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Twitter Profile Stand Out

How to Make Your Twitter Profile Stand Out

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/make-your-twitter-profile-stand-out

#1: Zig When They Zag

This one’s easy: Don’t do what everyone else is doing. If you see a trend popping up in bios, don’t immediately change your bio to reflect that trend. Everyone ends up using the same verbiage, the same phrases, the same descriptors.

Another trend is to include a disclaimer—the most popular being, “Views are my own.” This is the Twitter equivalent of saying “I will bore you to death.” This disclaimer doesn’t serve any real legal purpose, nor will it save your job. If your employer requires it, do it, but other than that, leave it off.

The key takeaway here? When you see a trend, run the other way. If you’re compelled to follow a popular trend, at least put it through your personal lens first. Change it enough that the thread is there, but it’s clear you’ve put more thought into it than simply following the crowd.

#2: Use Brief Sentences and Links

Make an impact on your audience by crafting a sentence or two that convey your expertise. Choose the most important things you do; state them in a clear, compelling way; and then explain why your skills should matter to the visitor. The challenge, of course, is brevity.

In addition consider that hashtags, @s and links—the language of Twitter—are clickable in your profile. I’m always surprised that more people aren’t using these valuable opportunities in their Twitter bios.

Jim Cramer’s Twitter bio has two simple, concise sentences that promote and link to his website, charitable trust, his CNBC show and his blog.

It would have been easy to make a laundry list of those properties along with his book titles and accolades (just like everyone else). Instead, two well-crafted sentences emphasize his most important efforts and include links to each.

 

In your Twitter settings you have the option to set your location and provide a link to your website. Since Cramer’s main bio already links to his website, he uses his sidebar link to point to his author page.

Make the most of your real estate. If you have too much to convey in a sentence or two, get creative—use your sidebar link.

If you operate other accounts, go ahead and add them. These simple links are such an easy way to build your followers for other accounts or your website. Don’t miss out on this opportunity.

#3: Use One Word

On the other hand, you don’t always need a list of keywords or even sentences to convey your sentiment. Sometimes, a single word can make a serious impact.

If you can creatively distill your abilities to one word, you’ve snagged yourself a punchy, powerful piece of the creativity pie.

#4: Stretch the Truth

I’m not talking about lying about your abilities. I’m talking about tongue-in-cheek obvious exaggeration.

An obvious “lie” can be funny and attract attention. For example, since when is Ellen an ice road trucker?

#5: Update Frequently

Smart Twitter users know that a static profile is boring and uncreative. Change it up based on what’s current in your career or marketing initiatives.

Changing your profile bio helps you keep followers abreast of your new accolades or endeavors (e.g., launching a new business or writing a book). Adapting your profile keeps you interesting. And best of all, it forces you to be creative more often.

#6: Acknowledge Your Audience

Say “hello” or “goodbye” to your followers. When you speak directly to someone, you stand a much better chance of actually gaining his or her attention.

Use the word “you” rather than “I” in your profile—it becomes more of a personal message and less of a brag. With that simple change, your bio becomes more inviting.

Over to You

The New York Times calls Twitter bios a postmodern art form. If it’s an art form, then we are the artists. I encourage you to try some of these tips and see where your own creative artistry takes you.

Creativity doesn’t come with an instruction manual. You’ll probably find yours at weird moments when you least expect it. I know a lot of people who have that a-ha! moment in the shower!

plagiarism and academic integrity

Posner, Kouwe, and Hegemann: old-school vs. new-school attitudes about plagiarism

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0219/Posner-Kouwe-and-Hegemann-old-school-vs.-new-school-attitudes-about-plagiarism

Generation-Y literary remixing? or plagiarism?

I’ve typically come to the defense of Gen Y, to which I belong, when baby boomers and others accuse us of neglecting personal relationships in favor of social networking, or of growing so reliant on technology that we’re unable to operate an actual telephone book or read a paper map. I even make my living doing all kinds of Millennial-y things like blogging and writing for online publications. But I also went to a solid journalism school that instilled me with plenty of old-old-school values, many of which I don’t think are forgiving when it comes to lifting another person’s writing or insights without also admitting where you got them.

Evering L, Moorman G. Rethinking Plagiarism in the Digital Age. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy [serial online]. September 2012;56(1):35-44. Available from: EBSCO MegaFILE, Ipswich, MA. Accessed December 3, 2014.

http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dkeh%26AN%3d79862807%26site%3dehost-live%26scope%3dsite

The current concept of plagiarism is based on a capitalist view of property and ownership. It assumes that everything of value can be owned, bought, and sold and that ideas, knowledge, and art are created by individuals who have the rights of ownership. This view is deeply ingrained in Western culture.

Traditional definitions of plagiarism are further challenged by the digital revolution.

This situation has caused the current Millennial generation to see knowledge ownership, acquisition, and distribution in radically different terms than in previous generations. Clearly,
academia is past due in reevaluating the concept and how we deal with it in secondary and higher
education.

Plagiarism and the Millennials

https://hubbardbecky.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/plagiarism-and-millenialls/

pro domo sua: academic library, information litreacy etc

Beyond ‘Information Literacy’

http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V68N1/inrev15.html

How can academic libraries best help students sort through the growing thicket of online information? By Stanley Wilder

The premise of information literacy is that the supply of information has become overwhelming, and that students need a rigorous program of instruction in research or library-use skills, provided wholly or in part by librarians.

The idea behind information literacy is that our typical freshman is drowning in information, when in fact Google provides her with material she finds good enough, and does so instantaneously. Information literacy assumes that she accepts unquestioningly the information she finds on the Internet, when we know from research that she is a skeptic who filters her results to the best of her ability. Information literacy tells us that she cannot recognize when she needs information, nor can she find, analyze, or use it, when she demonstrably does all of those things perfectly well, albeit at a relatively unsophisticated level.

Simply put, information literacy perceives a problem that does not exist. Furthermore, it misses the real threat of the Internet altogether—which is that it is now sufficiently simple and powerful that students can graduate without ever using the library. That is unfortunate because, for all its strengths, the Internet cannot give students the high-quality scholarly information that is available only through subscription, license, or purchase.

As Roy Tennant noted in the January 1, 2001, Library Journal, “only librarians like to search; everyone else likes to find.” Any educational philosophy is doomed to failure if it views students as information seekers in need of information-seeking training.

Information literacy is also harmful because it encourages librarians to teach ways to deal with the complexity of information retrieval, rather than to try to reduce that complexity.

“The library is a place where readers come to write, and writers come to read.” Dow casts students not as information seekers, but as apprentices engaged in a continuous cycle of reading and writing.

Librarians should use their expertise to deepen students’ understanding of the disciplines they study. My note: ant that’s why LRS needs area specialists, not traditional librarians.

The library must also do a better job of reaching more students, more often. Librarians need to use their expertise to make the library’s online presence approach the simplicity and power of the Internet.

Project Information Literacy

http://projectinfolit.org/

about early adults and their research habits

 

Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy

Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy
Creating Strategic Collaborations
for a Changing Academic Environment

http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/whitepapers/Intersections.pdf

p. 4. digital literacies (including teaching new technologies and rights issues, and the emergence of
multiple types of non-textual content);

p. 7.  every librarian has a role in teaching, whether formally or informally, about scholarly
communication issues.

p. 11. Librarians play a unique role in teaching faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students about
the complete life cycle of information through educational programs geared to different disciplines and
levels of student learning. Undergraduates are now likely to be required to work collaboratively on a
wiki or to write a blog for a class as the first steps in a writing or research assignment or even as the final
product.

p. 12.  ALA OITP Digital Literacy Task Force defined digital literacy as, “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills” (2012, p. 1). In its statement of recommendations to governments and organizations, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions noted that, “media and information literacy includes all types of information resources: oral, print, and digital” (IFLA 2011). Comprehending all kinds of content, including data, statistical, financial, and visual, as well as text, is a critical outcome intended by media and information literacy programs.

p. 13. Data literacy is an area where the impact of external forces, ranging from the increasing demand on students to find and use data to funder mandates to have data management plans, point to a critical area of intersection between scholarly communication and information literacy.

p. 14. Transliteracy is an emerging concept that challenges the current structures of information literacy and scholarly communication programs alike. The definition indicates that this is a key area where scholarly communication and information literacy intersect:

The essential idea here is that transliteracy is concerned with mapping meaning across different media and not with developing particular literacies about various media. It is not about learning text literacy and visual literacy and digital literacy in isolation from one another but about the interaction among all these literacies. (Ipri, 2010, p. 532)

p. 15.  Intersection 3: New Roles for Librarians

Digital Literacy Practices on Social Network Sites

Examining Digital Literacy Practices on Social Network Sites

http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/RTE/0471-aug2012/RTE0471Examining.pdf

p. 35
Viewing this rich literate activity as part of students’ everyday lives will give us a greater understanding of the literacy experiences they bring with them to the classroom.

According to this study, 38% of the writing that the student participants completed happened outside of the classroom, and much of this writing happened online. Similarly, a study by Grabill et al. (2010) in the Writing in Digital Environments research group found that first-year college students engaged in digital writing most frequently, primarily on mobile phones, social network sites, and email.

Never Work Harder Than Your Students…

Never Work Harder Than Your Students… Use Technology

http://www.rundesroom.com/2011/07/never-work-harder-than-your-students.html

some_text

1)  Start Where Your Students Are …
2)  Know Where Your Students Are Going …
3)  Expect Students To Get To Their Goals
4)  Support Students Along The Way
http://www.transl8it.com – (English to text lingo conversion – I blogged about this last night – see my post below).
Google Translate – Language translation – spells it (correctly and phonetically), and says it.
Skype – great for author conferences, social studies (talk to people in other countries), keep a student connected who has been absent, or is away on a trip.
https://posterous.com/ – easy way to create your own blog through your email – great for setting up a class blog to keep students / parents informed.
5)  Use Feedback
edmodo.com – It’s almost like a kind of facebook – but you can set it up for your classroom – post questions, reading clubs, etc. and give feedback to students as they answer questions.
ed.voicethread.com
https://docs.google.com – Students can use this for their writing assignments, and not worry about bringing files back and forth to school.  Teachers have access to the page to make corrections / give feedback throughout the writing process.
6)  Focus on Quality Rather Than Quantity
edu.glogster.com – I’ve set up an account with glogster so we can make multi-media posters next year.  I can so see myself using this with science / social studies.
http://www.animoto.com/education – A site for making movies and slideshows.
photopeach.com/education – Another site for making movies and slideshows.
http://www.jaycut.com – Yet another site for making movies and slideshows – this one looks like it has a few more features (like slow-motion).
blabberize.com – Bring your still pictures to life by making them talk – I can so see myself using this next year with my SMARTboard lessons!  Wouldn’t it be cool to make a fraction talk and explain how to do a concept during a math lesson?!?
http://www.wikispaces.com – I am definitely going to investigate this one further.  I’d like to make a wiki for one of my science units next year – assigning students a different part or concept, and then putting it all together.  We could even print off the pages later and turn them into our own reference book.
livebinder.com – A lot of the teachers at the webinar talked about how they would use this resource to set up student portfolios … hmmmmm … intriguing.
epubbud.com – Students can create their own ebooks (which other people can access) and display them on a shelf (similar in looks to shelfari).  A great way to publish their writing, and make the writing process more authentic for them.
http://www.prezi.com – Another multi-media site great for presentations.  Use as an introduction to a new unit, or have students create their own presentations for a certain topic.

7)  Never Work Harder Than Your Students

social media and libraries

Use of social media by the library current practices and future opportunities (White Paper)

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/access/white-paper-social-media.pdf

#tfsocialmedia

Social media objectives:

  •  promotion
  •  collection management tool
  • Outreach
  •  teaching and learning

Opportunities and challenges

  • opportunity to build a sense of community between the library and its users
  • the variability of skills across library staff for using social media effectively, striking the right tone between professional and personal, coordinating activities across the institution to avoid duplication
  • maintaining visibility for the library brand and copyright issues relating to hosting library resources on social media sites

Policies and management:

  • Librarians are divided on the benefits of introducing formalized social media policies and plans. About a third of libraries responding to the Taylor & Francis survey had a policy in place, but over 40% had no plans to introduce one
  • Some believe that representing the library as a professional function with a
    consistent tone is the priority, while others believe that a more human approach is important, with individual staff free to bring their own ideas and personalities to social media activities.

Effectiveness and assessment:

  • difficult to prove return on effort and that the time required to do this was a major barrier to more comprehensive analysis of impact
  • framework for evaluation, so it is likely that assessment against commonly agreed metrics will become an increasingly important part of social media activity within the library in the near future

Current Social Media Practices:

  • In a study from the mid 2000s (Cantrell and Havens1 ), most library directors in the US when questioned about social media said they did not think that libraries had a role in social networking
  • A more recent study from 2012 (Kai-Wah Chu and Du4) shows how use of social media by the library has now become mainstream. In this survey of libraries in Asia, North America and Europe, 71% were found to be using social media tools with a further 13% saying they planned to use them

Advantages of using social media

n Financially the costs of using social media are perceived to be low;
n It requires little training;
n It promotes library services and disseminates news quickly, delivering this information more directly to library users;
n It increases engagement and interactions with library users;
n It helps gather feedback to enhance user services;
n The promotion of library holdings via social media can help increase usage of content;
n It enhances communication both within the library and with other departments;
n It can be used for outreach activities through onward sharing, well beyond the institution itself, helping build connections and reputation more broadly

Social Media Objectives: graph on page 8 of the PDF document:

A To promote events
B To promote library services
C To promote resources/collections at the library
D To update on library refurbishments
E To promote new acquisitions
F To promote library guides, exhibition guides
G To connect with new students joining the university
H To engage with the academic community
I To connect with the wider community beyond the university e.g. the town in which the institution is based
J To connect with distance learners
K As a customer services tool- complaints, suggestions, enquiries, feedback

L To highlight subject specific information
M To connect with potential students
N As a teaching tool to promote information literacy, technology and writing tips (not library based)
O To promote courses
P As a research tool to locate official documents and studies

From UK-based focus group: “The library is a programme, not just a building.

Channel preferences: Graph on page 10 of the PDF document

SOCIAL MEDIA USES Table on p 13 of the PDF document
Twitter n Distribute library news and information
n Provide customer service
n Build connections with researchers
n Build connections with other librarians and institutions
Facebook n Distribute library news and information
n More social and less formal than Twitter – share photographs and run competitions
n Arrange events including tracking RSVPs and sending event updates
n Engagement with students
Pinterest n Promote general library collections, digital and archive special collections and information literacy
n Set up of online repositories for students to pin researched references as part of
collaborative group work
n Display book titles to save time browsing and promote new titles
n Provide an arena for students and course leaders to pin reviewed and recommended reading
for a particular topic
n Develop communities with other online libraries
YouTube n Streaming film collections
n Instructional ‘how to’ videos teaching information literacy skills and how to use library
services and resources
There are also a number of other social media products that are being used by librarians that reflect regional
preferences and the need for the specific functions offered by niche applications.

Collection usage and discovery: Graph on p. 15

Teaching and learning

From US-based librarian interview: “The trend in education now is to create environments that foster collaborative learning. Faculty have ditched textbooks and course management systems in exchange for a Facebook page for their class, or a wiki, or a blog. These online environments are fun; students already know how to use them and are more motivated to comment, discuss and share in these environments than a dry CMS.”

Social media policies and management, p. 18

73% of respondents stating that they believed more roles dedicated to social media would appear in the library in the future.

Effectiveness of social media

From UK focus group: “We keep track of something particularly successful, then we redo the campaign 6 months later.”

From US focus group: “We have very few interactions with anyone on our Twitter feed.”
“Twitter is definitely the best platform, because we hashtag all of our posts with the keyword
of the publication, and so for the academic audience, once they click it’s going to pull up all
of the similar publications under that topic.

Promoting library social media channels

From UK focus group:
“We retweet each other to encourage new followers.” My note: Suggested by me regarding SCSU_Library for Twitter and Pinterest and SCSUTechinstruct but “considered” (in local lingo, slow death of the idea)

students blogs

Helping Students Develop Voice While Blogging

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2014/10/helping_students_develop_voice.html

  • Being a proficient writer takes time: practice, practice, practice. Teachers should provide students specific, on-going feedback to help students improve their writing. With each draft, the teacher should offer relevant effective feedback that will allows students to work on specific skills.
  • Just because you are a proficient writer doesn’t mean others will enjoy reading your writing; this takes time too. Proficient doesn’t always mean engaging (refer to the first bullet)
  • All writing has value, even bad writing… maybe especially bad writing because it is a starting point and that is often the hardest place.
  • If you don’t know how to start, just start writing whatever comes to mind without the burden of worrying if it makes sense – that will come later. Sometimes a brainstorm works well too in a notebook if you can’t jump right to the writing on the blog.
  • Revision isn’t a suggestion, it’s a necessity – sometimes writing the same thing three different ways or more offers perspective, this perspective provides choice to the writer later for what best suits the finished piece.
  • It’s okay if even finished writing isn’t perfect. Perfect is a writing myth. All writing can always stand to be improved, so when a piece feels finished, it probably is for now and that’s what matters most. Ask yourself, “Does this piece communicate the message I intended? Are all questions answered about what I’ve written about?” If the answers are yes, it’s done.
  • Mistakes will happen on blogs – it’s okay, we’re all human and we all mistakes. It’s even okay to leave the mistake up there unless it’s offensive. Students can always revise drafts or published posts later if errors are found. It’s all a learning process.

 

 

Instagram in the classroom

How To Use Instagram In Your Classroom

http://www.edudemic.com/instagram-in-your-classroom/

Instagram is a hugely popular social network for photo sharing.

  • Student Work Showcase
  • Student of the Week
  • Class Memories
  • Historical Figures
  • Literary Characters
  • Reading Recommendations
  • Step-by-Step.
  • Scavenger Hunt
  • Writing Ideas
  • Document Progress

instagram in the classroom

Horizon Report 2014, Library edition

http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-library-EN.pdf

p. 4 new and rapidly changing technologies, an abundance of digital information in myriad formats, an increased understanding of how students learn evolving research methods, and changing practices in how scholars communicate and disseminate their research and creative work.

Engagement requires an outward focus

A liaison who understands how scholars in a particular discipline communicate and share
information with one another can inform the design and development of new publishing services, such as
digital institutional repositories.

Liaisons cannot be experts themselves in each new capability, but knowing when to call in a
colleague, or how to describe appropriate expert capabilities to faculty, will be key to the new liaison role.

an increasing focus on what users do (research, teaching, and learning) rather than on what librarians do (collections, reference, library instruction).

hybrid model, where liaisons pair their expertise with that of functional specialists, both within and outside of libraries

p. 6 Trend 1: Develop user-centered library services

Many libraries are challenged to brand such a service point, citing a “hub” or “center” to refer to services that can include circulation, reference, computer support, writing assistance, and more.

For liaisons, time at a reference desk has been replaced by anticipating recurrent needs and developing
easily accessible online materials (e.g., LibGuides, screencasts) available to anyone at any time, and
by providing more advanced one-on-one consultations with students, instructors, and researchers who
need expert help. Liaisons not only answer questions using library resources, but they also advise and
collaborate on issues of copyright, scholarly communication, data management, knowledge management,
and information literacy. The base level of knowledge that a liaison must possess is much broader than
familiarity with a reference collection or facility with online searching; instead, they must constantly keep up
with evolving pedagogies and research methods, rapidly developing tools, technologies, and ever-changing
policies that facilitate and inform teaching, learning, and research in their assigned disciplines.

Librarians at many institutions are now focusing on collaborating with faculty to develop thoughtful assignments
and provide online instructional materials that are built into key courses within a curriculum and provide
scaffolding to help students develop library research skills over the course of their academic careers

p. 7 Trend 2: A hybrid model of liaison and functional specialist is emerging.

Current specialist areas of expertise include copyright, geographic information systems (GIS), media production and integration, distributed education or e-learning, data management, emerging technologies,
user experience, instructional design, and bioinformatics.

At the University of Guelph, the liaison model was abandoned altogether in favor of a functional specialist
approach

p. 8 Trend 3: Organizational flexibility must meet changing user needs.

p. 9 provide education and consultation services for personal information management. Tools, workshops, websites, and individual consults are offered in areas such as citation management, productivity tools, managing alerts and feeds, personal archiving, and using social networking for teaching and professional development.

p. 11 data management, knowledge management and scholarly communication

digital scholarship

p. 12 Liaisons need to be able to provide a general level of knowledge about copyright, data management, the need for metadata and the ontologies available in their disciplines.

p. 13 Liaisons need to be able to provide a general level of knowledge about copyright, data management, the need for metadata and the ontologies available in their disciplines.

p. 16 replacing the traditional tripartite model of collections, reference, and instruction

1 16 17 18 19 20