3 Ways to Build Genuine Relationships Through Networking. The typical Facebook user has 342 Friends. On LinkedIn, he (LinkedIn users are predominantly male) has 500 - 999 contacts, many of whom I not-so-affectionately refer to as ghosts. That is, they are people we vaguely remember without a clear recollection of how we met, what they like, and why we wanted to connect in the first place. So, what's the point? In this deeply networked world, it's important to pay attention to how we connect and manage our networks. Here are three tips for sustaining more genuine relationships through networking. 1. The Gatekeeper is the circumspect, wise person who makes decisions about what or whom is granted access to your life.
We need to be our own LinkedIn and Facebook Gatekeepers by limiting the number of contacts we accept. There are exceptions, of course. Some choose to be open networkers. When we have fewer connections, we're less overwhelmed and have more bandwidth for keeping the relationships real. 2. How many email newsletters do you get each day?
This So-Called Digital Life: Re-Evaluating the Value of Social Media. InShare521 I think I’m getting tired… My connectedness is slowly seizing my quiet moments. My sanctuary of enjoying my thoughts alone is now threatened. The moments of watching life pass by as I take pause are now replaced by the need to plug in and socialize without truly socializing. I swipe, pinch and zoom, and scroll as if I’ve become a digital conductor of sorts. The light of my mobile screen is the calming I need to fall asleep each night and the stimulus that starts each day. The truth is that my thumbs hurt every now and then. I often feel alone when I’m not connected or that I’m missing out when I read the updates of my friends.
I’m not addicted. It comes down to virtue I suppose and where I choose to rank the qualities of social networks and connectedness in what ultimately defines who I am and what I do. In social media, there has to be something more fulfilling than attention and validation around this digital self-expression. Selfies. My new book…#WTF. School CIO: Using Social Media as a Professional Learning Tool. Whether you’re new to Twitter or have 5,000 LinkedIn connections, one thing’s for sure: social media keeps getting more popular and more powerful. If you haven’t used it for your own professional development, what are you waiting for? Too overwhelming? We get that. To help you start, we gathered advice from some expert users. “Diigo + Twitter delivers a powerful one-two punch. Diigo is a social bookmarking tool that lets you organize, annotate, and share your bookmarks.
“Let’s say you found a blog post about using Google Maps to help teach about the Civil War. “This is where Twitter comes in. —Beth Still, Social Studies Teacher, Educational Service Unit 13, Cheyenne, WY Tools She Uses • Blogger • Diigo • Dropbox • Edublogs • Educlipper • Evernote • Google Apps for Education • Hapara • Moodle • Twitter “My PLN is a toolbox of apps that help me connect and collaborate. —John Davidson, Director of Instructional Technology, Naperville (IL) Community Unit School District 203 Tools He Uses. How To Get More Out Of Your PLN Using Twitter. So, you’ve made a Twitter account and are completely hooked. You’re following a bunch of people, companies, institutions… and if you walk away from Twitter for more than an hour, it seems like you can’t possibly keep up.
While the constant stream of information is incredible, it is also overwhelming. Too much to sift through? Doubting all the hype? Are you finding this Twitter thing to be an #epicfail? Hashtags Help! Think about those precious days when you unplug for vacation and decide you’re not checking your work email. This is where hashtags come in! There are some great resources out there on the web listing hashtags you might want to follow and use. Hashtags target your audience and flag your information. Quick tip: don’t overdo it on hashtags. Let’s Chat! Another great use of the hashtag is for chatting. Make A List Lists are another great way to curate information in your feed. If you’re using a web browser, click the gear near the search bar, and then click lists. 5 Benefits of Professional Networking.
Some people say that it's not what you know, it's who you know. Well, this statement isn't totally true. It is important for people to know who you are AND it is important for you to meet others. Believe it or not, building effective relationships in the workplace can actually catapult you into the next level of your career. The problem is, many of us don't know how and where to start. Networking means that you recognize, create, and act upon business opportunities. Sooner than later, you should begin to build your network and here are 5 benefits in doing so: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. More from this contributor: How to Reinvent Yourself Do I Really Need A Mentor? The Employee You Don't Want to Become. Principles of Connectivism and the PLN | Flight Path. Amidst attempting to work up some “headspace” momentum for writing my NLS5 paper, I thought I’d write my fortnightly post for the project…. During my literature review for the paper, I drew yet another link between the theory of Connectivism and the PLN concept.
The “Principles of Connectivism” by George Siemens can be applied to the PLN context, in order to understand the purpose, characteristics and success factors of building and participating in a PLN. The eight principles (as stated in “Connectivism: a Learning theory for the Digital Age”) are: - For a PLN to be successful – to thrive and for its collective knowledge to evolve – there needs to be a diverse set of people connected to the network. In the current “digital age”, it is becoming increasingly important to develop the ability to know where to find information, rather than know the information itself.
PLN Participation Update # of Tweets for fortnight 94 # of Followers gained 5 # of Mentions 71 # of People I started following 10. Want to Screw Up Your Social Media? Keep Doing What You’re Doing. - The Experts. Is your social profile in line with your professional persona? | Spherion. As much as we might like to believe social media is just for our personal use and pleasure, the truth it is being used just as much for business purposes—from hiring and collaborating with coworkers, to client relationship-building and professional networking. With this in mind, it is wise to ensure you are not discrediting yourself professionally by presenting an opposing image on social sites. Take a close look at your online profiles and ask yourself this question: Is my social profile working in harmony with my professional objectives?
If not, here are a few options to help you manage your online image more strategically: Create a universal social profile that’s audience appropriate. A universal profile that works for family and friends as well as business associates is going to require some scrutiny and polishing. If you are currently posting personal tidbits alongside business-related material, you are speaking to two very different audiences that don’t necessarily jive.
School CIO: Using Social Media as a Professional Learning Tool. 9 Things You Absolutely Must Do to Keep Your Online Identity Secure. Six Questions To Ask Before You Tweet | ChuckWarnock.com. Before social media, a snail mail letter to the editor of your local newspaper was about the only way to make your voice heard. Now Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, WordPress, and Google+ make it easy for anyone to shout out their opinion on any topic, at any time. In fact, social media might make it too easy for us to let everyone know what we’re thinking at the moment. That may be fine for most folks, but some politicians and celebrities have lived to regret exposing their thoughts, and other things, to public scrutiny. Just ask Anthony Weiner.
Like politicians and celebrities, pastors should exercise some caution with social media, too. Although we’re not running for office, we’re always in the public eye in our own circles of friends, colleagues, and fellow church members. When I started blogging seven years ago, almost no one in my small town of 1200 people read my blog. These are six things I consider before I take a public stand on controversial topics: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How to Use Social Media and Personal Learning Networks for Self-Directed Learning | Joe Sabado - Student Affairs & Technology LeadershipJoe Sabado - Student Affairs & Technology Leadership.
One benefit of formal education is that students are provided guidance throughout their learning process via the curriculum of their studies. Students are given materials and resources to study from and good teachers not only provide the knowledge and expertise but act as mentors in the education process. Self-directed learners, those who are motivated to learn on their own outside the structure of formal education, face challenges students in formal settings may not necessarily have to deal with. They also have the freedom to design their learning experience that may not be available to students in formal institutions. I am one of those self-directed learners. In the course of learning about these topics, I have had to also learn the process of learning itself. Identify areas of study to pursue. Experiment with learning resources and adjust accordingly.
Have a plan and a self-imposed discipline to go with it. Image credit: Like this: Like Loading... Ellipses: Why so common? What are they really for? Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/Slate. Crowd photo by Paul Hackett/Reuters. Earlier this summer, Choire Sicha, the writer, editor, and co-founder of the Awl, came to an unpleasant realization. His emails, he noticed, had veered into the realm of the ridiculous. “Suddenly, one day,” he recalls, “I was delivering drifting, whiny telegraphs instead of emails: ‘Hey… this is great… I don’t know when I’ll get to an edit but… one thing is you should think about the ending there… but maybe I’ll find one in the middle for you, so don’t worry too much…okay more soon!’
” Sicha, it turns out, had “picked up a really bad ellipsis habit,” an affliction marked by three circular black dots that tend to appear, well, everywhere; in the most severe cases, anywhere from four to infinity dots will become visible. “It got out of control,” he says. If you’ve been there, you know Sicha’s tumble into ellipsis overkill is no picnic. I scrolled through my text message inbox. 100 Helpful Blogs For School Librarians (And Teachers) We love librarians. They’re the gatekeepers of knowledge and always looking to explore new ways to enhance the learning experience . I learned about the latest trends in libraries at this year’s CALICON in San Diego and love the move toward open source, cross-library sharing, and going digital. But what if you weren’t able to attend CALICON or simply want to get a regular update on all the fun stuff happening with libraries? Lucky for you, our friends at Online College shared the following post with us.
Looking for great Twitter chats for librarians? NOTE: This is an update of Online College’s previous list , as technology has changed, new voices have emerged, and some previously great blogs have gone dormant, making it necessary to revise and re-curate selections. Librarian Blogs Here you’ll find some amazing blogs written by librarians at all kinds of institutions. Free Range Librarian : Librarian K.G. School Librarian Blogs Teacher Librarians Industry News Tech-Focused Library Ed Tech. The art of being kind, or it’s easy to be mean (and easier still to let people be mean) | bringyournoise (byn) Mysocalledjunkylife.blogspot.com I was watching The Today Show this morning, and they ran a story that I saw earlier last week, too, about Lindsay Lohan…and her teeth.
Today showed a recent photo of Lohan with her teeth looking a bit unkept. I retrieved this photo easily simply by Googling “Lindsay Lohan teeth” (What does that say about our society, I wonder?) And I was going to link to it here until I realized that would be counterproductive to my point. I’m not an opponent or proponent of Lindsay Lohan because I don’t know her having never met or spoken with her. Late last week Andy Woodworth took a Twitter poll asking followers to weigh in on the question of what words, terms, and phrases a librarian should never use with a library patron. And then there’s Facebook. Why is it so easy to be mean?
I’m certainly not saying that I’ve never been mean (I have). As I get older, the more I realize how easy it is to be mean. I’m going to continue to work on the art of being kind. Like this: Students: wait to burn your bridges. The Loon helped about a half-dozen of her former students toward jobs and professional awards last week, between recommendation letters and reference phone calls. (’Tis the season, apparently.) She takes this responsibility seriously; if she writes a letter for someone, it won’t be tepid boilerplate. This means, of course, that every letter and phone call costs her significant time: time reading job ads, résumés, and cover letters over and above composition and phone time. Why expend so much time? Because it works. The Loon has heard more than once that her letters or reference calls loomed large in committee decisions to offer her former students jobs. Since the Loon believes getting students jobs is the central library-school mission, she won’t stop doing what works!
So, students. You may not believe that the Loon works hard at her job, and cares a great deal about doing it well. Twitter Mentoring – Research Discussion | New Professionals NZ. What do you think about mentoring relationships on Twitter? Mentoring has traditionally been viewed as a formal relationship between an experienced person and novice, with the experienced person offering support, encouragement, connections and opportunities for the novice to grow in the profession.
However, there are other views of mentoring. Barr (2013) offers an alternative perspective on mentoring: “In the real world, mentors are usually organic relationships without specific titles, goals or responsibilities. So, what are your personal views of mentoring and how Twitter fits (or does not fit) into this model? What do you think of when people talk about ‘mentoring’?
I’m collecting ideas for a research assignment about mentoring using Twitter, and would love to hear your perspectives (as librarians) of Twitter as a tool to establish and cultivate mentoring relationships. There are no geographical limits; I would like to hear from any librarian using Twitter! Abigail Willemse. Like this: Developing My Personal Learning Network: Processes, Decisions and Outcomes – A TTW Guest Post by Elaine Hall. Personal Learning Network – Presentation “Developing”, as it pertains to my title of this blog, is defined as the ongoing development, utilization, and management of my personal learning network. It is not something that “is done” and then complete, it is something that will, with careful nurturing and management, follow me throughout the rest my learning life. The journey began years ago without realization when I signed up for Facebook , popped on (and then quickly off) Twitter , set up a LinkedIn account, and checked out various apps via my mobile phone.
It wasn’t until taking Transformative Learning and Technology Literacy course with Dr. My favorite explanation of a Personal Learning Network is by Anya Kamenetz who writes on her blog post titled 8 Ways to Build Your Personal Learning Network with Twitter, Google Plus, and More that “no one learns alone”. In the attached “ My Personal Learning Network ” presentation, I present my PLN as it stands right now.
My PLN Mission Statement: 'Personal Learning Environments' Focus on the Individual. 4 (and Half) Things to Avoid in Your Personal Statement | The Puzzle. Personal Learning Networks. 35 Ways To Build Your Personal Learning Network Online. How to build a personal learning network online (with tweets) · digiphile. How to Create a Robust and Meaningful Personal Learning Network [PLN] Cool Cat Teacher Blog: An Easy Guide to Gaining Followers and Being Followed on Twitter.