Weekly Post and Reflection #6

Hello everybody!

This week we explored the tool Evernote, which is software that allows students to integrate notes, research, videos, pictures and any other sources of information that are gathered while conducting research for a paper, or taking notes for a class. Like in previous weeks of this class, Evernote was another brand new tool introduced to myself and therefore I relied on the videos and blog posts to gain understanding of this platform.  As stated in Buffy Hamilton’s Blog post “Evernote is a perfect solution for students who need to archive and organize traditional and non-traditional sources of information.” Hamilton’s post also noted that Evernote is a great choice for any student looking to achieve success because it offers amazing feature such as the ability to add handwritten notes, the flexibility of being able to use it on all kinds of devices, the ability to share the notes with other individuals, and the integration of email within the Evernote system.  After reading the blog post I explored Evernote to see if Hamilton’s points were true and if Evernote was something I should consider using in my daily educational life.

Found at: https://dev.evernote.com/accelerator/

Exploration and findings of Evernote 

After gaining an understanding of Evernote through the videos and blog posts, I was very excited and intrigued to explore this program for myself. The one thing that stood out in my research was the comment made in the post “My Tribute to Evernote: A Students Guide” that MS word and pages are terrible research and note taking tool programs. After reading this statement I instantly could not wait to explore and see if this program was for me because I can honestly say that I too think that Word is a terrible program to use when doing research, however I thought it was the only way.  After exploring Evernote for 20 minutes and getting familiar with the system I was again very excited to have been introduced to this platform. Right away I starting thinking about the endless opportunities I have to use this in my daily educational activities. The first thing that came to mind was my persuasive paper I will be starting to do research for with a partner in the coming weeks. Through my exploration I think this tool will work great for our research because we are both able to login and continue working where the other person left off, all while seeing how much research the other person has done. This will allow us to complete research, which is traditionally a time costly activity to be done in a time efficient manner. In addition to the efficiency the program encourages, its organizational set-up is also a major factor why it could be of use for my upcoming project. By being able to add links with ease and add notes right underneath, as well as pictures, videos, diagrams, and anything else needed to explain a certain point, the organization Evernote provides will help my partner and I write a paper to the best of our abilities.

Furthermore, thinking beyond the imminent future, I can see myself using Evernote as my “notebook” for class’s next semester. I believe the organizational ability/setup, along with the ease of adding external sources to a document, this program will allow me to create better notes which will translate into better grades.  When examining how Evernote will fit into my PLE that was created during week two of this course, this program will land under the category of education. This program will be used strictly for educational purposes and will help me achieve success in my educational endeavors. 

Feedly Articles 

In terms of connecting my Feedly reader to this weeks learning I would deem myself unsuccessful, however, I was able to pick out a couple articles that sparked my interest.  In hopes of expanding my personal learning network and connecting with more people on my new Twitter account, I connected my twitter to my feedly and tweeted certain articles off there. An example would the article concerning the African history within the Niagara region and what people at Brock University are doing to celebrate this. I was unaware of this and thought by tweeting it I would be able to possibly gain more knowledge on this topic and if not encourage other people in my network to be educated about it as well.

For more tweets and news updates that I find throughout the week follow my twitter at @B_Esler17

Thanks for reading! 

References  

 A. (2012, March 24). My Tribute to Evernote: A Students Guide [Web log post]. Retrieved February 14, 2016, from http://theflannelboard.blogspot.ca/2012/03/my-tribute-to-evernote-students-guide.html 

 Hamilton, B. (2011, January 5). How my students started using Evernote: An Educational Series [Web log post]. Retrieved February 14, 2016, from http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2011/01/05/how-my-students-started-using-evernote-education-series/ 

Weekly Post and Reflection #5

Another week is upon us, and I cannot believe that we are over a month into this course. Quickly reflecting back, this course has already expanded my digital literacy, as I am able to use a variety of social media platforms that I did not know existed before beginning this course. For example, running and updating this blog each week as well as using tools such as Feedly, and Google Alerts I feel that my digital literacy and global awareness has increased because of this course.

This week my exploration on feedly led to news topics concerning all areas around the world such as the train crash in Germany killing nine, too the cab protest that could happen in Toronto this weekend due to the fight between ubers and cab drivers. By examining news articles of this nature, I am enhancing my global citizenship. This is happening as I am becoming aware of what is happening around me in a local, national and global sense. These articles enhance my learning because it allows me to be able to connect to more people within the world. By reading about more topics other then sports I feel that I am more knowledgably in sense that I can connect with more people within the world. This includes at school when interacting with different people and online as well. Instead of always talking to people who only can talk about sports, feedly has given me the ability to talk and tweet about other topics, which allow me to connect to other people.

In addition too being a better global citizen by having a further knowledge of world events, I am also able to expand my personal learning network, which was emphasized during this week’s session. Through the newly introduced tool twitter, the emphasis of week 5 was on our personal learning network. With my expanded view of news and information the introduction of twitter could not come at a better time as this platform gives me the ability to publish my personal thoughts and opinions on news worldwide. By publishing my thoughts around news topics it allows me to connect to people who either share or disagree with my opinions. Regardless, the ability to follow other people allows me to gain insights and information to add to my own opinions.

Personal Learning Network explained the importance of it throughout the post
Found at: http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/what-is-a-personal-learning-network/

In summary, using twitter and expanding my personal learning network positively contributes to building and increasing my knowledge and global awareness. Due to this, I believe that the tool “Twitter” will be added to my PLE under the educational and personal categories. Twitter belongs in these two categories for myself because the accounts I follow on Twitter both contribute to hobbies and interests that I enjoy in my free time, as well as build knowledge and connections that help with my education and professional life.  

Thanks for reading my blog this week! 

Weekly Post and Reflection #4

Weekly Reflection #4

Hello readers,

Sorry for my “tardiness” with my week 4 post, although no excuse I have found myself under a pile of midterms and assignments!!! Anyways lets get talking about week 4, where the focus was on increasing our knowledge in digital literacy and building on the news gathering skills we learned in week 3 with the introduction of Feedly!   

Exploring Diigo: Exploring Bookmarking Tools and the Use of Tagging

Throughout the learning activities during week 4 our class was introduced to the media platform called Diigo, which is a system that allows you to bookmark, tag, highlight, and make notes on information found on the Internet. This system allows you to never lose notes, or pieces of information once you have located them, regardless of what piece of technology you are using (Laptop, I phone etc.). To date we have been introduced to many great online tools, however, personally I believe this is the best and most important one to date. I take this stance due to many valid reasons which all stem from being a undergraduate university student.

Being an undergraduate university student in sport management, the program demands many research papers to be written. This involves many hours of online research, going through many articles and numerous pieces of information. What this looks like at the end is lots of randomly saved links, and information all over the place which prolongs the writing process and increases the difficulty to properly cite all sources needed. By using Diigo, the features such as on page highlights, on page notes, and the bookmarking of each website, I will be able to use sources and cite them in an effective and efficient manner. I believe that if I use this tool for future academic papers and assignments, I will be able to write better papers, which will translate into better grades.

Curation Tools

In week four we were also introduced to curation tools such as Paper.li , Storify, Google Alerts, LiveBinders, and Scoop.it where the purpose is to organize news information in a way that fits a individuals likes and interests. Some of these tools also help a person create virtual “newspapers” which allows them to share their interests with other people in the online world. After exploring a variety of these options, my personal preference was Google alerts because it was more geared at making sure I am informed in my interest areas rather then me informing other people of the information. I enjoyed this part of Google Alerts because it is focused on my experience with exploring information on the online world, and it something that I can see myself using in my day to day life. Therefore, building on this point Google Alerts would be classified under the category of “Social”. I would categorize it as this because the sites that I automatically followed when starting Google alerts was all the different sport teams and leagues I have interest in, which I classify as my social life. In addition to this, I would also classify this platform under the “Educational” category in my PLE because it has the great potential to put to this use in the future. Due to the great ease and convenience of Google Alerts, this platform will come in handy when I do a paper on a current issue and want to follow what is going on to ensure that my paper is current to the events I am writing about. By using Google Alerts for this purpose, I will be able to write a successful paper with limited time researching the current events of the topic each day.  

Picture of the global connection made through this class
Picture found at: http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-global-connection-image11041152

In conclusion, throughout my learning in week four, and my learning to this point in the course, I have realized that digital literacy has never been achieved easier then it can be today. Also upon completing week 4 I feel more connected and informed about events going on in the world then ever before.  Through platforms like Google Alerts and Feedly, which was explored last week, I am able to read and learn about current events easier and faster which encourage me to continue to check and stay informed, transforming me into a better global citizen! 

Thanks for continuing to read about my journey in this course! 

Brandon