Kenia's Corner

One of my favorite things about social media is its ability to influence people to try new strategies to engage an audience. In the article "Building Library Community Through Social Media," we see the librarians taking initiative after noting the importance of connecting with the community. In general, libraries are becoming less used due to the increase of available resources online. However, the library in the study has figured out a way to connect with people through Twitter and help find resources.  Using social media is shown to provide academic libraries with a way of increasing engagement. The university library (MSU) has found the formula to effectively build a community using Twitter. They have done so by sharing interesting tweets, offering help, and overall having an active presence online. The social media aspect of the library has increased interaction and grown the library's community. After reading this article, I thought about the libraries that we have o

 Thoughts on Article:  What do teachers share within socialized knowledge communities: A case of Pinterest.   One of the articles that caught my attention this week was the one about teachers sharing knowledge on the Pinterest platform (article title above). I was a little surprised that teachers are using social media in general to share information, knowledge, and expertise outside of an academic platform. Now, the notion of social media being "unprofessional" is still somewhat common and I understand why some people would argue against using it. However, this article was a good read as it focused on teachers using Pinterest strategically to share knowledge on mathematics.  Besides my surprise that Pinterest was the chosen media, due to its heavy imagery-based content, the topic of math is not one that would be expected on that platform. With math being such a complex topic, depending on its type, there are varying solutions and methods for teaching it appropriately. I was

 This week, I spent some time exploring two of the tools from the list that I had never heard of before. Those tools were Piazza, and Hypothes.is. Piazza was a great tool to learn about as it provided an interactive space for teachers, students, and other relevant affiliates to interact on one platform. I love the informal aspect of this tool as it showed the participants exchanging information, such as questions and answers relevant to what they needed help with. This platform is helpful in that it provides a normal space outside the classroom and unspoken email etiquette that is usually needed to communicate with professors or others.  Hypothesis was another interesting tool focusing on the writing aspect in education as it has to do with annotation. I can see how this type of tool would be beneficial in helping students understand complex material while also providing commentary as the text progresses. This tool would be especially helpful in getting reviews and ideas for continuous

 The "Tweet me, message me, like me..." article looks at how social media can help teachers improve their skills or switch up the way they teach. The article mentions social medias like Facebook and Twitter allow teachers to stay connected and get feedback outside of school, which helps them keep learning and growing. Facilitators, or guides, play a key role by supporting teachers, encouraging a sense of community, and helping them stick with new teaching methods through regular online interactions. Using social media for professional development should be optional, as not everyone is comfortable with it. However, I think it is still important to have people use social media to learn the basic functions as it is being utilized more in society. There are other ways to stay in touch, like emails primarily or even phone calls. Since everyone is not comfortable using all types of social media, building trust online will be important. In the article, it was concluded that facilita

 As instructional designers, it is certainly important that we incorporate appropriate models and design principles when it comes to learning. The design process could look different, but the overall goal should always aim to achieve the established learning objectives. When incorporating social media into learning, I agree that it is essential to consider the value and strategy to support learning. While reading the "Instructional Design and Development for Social Media Lessons" article, learning about the SCOPE acronym served as a helpful guideline in determining whether social media should be used.  Before learning about the SCOPE-guided questions, I assumed that the only thing we needed to think about was whether the media lesson supported the learning objectives. Other aspects like the conditions, ethics, and values were not things I assumed would have been important. The most surprising part. of the questions to consider was, as it was something I would not have thought

 Out of the tools listed this week, I was very surprised to learn about a tool where you can write a letter to your future self. With this 6th week, I have had several challenges and have felt like I needed a lot of encouragement. So it was nice to explore this tool, and even seeing that I could send money to my future self was such a cool feature. I ended up writing myself an encouraging letter that talked about what I have done, my goals, my hopes, and my aspirations. I wished my future self well and told her that no matter what she has going on in the future, she will succeed.  Writing that letter made me emotional and reminded me that I must be my biggest fan. With everything going on in life, there are times when things feel tough, and we can feel a lack of motivation. When I lack motivation, I think it is helpful to take a step back to reflect on the past challenges and how they have passed. Times like these are temporary, and without challenges, we stay stagnant. In my letter, I