Sounds like social media is getting a little bit overwhelming... with all the places you have to frequent... blogger... facebook... and explore.... Twitter, Google Reader, Wikispaces... and that is just the beginning... next on the list are Fantasy Football and Social Support groups... then Pinterest and CafeMom... then online dating... and then back to Twitter and Wikispaces... then Instagram and Flickr and YouTube...:) Are you thinking already "OMG, what did I get myself into?"
Here is the thing: you do not need to become proficient at all of them and use all of them from now on. This class is an exploration to expand on all these places you had never visited for different reasons... and to think of them as part of our reality... Eventually, you never know, you may find a new place that you really like because of the kind of community there.
Our major meeting locations outside the classroom are Blackboard because of the readings and Facebook for discussions about social media and the class assignments. I can see that most of you are breaking the ice of the FB group, which is very exciting:) ... maybe sometime soon... one of you will share an article they found about something interesting related to any of the social media sites we discuss.
And now to the point about blogs. Most blogs will be analysis of your experiences with a new social media website: Registration, interface, community, communication model within it, social aspects of it. Some of the blogs will be communication analysis about the language used or the way events were represented by one or another social media site (e.g. the 2012 elections according to Twitter).
Now more details:
for Monday, Feb 18th. Blog about setting up your Google Reader account and what did you subscribe for and why. 2. Set up your wikispaces account, by following the Powerpoint "How to set up your wiki" that I have uploaded on Blackboard. There will be some minor bumps on the road of setting up the account that we can discuss in class but I want to see a genuine effort on your side to set up your account and create an empty wiki page that you will share with me later. And 3. You can either blog in the same blog or blog separately about your "digital detox" experience. This last part can be done for the blog for week 7.
The blog for week 7 will be to set up two accounts, Fantasy Football (or any other sport that has "fantasy" teams) and a social support group of your choice and explore both of them throughout the week: membership, communication style, gender, etc. You will have to relate your experiences to what the articles we will discuss in class say about those websites.
Week 8: will do the same as week 7 but with more "gender" specific websites such as Pinterest and CafeMom.
There is something else that you have to do in the next day or two:
Go to Blackboard --> Course Content--> Week 6 Readings --> Reading Choices. This is a discussion post. You will see that there are four posts. Before you post anything on them, look carefully at the four readings for Wednesday. You will have to pick ONLY 2: one that is from the two articles about Fantasy Sports/Football and either one about Social support groups. When you have decided which two articles you would like to read, open the discussion thread with the title of the article and put your name on it. If there are already 12 (13) people who have signed for this article, you will have to read the other one. But you must read two articles for Wednesday: one of the each topic (fantasy sport and social support groups)
And for Monday, the reading is chapter 2 from the book.
