ALES Final Reflective Post

Hello again,

We are nearing the end of term and the means ALES 204 is coming to an end.  Throughout the term, we learned about various types of social media, some of which I had used before (or at least heard of!) and others that were completely new to me.  If I hadn't been in this class then I likely would never have tried out any of these new platforms because I didn't know anything about them.  I didn't know what I was missing out on! I have learned how to use Facebook for a more professional purpose, LinkedIn, Twitter, Delicious, Flickr, Tag Clouds, learned how to edit Wikipedia article stubs and more!

It seems like everyone has discovered a lot of really interesting things through this class, you can see some of the blogs that I found interesting in a blog post I had written earlier, or click this link to go directly to that post. Alternatively, you can click these individual links to go to each blog separately: Paula V. in ALES 204, Eat Me! - The Road to Registered Dietician, Love, K, Phantastic, and finally, Naomiblogs.  After checking out other people's blogs, you will see how diverse everyone's interests are and how that has led to differences in what people post and the overall appearance of their blog.

We also had a series of labs throughout the semester (1 per week) where we could try out our new and developing social media skills and receive feedback from our TA.  This was a great way to put into practice what we were learning about, especially since some things are easier to learn when you can ask questions and not be panicking at home because you can't figure something out!

Social media applications like we were using with Twitter and Google Docs are really useful for sharing our work and thoughts.  For example, earlier this month I was thinking about getting a Blackberry Playbook, so I sent a tweet to #yeg (Edmonton) to see what people here thought about the device.  It's really easy to get information from anyone, anywhere with these communication mediums.

Audioboo

Today was our final lab in ALES 204 so as a wrap-up assignment we were to create an Audioboo account, record ourselves using our laptops or cellphones and then upload the file to Audioboo.  I decided to do an interview with one of my classmates, Steph (you can view her blog by clicking here), on what a typical week looks like for each of us and how we manage the stress that comes from our week.  You can listen to the audio file of me interviewing her here.

I found this to be one of the more interesting labs, as we worked in groups and learned about a new social media tool that I had never heard of until earlier this week. I can see how Audioboo could be useful, especially in preparing field notes if my future job requires it.  I would have to upgrade my account to do that though, as the free account only lets you record for three minutes at a time.  Audioboo is definitely a very easy tool to use in uploading short sound file. 

You can also link to other people much like Facebook and Twitter, or alternatively, just listen to what they have posted. You can also comment on their files and start a conversation with the owner of the file and others who listen to it, which is quite similar to Flickr which can have extensive conversations around pictures that people have posted on their account.  

Blogs that are of Interest to Me!

In our ALES 204 class, I have had the pleasure of reading and commenting on several of my classmates blogs.  I find them quite interesting and useful in that fact that I can easily learn more about people in my class and find people in my program that I may not have known before. One such example can be found here on Paula's blog.  The second blog I commented on was Nick's Blog, here I found a good amount of information about him and information on his online presence. I found this great blog done by Kate and have commented on her Wikipedia Article blog post, you can check it out too by clicking here.  Here's another great blog post done by Linda. She is a Human Ecology major and is really interested in nutrition; you can check her blog out here.  Naomi also has a very well written and developed blog. She is a nutrition major and has found the social media we use to be quite useful already.

Our ALES class is a very diverse group ranging from nutrition majors to land reclamation majors.  It has been very interesting reading about my fellow classmates and where their interests lie.  I especially learned a lot from the Wikipedia articles everyone had to contribute to a few weeks ago.  You can check out these articles by clicking on the links above!  

Wikipedia Entry

Our next assignment in ALES 204 was to continue the work already started on a Wikipedia "stub" article. We were to choose a topic we were familiar with and had some background in. I chose to write on the John Howard Society as I find the work they do to be quite important and very relevant when looking at it from a Human Ecological Perspective. Reintegrating offenders into society and giving them a chance is very important if we expect them to become contributing citizens who follow the laws and have the resources available to them to become self-sufficient. You can read my contribution to the Wikipedia article here.

You will also be able to see that I contributed to this article by selecting the "View History" tab near the top on the right hand side.  My alias is lisaa0590.  Check out another example from Marissa here. I found that editing a Wiki was more complicated that I thought it would be in regards to what you have to do to get italics, bold etc. The Wiki Code is easy to learn though and can be done quickly with the 'helper' tools they have made available when editing stubs.

I think I will definitely keep working on updating this stub and others as I develop new interests in my field!

Wordle2

Wordle2, a photo by LisaA0590 on Flickr.

Hey!


This is the link to my new Wordle I've created based on the text from this blog since it's creation in September! You can also view it in my Flickr photo stream at the bottom of this blog. It's cool how it turned out since it automatically generates something similar to a tag cloud, but out of my text rather than information I have tagged in my blog. You can compare it to my actual tag cloud which can be found near the top of my blog on the right side of the page. It's also animated so it's extra cool!

I also like how it has made some words larger and others smaller depending on how frequently I have used them. You can really see what's on my mind when I'm blogging! I think it would be great if everyone had one of these so readers could tell what topics were on the blog so they would know if they had come to the right place for what they are looking for.  Happy viewing!

Delicious..

Ales 204 strikes again! This week we were asked to register for a Delicious account, you can view mine here. These accounts are interesting, since you can add "tags" to links that you like and share them with others through the tags.  All someone has to do is search your tag and they can find websites and such that others have added on their accounts.

I have added two links one to Human Ecology Review and one to Science Journalism Perspectives.  Both of these links are interesting to me, the first because I am in Human Ecology and thus interested in what is going on in the field and the second because of the pure interest in science and focusing on making it understandable rather than keeping with the technical jargon of the discipline.

My Facebook Business Profile

Hi again, I have been requested to create a Facebook page or profile to act as a 'business card' for my online e-portfolio (for more information on what can be done with an e-portfolio follow this link). I've chosen to create both, since they are useful for different reasons which I will outline as I go.

The first photos you will see are of my Facebook Page, this is like a cover letter. I have listed information about me and about what I would like to do in my professional life which will hopefully occur as a part of EPCOR's Human Resources Department. I am very excited to be doing my practicum with them and hope to stay on once I've completed my term in December 2012. 

 I've also created a Facebook Profile which has more personal information on it than the Page did. I've chosen to make this in addition to the Page since it is information like this that got me my current job. My employer was very interested in what activities I've participated in in my own life and where I have worked. The skills I have gained from paid and unpaid activities (school and work) have given me quite a bit of knowledge in various areas. You can see this by reading what my duties were at each individual work site.

You can check out my Facebook Profile and Page as well as my Flickr account by clicking on the  links. I hope that the information found on these pages will be useful to potential employers in my professional life. I'm very interested in seeing what this student's Facebook Page will look like, it seems like she has a lot of great experience!

The Present

I work for an independently owned clothing store called Hye Fashion in Edmonton. It caters specifically to the needs of tall women (5'10"+), but also keeps the vertically challenged in mind. All brands that are carried by this store can be found in regular sizes, we just happen to carry the tall ones. The slogan for the company is "Clothing for Tall Women, Accessories for All Women".  Carrying brands like Silver, Dish, Dex, Buffalo, Orb, Barefoot Tess, Matt & Nat and Big Buddha to name a few - the store has a lot of diversity!

A lot of communication occurs between store staff and among staff and customers. With this in mind, we maintain a professional discourse but also have fun with our customers. Giving great customer service and ensuring that customers leave satisfied (and with great treasures!) all occurs through the communication process. Whether we're writing down 'future shopping lists' for them of items they liked but could not immediately afford, or just talking to people about brand features, communication is everywhere. Also, posters featuring design information and ways to wear our products can be found throughout the store. Visual communication take the form of pictures and displays set to show customers how they can wear a specific item, or pair it with something they may already have in their wardrobe. Hye Fashion associates also are not afraid to tell you when a garment does not suit you. We do not want anyone to leave with something that they are unsure of, or that we know does not work for them. Hye Fashion also uses Facebook and Twitter to send out messages about new inventory, any promotions that may be occurring in store and any other information that is useful for customers to know about. There is a great balance between social media and face-to-face communication, which gives this business a great dynamic!

Where Does the Future Lead?

My practicum placement occurring fall semester 2012 will be with Epcor! This has been confirmed by my coordinator and I am very happy to learn this. I will be working in the Human Resources department so learning new ways to communicate with social media will be particularly useful.   Since social media is becoming more and more prevalent in today's work culture, I am very excited to be learning about how to use social media.  This will help me immensely as I will already be knowledgeable in using these interfaces if I need them in my practicum and later in my career.

I am now following them on Twitter and find that they use it quite frequently to update service users on service outages. They are very good at keeping customers up to date on what is happening. This is a great way to allow workers at Epcor to do the important things (maintaining/correcting services) rather than fielding calls from their customers looking for updates.  Although I will likely not be the one updating Twitter in this sense, I'm sure they use it for other purposes within the company to quickly send communications to all employees. I am very happy to be working with a company that is so attuned to popular communication channels such as Twitter.

Introduction to Me!

Hi! I'm currently in my last semester of my third year of a BSc in Human Ecology. I find it very interesting since there are so many different fields you can work in with this degree. We mainly use written communication to explore topics and share our research findings, although in some cases we will use power point. Most of our communication is broken down so that topics we are studying fit into our Human Ecological Perspective of living (http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=bronfenbrenner%27s+ecological+theory&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1279&bih=577&tbm=isch&tbnid=_44ojRDOHh3Y0M:&imgrefurl=http://www.dbhds.virginia.gov/OSAS-ATODTutorial.htm&docid=xhCd0K3CnVhqWM&w=500&h=503&ei=0iFyTuDWD-beiALO76GACQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=473&vpy=125&dur=2636&hovh=225&hovw=224&tx=128&ty=116&page=1&tbnh=116&tbnw=115&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0). Information is generally broken down to a simplistic form that can be understood by general society, which is good given it is this group we target to help overcome adversity they may face in their daily lives.