Week 9: Digital Shadow

 When conducting the activity Google “ego search” I found a facebook profile (not mine), a Flickr profile (also not mine but a professional photography business “Erin Butler Photography” who interestingly enough shares a birthday in the same month as mine), my twitter profile, a LinkedIn profile (not mine but the Manager of Operations of NAB – impressive), many images of Erin Butler (but none of me), and the official Erin Butler Photography website. I decided to narrow my search by including my middle name and nothing interesting came up so I tried my maiden name which resulted in 6 different LinkedIn profiles for different Erin Gilchrists, a facebook page (not mine), a blogger profile (not mine) and some images (not of me). I narrowed it down again to include my middle name and nada – this ego search was not very successful in bumping up my ego that's for sure. Having said that I was happy with the results, I was a little nervous about what I might find. I am pleased to see that there are no inappropriate images or websites containing information about me – this gives me comfort. Completing this activity left me comfortable with the idea that a future employer (or my Mum or Grandmother)  could attempt to find incriminating information about me without success (because there is none). I found it very interesting that no links for the “web prescence” I have created for myself came up.

Week 8: Internet Footprints

Before taking this unit I did not put to much thought into what I posted online. I never considered my internet footprint , although I had considered the digital footprint left by others. I never asked myself questions such as “Would I want my mum of future employers to see this post?” before making a facebook status update about being hung-over after a night out with friends BUT I had been using facebook from a young age and to be honest, did not consider the consequences of an internet footprint. In the past few years I have been more careful about what I posted, but this was due to my grandparents adding me as a friend so I was conscious of what they thought of me. I often wondered if my children or grandchildren in future generations would look back on my facebook account when looking into family history and this left me anxious about what they would think of me. These thoughts took over and I became very conscious of not only my own posts and internet footprint but also of the posts made by others (digital shadow). I remember a friend posted some pictures of a night out at the pub in which I appeared to be (and probably was) a little worse for wear. I was horrified and asked them to take the photo down immediately, they did not comply and I still cringe every time I think about that photo. It is defiantly not something that I want my children or grandchildren to see, and yet they possibly will. This is something I cannot control and it worries me.

Twitter Discovery

I just realised that twitter does in fact have the funcionality to send private messages, it just keeps getting better and better and I do believe it will be bigger then facebook. It is my new addiction!!!

Week 7: Social Networking

I am a certified facebook junkie – I swear I check it at least every hour and I have the facebook app downloaded to my iphone which makes it really convenient to do so, therefore the concept of Social Networking (SN) and Social Networking Sites (SNS) was not entirely new to me. Having said that I did enjoy the YouTube video “Social Networking in Plain English” and reading information on past social networking sites such as Friendster. I did have a twitter account before starting web101 that I started about 18 months ago when a friend suggested it was better then facebook. I didn’t really use this account much as it didn’t seem to be much fun with only 1 follower/followee, but I think that's because I didn’t really understand how to use it. I mostly use facebook for status updates and reading status updates as others and this micro blogging sensation is becoming very popular – as this is the core purpose of twitter I can see how it has the potential to takeover from facebook (who else hates Farmville requests etc?). Having said that I think it still has a ways to go in rising in popularity before this becomes a reality.

Week 6 - Wikipedia Experiment

 Okay so I know I had trouble getting started on the wikipedia experiment. I choose a pregnancy page and I think it must have been authorised as I could not find the elusive edit button anywhere. After reading the discussion board and seeing that a number of people had success by making changes to the page of their hometown I decided changes to pregnancy where a little ambitious and I should try collaborating on the page of my own hometown, which is Muswellbrook, New South Wales. I noticed right away that there was no tourism information on this page (and most towns in the surrounding area included the same) so I added some information on local attractions. It only took a day and a Good Samaritan reverted to the earlier version leaving me with the comment “sorry this is not a travel page, try wikitravel”. I Muswellbrook is on somebody's watch list. I have decided not to dispute the change/comment as I no longer live in the town and the page is obviously being regularly moderated. I had a lot of fun doing this experiment and no longer find wikis daunting. I may even become a wikipedian in the future – now that I know what I am capable of J

Week Six: Wikis

I really enjoyed the readings and activities this week, so much so, that I have decided my essay should be on wikis. I feel I have enough information on this topic to effectively analyse how wikis have changed the way people communicate and collaborate – we will see how I go. I have a little experience in wikis (unlike blogs which is all new to me) as I have used typewithme and other wikis in other units to work collaboratively on university assignments and I have to say I have been very pleased with them. I most like the functionality to contribute to discussions in real-time (much more effective then bouncing emails back and forth) and the ability to use slideshow functions to determine how much each individual has contributed to the project and revert to earlier versions (if and when necessary). I am also getting the hang of blogging and find it very therapeutic and a great way of reflecting and getting my thoughts out there. I think I will be using both of these web 2.0 tools in the future (I will certainly encourage my students to use them).

I found the first activity quite easy and a bit of fun. However I still haven’t managed to work out how to put this into practice in reality and make a contribution to wikipedia – I just can’t seem to find those simple edit, save and link buttons that are the most notable features of a wiki. Oh well, perhaps the discussion board will give me the answer. If not, I will endeavour to crack the wikipedia code and make my contribution as I am really curious to see what happens to my contribution after a week. Happy studies followers J

Week 5 - Blogging

I am a bit behind in my blogging due to moving house while heavily pregnant and ending up with a torn abdominal muscle, boohoo!  I am pleased to say however that the results are in from assignment 1 and I am super happy with my 12/15. This is a great start to the unit.

This week we learnt all about blogging and RSS feeds. I am so new to blogging so I was interested in learning all about the history and reading the discussion board. It seems that so many students have a strong opinion on citizen journalism and I must admit I am a bit overwhelmed after reading all the comments. I choose not to post on the DB this week as it seemed a little intense but I am sure I will regret that decision later as we do need to participate in online learning discussions as part of our assessments.

I enjoyed the RSS feed activity. I have signed up to google reader and started adding subscriptions. All this technology is wonderful but I am finding it takes me so long to work out how to use them that at this point it’s not very practical. I am sure once I have my ‘digital world’ set up (after this unit) I will wonder how I ever got by in life without such web applications as delicious, Flickr, Twitter, and RSS feeds.