cities, countries or even just the next block over. Especially in this day and age everyone is busier than ever and sometimes all we have time for is checking our facebook page or a twitter update.

So, how will I use social media for communication here and now? Well I’ve been placed (by the community service learning program at the U of A) with Green Hectares which is a non-profit organization run by people with passion for agriculture. They are working towards bringing agriculture back to the forefront of people’s minds. I’m going to help them communicate their message to possible candidates for their program. I’m not too sure yet what that will entail but I’ll keep you posted! Here is a picture from their website.

Green Hectares. (2012). Growing Roots [Image]. Retrieved from http://greenhectaresonline.com/

I know Jami from this class who is also working towards becoming a vet, check out her blog!