Conclusion

Well, that was a whistle-stop tour wasn't it, through Social Media (under the somewhat contrived pretext of Social Media for Learning). And d'you know what, in the process, during the course of the past ten weeks, I've learned quite a lot. 

From learning how to blog -  Blogging - through the use of You Tube (for learning) and Google Docs and LinkedIn and Pinterest and Facebook to one or two online meeting tools the likes of Facebook Messenger and Skype and finally on to online presentation tools the likes of Slideshare and Hootsuite.

So what have I gained from attending the Social Media for Learning course? Well, I've gained a general understanding of various Social Media platforms together with an ability to begin navigating my way through them, and using them. However, it has to be said, several of the online tools will be of little or no use to me, I mean the likes of Slideshare and Hootsuite. LinkedIn is not for me either, now that I'm 'retired'. It is likely that I shall continue using e-mail as my main means of online written communication. YouTube I already use a lot, though rarely do I use it for 'learning': mostly for accessing music videos. Facebook Messenger is relatively 'new' to me, and following on from the course I shall certainly now use this more often, to write to friends and family, both by text and 'voice-call'. Skype with its 'live' video images appearing right there in front of me, of the person I'm talking to (my daughter, to begin with), I shall definitely return to, mainly for the novelty of it. Pinterest is of some interest, and even now I am building up my own portfolio of selected images, of places I have visited. Perhaps the most positive outcome of attending the course is that I now feel comfortable with this thing called 'Blogging'; and even though I have often struggled to keep up with the weekly homework demands of this course, I feel confident at the end of it that I can now set up my own Blog, and begin blogging a well-designed interesting-to-read Og's Blogs, attracting a wider audience, a following. 

Thanks, Stefano!   

Week 9:

Setting up Skype 

One-to-one tuition given this week in installing and using Skype, on my laptop. And as demonstration of Skype's usefulness as a visual and auditory means of communication (between friends and family) I 'Skyped' my daughter in Cardiff, for a 5-minute online chat. Why I have never used Skype before, I don't know. Great this, I like this, I shall log in to Skype again from now on regularly.

Created a 'group', a group of three, with Stefano and Di. Di and I were instructed on how to share a screen in Skype (using Windows 10) and also I screen-shared my own Facebook page, all this by means of demonstration. Called each other on Skype, individually and as a group, all this by means of demonstration.

How to import contacts from Facebook to Skype (see video).

Facebook does have audio/video of course but differs from Skype in that on Facebook there is no screen sharing. Skype effectively provides through screen sharing a learning platform, for example lectures can be conducted by this means. In fact, in today's ubiquitously digital world, it's a wonder that lectures - particularly as practiced in Higher Education - have not become obsolete:

The rather remarkable survival of Lectures, in Higher Education

Many predicted that digital technology would have killed off the lecture by now.

Why would you want to sit through someone telling you something, when so much more information is available at your fingertips whenever you want it?

But when you look at some online courses, instead of revolutionising higher education, they have often simply transported the classic lecture format to an internet audience.

So why has the lecture refused to go away?

Well, it's probably the same category of reason that I refuse to use the self-service automatic check-out machines in supermarkets. I'd much prefer to engage in conversation with the check-out girls.

Handling Hangouts 

The Google Hangout interface is easier in many respects than Skype. Both Hangouts and Skype are primarily used for family & friends' communication. 


Google Slides (see previous blog)

Embed in this blog, if I can. Slides google.com, log in with ter39 etc. See week 9 homework and Llinos's set up. To embed, File; Publish to web; click embed code; picture size small; autoadvance every 3 seconds. Click on Publish. Code. Copy into HMTL. Right. Try that. Yes, it works. Here it is, embedded:


online slide presentation

Online Presentations

Managing Social Media accounts (this is scheduled for week 10, apparently, even though this week is only week 8)

It is possible to connect up all one's social media sites and manage a social media portfolio from within one tool. The preferred platform is Hootsuite. Duly signed up to this (with assistance kindly given) to create my very own Hootsuite account. Duly impressed by this Social Media Manager, for ease of posting and ability to add additional accounts. What a facility, what a platform, for managing (in one place) one's growing number of Social Media sites. 

Here's the link to my 'dashboard', at Hootsuite: 

Hootsuite

Where I can add Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc; and the trick (this week) is to work out (for ourselves) how to send a scheduled message. Getting lost. This is lost on me. Google everything, we've been told. Learn by doing. Yes, of course, adopt the heuristic approach is one way to do it; but what a waste of creative time this would turn out to be, for me. Other things to do, more constructively. 

And in event, as expected, as eagerly anticipated, Llinos in her own blog this week does it straight to the point in a straightforward and fully comprehensive review (q.v.), seemingly effortlessly. There really is nothing else I need add. 

Preparing for a collaborative presentation (week 9)

We have been reminded this week (week 8, this is getting somewhat confusing) of our first attempt earlier on in the course at collaborative work on a document, using Google Docs. Rather unsuccessful, that. Nevertheless, I got the idea at least, back in week 4 (week 4 blog, q.v.), the general principle behind online collaboration. In fact, I contributed a line or two of text, I recollect. This week (week 8) is setting us up for something similar.  

We (Llinos, Di, Aeron and I) have been asked to:

Prepare a presentation of at least ten slides and produce an online presentation that evaluates the learning tools that we've been introduced to so far. We can annotate slides with audio, if we so wish. We could use Prezi (https://prezi.com), slide share (http://www.slideshare.net). There are lots of tools available but the task is to evaluate concisely the tools we're used to, in regard to their use in learning. To substantiate our claims, we have been directed to check out research from Stefano's Journal List.

Slides.google.com (accessed by way of a gmail.com account) is the site to use, the one recommended to us, in writing our presentation. Aim to present our combined slideshare presentation next week. It's an online version of Powerpoint, essentially, written (in this case) collaboratively.

And then. Now. I have recently received this by way of my yahoo.co.uk e-mail address, where it's clear to see that it's all been set up for us by Llinos, ready to go, ready for our own individual contributions) (Week 9: Online Presentation Tools):

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uw9I8uc_T8Xma_bI20j6Yj2ZWAqMieG9kU35ew5gfvM/edit?ts=583dc91b#slide=id.p

How does she do it, eh? I don't know.


Next week, additionally (just to make a note of this, for my own reference):

(1) Set up Skype (bring in laptop) (create own Skype for business account, at Skype.com);

(2) Set up Google Hangouts (at Google Hangouts.com) (if in difficulty contact stef@semantise.com) 

My Great Heart by Peter Howson

Overloaded here.

Haven't the time.

Floundering about. 

Disengaging from this. 

Personally speaking, it has to be stated, to provide a modicum of critical yet constructively meant feedback, I (for one) require far more structured guidance here (traditional teaching I mean, in situ, while sitting in front of the computer screen in a state of bemusement, bewilderment and general incomprehension, in class) to satisfactorily comprehend what's going on here. There, I've said it. Not that I want to appear to be belligerent.

What's this? What's this? What's he posted now? Just received this timetabled blog - entitled Tidying Our Blogs - from Stefano:

As we agreed last week, we will be spending the last two weeks of this course tidying up our assessment portfolios (i.e Your Blogs) ready for assessment.

Next week we will be able to cover anything of your choice .

Well, that's a relief. 

Looking forward - after all - to attending the Social Media class on Tuesday, where I can concentrate on 'tidying up my assessment portfolio'. Truth to tell, I'll be glad when it's finished, when the course has ended, so I can return to 'Blogging', blogging my own written stuff, writing - instead of Word Documents - under the guise of Og's Blogs; seriously. 

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