Final Reflection

This course was challenging for me because I am not a teacher and I do not have a classroom or group of learners in which to apply some of the concepts learned. However, the concepts of monitoring your digital footprint, developing a personal learning network, and searching for professional development through social media and networking are applicable to anyone and I was able to apply those to my professional life.

1)      Digital Footprint- while I feel I am careful to monitor my online activity, I had not done a recent audit of my interactions and this was a good reminder to be vigilant in that regard.

2)      Personal Learning Network – my PLN was rather limited until I was challenged to think outside the box of my familiar channels. I gained exposure to new areas of LinkedIn and Google+ that had not explored before.

3)      Professional Development – I have attended many webinars in the past for professional development purposes but had never been exposed to Twitter Chats and am very intrigued by this methodology. I had mixed results with the chats I attended but the ones that were good were SO good that I plan to continue this method of learning in the future

Because I am not an educator, I won’t be applying my learning in the classroom; however, I initially selected this course to gain a broader exposure to social media and see how my college might use it for marketing purposes and to better connect to current and prospective students. I was exposed to several technologies that will directly assist in this endeavor. Curation tools like Storify and Scoopit could be used to gather positive articles about the college. Our college is always looking to find topics and methods of communication that connect to students, and I could see us using these curation technologies to curate on topics like good study habits or combating test anxiety.

Furthermore, I can envision the college conducting our own Twitter chats on topics like how to apply to the college or how to navigate the financial aid process. I think it’s critical to meet students in the technologies they are already using and Twitter is a great means to do so.

Blog Reflection

Part of our final assignment was to reflect on our blog posts throughout the semester. I feel my posts were well written and met the criteria identified by our instructor. I received positive comments from my peers when linking my posts on our course Facebook page. I feel I should receive full credit for my blog posts.