To blog or not to blog ...

Now you've blogged for 2+ months. Depending on who you are, you've embraced it, struggled with it, been excited by it, been bored by it, felt it was a chore, had a million thoughts about what to blog ... and maybe you've experienced all of these sentiments. Now that you've had this experience, it's a great time for us to think about what it means to blog. A blog is a platform. It is a place to showcase one's voice and vision. To blog is to lead the charge in one small corner of the internet. It is proactive rather than reactive -- the exact opposite of a discussion forum, where instructors post questions and studnets respond. A blog can document a student's journey through a course in a way that discussion boards do not. Each blogger owns their own space, and made choices about what is posted there. No matter how you feel about blogging, I encourage you to take this opportunity to review your blog, and your journey. You may never blog again, and that is fine. Blogging is not an activity that everyone enjoys. You may find that you blog in the future, but in an entirely different genre. Or you may just keep blogging. Whatever you do will reflect your interests, comfort, and needs ... and no matter what you do in the future, you will be able to say that for at least a little while you were a blogger. Signed, A fellow blogger

A week of challenges: The weekend challenge

 We've had a week of challenges, and now the finale:

The Challenge Challenge!

I sure hope a lot of you undertake this challenge!

Step 1. Come up with an idea for a challenge! Get it all set up. Use canva.com to create a challenge graphic. It is an AWESOME tool. It's not a social media tool, but it is a social media helper tool. I use it for all of the challenge graphics in this class, canvas banners, etc.

Step 2. Share your challenge. Post it on Twitter, Instagram, your blog, etc. We can get it posted on this blog, too (a good idea to get folks involved -- just coordinate with Vanessa and/or Daeun). 

Step 3. (optional) Design a badge for your challenge. Coordinate with Daeun and she'll award it in badgelist.

A week of challenges: Day 5

I'm not sure how this challenge will work -- it's a first for me -- but I wanted to try it. If the technology doesn't work, well ... we'll learn something all the same.

Let's play with collaborative playlists!

 It's Friday. Almost the weekend. Do you need some good summer tunes for the weekend?

I started a playlist for some good summer tunes. 
Add to my spotify playlist.

I started the playlist with Vacation by the Go-Go's. Yes, I am a child of the 80s, and this song always makes me think of summer.

I also dropped Manic Monday on there by The Bangles. I feel like that's the song that should end this playlist. It's always a Manic Monday after a fun summer weekend, right?

Please add some songs in the middle.

And if you want to do the challenge part and earn a badge, here's your task:

1. Add to my playlist (fingers crossed that this works, technology-wise) and comment below about what you added and why you chose that song.

2. Create your own collaborative playlist (you can choose whatever tool you want, I picked spotify because that's the music service I most frequently use)

3. Write a blog post about your playlist (kind of like the bit I wrote above about my collaborative playlist) and invite us to add to it. 

Get creative with it! I've seen people create playlists to go along with books, for special events, etc. I even tried to start one with social media songs, but I didn't get too deep there (and I was struggling to find songs). If you want to add to that one, it's here.

A week of challenges: Day 4

 Today I bring you the #EME6414 Word Cloud Challenge. A retro challenge of sorts.

Find an online word cloud tool and build a word cloud based on your tweets or perhaps even a hashtag, blog post, or some other body of text that interests you. 

Save the end result and:

1. share it to the class hashtag on Twitter and/or Instagram. 

2. post it to your blog, along with a post about how you might use word clouds generated from social media sources to support learning and/or performance. 

Here's one I created for my tweets using https://floom.app/service/twitter-wrapped:

I love that "challenge" showed up big and in the center.

Here's another from https://www.wordclouds.com/

The source material is this blog.

Any ideas how you might use one of these word clouds to support learning or performance?

A Week of Challenges: Day 3

  Let's play with Miro!

The challenge has two parts.

1. Visit the miro board I created for this class and add something to it.

2. Create your own miro board that depicts some part of your EME6414 journey and link it to the board that I created.

Link your own board? Get a badge!!!

Note that there's a little bit of a learning curve with miro, and you may find yourself needing to zoom in and out to see what you want and change perspective (the zoom function is on the bottom right). 

Also, note how I have set up the space to begin. I've left a few stickies on there. Also an image and an emoji. Since taking the above screen shot, I even added a link (just back to the course blog) embedded on a sticky to provide an example of sharing a link. It helps learners to have an example rather than a blank screen, doesn't it?

A week of challenges: Challenge 2

 Your third challenge? It's the make-it-up challenge.

Sometimes you want to emulate social media, but not actually post there. Well ... there are tools to help with that, too. 

In this fun challenge, dream up a reason to make up a fake tweet, Instagram post, or Facebook account. Maybe you want to imagine what a historical figure (long dead) or character from a novel would say if they tweeted. Get creative with it. Even make up a dialogue!

Generate your fake tweets/posts/whatever, and then share them in a blog post. Comment here if you did it and share the link.

Some resources to help:

• https://tweetfull.com/blog/fake-tweet-generator/
• https://generatestatus.com/generate-fake-instagram-post/
• https://www.classtools.net/FB/home-page

A week of challenges: Challenge 1

 Let's kick off Week 10 with a week of challenges! 

Challenge 1: Google Maps

Visit the google map I created for you. 

Note that there are TWO layers to it. Contribute at least one pin to each layer. I recommend adding your name like I did in my examples so we know you've been there and what pins you shared.

Then create your own map and share it in a blog post. Encourage the rest of us to drop pins on us. 

Comment here if you have completed the challenge and give the link to your blog post so folks will wander over.

Do we have some energy for some challenges?

Hope so! I think that for Week 10 I'd like to kick off a week of challenges.

I'll drop a new one each day. First is queued up for Monday (12 am).

These will be our last challenges for the course. Consider them a way to get some energy around trying new things ... and if you don't have energy for them right now, they're always options for a rainy day.

Google Maps

 One of our tools for next week is Google Maps. You probably use it all the time, but have you REALLY used it? Have you created a map? Have you engaged others in participatory map making?

It’s surprisingly easy.

Here’s a map I created when ISLT was doing a faculty search during COVID. We couldn’t bring our candidates to campus, and they had to make decision about whether they wanted to move here, sight unseen. I created the map and then asked my colleagues and some of the students to contribute pins to the map. What do you think?

Hey, Threads, how’s it going?

 Glad you asked.

Found myself playing the role of “passenger” again today (and thus I spend too much time on my phone and iPad, doing things that can be done easily on those devices), so I cranked up Threads. 

Maybe this Thread sums things up?

Is that Kourtney Kardashian at the top? (See her expanded thread below)

And is the other person some sort of celeb? So not my world.

Anyway, the response to KK indicate that everyone wonders what they’re doing here.

However, I was pleasantly surprised when I first logged in to find that the top items on the feed were a good match for me. Basically, they were accounts for news sources I regularly read. That was nice.

Beyond that, I’ve no idea when or why I would return, except to be able to report back to y’all about the great social experiment. 

To be fair, every tool has to start somewhere.

Is anyone else on there with me?

Badge Awarded!

Hello class!

This is Daeun. I've just awarded the badges for the challenges from Weeks 4-8. Check out the class Badgr page if you haven't already.

                  

Here is the list of the awarded badges:

Week 4

• Social Bookmarker (Diigo challenge)

Weeks 5-7 (Ultimate Challenge)

• Ultimate Challenge Winner: Christy
• Ultimate Challenge Finalists: Gabrielle, Young, Megan

• Twitter days of the week
• Pin Creator
• Vision Board
• Twitter Chat
• Digital Detox
• Collaborative Author (Flampad challenge - Easter Egg)
• Story Creator (Stories for School challenge)
• Goodreads
• Fiction Reader (social media fiction challenge - Easter Egg)
• Collaborative Concept Map
• Blog Makeover

Week 8

• Recreate Art 
• Instagram Days of the Week

I manually tracked your challenge completions, so there might be some mistakes. If you haven't received a badge for the challenge you completed, please email me (dj19@fsu.edu) 

Have a great rest of the week! :) 

Daeun

The moments when you most need to be connected

 Today is a difficult day for me. Yesterday was, too. I feel helpless as I sit back and watch my hometown devastated by flood. Making this experience all the more surreal, I was JUST THERE for 2 weeks, and drove home this past weekend. I apparently just dodged the beginning of the rains, making it home safely as Sunday tumbled into Monday. I am still exhausted from the long drive. Exhaustion and sadness do not go together well.

What does this have to do with social media? 

In this moment, I am so grateful for the connection and crowdsourced knowledge. It's not like major media outlets are right there in Montpelier to capture it all. However, the locals and friends of friends are providing updates online.

Last week I watched the 3rd of July parade on Main Street. Here's Bernie! He's a Vermont institution.

Today, I watched social media and captured the flooded views of Main Street. The photo in this tweet is from the same part of Main Street, but taken from the other side of the street.

 

VT 🇺🇸 Montpelier resident Lynnea Timpone paddle boards at the intersection of Main Street and East State Street on July 11, 2023 in Montpelier, Vermont.
📸 Kylie Cooper / AFP pic.twitter.com/kBG8ie6tWU

— Antoine D ☭ (@AD1968F) July 11, 2023

I just bought books in this store: 

A piece of my heart will always be in Montpelier, and the rest is breaking. Stay safe all of you VCFA lovelies. pic.twitter.com/Dxp0GNqga7

— Jacqui Castle (@JCastleWrites) July 12, 2023

On Twitter and Instagram, I see the devastation of places that hold so many memories for me. 

I feel the need to be connected. My mother, sisters, our husbands, and I have texted each other all day with images and videos found on social media, through our different networks. We've compiled the information, shared stories from our respective friends, and shared our sorrow. We were all together there last week, and it was sunny and lovely. Now the road to the place where we picked strawberries on the 4th is washed out. The parade route is traversed by kayaks. The State House steps where we watched fireworks are partially immersed. My mother can't get to town, not on any of the routes. She is safe, but the water is everywhere. 

I spent a few minutes thinking about how we would experience this event without social media. Would I have been aware of it as it unfolded? Would my mother have called to tell me? Would she know as much as she does about which roads are out and where the damage is? I think social media has helped people better manage and survive during this difficult time. (And now I think of hurricanes -- and how social media has helped keep the info flowing then, too.)

Threads

 Well, well, well. Don’t we have some exciting stuff going on this summer?

Several years ago we had the launch of G+ during summer — a new playground for the EME6414 class (although the rollout was uneven, so not everyone could play).

And this year we have Threads, which comes to us from Meta and is tied to your Instagram account.

I read about Threads this past week. 

[CNN story that gives a decent overview: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/06/tech/instagram-threads-app-explained/index.html ]

[The kind of stories I’ve been seeing that are just cracking me up, because oh the drama!: https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-calls-mark-zuckerberg-a-cuck-as-threads-nears-100m-users]

I debated if I really wanted to try another tool right now, especially one that is being compared to Twitter, which kind of exhausts me IYKWIM.

Well, reader, I took the plunge:

I signed up. At the last minute I opted to use my EME6414 Insta account and not my personal one. I figured that would make it easier for y’all to find me on there if you wanted to interact, and it would give me time to think about who or what (or IF) I want to be on there as me. 

Account initialized and … within about .5 seconds I regretted my choice to sign up. I was immediately presented with a screen that looked like any other social media feed, filled with posts from people I don’t know. And they were crude posts, my friends. Including dick jokes, solicitations, and an image of a woman sitting atop a flying eggplant. First impressions …

So, I pondered whether or not Threads will become a pseudo porn hub. I countered the thought with the knowledge that it’s new, the porn industry pioneered most online technologies (ask me about my days working in VR/head mounted displays in the 1990s), and maybe I need to find my peeps and tailor my feed.

I searched for “teaching” and found … not what I wanted, really.

Then I searched for “FSU” and found some of the regular FSU accounts.

The COE is on there already! I liked their first post. So did the FSU business school. Seems they both got right on there and are trying to figure out how they’ll use this space.

And then I decided to really leave my own mark, and write my first post. Here it is:

So, what happens next?

An open love letter to Padlet

 Dear Padlet,

I hope this is not to forward of me, but: I love you.

I did not expect to love you. It was not love at first sight. Not even close. When I first met you, I was introduced by a few enthusiasts over the course of a year. You reminded me of the stickies feature on my computer, which I used at the time, but I didn’t feel a strong need for yet another tool just to facilitate public sticky notes. I was okay with just defaulting back to fairly linear/hierarchical discussion board posts for sharing. And I really love comments and threading, which wasn’t really your thing at all.

And then you grew, and I grew and here we are.

I dabbled here and there, but when the pandemic came around I spent more time playing with a variety of tools and there was a spark. I got some ideas. I kept putting you to the test in different contexts, and as long as I could beckon others to contribute, things were great.

Shall I share some of what I love? Some of what you have helped me accomplish?

I love the ability to organize content. To share content. And to have other people share and comment on content. 

Take a look at this! It’s the “base” Padlet I created for a class! I used a shelf format, with a week by week layout. Each week I was able to link in resources that we would use in class and interaction spaces for class activities and homework (including other Padlets). I controlled the base Padlet structure, but set it so students could add resources to a given week as well. Everyone could comment and like, too. The sub-Padlets, set up for activities, could be set up in a variety of formats and ways. I remember doing a timeline activity, for example. Oh, and if I planned something for one week and we didn’t get to it? I could just cascade it to the next week’s shelf with a simple click and drag.

I also love the ability to share so many different media types and sources in one spot, along with a title and annotated commentary. Text! Images! Videos! Web sites, including other interactive tools — anything with a URL works! Even VoiceThreads! I mean, you can even embed from Spotify or record quick videos on your webcam. 

Padlet, you have encouraged me and my students to create and share in a variety of ways. You may not be the best tool for carrying on in-depth discussion, but that’s okay! We have threaded discussion boards for that, and I can even link them directly to you! 

You are my center. You are my hub. You keep developing in new ways. Just this summer I found your new nested templates (sections and subsections!) and greater ability to control the order of posts. You let me copy and move items between Padlets. You have become so flexible and user friendly.

So, it’s me and you … and my students! You welcome them in and make it so simple for them to share, curate, create. After years of frustration with trying to get students to find and post resources on discussion boards (students will share, but as sharing interfaces go, d-boards get clunky and make it difficult to order and re-order and save and like), I finally have an option that feels more organic and visual than a series of threaded text-boxes. 

Sigh. I love you, Padlet.

Sincerely,

Vanessa

A world without phones (a micro digital detox story)

Inspired by your digital detox stories, I'll share one of mine.

A week ago (or two? so hard to recall), I was in Montreal for a conference. During the conference I was on my phone a lot, trying to keep tabs on all of you, and my other class, and life at home, and things happening elsewhere at the conference (because of course we all gather together and then tweet about it or gather on Whova). 

But then, on my last day there, I played hooky for the afternoon. I went here: https://botabota.ca/ 

Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

It's a spa, mostly on a boat with adjoining gardens and pools. They have a water circuit -- multiple steam rooms, saunas, pools of all temperatures, and relaxing spaces with swinging chairs, bean bags, etc.

I booked a 3 hour circuit and a 1 hour massage. It was a brief digital detox while there, but it was an absolute one. Those 4 hours were powerful.

When you walk in, you are immediately presented with 2 rules:

1. no phones
2. no talking (unless in the garden, where you still must be quiet.

The atmosphere is chill. There is spa music playing and aromatherapy all around.

I immediately settled into the silence, and the afternoon passed quickly as I steamed, soaked, and sat. I sat with my thoughts. They were all I had. There were no screens. There was no possibility of an alert or alarm going off, of a message coming in. And there was no way to live vicariously through others.

It was heavenly.

When the time was up, I showered, dressed, and reluctantly pulled my phone out of the locker. I didn't want to turn it on. I walked out onto the street. It was so loud! I plugged in my pods and turned on my phone, trying to drown out the street noise with an audiobook. I wasn't ready to go there yet with emails and social media alerts. 

That evening I thought about how at home I turn to my screens to relax. Winding down? Look at Facebook or the news on my iPad. Need to chill out? Dial up a mediation on the Pelo app. Etc.

Ha. Even as I write this post, I have the quiet of my fingers tapping on the keyboard, dog at my feed, fan humming along, interrupted by my husband hitting play on a video on his computer (the sound, so loud, assaulting my senses).

I long to return to the spa and spend some quiet hours in a space where communicating with the outside world is forbidden.

Instagram Days of the Week Challenge

This challenge is designed to stretch your Instagram knowledge and skills a little bit. If you want to participate and don't want it to appear in your regular account, create a new account! Easy enough.

Remember, tag things with #eme6414 so we see it. Also save evidence of your contributions to share at the end. Oh, and Instagram offers help if you need it: https://help.instagram.com/  

TechMotivation Monday

#motivationmonday is a thing, but let's motivate people with technology. Share a post that motivates people to use a specific technology or to use it better.

Hashtags: #eme6414 #TechMotivationMonday

TechTransformation Tuesday

Choose your format (post / story / reel) and share how technology has transformed a part of life (your own or life in general).

Hashtags: #eme6414 #TechTransformationTuesday

TechWisdom Wednesday

Post a reel in which you share some form of technology wisdom (interpret that as you will).

Hashtags: #eme6414 #TechWisdomWednesday

TechResearch Thursday 

Create and share an infographic (as simple or complex as you like) with interesting internet research summarized. Be sure to include attribution to the study! 

Hashtags: #eme6414 #TechResearchThursday

FindOut Friday

Post a poll (you do this via stories, in the stickers) that asks some sort of technology or social media related question.

Hashtags: #eme6414 #FindOutFriday

Saturday Stories

Post a story or multi-image post that sums up your challenge contributions

Hashtags: #eme6414 #SaturdayStories

SumItUp Sunday

No need to post to Instagram this day. Write a blog post that reviews your daily Instagram activities for the challenge and your new insights on the medium.

Recreate Art Challenge

 It's the Recreate Art Challenge, which is hosted on padlet! This is a version of the Getty At Home Art Challenge, which you can learn more about here: https://www.getty.edu/news/getty-artworks-recreated-with-household-items-by-creative-geniuses-the-world-over/

The basic idea: Choose a famous work of art. Recreate it at home, using everyday objects. Share it to this Padlet. Be sure to let us know what work of art you are recreating. Make us say wow!

Ultimate challenge: 7 challenges! First one is the MOST important one.

 Alas, we are in Week 2 of THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE!

Here's a list of challenges for the week. Full details below the fold.

1. Digital detox
2. Exquisite corpse story [Easter egg]
3. Create your own story
4. Goodreads 
5. Social media fiction [Easter egg]
6. Collaborative concept map [Team challenge]
7. Blog makeover

Tour de Blog #3

 Let's see what's happening out in blogland right now!

We've hit the dark side recently, thinking about privacy and safety issues.

• Ravi brings back Scamanda, and wants to know how you'll take care of your identity.
• And guess what? ALH EME shares some tips!
•  CPR Saves Lives is longing for simpler times. I think many of us can relate.
• Chaewon gives us a Korean perspective on privacy issues and education.

We're also busy with challenges. See some of the Twitter Days of the Week recaps here:

• Brett
• Gabrielle
• Huong
• Marion
• MM
• Young

Ericka wants you to know that even if she's not participating in the challenges, she's watching them -- and that's a great way to benefit from them, too.

I mean, wasn't it cool to see so many classmates on Twitter at once?

And we've wrapped the community assignment. So go let Dzine2learn know if you agree with what she's shared about lurkers in communities.

Nancy shares how she approached Instagram as a teacher. I'd love to see some more posts like this one!

Oh, I could keep going y'all, but not to worry -- there will be a 4th Tour de Blog in the future.

You know what to do now: Go visit some blogs and leave some comments!

ChatGPT and our class

 Just for fun, I explained to ChatGPT about the challenges in this class and asked for some recommendations. Here's what I got:

Certainly! Here are five potential challenges that can help your students explore the educational potential of social media:

1. Social Media Research: Assign students the task of using social media platforms like Twitter or Reddit to research and gather information on a specific educational topic or current event. They can analyze the discussions, perspectives, and resources shared by users to gain a deeper understanding of the subject.

2. Community Engagement: Challenge students to create a social media campaign or initiative focused on a local community issue or educational cause. They can leverage platforms like Instagram or Facebook to raise awareness, share information, and engage with the community through posts, stories, or live sessions.

3. Collaborative Learning: Encourage students to form small groups and use social media platforms as a collaborative learning tool. They can create a Facebook group or use platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams to discuss course material, share resources, ask questions, and collaborate on projects.

4. Content Creation: Ask students to create educational content for a social media platform of their choice. This could be in the form of informative videos, infographics, or interactive quizzes related to a specific topic. They can then share their content, explain its educational value, and analyze audience engagement and feedback.

5. Digital Citizenship and Ethics: Challenge students to critically evaluate the ethical and responsible use of social media in an educational context. They can research and discuss topics such as online privacy, cyberbullying, misinformation, or digital footprints. Students can create social media guidelines or campaigns promoting digital citizenship and responsible social media usage.

These challenges will encourage students to actively engage with social media platforms, explore their educational potential, and reflect on the benefits and challenges associated with using social media in an educational context.

What do you think? 

Can I de-influence you?

 I've been reading about the deinfluencer trend lately (no, not the movie that sounds horrible, but the trend that started on TikTok in which rather than influencing people to buy something, you de-influence them by giving an honest review or convincing them they don't need that new thing).

Although I am a champion shopper, 'tis true, I'm also all about things like Buy Nothing Day, recycling, upcycling, etc.

As I think about the role of influencers, and then the role of de-influencers, I can't help but wonder if they aren't essentially the same. Isn't de-influencing a person still a form of influence? Or am I overthinking this?

And why do I want some random stranger on the Internet telling me what to do, whether that is to buy something or buy nothing or anything else?

Whelp. I guess I'm not really the target audience for all of this. How about you?

3 New Challenges: Two Pins and a Tweet

 Here we go with some more Ultimate Challenge challenges:

Happy Weekend!

Here are three new challenges for you. And yes, there is a badge for each one!

1. Create a Pin Challenge

What to do:

Create an original pin on Pinterest and share it to the Summer 2023 Class Board!

Look for the big "+" at the bottom of the screen and click on it to create a pin.

Your pin content? A post on your blog -- so think about what you might want to share via a pin. Maybe it's a post you've already written. Maybe it's a new post that you write just for this challenge. A lot of people do "how to" blog posts and then create pins, but think more broadly. Imagine have a pinboard for a class to explore that linked to various compelling web pages/stories? 

You'll need a post (so you have a link), a visual to associate with it, and a Pinterest account.

Oh, and I made a pin about this challenge: https://pin.it/32sFj7r 

It links back to this post

2. Pinterest Vision Board Challenge

Make your own vision board on Pinterest. Here are some theme ideas to get you going:

• Your ideal home office space
• Your ideal classroom (physical or virtual) space
• Your career vision
• A dream class you might design and teach
• A vision for pedagogy
• A vision for technology integration in education / the workplace

Have fun with it, and when you're done blog about it (with a link) so we can find it and give you a badge.

3. Twitter Chat Challenge

During Week 5 or 6, participate in a Twitter chat. Post at least one tweet during the chat. Share your tweet in a blog post where you write up your Twitter chat experience, and earn a badge!

World's Largest List of Twitter Chats

44 Education Chats Worth Your Time

Twitter Days of the Week Challenge

 [The Ultimate Challenge / Challenge #1]

What to tweet? Always a dilemma, right? But people have been coming up with topics or trends for each day of the week since the beginning of Twitter.

Here's a Twitter challenge that will keep you posting throughout the week.

Participate as much or as little as you like. There's a badge in it (along with one of your weekly blog posts and learning a new tech skill) for folks who do it all.

Here's what to do:

Each day has a theme/topic described below. Post to Twitter using the class hashtag and the day's hashtag. 

June 12 - #MemeMonday - share a meme related to online life, make us laugh

June 13 - #ToolboxTuesday - share one of your favorite online tools

June 14 - #WonderingWednesday - ask a question about online tools, online life, online topics, and hopefully get answers

June 15 - #TBT or #ThrowbackThursday - post a technology memory or throwback, preferably with a visual (e.g.,#TBT to my computer in elementary school)

June 16 - #FollowFriday - recommend an account for us to follow

June 17 - #ShoutoutSaturday - give a shoutout to a classmate who's done good, written a cool blog post, etc.

And for those earning the badge:

June 18 - SumItUpSunday - gather your six posts and embed them in a blog post where you write about the challenge.

The Ultimate Challenge: Weeks 5-7

 

Weeks 5-7 of this course are particularly good ones for challenges. We're not exhausted yet. We're not fixated on final projects yet. We're still exploring spaces, tools, and concepts. But we have a sense of each other by now, and that helps unite us. Yep. Perfect time for challenges.

With that in mind, I offer you (drum roll, please) THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE.

What is it? Just a collection of smaller challenges.

What makes it ultimate? Umm, that it's multiple challenges?

Why should I care? Well, you can ignore it if you like. Or you can be a bystander. Or you can be a competitor.

Competitor? What's that about? Do the most challenges, get a reward. 

What's the reward? It's a secret (which probably makes it sound better than it is, but still there is something). I'll mail the reward to the top 3-4 finishers (supposing your are comfortable with me doing so). I'll also send a digital reward.

How will I know about the challenges? They'll be posted here (but there may be some easter eggs hidden along the way, too). They'll be tweeted about and posted on Instagram. We'll keep a running list with links in the sidebar here, and a running list on the home page of the class in Canvas, too.

Do it for the glory. Do it for the learning. Do it for the badges.

Who's in?

Who are (or were) we as social media users?

 Just in case you're curious ...

During Week 1 I asked you all to fill out a survey. 

You let me know what social media tools you used, and what concepts you were familiar with.

I know this has changed for many of you now, and today you might tick some more of these boxes, but here are the results from Week 1. What do you think?

Tools we used: Clearly Youtube, Facebook (ummm, we're an older crowd?) and Facebook are the winners here.

Concepts we knew: Memes are fairly universal, aren't they? But in many of these cases, I think you knew or had experienced the concept even if you didn't know the term or the theory / research behind it.

Hi from the air!

 It never ceases to amaze me that we can now access the Internet from a flight. I mean, it’s been possible for years and this is far from my first rodeo, but every time I find it amazing. And thus I blog.

It’s late, I’m tired, we’re an hour from landing and then there’s customs & immigration, a cab ride, and who knows what fresh hell as I try to check into the residence where I’m staying (if you arrive after 11 you have to find a security guard to give you the keys). Wish me luck!

Dig in to the Diigo Challenge

There's no better way to learn how to use Diigo -- a social bookmarking tool -- than by jumping in and adding, tagging, and annotating resources. So don't be shy! Hop on over there and give it a try! Info in this week's Canvas module. I may need to moderate/approve what you post the first time you post there, so just be patient while I make my way over there to approve posts.

Social Media & Hairstylists

 Got my hair done today. It had been too long, and I'm going to a conference next week so I want to look good decent, but I digress... there is a point about social media here.

At the end of our 90 minutes together my hairdresser starts talking about TikTok. 

Apparently she posted some of her work from earlier in the day and got a lot of views. She was happy.

So I asked more about how she uses TikTok. She started telling me how she learns so much there, and it's a form of PD for her. She's very experienced / accomplished (and worked at an Aveda salon before opening her own, has offered master classes, etc.), but always looking for new ideas. She said she likes to watch how people do foils in different ways and the results they come up with. She also finds it satisfying to watch different scissoring techniques that people are using. She said there's so much out there to watch and learn from, and her community of hairdressers has grown from this experience.

None of this is surprising, because social media is everywhere. 

What professions (other than education, news, and marketing) have you seen using social media?

Instagram Challenge Summary

Hi folks!

This is Daeun (TA of EME6414), and I'm writing to share the Instagram Challenges that have been done by the class so far.

As you may already know, two Instagram challenges have been published so far. I've monitored #eme6414 on Instagram to track the completed challenges and found them so fascinating that I wanted to introduce them to the class in case you didn't get a chance to see them yet.

Are you ready? Let's go!

Instagram Educator 

This challenge was to teach something procedural on Instagram through multiple images. *It was an Easter Egg challenge. If you've watched the VoiceThread for week 3, you might have found it! 

See what they taught...

How to Connect Formal & Informal Learning with Social Media (by @soichy)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by soichy (@soichy)

Sunday Breakfast (by @christine.wise23)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Christine Wise (@christine.wise23)

How To Make A Simple Paper Airplane (by @lauren.eme6414)

Couldn't embed the code, but you can find the post through this link.

Instagram Scavenger Hunt

Posted over the weekend, the Instagram Scavenger Hunt was to see how many social media components you found OR how many activities you've done on the given lists during one of your normal weekends (Blog post about the challenge).

 
See how many social media components @29mbr.pub found here and there during the weekend (and in the past on their trips). Don't miss their insightful comments along with the pictures!

@lauren.eme6414 also found some social media components in a book and on a restaurant page. Both @29mbr.pub and @lauren.eme6414 included the places where they thought social media should have been involved but weren't, which I found particularly interesting.

And, I was impressed by how productive the weekend @christine.wise23 had! 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Christine Wise (@christine.wise23)

Thank you for your participation! And congratulations on getting badges!

I will be back with another summary of the challenges. Stay tuned... 

-Daeun

Tour de Blog 2: Folks are thinking about identity and community

Another week, another tour around the blogs. I see so much going on there. Admittedly I've been more of a lurker than a commenter this week, in part because my wrists are aching -- I've done some heavy lifting on my manuscripts in the last week and then I read blogs on my iPad for fun. But let me share some of the awesomeness that I see.

Johnnie is a real-name kind of person. Identity, brand, etc. are all intertwined for him.

BloggerDude is reconciling with his role as a lurker. And Missy is a lurker, too.

    I'd suggest that we start a lurker club, but ...

Shaniqua is stepping out from being a lurker in a group and with it has come a rush of feelings.

Frankie is all over this topic, too, and ties some of it together while being a social butterfly.

Brett encourages us to just put ourselves out there on LinkedIn.

Nancy shared about a subreddit she's found that is providing knowledge and support right now.

Christine is finding spaces on Reddit that meet her needs for kindness while interacting.

And if you are a lurker on Reddit, you're not going to get karma points, right, Young?

Megan's struggling with the idea of performative posting, which she sees online a lot and is not exactly her thing. How can she find the right folks and feeds and avoid the ones that aren't her thing?

Vanessa shares how she manages context collapse, and Shiyao shares about how she manages all of her interests and networks.

You know the drill. Make the rounds. Say hi. Leave some comments. And next time maybe you'll be featured on the tour.

The Instagram Scavenger Hunt Challenge

  Need something fun to do this loooong hot weekend? 

Do the Instagram Scavenger Hunt Challenge.

By the way, this is an actual activity you could modify for your own class -- just think of course-relevant items for students to find or document, whether online or in the real world.

We have two versions (because I'm extra and I like to encourage choice):

1. Social Media Challenge

2. Long, Hot Weekend Challenge

Play along with one or both. The directions are the same. The two lists are below.

Badges

Badges are available if you're interested. To earn a badge you must complete ALL items from a single challenge list. If you don't want a badge or just want to do some of the photos, that's fine as well.

Complete one? Earn the Instagram Scavenger Hunt Challenge badge.

Complete both? Earn the Instagram Scavenger Hunt Challenge Superstar badge.

What to do:

1. Make sure you have an Instagram account that is set to public. Use the one you have already (if you have one) or create a new one. Instagram allows multiple accounts, and you can link them to the same app, which is super convenient.

2. Go about your regular weekend activities and see how many items in the scavenger hunt list you encounter. Take photos of each item you encounter. NOTE: DO NOT TAKE UNNECESSARY RISKS. BE CREATIVE!

3. Share your items on Instagram! Use the hashtag #eme6414 so we can find your photos. You can share them individually as you find them (and if you do, please add captions for each one) or you can wait and upload them all at once as a multiple photo post (you can upload 10 at once; it's a good idea if you don't want to fill your regular Instagram feed with all of these photos). If it's not obvious which item you're trying to share, definitely use a caption or edit the photo and include some text or at least the photo number from the list below.

4. Collect and submit the receipts: Write a blog post about your Instagram Scavenger Hunt Experience. Bonus points if you can figure out how to embed your Instagram posts into your blog post.

The challenge will officially end at 9 pm Sunday June 4, Tallahassee time. 

We'll announce our winner(s) here on the blog on Monday or Tuesday (give us a little time to sort this out). The winners will also receive digital badges. I know ... exciting, right?

Be creative! Stay safe! If your plan was to stay at home, stay at home and find these items around the house and/or online.

SOCIAL MEDIA SCAVENGER HUNT CHALLENGE

What to find:

1. Business card with social media contact info
2. Book with social media contact info for authors
3. QR code that leads to a social media channel
4. Tweets or a youtube video incorporated into a news story
5. A business (restaurants, retail, etc.) that prominently displays its social media channels
6. A hashtag appearing on tv
7. A public space where social media is being used to promote access to educational materials
8. A place where you think social media should be involved, but isn't (e.g., a missed opportunity)
9. An overt encouragement to post to social media from/about a specific location.
10. An unexpected social media channel (e.g., “I can’t believe NASCAR is pushing SnapChat!”)

BONUS #1 An innovative use of social media seen in a physical environment

BONUS #2 A scenario in which a social media channel OTHER THAN Insta, Snap, Twitter, Youtube or Facebook is being promoted

LONG HOT WEEKEND CHALLENGE

Some of these items are vague. Enjoy interpreting them through photographs!

Have a full weekend, as best you can. Try to work in all of the essential elements. If you so desire, you can do it without ever leaving home. In fact, some of the best submissions for this challenge were done during the height of stay-at-home orders in pandemic summer #1.

1. Sports

2. Nature

3. The arts
4. A concert
5. The movies
6. Fine dining
7. A barbecue
8. Relaxing
9. Hanging out with friends
10. Big night out

BONUS: Post a challenge photo to the rest of us using #eme6414 (create a visual with your challenge and post it)