Week 5

Although it has been quite a while since my last post, Feedly has been working hard for me, day in and day out! I have had a chance to sift through the mass amount of new articles that have displayed themselves, but one in particular caught my eye. Now, I must admit that it does not DIRECTLY link to this course but it exemplifies the power of technology, which seems to be a reoccurring theme :P.

In my article it states that a research team at Washington University has made a hands free goggle device that allows surgeons to see cancer cells while they are operating. This could change the whole process for patients, and possibly eliminate the need to some to come back for a second surgery to remove remaining cancer cells. If these goggles are proven to work consistently, then our generation will yet again reap the benefits from new technological developments in the future! Lucky us!

Now, it’s time to get down to business!

 TeachThought (CC) 2014 Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1i5HS3F

I have been making a respectable effort (if I do say so myself) to be as open and honest in this whole process as possible. That being said, I have a few confessions to make… I have always vowed that I would never, ever get Twitter. I made fun of the people that were letting the world know what they were eating for dinner, and when they were going to the gym.  It turns out that I now have my very own account….and I can now honestly say that those people that tweet EVERYTHING do indeed exist. BUT I can also see how twitter is used for the good of man kind too!

I think that the article "Tiny Bursts of Learning" we were suggested to read explains twitter perfectly and really puts it into perspective. He says that, “learning needs to be ongoing. The world is changing.” Truer words couldn’t have been spoken. It is no longer sufficient in this day and age to bring yourself up to a certain standard and maintain that. You constantly need to be learning new ways of doing things in order to stay competitive.  He also mentions that if you are following a good group of people, all it takes in 10 minutes a day to extract valuable information from tweets, and contribute some of your own. 10 minutes a day is do-able, right? From my short experience on Twitter, I would agree that IF you follow the “right” kind of people, then it could bring you a wealth of knowledge and most definitely be part of your PLN. So, I vow to do my best to follow the “right” kind of people to better my PLN, scouts honor!

When I reflect back (it seems far far back now) to my PLE Diagram I originally made, I think I would categorize Twitter as a communication tool. To be honest, when I started this lovely journey I wasn’t utilizing all of the online resources out there so I didn’t think to make a more meaningful category for my diagram, one that twitter may fit in to. Therefore, it will be deemed communication, in the most educational way possible!

TTFN

Week 4

Back and ready for action!

Family Allergy and Asthma (CC) 2012
Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1elteTn

Since Week 3 I have been reaping the benefits of my Feedly reader.  Stories that interest me are now popping up on my feed for me to enjoy. But now I have a question for you! Does it seem strange that peanut allergies have become so frequent in recent years?! I thought so too! Lucky for me a story came up on my Feedly in relation to this. The article discusses how researchers are trying to find the cause of the increased intolerance of peanuts in children. 2 different studies are summarized. Some children that are slowly being exposed to small amounts (really small!) of peanuts, under professional supervision, gain a tolerance for it. The other study mentioned that previously, women who were pregnant were advised not to consume peanuts, in an attempt to help prevent allergies. Now they are finding just the opposite to be true!! Women that ingest peanuts during pregnancy are more likely to have children that are tolerant to them! As I personally LOVE peanut butter this is good news to me! I will continue eating it whenever I like and someday (far far away) when I have children hopefully they will be able it eat it too! :)

Even though I now have my RSS feed reader, I understand now more than before that it is for constantly updating information, while the function of the bookmark is still required for the static information that I consistently refer to. Now, the idea of being able to access my bookmarks from anywhere is genius! I again can say that I never knew such a tool existed! I have added all of my personal bookmarks, plus a few extra for this class.  I can already see that it is going to be extremely easy to collect lots of them. I think this is where the tagging function is going to be a BIG benefit! Nothing is more frustrating than having your information right in front of you and not being able to easily find it, no worries with Diigo!! I can search a key word and anything that is tagged with that will show up, very nice!

We also learned about curation tools this week. These tools use key search words to pull related information from the Internet. There are a number of tools we explored, but I found most of the tools gathered the information and made it look all pretty so people can share it on social media. I personally, do not currently care about posting information I find interesting for “my followers” to see. The Google Alerts tool caught my eye more for its function. I get notifications straight to my email when there is new content on my desired topic, very convenient!

We also learned about the Good, Bad and the Ugly of online resources! It is very important for us to be conscious of where the information that we are using to build our knowledge is coming from, otherwise, if it is not reputable, we gain nothing! In some cases would could even get ourselves in trouble!

Reflecting back on the week, I would categorize both Diigo and Google Alerts as search tools. Google Alerts I would consider the more obvious search tool (or reverse search tool as I mentioned last week) as it is actively finding the information for me. But I would also consider Diigo a search tool because I am using it to facilitate a search I would otherwise have to do using another search tool, such as Firefox. 

Every week I am learning about so many things I was not aware of before, it is hard to believe how long I have been in the dark. No need to fret, I am now seeing the light! Or maybe that is the glow of my cell phone screen as I get another e-mail from Google Alerts! Only time will tell!

TTFN

Week 3

Another week has come and gone, and yet another thing I have learned that I was very much unaware of! This week we explored what exactly Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed readers are. I can honestly say that I had never before heard of this. Hard to believe, I know! I imagine this is because I was not aware so I was not picking up on it when others talked about it or even when I would see that lovely little orange symbol. The whole idea is that you can subscribe to websites or blogs, so every time there is something new posted you are made aware on your personal feed reader, such as Feedly.

This is such a great idea! I can’t believe I never knew about it before! There are many, many websites I visit on a regular basis or have book marked to see if the information is updated. NO MORE VISITING BOOKMARKED SITES! :D

I have organized my feeder so I have the mandatory blogs for this course grouped together, and then I have some that are for fun and then just interest. I found the feeder fairly intuitive to navigate and change. Although I do think this is because I have grown up using the Internet and it’s applications. While looking around, I came across the blog ‘E-Learning Queen,’ she has been blogging for many years- which I also didn’t know was that popular all the way back in 2004! There were a few blogs in particular that caught my eye right from the start. The one is ‘Free Imagine Editing Programs: A Review.” She goes through a bunch of different tools that can be used. As I love pictures myself, I plan on reviewing these tools in the near future! I look forward to seeing what she comes up with in the not too distant future!

Not only is a RSS feed reader just seem to make life a whole lot easier, it is helping me to increase my digital citizenship! Feedly is helping to increase my digital literacy by learning about helpful new technology J. This type of technology is very useful if you are doing research, or just for personal enjoyment.

After learning all about RSS feed readers, there is really only one category of tool I can imagine them being in, in mine, or any Personal Learning Environment (PLE). I would categorize this as a search tool. But it is strange when I compare it to my other search tools. With them I have to go out and find information over and over again. With a RSS feed reader I have to do the research to find what I consider a quality source once, and then the information comes to me! I guess in a way it is a ‘reverse search’ tool. I am not sure if such a title deserves it’s own section? I would think not just because I would only need the one tool similar to Feedly to do this. It shall go under ‘Search’ in my PLE diagram! J

TTFN

My Experience with RSS Feeds

After creating a RSS feed this week, I took some time to look at the information I subscribed to. As of recently I have a newfound goal of being healthy, including eating right and being physically active. As a result of this, I did subscribe to a couple health related items.  For example, the Fitness and Nutrition section of the NewYork Times.

One of the articles I found particularly interesting is ‘Exercising to Age Well, Whatever your Age.’ It discusses a couple of different studies with middle-age adults and how being physically active will affect their lives. I believe that even people that are not educated in health could assume that people that have been ‘healthy’ their entire life would live longer than people who did not. However, the studies also show that being active drastically decreases the chances that people will become seriously ill or disabled in retirement. Future into it I found that the studies show that there is not a significant difference in the results of people who have been active their ENTIRE life, and those that chose to start being active when they are middle-age. Good news for people my age! It is possible that we can wait another 10-15 years to start really being serious about exercising to live longer, happier lives! J

I think I will keep doing it now though!

TTFN