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)

Social Butterfly Challenge

 and yep, there's a badge for this one.

This challenge is deceptively easy. For some of you it may be really easy, but many of us are kind of shy at heart. Still, we also tend to like a little interaction as well as recognition for our work.  Every performer needs an audience, right?

With that in mind, let's practice being social butterflies.

WHAT TO DO:

To earn this badge you must:

- Comment on at least 3 different peer blogs (the class blog doesn't count) that you have not yet commented on.

- Engage with at least 2 tweets (reply or favorite), whether from this class or another source.

- Write a blog post on your blog that refers and links to those same three blog posts and embed the tweets (weave them into your narrative on a post or tell us why we want to visit them)

BADGE AWARDING

Vanessa and Daeun will be monitoring blogs for the posts. Help us out -- title the post "Social Butterfly Challenge" or otherwise indicate that you're doing the challenge at the top of your post.

NEED HELP EMBEDDING TWEETS?

Look for the three dots on the top left of a tweet and click on them.

Then you'll get a menu like this. See the option toward the bottom to embed a tweet? Just follow along from there.

Take the code and go into HTML mode in your blogger window. This is the trickiest part. Drop in the code where you want the tweet to show up, and then head back to compose view.

The embedded tweet will look like this:

Hey #eme6414 - Remember when I tweeted that I lost an Easter Egg challenge the other day? Well, I found it. It's somewhere in the Week 3 material and it is an Instagram challenge. Has anyone else found it yet? I can see that some of you have been in the general area.

— Vanessa Dennen (@vdennen) May 31, 2023