Friday, January 13, 2012

Lecture 3: Blogging, Twitter and Science Journalism

Be sure to fill in this form so that the TAs and I can track your participation on Twitter. It is absolutely necessary for grading purposes.

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Homework:

Come to next class having read:
Public Library of Science (PLoS): http://blogs.plos.org/blogosphere/ 
Not Exactly Rocket Science:

19 comments:

  1. Before today's class, it never occurred to me that there would even be videos explaining how to use Twitter. I guess I've been taking it for granted that I've grown up surrounded by so many different forms of social media that I hardly even flinch when there's a whole new system introduced to us. For example, using the @ALIAS system to bring someone's attention to the content of your tweet, or even the concept and usage of hashtags - sometimes I wonder if social media doesn't just make keeping in touch with others easier, but also more interesting and variable on the whole as an experience.

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  2. I have never use Twitter before, but after the video showed, I think twitter is convenience. In twitter, I can follow anyone I LIKE, keep track on friends, share anything I want. Honestly, I am not active in socal network, Twitter is a brand new thing to me, its kinda more interesting than I thought, which is good thing. Now, I can be more connected with my friends in Vancouver, Toronto and other cities.

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  3. After our twitter demo today I've decided that it is time to embrace twitter and see what good I can use it for. As a nutrition student I can see how twitter can be used to send people daily reminders and motivations to live healthier lives and make positive changes in their relationships with food. In the spirit of New Years resolutions I'm sure that many people are being more mindful in their food choices so I'll be tweeting nutrition tidbits, shockers, and tips regularly to whoever decides to follow me @ErikaBrown12. Enjoy!

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    1. Awesome plan you have there! I would love to see any nutrition tips from you!

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  4. After reading through some of these blogs I was quite surprised, and found myself wanting to read more. I have always thought of and heard of blogging as more of a casual and personal means of communication, somewhat like an online diary. I was unaware that blogging is used to disseminate scientific and professional information! This has just opened up a whole new world of knowledge to me :)

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    1. I completely agree with you!

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    2. Glad to see you're excited to see another side to blogs - the professional and scientific side. That's what you'll be adding to via your e-portfolios.

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  5. I never knew that blog stood for web and log, you learn something new everyday. After seeing the help videos and the number of people that did not raise their hands to being a blogger or twitter I felt a little better about myself because I am not alone. I guess all of this is worth a try and will not kill you, and if after trying these thing they are still not for you, then you only have a semester to deal with blogs and twitter. You have to find a bright side to every cloudy day.:)

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  6. The vedio which we watched in class about the twitter is very interesting, I really enjoyed it! It is very creactive!! I have never seen this kind of vedio!! It is simple, but gives all of the information about the twitter! It is great!

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  7. After reading the blogs, I realized it's a good way to express yourself and discuss things that you can't always talk to your friends and family about because their interests may not always be the same. There are always people that might be interested in reading about some of the same facts and information that you have discovered and want to share, or you might read information about that they discovered that would be beneficial or of interest to you. I have never really blogged before and am not into using a lot of social media but after this class that might change. :)

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  8. I never knew there would be videos about how to use twitter, I have been interested in using it for a while but never got around to figuring it out for myself so these videos were a great help! It is such a relief knowing that I am not the only one who is new to blogging, twitter and many other forms of social media. I found the science blogs to be slightly confusing to navigate and to understand the lay out of all how everything is related, however I feel with a bit more use of them I would be able to find lots of interesting posts. They remind me a little bit of the news paper but with topics I find a lot more interesting.

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  9. I thought that using blogs as a way to talk about science is a great idea. It's a way to create public interest in areas of science that would usually leave everyone who is not scientific more confused than before. I Would not want to use these as a source for school papers! But then I probably wouldn't read this in the first place if they consisted of pages of scientific mumbo jumbo!

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  10. Becky: glad you learnt the etymology of blog! :)

    And yes, Becky you're right, using these social media tools for this term def. won't "kill you" but instead you could find that it's actually an advantage. Your future employers will be very happy to find someone who is literate (transliterate) in social media and savvy with their online etiquette. There's the bright side!

    Jacqueline - yes, blogs are def. a good way to express oneself as well as show (in a professional sense like our e-portfolios) that we are experts in our fields.

    Josh - that's right to be critically literate. Some blogs are peer-reviewed but most, as we saw today in class, are not!

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  11. My name is Rima.I'm a nutrition and food sciences student,and I have only been at the univeristy of Alberta for the past term.I use quite a bit of social media tools.Mostly Facebook which keeps me in touch with many friends and family from where I'm originally from,Lebanon.I also use twitter to keep track of daily events that happen around the world.Lastly,I use Youtube quite a bit.I believe it is the best creation even!Youtube solves most of my problems,as well as google.

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  12. Being new to twitter, the video on how to use twitter was very helpful...can be slightly embarrassing that my 10 year old cousin can figure it out so easily and I was trying to understand the jargon of the tweets. Anyways I think I got it down now. Thanks Jess!

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  13. After all these days of twittering in class, I am still not quite familiar with twitter. So I decided to watch the video on how to use twitter again. It was quite useful! This may sound really stupid, but it is not until now that I finally figured out what the hashtage, #ALES204, is used for! Twitter not only provides a way to tweet our professor a question or in-class homework, it also tells me what other ALES 204 students are up to and this acts as a reminder of upcoming events!

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  14. I'm still trying to figure out all of the twitter features. This video was helpful and very informative... I think I'm getting there.

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  15. I did not have a twitter account before so this is a whole new world to me. the video's helped me a lot :)

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  16. Going into Food Safety and Quality here at the U of A, I knew I would eventually have to learn some forms/skills of public communication to build the bridge between the lab and the household. Never quite thought of using blogs or Twitter as one of those methods. Right now I'm also still trying to get a hold of all the Twitter features, though the video does help quite a bit!

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