Judging the Quality of Wikis and Non-vetted Sites

Personally, Wikipedia shouldn't be used as a direct source in research papers or for any type of research. I would have to disagree with any scholars or any article that says Wikipedia can be used as a direct source since anyone can edit (which can lead to a lot of inaccurate information). As a starting point, however, Wikipedia can be a useful tool. Wikipedia does link to outside sources, such as Government websites, New York Times articles, or other resources that students (or anyone else that might need to do any sort of research) might be unaware of their existence. If I were teaching a class, I would not allow my students to directly quote Wikipedia.

The case of YouTube, it really depends. YouTube (and similar websites) do have Professors and other institutions that occasionally post information on there. There are also other nonprofit organizations and research institutions that also post educational videos (and since it's free unlike some other websites and can reach a mass audience, that would benefit not only a specific organization, but the audiences as well.) Those organizations and professors post useful and educational videos that can be used for term papers or even quoted in other educational presentations. I would definitely allow those videos in my classroom since they can add onto other classroom multimedia tools that are available. Those videos also would be allowed in projects since there could be additional information that go above and beyond material covered in textbooks and handouts.

Blog Post One: Building and Refining your PLN

First, on my RSS feed, I followed a few people from the History/Social Studies and English fields. I followed more than three people, because I love both subjects and some blogs were too good to pass up. The Catholic English Teacher blog gave some in-depth analyses on different Shakespeare Plays, as well as discussed Catholic books as well. As a Catholic school girl growing up, I found the Catholic discussions intriguing. The second blog I am following, is an ESL blog about a primary teacher in France, who has to teach his students English. The blog also has podcasts included. This also ties in with another one of my classes, which is also why I chose to follow this blog.
English Teacher X is also another blog I chose to follow. It's a humorous take on grammar, but it's more for older audiences. English Teacher Melanie also has podcasts on her blog, as well as resources for students. She's also an ESL teacher. That blog also ties into my other class as well. Learning from My Mistakes as an English Teacher is the last English blog I am following, but it's interesting the teacher not only discusses the students assignments, but their mistakes and the way he engages (or doesn't connect some days) with his students. The US History Teacher blog has videos and facts about important events in history, which is definitely interesting to me and useful to anyone who has research to do. The other history blog I am following is called History is Elementary. The blog is great for history and history teachers. There are pictures and facts about not only important events in U.S. history, but important events in World History as well.

On Twitter, I chose to follow a few people, organizations in the same areas, in addition to film. I am following Geoff Barton, a writer of textbooks and he is an English teacher, as well. I am also following the OED (the Oxford English Dictionary), which was the bulky book I had to carry around in High School. I hated it then, but fell in love with it in college. I am also following the Oral History Society, since a lot of our history was passed down orally, especially with different cultures. I am also following US Capitol History, which is the history of the US Capitol.  I am following the Oxford Dictionaries, which publishes all of the Oxford Dictionaries. I am also following Film History in pictures, which shows pictures of film history (and film history needs to be preserved.)

This semester, I have been slowly using the RSS feed. Actually, it's easier to get news all at once there instead of going through my hundred bookmarks on Firefox and Chrome. I haven't used it that much, but the few times I did, all of the important news links showed up on one page instead of me clicking around and having ten tabs open on my screen. However, I would like to use the RSS feed more and cut down on my habit of attempting to multitask (since we all know multitasking doesn't really exist.)

I've been an avid Twitter user for awhile now. I have old professors added and family members currently added. I would say I use it too much, but since I see accounts that have 20,000 tweets, then I guess I don't? But as I mentioned previously, I would like to improve on my RSS feed skills and use it more often. I literally added all of my favorite websites on there and don't use it as much as I should.

Week 4 Blog Post

I am currently a social media intern for Empeopled, a social media start-up company. I work for the company virtually. When I break down the SAMR model for work, we are heavily technology based.

Under Substitution, none of the work I do (or anyone else does) is by paper. It’s all through the social networking site, as well as through messaging. The only face-to-face social interaction comes from the employees who are based in Chicago. Rarely, there are email exchanges and personally, I have never dealt with paper exchanges or even phone conferences. The only people who actually deal with conferences in a face-to-face environment are the “higher ups” so to speak.

The Augmentation portion of the SAMR model is Empeopled. Through posts (as well as through messaging), we can communicate with users as well as each other, instantly.  Even people can communicate with each other across the world instantly, so it’s a substitute for phone communication.

Since this is a startup company, there is still some modification to be done. More features will eventually be added as the website grows, as with all websites. Currently, through the use of points (with how much a user posts) unlocks various features and the ability to vote on a society leader (interest groups)  who can make sure the discussions and posts are up to appropriate standards.

For Redefinition, we are able to spread news as well as other topics quickly with others around the world. This wasn’t possible before social networking technology existed. Discussions around news, sports, health, politics, and other topics occur.  People agree or disagree based on what they believe, which spark debates around the aforementioned topics as well. Social networking creates collaboration from many people around the world, instantaneously, which wasn’t possible before the technology existed.