Weekly Report & Reflection Post #4

Welcome Back,

The activities I completed this week required me to set up an account on Diigo as well as with the curation tool known as Google Alerts. Diigo is a beneficial bookmarking tool that allows you to bookmark your favorite websites, highlight text within them, and more (it's great)! Google Alerts is also a valuable tool which allows you to input keywords and topics for which it will collect information up to the minute and alert you immediately. Both are useful ways to gather pertinent information and stay up to date on topics of your choosing!

Retrieved From: http://www.insurancesplash.com/blog/using-google-alerts-for-insurance-marketing-11-tips-bonus-video/

When exploring Diigo and the tools it contains such as bookmarking and tagging, I learned the benefits it has for my academic career. With Diigo you have the ability to open your account on your other devices, may it be phone or tablet, and continue where you left off. For myself this is extremely beneficial as when I am doing essays I find myself utilizing my laptop, tablet, and phone (I am very lucky to have all three) and moving from location to location to complete my paper. With using all three and moving around, I find that I lose many websites and quotes that I wanted to utilize in my paper because they get lost between the three devices or forgotten during my shift in locations. Diigo allows me to bookmark all my websites that I find useful as well as tag subjects and highlight any quotes or specific sections I found interesting or useful to my work. What is even more awesome and valuable is that Diigo allows me to tag together subjects that are relevant and leave a description with each to remember why I had done so. This allows me to be a more organized student and I believe this will only help me succeed in my educational activities and academic career.

Retrieved From: http://kpcreativecommons.com/2013/05/28/shelley-wight-diigo-and-symbaloo/

With valid and reliable online bookmarks, they are very valuable and can contribute in building your knowledge. They contribute to knowledge (at least mine) as with them be valid and reliable I know the information I am receiving is more often then not relevant, educational, and trusted. After doing some preliminary scans, I find that a majority of the websites presented are articles and journals written by academics that have a vested interest in the topic they are writing about. They put forth up to date information and discuss pertinent topics occurring in today's world relevant to the sunject. For me in sociology, the more articles I have to cite and support my theories and arguments the better I do academically. This in turn builds my knowledge and assists me in becoming a better student. Therefore, utilizing valid and reliable online bookmarks is beneficial to my education and will help to build my knowledge on whatever I hope to study and bookmark.  

To conclude this week, I wanted to put forth an article I discovered on my Feedly that I found to be extremely interesting. The article which is titled 5 Simple Tricks to Bring Major Happiness to Your Life is found on the Psych Central website. This article suggests five tricks to make you happy and personally I found it put a smile on my face. That's it for me this week, have a great weekend friends!

Cheers,

Jason Wilson 

      

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #3

Hey All,

I'm back for my second blog post of the week! I am excited to talk about an article of interest I had read and how it informed my learning as well as discuss what the RSS Feed Reader contributed to building my knowledge about digital literacy, responsibility, and citizenship. 

Earlier this week in my previous blog post I talked about Feedly and how useful of a tool it is/could be in my learning and already it is turning out to be better then I expected. The articles it collects for you are extremely interesting and it actually provides articles/blogs that can be utilized for my education. One blog of interest I would like to share as it was very beneficial is written by Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega and is titled Five strategies to get your academic writing "unstuck". 

Retrieved from: http://theodysseyonline.com/ccny/unhealthy-amount-stress/259336

This blog is helpful with academic writing and can be useful in kick starting your mind into writing an academic paper. It outlines five strategies to get you mind and writing unstuck and in the groove of writing a paper. As writing academic papers are a large aspect of my academic career, this blog was very useful and I wanted to share it as I feel it may be able to assist my fellow peers! This blog informed my learning as it provided me alternative strategies I can apply to get me going on my academic papers. As someone who procrastinates and struggles with writing a well written paper, this article gave me ideas to better start and write my papers. After finding this article I realized just how many blogs/articles I can find on my Feedly that are similar or just as useful in academic career. I have been surfing Feedly and have already read countless articles and have bookmarked some for future reference for essays and just for general knowledge. Following this, I wanted to discuss what RSS feeds contributed to building my knowledge about digital literacy, responsibility, and citizenship. 

Retrieved from: http://www.blogtips.org/how-i-read-200-newspapers-every-day/

What the RSS feed contributed to building my knowledge on digital literacy, responsibility, and citizenship was with reading a myriad of different blogs and articles, I was able to see how to act on the internet with proper netiquette. Seeing how my fellow peers and other authors wrote their blogs and articles, I have the ability to build on my own blogs and to be a digitally literate, responsible, good citizen on the internet. Feedly provides scholarly articles and blogs that are well written and are a good guide on how to write my own that are responsible and appropriate. They allow me to see what it takes to be a good citizen on the internet and what it is like and how to write papers that allow me to be digitally literate. As I continue in this course I hope to continue to build on this knowledge and become a better digital citizen. Hopefully my RSS feed continues to bring me interesting articles (which I know it will).

This is it for me this week, I will be back to write another blog so you'll be hearing from me soon!

All the best,

Jason Wilson

My Experience With RSS Feeds

Hello Friends!

This week I will be writing two blogs which is a first for me and I must say it is very exciting. This week I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Feedly which is an extremely useful tool. I personally have never heard of it but it seems to have quite the buzz around it. How it functions is that it collects news for you! By searching within Feedly you can search up your favorite topics or add a URL, Feedly then allows you to follow the topic you searched or selected, then not only does it categorize the topics for you it collects news from them! It presents the categories in a side bar and allows you to explore within them, it also suggest other blogs and news to follow that pertain to the interests and blogs you have followed already. Feedly is extremely beneficial and can be used for a variety of reasons. Feedly is very similar to the website Stumbleupon which enabled me to grasp it's concept and before I knew it I was Feedlying away (is that a word?). I have added multiple interests I have and Feedly has presented articles that are different and interesting in their own way, it is easy to see how someone can get stuck on it for awhile.   

                                 Retrieved from: http://www.geeksonfinance.com/how_5420450_win-scratch-off-lottery-ticket.html 

Utilizing Feedly, I searched up a sociology blog and I was not disappointed. I found the Everyday Sociology blog which contains a myriad of articles relating all to sociology. Within the multiple blog posts I read one by Jonathan Wynn titled "The Lottery as Gift: Who Wins?" which was a thought provoking article. Wynn (2015) suggests that lottery tickets are essentially a voluntary tax which many individuals in the lower socioeconomic status pay into when they buy these tickets. They a very little odds of winning and are essentially just funneling money back to the government. This article was very relevant to my education and was a very enjoyable read. Knowing that Feedly will present me with articles like this only wants me to continue using it and only expand which blogs I follow for the best articles! Feedly has many benefits and is a tool I will definitely be suggesting to my peers. It has the capability of helping me greatly on future assignments as I will be able to find articles that could be utilized to support my perspective in a paper. This is it for this blog, I suggest you check out Feedly ASAP!

 

   Retrieved from:http://www.liveandsocial.com/blog/content-marketing/how-to-use-feedly/

Cheers!

Jason Wilson  

Week 2 ADED 1P32

Hello Everyone!

Envisioning My Future
When I look ahead 5-10 years in my future in regards to who and where I will be I can not help but see myself taking one of the two paths I believe to be unfolding before me. After graduating Brock I see myself working with my dad which I consider my first path; I have worked for him in the past and quite enjoyed it, especially the aspect that I could have a lifelong career. On the other hand, my education is leading me in the direction of my second path of law enforcement. Sociology fascinates me and from what I have learned I want to be part of the solution to many problems and help anyone that I can. Being in law enforcement with my own discretion would allow me to help people who need assistance. I want to be someone who is known to help people and who has only good intentions for anyone who needs assistance. Both of these paths are appealing and I believe I will be taking one of these directions in the future.

Where I Am Now
As of now I am in third year Sociology with a concentration in Criminology at Brock University. I have found with this year I have become more vested into my program and am absolutely fascinated by what I am learning. I concentrate most of my time on school while enjoying my hobbies in my spare time. I enjoy a somewhat carefree lifestyle and am able to focus on my educational career more than my work career. I find the main difference between myself now and how I envision the future is that now I am very education oriented and extremely focused on my schooling while in the future education is not be as important as finding a successful career. In order to get from where I am now to where I want to be I will need to learn skills and knowledge relative to my future career. What I am learning in school is precisely what I need for either path I hope to take. The tools I utilize such as the library, textbooks, lectures, and internet tools such as Google and Youtube all assist and support what I am and need to learn.

Learning Environment
When focusing on my schooling I need to adapt my surroundings to better suit my learning needs. When I begin to do assignments or study I change my environment by finding a place with no distractions and with complete silence. This helps with my learning as I am distracted easily and as a result the less distractions I have around me the better. I have a terrible habit of looking at my phone when studying which (as studies have proven) lowers the amount of information that one attains. This will be the first bad habit I attempt to break by ensuring it is not near when I study for the next 30 days.

But What Did I Learn About A PLE And WordCloud?
From the resources and readings provided, I learned what a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is and just how beneficial it can be to an individuals learning. A PLE is a system that consists of tools and personal connections utilized by an individual to assist in creating a personalized learning environment suited to them. I discovered that it is very personalized, everyone learns differently and through different tools which are suited to their learning; anyone can create this environment and thrive within it. While creating my PLE using Popplet, I found that it contained few tools pertinent to my education and furthering my learning. It has the obvious tools such as Google, Youtube, and Facebook but nothing more along the lines of education and career. With realizing this, as I continue on in this class I hope to add tools that are useful and that I can utilize for my education and my future career. Additionally, I created a Wordcloud which I completed using the website Wordle. I used my first reflection and put it into Wordle to see the language that is dominant throughout it. It helped with viewing my vocabulary and seeing the type of language I used when discussing the digital footprint. I found that I use clear writing and I repeat words from the articles I read in order to present what I am attempting to explain.

My Current PLE
When looking to my PLE, I notice that many of my tools are associated to the two groups I am apart of according to Josh Bernoff. Looking to Josh's Social Technographic Ladder, I am a part of the joiners and spectators rung on the ladder. In relation to my PLE, many of my tools fall into these two groups. Additionally, as said by Graham Attwell in his article Personal Learning Environmentts- the future of Elearning? (2007) "PLEs offer considerable potential for knowledge development and sharing and what has been called organisational learning" and I find this to be true with my PLE. I am beginning to organize my tools into sections that I will be able to utilize to enhance my learning development and which will allow me to share with my fellow peers during our class together.

Cheers!

Jason Wilson

Week 1 ADED 1P32

Hello Again!

The focus this week and the discussion for my weekly report and reflection blog post is on digital footprints and net etiquette aka netiquette. A digital footprint is essentially the combination of the activities and information you have done and left on the internet. It is compiled throughout your entire digital life and in today's society begins for many at birth. As mentioned in the video the "Digital Dossier" by Youth and Media, simply a picture of yourself being posted online kick starts your digital dossier and your digital footprint begins. Netiquette is closely associated to the digital footprint as they work hand in hand. Netiquette is ones etiquette on the internet throughout their interactions in the digital world. Personally, with being a part of Facebook and other social media sites, I myself have a digital footprint containing information on me as well!

A discussion arises on whether one should have a digital footprint; I believe, along with certain author's, that everyone should have a digital footprint. In today's ever growing digital society, it is important to be educated on the digital world and it's many aspects as it is becoming pervasive in the work environment. As Ainslie's presents in her article "Yes, you should have a digital footprint...and keep track of it", employers are viewing and discussing the digital presence of employees and potential employees in order to get a better understanding of who they are. Ainslie suggests maintaining and having a digital footprint in order to watch what is said about you online and be presentable to employers. I want a digital footprint as with law enforcement they are stringent on how your digital footprint is, everything must be positive. With having a positive digital footprint and maintaining it, I would look better in the eyes of my future employers. Ainslie's article presents and supports why having a digital footprint is a good idea.With this knowledge of ones digital presence and footprint it is evident why it is important to maintain a positive digital footprint.

A positive digital footprint is when someone leaves behind only a positive image of themselves in the digital world. By having Facebook and other social media sites clear of profanity, negative remarks and other negative/illegal activities, one can work towards having a positive digital footprint. Another strategy to leaving a positive digital footprint is utilizing proper netiquette. Proper netiquette can be utilized by following the core rules of netiquette which assist people in leaving a positive digital footprint. The "Core Rules Of Netiquette" presented by Virginia Shea lays out ten rules which can be followed and assist in maintaining a positive digital footprint.

For the activities for the week, I had to take the Digital Driver License Exam with which I received 20/20 on the test. The test is administered to test someones' knowledge on the multiple aspects of the digital world from etiquette to literacy.  Based on the results of the exam, over the next few weeks of the course I will be focusing my learning on maintaining and staying up to date on the digital world and it's varying aspects. By doing this I hope to begin and sustain my own positive digital footprint from here on out.

Thanks!

Jason Wilson

Jason W Blogging Introduction

Hello Everyone!
            My Name is Jason and I am currently attending Brock University for Sociology with a concentration in Criminology. I transferred over from Niagara College which is where I graduated from the Police Foundations program in two years. I learned the interesting world of policing and wanted to expand my knowledge in to law and society which is why I continued my education with Brock University. I find sociology to be absolutely fascinating and intriguing; learning about people within society is giving me a better appreciation for the world we live in. I chose to take sociology as I felt it was extremely relevant to a career in law enforcement or social services and it was a subject I have always had a knack for and found to be uniquely interesting. With my education, I hope to go into a career predicated on helping people no matter who they are. With this goal, I am leaning towards policing, social work, and therapy while keeping my eyes open for any other opportunities.           
             I am from Cambridge and live next the African Lion Safari which is interesting to say the least (listening to lions in the morning is amazing). I grew up in the town of Waterdown and played a variety of sports growing up and loved to interact with everyone. I am extremely outgoing and enjoy being out of the house. I currently play ultimate frisbee, hockey, and multiple intramurals in my free time. Last summer I went out to Jasper, Alberta where I climbed my first mountains and enjoyed the west coast air. This was by far the best experience of my life and I hope to head out there in the not too distant future; it is a place I recommend everyone puts on their bucket list! I moved away from Cambridge for a scenery change which consequently brought me over to St. Catharine's; I have lived here for 4 years now and love the city.
            The reason I am writing this blog is to give my blogging audience a better idea of who I am personally and for the Adult Education course I am taking online with Brock University. With this course I am already learning more about the digital world and how to better navigate it which is important in today's society. With employers being stringent on what prospect employees post throughout the digital world, from this course I hope to take away how to be a positive citizen on the internet. With utilizing proper netiquette and leaving a positive digital footprint, which this class teaches, will help me in achieving my goal. As discussed in the TED talk, internet learning is extremely beneficial and assists greatly in learning and sharing information amongst peers. With this, from the course I also hope to take a myriad of perspectives from my peers and how they view the digital world as well as how we can better utilize it to benefit ourselves and how we can navigate it.