Weekly Report and Reflection: Post 6

             October is always a busy month, but this one seems especially busy ! As this week has progressed I have felt overwhelmed with assignments, tests,group projects and grad school applications. I guess this kind of expected for my fourth year as I am trying to tie up any loose ends and move on to the next chapter in my life. Now I am sure you are thinking how does this relate to learning in the digital context, so let me explain. With so much going on right now I have been forgetting things left right and center ! What times my lecture start ? when was my paper due ? do I have everything I need for a project with me ? Luckily though this week I was introduced to an elphanant that never forgets! 

Carovillano, O (CC) 2014

            Evernote is an online note taking tool, not only does it allow you to take notes and store them online, but you can also store web pages, URLs and scanned documents and share them. The set up was easy and best of all free ! You can also create notebooks, which you can kind of think of as file folders to hold all information on related topics making going back and finding that information even easier. 

           The first thing I used Evernote for was as a digital recipe book, now am sure you are all thinking, "Olivia you just complained about how swamped you are at school, why are you spending time making a recipe book?" and to that the only thing I can say is I am a great procrastinator. Also I saw a great opportunity, I way to save all of my family recipes and access them with out getting them dirty (there is nothing worse than spilling oil across a recipe and blending the three most import steps together !). It was perfect because I just had to scan all my recipe cards onto my computer and I could save them conveniently in one notebook. After I finished playing around with my recipe book I decided it was time to use the tool for the  intended educational purposes of my course. 

         I did some research to learn about how other people were using Evernote and why. Between my research and this weeks session I learned a lot about how to use Evernote to its full potential. The first thing I learned about is the web clipper tool, which is a must if you use Evernote, you can click here to download it. This tool is one of the things that makes Evernote so great, you can save pages directly as you searching, and when you need it wit will be waiting in your notebook. You can chose to save the page directly or save URLS and you can even add notes to your saved pages ( you can't do that with boring old book marking). 

       Now Evernote is not a very complex program, it is actually rather basic but for me that is the appeal. Two great blogs which I recommend checking out if you are still not sure if Evernote note is right for you is Lifehacker's post "Whats all the fuss about Evernote? Should I be using it?" and "I've been using Evernote all wrong. Here's why it's actually amazing" Now if you chose to use Evernote but not read either of these blogs there is one piece of advice I learned from these posts which I found very helpful; The more you add the more useful it becomes. You need to be dedicated to Evernote, because the real benefit of it is having all your information in one place, ready for when you need it and easy to share with others.

      Evernote fits perfectly into every section of My PLE which includes; Organizing content, Collaborating and socializing and research. However I feel as though my Organizing content section is getting a little crowded because as mentioned before organizing programs are not overly effective if you are using numerous ones. The only issue is I cant decide which one to get rid of ! They all have benefits to them, and I am thinking if I set up the IFTTT tool with my other programs I may get to keep most of them ! 

       Having this new reliable bookmarking/note taking tool has made aspect of researching less demanding and allowed me to focus my attention else where. It has also helped me worry less as I know now all my notes are safe in one place, ready the moment I need them !

Until next week! 
- Olivia

Weekly Report & Reflection: Post 5

Hi everyone,

                Yet another week has just flown by and once again my PLE and knowledge of the digital world is growing. This week I added Twitter to my PLE, and I finally can see why other people love it so much. I never really jumped on the Twitter bandwagon when it first came around and now I wish I had! When the session began I could not understand how Twitter could be an educational tool but as I began to explore the site as well as read more about how others use it I can see that it can be very beneficial. The online article “The Social Media Guide to Growing Your PLN” does a great job outlining how Twitter, and other sites we have explored in past sessions such as Pinterest and Diigo can enhance learning. 

                I am excited to add Twitter to my PLE diagram under the socializing and collaborating heading. I love how I can read short little tweets for educators, peers or my favourite celebrities in real time, and then click on the links provided if I want to learn more. I like that Twitter also offers a personal messaging option which is great for sharing ideas or links with others. I haven’t had a chance to use the messaging feature yet as I am still new to Twitter but can see how it will make sharing information even quicker! It is great because I can access it from my phone so I can always keep up to date with what is going on. Tweet deck also looks like it could be a helpful feature, I didn’t have time to check it out this week but I am hoping to when I get some time. 

                I am glad to see my PLE growing although it can seem a little overwhelming at times trying to keep up with all these new resources. I am trying to keep track of everything, saving what I want to read later and deleting things I am not interested. However sometimes I do forget and let them slide for a few days and things start to pile up. I think I am starting to get better now though as I am getting more used to these resources and am starting to decide which are worth keeping and which might not be right for me. One of my definite ‘keeps’ so far is Diigo, I love how organized it keeps my resources and I obsessed with the highlighting tool, I think Twitter is definitely a keeper as well. 

                Now we have been talking a lot about personal learning environments but this week a new term was introduced, a personal/professional learning network or PLN. When the session started I wasn’t too clear on the difference of the two but the article “How to Create a Robust and Meaningful Personal Learning Network [PLN]” explained the distinction between the two terms quite well. Throughout this session I have realized that one of the biggest parts of making a PLN successful is joining the conversation. The video provided in this week’s resources explained that you must learn and contribute to your PLN, that you learn from others but others are also there to learn from you. I didn’t realize that I already have a bit of a PLN through Facebook, blogging, Sakai and now Twitter. However I may have been more on the receiving end in the past than contributing. As the weeks go on I am becoming more comfortable sharing online and think this will really help my PLN. 

http://pleeportofolio.wordpress.com/ple-vs-pln/

                I was focused this week more on setting up my PLN than engaging in it. I can see though how participating in and using my PLN will be effective in future learning activities. One of my favourite things that Twitter, blogging and Sakai bring to my PLN is that unlike sites like Facebook I am engaging with individuals who are knowledgeable and share the same areas of interest as myself but are outside my group of friends.  I am excited to collaborate with people who have had different experiences than I have, and be able to get different takes and opinions on topics of interest.

I wanted to leave you all this week with a Youth TED Talk from my Feedly Reader, being in the middle of midterms I know I have fallen victim to procrastinating.

Vik Nithy. (2012, March 13) TEDx Youth: Why we Procrastinate.

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD440CY2Vs0

-          Olivia

Weekly Report & Reflection: Post 4

         This session I choose to explore two tools, the first one was Diigo (an online bookmarking site) and the other was Google Alerts (a curation site). Both of these sites were incredibly easy to use and have really helped build the organizing content and research portions of my PLE. Prior to starting this course those two sections were pretty static, however as we progress in the course they are really growing.

          I always used the bookmark on my computer but have never really given much thought to how they could be improved, but was I ever wrong! Diigo changed the way I look at bookmarking. Two features of this tool that really have been useful in my educational activities are the highlighting tool and the fact that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere. The highlighting tool helps save so much time, I can read the article or page and highlight any important information and when I go back it is there just waiting for me, no time wasted searching again. My favourite feature though is the fact that unlike traditional bookmarking where your links are stuck on your computer, with Diigo I can always access my computer. This is so useful because there is nothing worse than trying to write at paper in the library when your laptop dies and you forget your charger (which happens to me more than I would care to admit). In this situation I could go use one of the school computers but that means time wasted looking for sites you have already researched. Now though with Diigo all I need to do is sign on and all my information is waiting for me! 

       Now for those of you who follow my blog are probably thinking, last week I talked about Feedly vs. traditional bookmarking, and now I am introducing another tool for bookmarking, who needs that many bookmarking tools? . Yes, they both bookmarking tools but Diigo is geared more toward static sites, ones that are not updated often. Where Feedly is designed for sites that are constantly updated, if you were to follow a static site on Feedly you would never receive updates as there would be none. Therefore having both can be useful and realizing whether it’s a static or dynamic site can help you decide whether you should book mark it with Diigo or subscribe on Feedly (or you can use them together  :) . For tips & tricks for getting the most out of Diigo click here   

MacMeekin, M (CC) 2013

       The second tool I explored this week was Google Alerts. Using Google Alerts along with my RSS reader has enhanced my digital literacy and role as a digital citizen. These tools allow me to stay up to date on what is going on in the digital world and filter out anything that is not of interest to me. As this course progresses I am learning that it is more than just using the internet that makes you a digital citizen. The website Digital Citizenship:Using it correctly along with the Internet Detective activity this week has shown me that there is so much more to it.  I subscribe to my Google Alerts on my RSS feed, then I filter through the information before choosing to share any information on my blog or other sources of social media. As I am learning that digital etiquette is a large part of being a good digital citizen, I have put a few steps in place before sharing anything on my blog or social media. I first make sure that one the content is reliable by using some of the tips from the Internet Detective, and if it is reliable I then make sure it is appropriate for a broad audience. 

- Olivia :)