FINAL BLOGGG

Throughout the past few weeks I have truly learned quite a bit about the internet. I learned of a few new websites and learned different ways people can communicate online. We used Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Wikispaces, YouTube, Flickr, Podcast, and RSS feeds. I was familiar with only two of these prior to this class, Facebook and YouTube. The other 7 medias we learned about we completely new to me. But I'm glad I took this class because now I know these websites and understand how important online social communication can be. Though all of the media's are similar in their purpose (online social media's), they all differ in how they're used and how you can communicate to others. Facebook and Twitter both serve as media's that allow you to connect with your friends on the daily. Facebook is a little more in depth with likes, the complexity of the profiles and the ability to communicate (Twitter only allows 140 characters max per post). YouTube and Flickr are also social medias like Facebook and Twitter, except completely different. YouTube and Flickr are more of something you post that gets shared with the world instead of just your friends list. YouTube shares videos and Flickr shares pictures. People are able to comment on both websites to share their opinion on the videos and pictures. These websites aren't designed for the same social activity like Facebook and Twitter though. It's more of a sharing your opinion thing.
Blogging also relates to these as it's a social media tool. Blogging is becoming ever more popular online with the average user. It allows you to see what people have to say on different topics, compared to getting information straight from the source. People can blog about anything. What I like to use it for is checking out golf clubs I'm looking to buy. Looking up blogs about what people have to say about golf clubs is certainly helpful when I'm looking to buy a new one. Podcast is similar to blogging except for the video aspect. Podcast allows users to see all of the same topics or items in one particular place, sometimes with video. I learned a little about this at work because we use podcast to talk with other hospitals across the state via video. But this class definitely thought me more about podcast like the ones that iTunes has. It's pretty neat to have all similar songs in a free downloadable podcast on iTunes, I even starting using them.
Wikispaces were new, but relatable for me. They are mini Wikipedia pages so I could relate to that aspect of it. But making my own pages, instead of viewing everyone else's on Wikipedia, was definitely different. The biggest part of the wiki that I concentrated on was just making it easy to navigate and understand. No one wants to find a website that they can't navigate and don't know where to look for certain things they need. After spending quite some time on the wiki, I think Corey and I, Corey being my partner, did pretty well. I kind of liked the assignment of making basically your own webpage. I liked it much better than having an assignment with the same criteria but making a PowerPoint. I feel the Wiki is easier to understand and over just a better presentation of material.
In this class we also learned about RSS feeds. This makes checking for updates on all social media tools easier. It's a website that is able to link to all social media's to let you know when you get a comment, post, tweet, or anything of that nature. It's definitely helpful to have an RSS feed when using multiple social media's because it just saves you time from checking all the websites to see if anything has happened since last checked. It's basically a one stop shop news feed that is extremely helpful and efficient for avid social net-workers.
As for which social media I would be most helpful professionally, I would have to say podcast. This may be a bit biased because I do use it for work, but I'm sticking with it. At my work we use podcast to communicate with other hospitals once a month via video. It's extremely helpful to the hospitals because we don't have to all travel to one place to converse. We all sit in a room with a video camera capturing us while looking at a screen of people from another hospital doing the same thing. But because we do this as a group at the pharmacy, I believe that I will probably use it in the future to do the same thing, just hopefully I'm a pharmacist then. I also know that I will undoubtedly keep using Facebook and YouTube for time that should be spent doing more productive things. They are the two biggest reasons I procrastinate online, but as long as it doesn't get out of control, it shouldn't really be a problem.
If I were to give advice on improvements for this class, I would definitely keep all of the social medias involved. Learning about all of these new online medias really gives an understanding of how powerful of a source the internet can be. If anything, I would say learning about a few more media's wouldn't hurt either. For instance, at the hospital we use "Linked" sometimes for blogging. I think the more online social medias a student can learn about the better. At least when they're asked to use one for a class, like the new blogs and wikis you were talking about on blackboard, they will know exactly what to do. I would definitely create a Facebook page and invite students too. It's almost guaranteed they're going to visit their Facebook page at least once a day, so if there are any notifications for the class, they will be seen.
Overall I am very glad I decided to take this course, and had the opportunity to take it (wasn't sure for a while lol). It frees up classes for me this fall with my golf schedule which is huge. Plus it gave me a lot more knowledge about the web that I never knew before. I think more UNE classes should start being more active online using some of these social medias we used. They're not to hard to communicate to others with and they can make things much more efficient. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to take this course Bistra, I really did learn quite a bit more than I had expected to coming into the class. See you at UNE in another week!