A cancer warrior

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

Rebecca Hogue is a blogger that agreed to have a conversation with us for iTec. She currently manages three blogs and is cursing a PhD in education. During our time with her, she focused on demonstrating us how irrelevant haters can be.

According to Rebecca, the first step of making a blog post is planning. You need to know what your post will be about ad what´s the purpose of it. Then, you need to find out how much do you want to share and how long will it take to express yourself.

Whenever you publish something, it is impossible for everyone to like it, but the best advice that Rebecca gives us is to ignore the haters. Criticism is fine, as long as it is politely. But whenever someone replies on your posts by being insulting, do not answer. Haters need to be eradicated, and the only way to do so is to find out what feeds them, and then take it away. And what feeds haters? Reactions. Negative reactions from the publisher.

This way, if you decide to ignore your haters, they will eventually go away. Nowadays, there are many laws that prevent cyber bullying. So if you believe that ignoring them is not working, you can also rely on the government.

She also narrated to us how she was diagnosed with cancer in 2014. This year was an emotional one for her since various people asked her daily how she was feeling and she needed to explain how she was not okay.


An influential lady

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

Maha Bali is an Associated in Professional Practices that is currently living in Egypt. She uses twitter as an educational tool and her blog has the particularity that it shows how long it would take to read every post. Her blogs are usually read in about 5 minutes, but the comments that follow can take longer to read than the post itself. Her daughter plays an important role in her life, and in her Hangouts conversations (she’s adorable).

She disagrees with the ideology that millennials spend too much time on their cell phones instead of socializing due to the reason that it is impossible to know if what they are doing isn´t truly important for them. She believes that technology does not break people apart; on the contrary, it brings them together. There’s a huge amount of introverts around the world that gain confidence whenever the use technology for communication. Face to face communication is overrated, it is not necessarily more important to pay attention to someone in front of you than to someone over the Internet.

Regarding the blogging part, she encourages mentioning others on your blog, as long as you are trying to get the best part of them. She believes posts are not supposed to be so long (no more than 1,000 words) unless you have something more important to say. If the post is too long, you can divide it into steps. Also, she suggests to write a short summary on top of the post if it´s too long.

She suggests being careful whenever you are talking about politics, different cultures and other sensitive topics and always use respectful words. In case of getting in trouble, an apology will never have the same impact as the first post.

Pictures are great for explaining something, but do not overload our post with them. Videos can also be helpful, but the time of the reader should also be considered before using this source. Every source of media has its advantages: video can help express your emotions and transfer them to the viewer, podcasts can be listened everywhere like in the car or while coking, but the post can make the writer appear smarter as they have more time to think and edit what they are posting.

All of this was retrieved from the conversation we had with her last Thursday; also, her blog has realy interesting articles that everyone should read.


CogDog

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

Alan Levine a.k.a CogDog is an expert on the implementation of new technologies in education that agreed on having a conversation with us during the iTec course. He usually uses his blog to post the solution he found to a problem he considers relevant. For achieving this purpose, it is necessary to guide the reader through the process of thinking he had while he was coming through the solution.

He feels everyone should post whenever they feel like it, without established schedules. Sometimes he posts about three times per week and sometimes he does it once in a month. Everyone wonders if their work is actually great, so it´s okay to feel afraid of publishing, but you still have to do it.

Regarding the security issues someone may face during this communication with the rest of the world, Alan believes that if your information is really important to you, you shouldn’t be posting it online.

Furthermore, he believes that images inside a post are important to keep the reader’s attention. The images he uses for his post tend to be pictures he took during his free time. He assures that this activity helps him get relaxed and eventually he starts seeing the world differently, which helps him solve his problems more efficiently.

His pictures had been used for commercial purposes without his permission. But instead of getting upset, the CogDog suggests us to feel proud that our work is being appreciated and distributed, especially when it helps other solve their problems.

You can read more about Alan Levine on his blogs: http://cogdog.wikispaces.com/ and http://cog.dog/. I also suggest to get a look at his github or flickr accounts.


A pink hurricane

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

Amy Burvall is a well-know teacher that loves supporting startups that help spreading education. Since she beat breast cancer about 10 years ago, she encourages everyone into living life and having fun.

For perfectionist people, like me, she developed the term “raw thought”. A “raw thought” is the creation of a short post that is more of a draft. At the end of the draft you write the words “raw thought” which means you will make it better somewhere in the future.

She recommends everyone to spend at least half an hour a day being creative. Visuals are excessively relevant in social media communication. Do not have an intended audience, at the end of the day, anyone can see it. And most importantly, publish something that is helpful and only publish what your mother would approve.

I recommend everyone to visit Amy’s blog and twitter account. They are full of mesmerizing drawing she made herself and lot of pink details that show her feminine side. Every single one of her post is flooded with creativity and style.


Students have a voice

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to talk with Lee Scallerup Bessette, an Instructional Technology Specialist at University of Mary Washington. During our conversation, her main concern was to let students know that their perspective is also relevant for the Internet. Even though students are the youngest members of the conversation, they should be considered active members in the conversation.

She warmly welcomes every student to have a voice and claim their space on the Internet. She also remarks that anyone´s thoughts will change over time. It´s fine if you become embarrassed of something you said years ago, but that´s not a reason to erase it. Everyone should cherish how they felt when writing something, and how time has changed their perspective. The Internet is big enough to hold what you said, you don´t have to delete it just because you´re ashamed. But if you really feel it´s necessary, it´s fine.

I recommend visiting her personal blog and her twitter account. She also has a website in which she teaches how to do certain things inside a blog: http://dgst101.net/ 


Visitors and Residents

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

According to David White, the internet population can be divided in two: visitors and residents. Visitors are those who just use the Internet for consulting information or temporary activity such as paying bills. Meanwhile, internet residents are those who remain logged in and sharing content. For example, someone who just watches Youtube videos would be considered a visitor, while the one who uploads them is the resident.

Today, as part of the iTec course, we had a conversation with Autumm Caines, Bonnie Stewart, and Sundi Richard. Thanks to them, we could develop a graph that exemplifies how the visitor/residents model works and how the internet can be used for professional and personal purposes at the same time.

visitor-and-residents

Based on this concept, I have interviewed some people to see how each one of them uses the internet

Luis Felipe Garete Moreno (Nutrition Student)

 


Digital Presence

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

During our second day in Semanai we had the chance to talk with Laura Gogia, an educator expert on the area of Digital Presence. Although this course is named Digital Identity, Laura Gogia proposes an innovation in the name, as the term presence also involves how you interact with others.

“Presence is closely related to but different from identity.  Identity is who you are; presence is how you behave. How you present yourself.  How you engage with the space and others in it” (Gogia, 2016).

Also, Laura believes that aesthetics are important when making a blog; furthermore, it´s important to “take a step back and look at their blog site through the eyes of a stranger” (Gogia, 2016) every now and then. This way, you can engage your site with constant improvement and make it nice for others. Also, including pictures gives a sense of better understanding (Gogia, 2016).

She makes emphasis on how everyone should publish whatever they want as long as they understand what they are talking about .It is fundamental that you do NOT seek for someone t tell you what to publish. It´s okay to receive some suggestions and try to help other with confusing concepts, but do not seek for approval. The web is dynamic. If you don’t like something anymore, erase it! If it´s necessary, change EVERYTHING.

“I change the purpose, organization, and appearances of my websites – including this one – fairly regularly”(Gogia, 2016).

 

Gogia, L. (2016). Digital Presence: A Scheduled Chat with Ken Bauer’s Students. September 27th, from Messy Thinking Website: https://googleguacamole.wordpress.com/2016/09/27/digital-presence-a-scheduled-chat-with-ken-bauers-students/

Gogia, L. (2016). Why (not?) consolidate your digital presence. September 27th, from Messy Thinking Website: https://googleguacamole.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/why-not-consolidate-your-digital-presence/

Gogia, L. (2016). Why personalizing your blog matters. September 27th, from Messy Thinking. Website: https://googleguacamole.wordpress.com/2016/06/04/why-personalizing-your-blog-matters/

Gogia, L. (2016). Why embed images & videos. September 27th, from Messy Thinking. Website:https://googleguacamole.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/why-embed-images-videos/


Myself in 5 pictures

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

Every person is defined by certain characteristics; we all have something we love about us, something we need to improve and something that nobody knows. During the Semana i course with Ken Bauer, we had an activity that consisted on taking pictures with words from magazines to complement them. These words were related with the characteristics mentioned below.

For example, I always try to see the good on every situation, no matter how bad it can be.

positive

impatient

I become easily frustrated when someone does something really slowly that I could be doing faster. For example, when I´m waiting for someone to finish typing their text

perfectionist

Today I spent an entire hour tying my trench coat. I still don´t like how it looks.

loquacious

When I was younger I used to be extremely shy; now it´s hard for me to sit next to a person without trying to know something about them. For example, today I met Romana Macurová (she sat next to me).

persnickety

It’s hard for me to make a decision; I always find something I don’t like about everything. Every day I come to class; I NEED to sit on a chair with a color that matches my outfit.

 

This whole activity was inspired by Amy Burvall. You can contact her via twitter, instagram and her personal blog.


How to be someone on the internet: Recommendations by Dave Cormie

--Originally published at Frida Díaz

Dave Cormier is a well-known educational activist, researcher and online community advocate with whom we had the chance to discuss about Digital Identity during a course conducted by Ke Bauer. During our conversation, he shared with us some recommendation
s we should consider while making something public. These recommend

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Retrieved form: https://twitter.com/davecormier

ations are summed up in the following list:

  • Be nice, kind and positive
  • Even if you are having a bad day, stay focused on the positive side
  • Is better to control your identity instead of hiding it
  • Find something you love that reflects your personality and embrace it
  • Invest time on your identity
  • Do not take pictures drinking alcohol or smoking
  • Do not post anything you do not want your mother to see
  • Do not post anything you cannot defend from a judge
  • Be respectful
  • Do not get offended by people´s replies
  • It´s okay to disagree with someone, as long as you are respectful
  • Have really complicated passwords and write them on paper
  • The best way to get someone to visit your website is to post pictures of them

All of the above are personal recommendations by Dave Cormie. For more information, you can visit his blog: http://davecormier.com/edblog/whos-dave/ or follow him via twitter: https://twitter.com/davecormier