WEEK 4: THE ARTS OF COMMENTING, LINKING AND CRAFTING YOUR POSITIVE DIGITAL TATTOO

January 26, 2015

This week will be a mash-up of things that will improve your blogging experience and show yout how far-reaching your online activity really is. The goal this week is to learn some digital citizenship that will help you create a positive digital tattoo.

I will be reworking that lesson a bit to take into account the loss of YouTube, so we’ll start off with some helpful blogging pointers.

Monday – In the beginning, I told you that blogging is social, so we’ll talk about the art of commenting, and I’ll show you where to find the blogroll widget so you can add blogs you follow to one of your sidebars. You’ll want to begin exploring other blogs to find some you enjoy reading.
And, of course, if you have unfinished work from last week, today is the time to finish it up. That includes copying and pasting the URL to your blog to the contact sheet so I can find your blog.

Tuesday: Today, we’ll learn about digital tattoos, also known as digital footprints. The difference in the analogies is that tattoos are permanent, as are the marks you leave in the digital world that are associated with you. What’s a digital tattoo, called a dossier in the following video?

Hear a response from someone your own age about being aware of how your own digital footprint can affect you:

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/abbass-story-pride-in-your-digital-footprint

And, finally, Diane Sawyer reports on the negatives to a not-so-great digital footprint:

Now, take the Google yourself challenge. If you were an admissions officer or a potential employer or a potential date, what could you find on yourself? Is it what you would like people to see about you? Scroll all the way down to see the various ways to check your digital tattoo – a simple Google won’t pull up all the results.

http://www.backgroundcheck.org/the-google-yourself-challenge/

If you are viewing this at school you can access the videos as files through the shared Google Drive:

Youth and Media – Your Digital Dossier

Diane Sawyer on Social Media Jinxing College Applicants

Richard Fowler on Job-Killing Mistakes

Wednesday-Friday: Your assignment is to write a post, first in Google Docs so you can get feedback and revise, then post on your homepage about what you found on yourself. Is it what you expected? Is it what you want others to see? If you were going to improve it by adding positive content to your digital tatoo, what can you do? Can you develop a plan for actively creating a positive digital tattoo for others to find? What will the plan include?

Friday – If you have completed the Google Yourself Challenge, search for and read some blogs. Leave some comments. If you are inspired, write a post reviewing that blog and provide a link back to it.

WEEK 6: TOOLS FOR PASSION PROJECTS

Sept. 21, 2014

Last week I introduced 20% Time, Genius Hour, Passion Projects. This week we work in ernest to establish what each of you will work toward during your one day a week or more, depending on how other assignments play out for you. I want to give you tools that can help you with the research and maybe with the projects themselves. I will introduce three this week that will help you find and collect information you find on the Internet.

Monday: One of my favorite apps is one folks either know and use or don’t. It’s Pinterest. Once you understand how Pinterest works (think about being shown an array of things that might interest you, and you can select any of them and “pin” them to your own digital bulletin boards to look at later), you’ll use it for both work and entertainment.

If you’re finding information on blogs or news sites that don’t have the familiar “follow” button that you use on WordPress, know that there is another way: RSS readers. There are many to choose from, so it really comes down to simply choosing. Rock, paper, scissors? Closing your eyes and pointing? Or do what I did, Tweet about it, and go with the first response you get: Feedly.com. But first let’s take a look at this cute video that explains how RSS readers work.

Maybe you don’t want to follow the blog or news site forever; you just want to save this one perfect article. There are apps for that, too. Diigo, Pocket and Delicious, to name a few. Let me show you a bit about Delicious.

Play with these three apps this week. You’ll sign in and out of Pinterest as you do Google and WordPress. But Feedly and Delicious are Chrome-based apps. That is, when you’re signed into your Google Chrome, they’ll show up on your Chrome bar – wherever you are. When you sign out of Google Chrome, you’re signed out of those, too.

Tuesday-Thursday: Keep playing with Pinterest, Feedly and Delicious. Read and research your passion topic, and save and curate with these apps. By the end of the week, write a post for your blog about how helpful you have found these three apps to be in finding and saving information for your project. Has one been more helpful than the others? Can you explain why? Will any of them be helpful in the implementation of the actual project or just mostly in the research? Can you see uses for any of them in any other part of your life? Write the post in Google Docs and share with the person above you in the contact list for feedback. Do some revisions, then share with me.

Friday: By Friday you should have written up a proposal (think of an outline) for your passion project. Begin with a summary of the topic, include your driving question, what your end product will be and a timeline of what you need to do to get there. Are there steps you must make before you get to the final project?

Meet with me anytime before the end of Friday’s class to go over your proposal so we can get things pinned down.

 

WEEK 5: YOUR DIGITAL TATTOO

Sept. 13, 2014

This week, we’ll learn about digital tattoos, also known as digital footprints. The difference in the analogies is that tattoos are permanent, as are the marks you leave in the digital world that are associated with you.

Monday: We will quickly review important aspects of blogging that you were introduced to last week. Then it’s time to think about our Digital Tattoos. What’s a digital tattoo, called a dossier in the following video?

Hear a response from someone your own age about being aware of how your own digital footprint can affect you:

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/abbass-story-pride-in-your-digital-footprint

And, finally, Diane Sawyer reports on the negatives to a not-so-great digital footprint:

Now, take the Google yourself challenge. If you were an admissions officer or a potential employer or a potential date, what could you find on yourself? Is it what you would like people to see about you?

http://www.backgroundcheck.org/the-google-yourself-challenge/

Tuesday: Your assignment is to write a post on your homepage about what you found on yourself. Is it what you expected? Is it what you want others to see? If you were going to improve it by adding positive content to your digital tatoo, what can you do? Can you develop a plan for actively creating a positive digital tattoo for others to find? What will the plan include?

Wednesday: We will begin working on a new project to be posted later, but if you haven’t finished your post on building up a positive digital tattoo or digital dossier, use any spare time for that.