Missy's Media Adventures

 When I started my job, I was told I could work a hybrid schedule. Unfortunately, that wasn't written into my contract. A decision has since been made where all employees within a 60 mile radius must be in office 5 days a week, and it has put a strain on me. Driving a 2 hour round-trip commute daily is a lot, and yesterday was my manager's last day over the decision.  It kind of puts us in a tough spot. Our initial launch for our project is in October, and having this kind of turnover this close definitely isn't ideal. But, it has me reflecting in the context of Web 2.0 tools. So many Web 2.0 tools emphasize connectedness and collaboration... and they don't need people to be in the same room, or even the same time zone to utilize them. Social media keeps people connected across places. What is the difference between this and the workplace? When so many schools and programs are offering virtual and remote options, what necessitates people being in the same building 5 day...

 The big news I've seen as of late has been about Instagram launching Threads, and Twitter rebranding to "X".  I listened to a podcast from The Daily this week titled "Will Threads Kill Twitter?" Tinfoil hat time: Do you think the Threads launch influenced the Twitter rebrand? Back to the podcast, there was a line that struck me: "I think humans do have some desire to connect with one another, and it's a real love-hate relationship with how the internet fundamentally works." For me, this hit home. Humans are social and desire connection. I think this is why social media feels so important to us, it allows for connection. However, there's that love-hate relationship. The podcast also mentioned that Threads hopes the norms of the site will evolve organically. That's where the love-hate relationship lies, Twitter has often been associated with negativity and 'doom scrolling', but maybe the new option of Threads will combat that narrati...

 I recently read an article that I found to be one of the most interesting articles I've read in a while. It explored the differences between the different users of technology, the internet, and smartphones. Written in 2018, the article is titled "Social Media Use Continues to Rise in Developing Countries but Plateaus Across Developed Ones" by Poushter and Bishop.  Throughout my read, a few things came to mind for me. First, this was written in 2018 - 5 years ago. How outdated it this information already? Based on some of the trends and graphs, it seems that some of their statistics might already be changed at this point. I don't blame this critique on them - simply an observation.  However, as I read, the title kept coming back to my mind, specifically "But Plateaus Across Developed Ones". Looking at the percentage of internet usage for developed countries, its difficult to get much higher than the number they already have. US has 89%, Canada 91%, Australia...

 I find myself careful to read some of the stuff in r/Instructional Design on Reddit. It seems like many people there are annoyed with shifts caused by the pandemic and by teachers being told this profession is an easy switch. Honestly, it kind of sucks. I am a former teacher who worked hard and left the field and am happy with where I ended up. I feel like I see a few kinds of posts: Hating the field for some reason, recommendations on how to enter, and actual conversations on how to improve whatever they are working on.  It gets exhausting reading discourse about how much people hate what is currently happening. It also makes me curious about the larger conversation around why teachers are leaving the classroom (that is a huge conversation). It just feels so wrong to gatekeep the information simply because someone chose to enter this career first instead of transitioning later in life. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

What is a digital citizen? How do we ensure young people are safe digital citizens? While it has been a few months since I taught, there was one lesson I my first year that I hope shaped students to be responsible digital citizens.  Good digital citizens have analytical and critical thinking skills. When I taught, I did a lesson on not believing everything that you saw online. When googling the "Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus" students came across a link about it. https://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/  Spoiler alert: It's all fake.  The goal of this lesson was to encourage students to think critically about the information they read online... and that not everything online is real.  This lesson encouraged students to be good digital citizens. How else can we encourage young people to have good digital citizenship as they begin interacting online?

I read a couple of articles this week about assessment, blogging, and social networking sites (SNS). The consensus across the board seemed to be that blogging is a valid way for learners to express their thoughts and engage with each other. In most other classes I have taken throughout my higher ed experience have required discussion postings via a thread. What is truly the difference between requiring students to set up a blog and interact vs interacting via a discussion forum? In my eyes, not much. The pro of a blog as an assessment tool is the learners will take more ownership over their spaces.  In Katrin Wodzicki’s “‘Actually, I Wanted to Learn’: Study-related knowledge exchange on social networking sites”, they explore how learners use SNS to connect with like-minded people. Truthfully, I have a torn opinion on this. I know that I personally use social networking sites to connect with like-minded people in my personal life, but I think there is something lost by prioritizing ...

 Montana State University Library (MSU) worked to find a way to build community via social media.  Personally, I found the mission a bit ironic knowing that Facebook was originally created for college students.  MSU used twitter and phased in different kinds of tweets to increase engagement. The first phase was simply letting people know they existed - a knowledge base. The second phase was to build community - here, they referenced graduation and alumni. Finally the third phase a call to action - inviting people to reach out. I found this approach interesting. Over my time on the internet, I have come across various small pages where people are trying to create a large community or following. I notice they often jump immediately into the third stage - inviting people to interact. However, there seems to be an invisible barrier for this. People are not always comfortable immediately interacting on social media. I think the missing component for these are phases 1 and 2 th...

 This week, I read the article "What do teachers share within Socialized Knowledge Communities: a case of Pinterest" by Sihua Hu et al. First, I was surprised by the amount of research in Pinterest in relation to teacher communities. This article was first published in 2018, and since then, MDR posted in 2019 that Instagram overtook Pinterest as number 2 for teachers. While I no longer teach, I was involved with "Teacher Instagram" during that time.  The interesting part of this article to me was in discussion of Social Capital. This immediately brought to mind the different kinds of influencers prevalent in today's social media space. Teachers who are able to gain this social capital on different platforms often leverage it to make money through various avenues. (Note: there is nothing inherently wrong with this phenomena; it is merely an observation.) Through the article, it also discusses policy changes and professional communities. To my knowledge, there may...

 My grandma lives an isolated life. For a long time, she did not have internet at her home, a computer, or a smartphone. Her time was spent reading her books, gardening, and playing card games when we visited her. That all changed about 2 months ago.  Two months ago, she got Wifi at her home. She then got an iPad and a smartphone. She has immediately become addicted to Facebook and has joined a variety of groups that interest her - fishing, gardening, and cooking are the top few. She enjoys seeing the photos shared by her family and where we go. She has a hard time using the touch screen, so she purchased a variety of styluses to match her outfit of the day.  Granny went from an isolated world to being able to be part of a bigger world. At a time when her life seemed to be shrinking, she managed to connect with her family and join groups that interested her. She engages in small bits of learning and community through technology. I'm happy that after many years, she decide...