Fig. 1. The Lookout (2008) Chris Gin, [digital image]. Retrieved April 12, 2012 Spring is in the air and as the semester comes to an end, I am thankful to be parting ways with Ales 204. Though I have learned a lot from the class and I believe the inspirations and goals of the class are extremely valuable to my generation, I feel the course is still in an experimental stage and will be more valuable in a few years. That said, however, I will definitely update my Facebook page to one applicable to my practice and continue to use my LinkedIn profile after graduation as business tools that allow me to contact a vast audience of potential clients. I commented in agreement with Daniel Schwenk's points regarding the value of social media for both scholarly communication and business ventures. This class has certainly opened both of our eyes to the immense opportunity to further our careers using social media.
The highlights of the class for me were the Wikipedia article, the paper on science articles, and the personal post. Though I have used Wikipedia extensively for years, having the opportunity to contribute really helped me understand the importance of the general public to such a valuable and current source of information. I will continue to use the skills I gained in this class and my education to aid in keeping nutrition articles as scientifically correct and updated as possible.
For the science article, I chose to write about the Open Access Movement, something I have taken advantage of and benefitted from since the beginning of my university education though had never been aware of. This opportunity helped solidify in my mind the importance of the internet in scientific communication and made me extremely grateful to live in a generation in which such immense communication is attainable. Sydney Killoh also wrote on the Open Access Movement and it allowed her to realize the importance of her mother's career in the movement. I commented to aknowledge the value of the opportunity that Ales 204 has provided.
I found the free post a great opportunity to use the skills I learned in the class and put it towards something I'm passionate about: nutrition, of course. I was able to use Google Scholar, Wikipedia, and journal articles more effectively than I had in the past, and evaluate the information more critically. Josh Perryman's choice for his free post about how propaganda influences our decisions, is a constructive use of social media, I commented to commend him for his valuable post.
In the future, I think it would be valuable to start the semester with a topic relating to our fields and have all the lab assignments relate to it, building a blog with a better flow and giving our e-portfolio's a better overall objective. I feel it would not be a difficult task to have the Facebook page, free post, Wikipedia article, and science article based around a central idea. This would help the evolution of our online communication in a more directed, organized manner. I'm happy to see other students providing feedback for the course, such as Erin Amun, who pointed out the value of Pinterst in a field such as design. Although it communicates mainly through photos, it encourages a level of creativity that may be inaccessible with simple text. I commented to let her know I agree that Pintrest is a valuable social media tool, and also hope it can be incorporated into Ales204 in the future.
Overall, I have learned many things in this class and will continue to use the skills gained well into my professional practice as a dietitian. When commenting on others blogs it was obvious that many students have increased their ability to effectively communicate online. Jenn Wheeler's blog stood out in the vast improvement from her introductory post to her reflective post regarding her CSL placement. I commented on her final post to let her know how much her online communication skills have benefitted from the class and her CSL experience. I hope other students who take this course use their online communication skills in a positive manner to cultivate a more informed adult population with the ability to elect a representative government and make positive changes for our future.
Have a great summer,
Kandice
No comments:
Post a Comment