Weekly Report & Reflection Post #3 - The world of RSS Feeds

Hey everybody, it's been a great week so far as I explored the functionalities of RSS Feeds and tools like Feedly to help organize all my feeds. As I have mentioned in my last blog post this week, I used a tool called Feedly to help put all my RSS Feeds in one convenient location. This allowed me to skimp through many feeds and read the ones that really catch my eye!

Source: NY Times (Ben Wiseman)

Today, I want to share an interesting post from Study Successful that talks about a "7 Minute Workout" for the busy student. This post really caught my eye because it relates to my interests. This is because I am a busy student and I also enjoy working out. After reading the article, I learned a set exercises that I can do within 7 minutes (rest time included!). How great is that! A simple diagram to the right illustrates what these exercises are. I will find these exercises extremely useful on days when I do not have time to go to the gym. What makes this even better is that all you really need is gym clothes and a chair!

Thanks to RSS feeds and Feedly, I have now added another great tool that will not only enhance my learning but also my physical health. RSS Feed Readers have really contributed to my digital literacy because it has helped explore websites and blogs that I would not have found or done so myself. For example, Feedly lead me to a great article in the Study Successful blog and through the blog I was lead to a more detailed article in the NY Times. So what RSS Feed Readers does for me is that it helps me navigate the digital world in directions that connect to my interests. In a way, it can also be said that RSS Feeds contribute positively to my Digital Health & Wellness. How is this possible you might ask? Well, if you think about it, RSS Feeds save me the time of going through numerous websites and spending hours in front of a computer browsing content in order to find ones that interest me. This negatively impacts me in a physical manner (spending too much time on the computer) as it can affects me ergonomically  and may lead to me building up stress. But as I learned to use RSS Feeds, my search for content relevant to me was made much easier. Now I can just log in to one website (Feedly) and content that might interest me are all displayed on one page in a summarized fashion.

As you may remember, last week I discussed PLEs. My PLE diagram consisted of four sections: Organizing Content, Collaborating and Socializing, Synthesizing and Creating and Practicing Digital Responsibility. I believe RSS Feeds fit very well into the Organizing Content section. As tools like Feedly do exactly that! They extract and organize RSS Feeds into one location. This helps me avoid going into dozens of websites to find content that interests me.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you will join me next week as I continue to explore tools in the digital world!

Billy

My Experience with RSS Feeds! - Dipping my toes into the world of RSS Feeds.

Hey everyone, this week I experimented with RSS Feeds! An RSS feed, also known as Rich Site Summary, "uses a family of standard web feed formats to publish frequently updated information: blog entries, news headlines, audio, video" according to Wikipedia. Along with the RSS feed, I also created a Feedly account which I use to organize my RSS feeds. Feedly helps me organize all my interests like technology, world news and business all in one convenient location.

One blog I frequently visit is iPhoneinCanada. It covers all Apple related news from a Canadian perspective. I really like this blog because it is Canadian; many non-Canadian blogs are from the U.S and as a result much of the information on it proves to be irrelevant for Canadians. I choose an article from this blog related to the new iMac that was just released. So the new 2013 iMac is equipped with the Intel’s Haswell processor which I think will be amazing! I am a huge Apple fan in case you haven't noticed, but I have yet to own a iMac. The 3.1GHz processing is quite tempting, but at a price tag of over $1300, I think I will wait a few more years for when I have a job that will allow that kind of budget. Again, the new iMac looks incredibly beautiful and I would definitely jump at it if the price tag was not a king's ransom! However if you happen to be more fortunate, I highly recommend this beautiful piece of technology made by Apple!

Exploring the PLE (Personal Learning Environment)

Where do I want to be in 10 years? Who do I want to be in 10 years? These have been the questions often asked of me by my mentors, friends and even myself. As of now, I would like to see myself working in the audit industry at the current firm I am interning at. I would like to be a CPA designation holder and also a CFA designation holder so that I may venture more into the finance world if my passion so desires. Where I currently stand is on the road towards this 10 year goal; I am an accounting student aspiring to become a CPA who is on the verge of graduating within the next year.  I believe I will miss school and will be very sad to leave. I will miss the social events, many of my friends and believe or not, going to school! However, I am mentally prepared for the challenges ahead of me as I prepare to complete the CPA designation exams. At the same time, I believe I will need to improve many aspects of myself in order to reach my goals in the next 10 years. One of the things I would like to see myself improve from my current self would be my communication skills. I aim to be able to be more outgoing and be better at expressing ideas in a clear and concise manner. Online resources like this Harvard Blog will be a key to helping me improve things like my communication skills. In fact, digital resources like the Harvard Blog will be a new addition to my Personal Learning Environment (PLE) as I set out to improve myself and stretch my horizons in the digital world. PLE will actually be my next topic of discussion, but before I get into that, I would like to discuss how I can improve my learning environment.  W. Clement Stone (businessman, philanthropist and New Thought self-help book author) once said:

"You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success - or are they holding you back?"

I strongly believe Stone's quote is very accurate, I constantly try to hammer out factors in my environment that hold back my learning. An example of this would be noise. My roommates can be quite noisy at times, as a result I change my environment by continuing my studies at the school library. Another example of how I can improve my environment would be to obtain a computer in my own room. This allowed me to have some personal space while I worked on school assignments and as a result allowed me to concentrate better.


What is a PLE? It stands for Personal Learning Environments. Wikipedia defines it as "systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning". Examples of many PLEs can be found here. In fact, Wikipedia can be part of someone's PLE; it is part of mine! I used my first computer in elementary school, which was a macintosh. I also own an iPhone which is loaded with many applications that help me socialize, collaborate, organize and create various types of contents as part of my learning process. This is of course also true for my mac. However, what I didn't realize is that all these applications I use daily on either my iPhone or Mac all contribute to create my PLE. Thus I categorized my PLE into four sections which are Organizing Content, Collaborating and Socializing, Synthesizing and Creating and Practicing Digital Responsibility. These categories were taken from a poster created by Drexler (2010). The reason for choosing these categories was because this is how I see my usage of the digital world. It is separated into categories that all contribute to how I learn. Each category on my PLE contains logos of the tools I use daily to help enhance my learning process. For example, in the organization category I have a note taker app that I use on my iPhone. This app allows me to write down for example, notes of spontaneous ideas for a school project. Next in the collaborating category, I have Gmail. This email platform allows me to send messages to peers regarding collaborative efforts and it also allows us to share contents instantly. The digital responsibility category is probably one of the most important. The contents in this category like the Web Block app allows me to remain a good Digital Citizen by helping steer clear of unwanted websites in order to remain safe in the digital world. Last but not least, the creating category is probably one of the most used sections of my PLE. Softwares like Microsoft Office allows me to create anything from school essays to resumes which will help me further my career and learning process.

However in order to do this I need to update and maintain my PLE. Because at the moment I have a very limited PLE. In order to expand my PLE I will explore regularly the tools available to me for learning, new ways to stay organized, stay active in the digital world and keep sharing regardless of where I am in life. I believe that adapting to my environment will help me learn even better. I can do this by staying on top of technology and digital tools that may enhance learning. I can also find ways to change my physical environment by experimenting with different setups of tools in my learning environment in order to maximize my learning experience. I plan to continue to explore the digital world through this Learning in Digital Contexts class while maintaining a positive digital footprint.

In addition to a PLE, I also created a word cloud of last week's blog post using Gliffy. The words footprint and digital appear to be the most noticeable. Which makes sense because that was the theme of last week's post. The word cloud is interesting because it really highlights the main ideas and themes of a story. This would be a great tool to get an impression of a story or just to obtain a general idea of what the story is about. Also, it looks really cool and I love the colours!




That's it for week 2 everyone! As always, thanks for reading! I hope you follow me through the next few months while I share my learning experiences and tools along with a personal reflection of how I am adapting to the fast changing digital world!

Reflection Post 1 - My footprint in cyberspace

Do you want a digital question? I don't think that's a question easily answered. Truthfully, I don't think you have a choice (unless you live in the woods!). But for many of us who don't live in the woods and own an electronic device that connects us to the digital world (especially in Canada), we almost certainly leave a digital footprint. I think it's too late for me to think about whether I "want" to  leave a digital footprint, but instead I am embracing it and hopefully using my digital footprint to my advantage. Leaving a "positive" digital footprint can be key to landing that job I've always wanted or  just leaving a good impression for anyone out searching my name! So yes I do want a digital footprint, but I want it to be "positive" and I want it to work to my advantage.

One might ask: what is a "positive" digital footprint? Well, every piece of information you have ever left on the internet has contributed to your digital footprint. An image of you posing as superman on Facebook, a tweet about how awesome Apple products or even this blog post will all contribute to your footprint. A positive footprint will share your good points, your creativity, talent, skills and personality. By sharing these points, you may create a professional image of yourself (if that's what your going for) that can show potential employers why you can fit in their organization. At the end of the day, a positive digital footprint will help you communicate indirectly with others about who you are in a positive light.



After obtaining an understanding of what a positive digital footprint is and what it can do for you, you are probably wondering how you can obtain and maintain a positive footprint. One example of how you can do this specifically addressing Twitter is discussed in the video to the right. The video taught me 2 important things:

1. Think before you share
2. Protect and maintain your privacy

And I think the suggestions made in this video really address the issues of maintaing a positive footprint. It helped me understand that in order to maintain a positive footprint, you have to take initiative to attempt to share with only people you want to share with and more importantly think of the consequences before sharing. By keeping in mind of these simple rules, you can protect your privacy and maintain the positive digital footprint that you would like your future employer to see!

It's finally time for me to obtain my digital citizenship by completing the Digital Driver's Licence Exam in a book called Digital Citizenship in School by Mike Ribble! I've always hated exams, but this was an exception as I scored a 18 out of 20, which is quite high by my standards for any exam! Regardless, I did not score perfect, meaning I still have much to learn about digital citizenship. The two questions I answered incorrectly were numbers 3 and 4, regarding electronic exchange of information. Perhaps I need to gain a better understanding of the appropriate digital channels of communication for different reasons. In Ribble's book, he highlighted nine important elements of digital citizenship, I won't list them here but you can find it in chapter 2 of his book. However, I do want to talk about one element that really stood out for me, which was Digital Commerce. I found the section regarding Digital Commerce fascinating as I am a regular consumer online with regular visits to online retailers such as eBay, Amazon and BR. I think it is important for me to become an informed and careful online consumer because being "an intelligent consumer is an important aspect of good citizenship" (Ribble, Mike. Digital citizenship in schools). 

Well that's it folks! In this week's reflection,  I discussed my thoughts towards digital footprints and how they can affect our everyday lives. I hope you enjoyed this post and as always, thanks for reading!

Billy

All about me!

Hey everyone, my name is Billy Wang and I am a fourth year accounting student at Brock University. During my free time, I like to play squash and badminton with my friends at Brock's athletic facilities. I am also very active as I enjoy regular morning runs and spin classes in the Zone at Brock. In the past few years, I have been very active in my community. Some of my involvements included participating in the annual CN Tower climb for the United Way; I have also participated in several charity runs organized by Scotia bank, CIBC and GoodLife Fitness.

Although I do enjoy a variety of physical activities, I also like to spend a fair amount of time on video games; one of my favourite PC games is Total War: Rome. In addition, I own a PS3 which I occasionally play, some titles I own include Battlefield, CoD Black Ops and GTA. Apart from video games, I enjoy a variety of music including Rap, Hip-pop, Classic Rock, Classical and Jazz! My favourite male artists range from James Blunt to Jay-Z and even Frank Sinatra. On the other hand, I absolutely love female artists like Kelly Clarkson, Whitney Houston and Ella Fitzgerald.

Growing up in the digital age where technology has moved incredibly fast than it ever has provides countless amounts of opportunities to embrace technology and use it to my advantage ,whether I am at school or work. However, with all these new technologies and innovations, it is important to understand the idea of digital citizenship and digital footprint. Because what one chooses to do on the inter web will affect one's digital citizenship and leave a unique digital footprint. This is why I have chosen to take ADED 1P32, an education course in digital citizenship. Through this course, I hope to become familiarized in effectively and ethically using digital tools for lifelong learning and development. Furthermore, I believe this course will help me understand the benefits of using digital technology, articulate an understanding of Canadian digital laws and principles of digital citizenship.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog and I will end it with a quote:

"My own experience is use the tools that are out there. Use the digital world. But never lose sight of the need to reach out and talk to other people who don't share your view. Listen to them and see if you can find a way to compromise."

Colin Powell

 Thanks for reading!

 Billy