Google Talk

Google Talk was #10 on my list of social media tools to explore for this project.  It made the list at the onset of this project because I was having a really hard time finding ten technologies to explore and I picked it off a list.  In the end I did not use this tool at all.  Despite not using Google Talk, and barely scratching the surface of LibraryThing and YouTube, I did manage to immerse myself in more than ten technologies by the end of this semester.

As a class we opted out of using FirstClass for class communication and chose to use GoogleWave instead.  This choice allowed me to explore both of those tools.  The class also used TypeWithMe to collaboratively compose thank-you letters to the two guest speakers who gave their time to our class.  And finally, the student-led seminars gave me brief exposure to SecondLife and several other virtual world technologies.  While some of these experiences were superficial, others have been quite rich.  It is safe to say that I have learned far more from being immersed in the world of social media that if we had spent class time being "taught" about them.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a tool I joined specifically for Social Computing; however, it is one that I will continue to use after this course is done.  LinkedIn is a networking tool for professional that allows users to connect with colleagues and classmates, connect with experts for advice as well as provide inside connections when looking for jobs.

Over the past three months I have connected with approximately twenty people; the majority of my connections have been classmates from the Educational Technology program.  I have not had the opportunity to really use LinkedIn to develop my career or reach out to experts; however, I did draw on one of my connections to provide some insight with regards to my internship.  I found a past Ed. Tech student who did her internship at the same place I was thinking of doing mine.  She was able to provide me with some context about her experience that helped me decided that the organization was a good fit for me.  Based on this experience, I can see the value that my LinkedIn network might have for me in the future.  I can see what other graduates of the program are doing to provide me with some ideas of what I can expect when I am finished the program.  In addition, I may be able to draw on some of their experiences when I am looking for a job myself.

LibraryThing

I joined LibraryThing in the spring of 2010 on the recommendation of my father.  We had both just read the same book and had differing ideas about one of the story lines.  He pointed me to LibraryThing to read what others had to say.  I found that exercise really interesting so I created my own profile.  I intended to use it to keep track of the books I have read and to explore what other people had to say about them.  Unfortunately, since I joined I have not had a lot of time for reading or for exploring LibraryThing.  I have been bogged down with coursework and my home-life responsibilities.  I have only had time to input and review a few of the books I have read recently.  I have also read a few reviews of the books on my reading list.

Based on the limited experience I have had with LibraryThing I am hoping to have more time for it in the future.  I think it could be a great tool for discussing books and for book recommendations.  I already belong to a face-to-face book club which I enjoy very much, but I think LibraryThing could be an interesting extension to what that book club offers me.  My real-life book club is operated through a community center so I do not have any say in the people who join or their taste in books.  I may be able to streamline my interactions on LibraryThing to be better suited to my own taste.  Time will tell.

YouTube

My experience with YouTube prior to this project was limited to watching videos sent to me via e-mail or ones that appeared in my News Feed on Facebook. While I vowed to investigate YouTube further, it just did not happen. I had every intention of exploring it more thoroughly; I set up an account and set aside some time at the beginning of the course to play around on YouTube. Then, I got wrapped up in course readings, preparing my seminar and other more domestic responsibilities and I never managed to log back on to YouTube. I still watch videos that people send me or that pop up on Facebook but I have not managed to expand my experience beyond that. I have not spent the time required to really learn how people use it and why.

In the limited way I have been exposed to YouTube, I have noticed that the majority of videos I watch are “funny” or “amazing” things that people send me. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, I seem to watch a lot of home videos of people’s kids. Right now, that is just the nature of what I am interested in. The people I spend most of my social time with are other mothers with kids the same age as mine and I naturally have an interest in what their children are doing. I find myself comparing my son to these other children developmentally and also catching a glimpse into what my future holds as he learns what these other babies are doing. Personally, YouTube as served as a means for entertainment or as a way of tracking my son’s development. Now I know thatYouTube has far more affordances than providing me with entertainment and keeping track of what “tricks” my son should be learning, however, with my limited personal experience this is what YouTube has been for me.

Twitter

I must admit that I set up an account on Twitter rather reluctantly.  Despite having had no experience with it, I just did not see the point.  I already felt inundated by people’s status updates on Facebook, I was just not into delving into a technology that only seemed to do that.  In the first few days I had hardly anyone to follow and no real purpose for following them, I was not seeing the point at all.  I also could find nothing to tweet about.  I sat in front on my computer screen and drew blanks; there was nothing I felt I wanted to share with the world.  I could not think of anything to write that I thought other people would care about. 

Over time, as I added people to my list to follow I did find that there were some tweets that did interest me.  So far, in my limited experience with Twitter the only time that I really felt that it was really useful was during the World Ringette Championships (WRC).  I played ringette all my life, in fact my Aunt and Uncle met coaching my team when I was 12 years old.  They are both still involved in coaching; my Aunt was an Assistant Coach with Team Canada at this year’s WRC in Finland.  As a result of both my personal interest in the sport and a personal connection to the team, I wanted to follow their progress in Finland.  During the team’s stay in Finland, there was a team attaché who updated the team’s experience in Finland.  I found that I was constantly checking to see if there were new updates.  During game times, I was attached to my iPhone to check for score updates.   I really enjoyed knowing what was going on in real-time.  I was also finally prompted to post a few tweets – I wanted to show my support for Team Canada.

Now that the WRC is done, I have deleted the attaché from my account as her tweets now focus on more local ringette news that just does not interest me as much.  I have no personal connection to what she is tweeting about and as a result I found myself feeling irritated that her tweets were taking up space in my timeline.  I have also not posted any tweets since the WRC finished; I again have nothing to say.

I guess the lesson I have learned is that every technology has its place and its use.  For the most part Twitter does not fulfill a need in my life and therefore I am not attached to it.  However, the times that the need is there, as it was during the WRC, it can be a beneficial tool.

Skype

I finally got my act together and bought a webcam so I could fully immerse myself in Skype.  I had been meaning to do this for the last couple of years but never got around to it.  The requirements for this project and the birth of my son finally pushed me to stop procrastinating and move into the new millenium.  I am pleased to say that it was a great decision.

My in-laws live 8 hours away and a audio only telephone conversation does not quite give them enough of a taste of their grandson.  Now, Saturday mornings my husband, my son and I assemble in the basement in front of the video camera and spend some time with my in-laws.  They get to see their grandson and all his new "tricks" and he gets to see them too.  I hope this helps him remember them when he sees them in person next.  Sometime there is a bit of a lag with the visual that accompanies the audio but overall it doesn't bother me.  Despite this, a video call does feel far more personal than a telephone conversation.  It feels like we have "visited" with them far more than any phone call ever has.

This week I was unexpectedly unable to attend class due to the lack of a babysitter, so I attended class via Skype.  A second student in my class did the same, she describes her experience here.  I was quite skeptical about how it would go given that I would be juggling the care of an active 8 month old at the same time. 

First of all, the baby behaved himself pretty well so I was actually able to listen and participate in most of the class.  I was pleasantly surprised on that front.  Though I did have to communicate via chat, there was no way I could unmute my microphone with the racket my son was producing in the background.  On my end, this was fine, I just had to be patient and wait for someone on the other end to read it and communicate it to the class.  I wonder how it felt on the other end?

Initially, the call was done via a conference call since there were two of us needing to attend the class remotely.  This was problematic because it only provided for audio and given the nature of the class a visual of what was going on in class was quite important.  In order to solve this problem, a second laptop had to be used.  Thank you to my classmate who gave up their laptop in order for us to be more "present" in class.  The class was much easier to follow once a visual was provided.  Of course, this also meant that someone had to move the laptop around so it was focused on the right spot.  Again, thanks to whoever was keeping me in touch with the class.

At one point in the class, I was assigned to a group for a brainstorming session.  While I was able to contribute it was not nearly as natural as it would have been if I was participating face-to-face.  While my ideas were heard, and they did share the work they were doing on the iPad with me, none of this happened in real time.  I had to be very patient.

Unfortunately, I missed some of the wrap-up of the brainstorming session as I had to get supper started for my son.  As soon as my husband got home, I was able to jump back into the class.  I loved that I was able to do that without interrupting the class.  That freedom really helped on my end.  I only missed 15 minutes of the class.  And while, I would rather not have missed it at all, missing 15 minutes was better than missing the whole thing.

One complaint I had was that it was difficult to see what was projected on the SMART board.  This made following some parts of the class difficult, this was one point where I really wished I was present.  The other time that I had difficulty following was when there were multiple people speaking at the same time in class.  I got confused and could not identify who was speaking or who I should focus on, especially if my screen was not showing anyone.

Overall, my experience with Skype has been very successful.  I feel that it has improved communication with my in-laws.  I am grateful that my son will "know" his grandparents as a result of our Saturday morning meetings.  Furthermore, it allowed me to participate in most of yesterday's class when otherwise I would have missed it completely.  While the experience was not perfect, I learned a lot in class that I would have missed out on had it not been for Skype.  My classmate rated her experience as a B+, and I think I have to agree with that rating.

Weddingbells

A friend of mine pointed me towards this discussion forum when I first got engaged.  Initially I visited the site for wedding planning ideas.  At first I just lurked, in fact I did not even register as a user.  For awhile this was enough, I looked at people’s ideas for invitations, centerpieces and dresses but never felt the need to comment or to post. 

Then I started following the etiquette drama that undoubtedly comes with planning a wedding.  I was looking at how others dealt with guest list issues and seating plan obstacles.  Finally, when I was encountering some issues of my own, I registered and began posting and asking for feedback.  I was still a rare poster but I could not back away.  It was clear that I was addicted and there was nothing I could do about it.  I figured that once my wedding was over I would be able to leave the forum gracefully.  However, this was the farthest thing from the truth. 

Not only is there a wedding planning section to this forum but there is an additional section called Babybells that has proven to be far more addicting for me than the wedding component.  When I got pregnant with my son I started actively participating in a thread with other mothers due at the same time as me.  It was a place to discuss and overanalyze what was happening to us with a group of people who were going through the same thing and who really seemed to care.  I could talk or read about things with the ladies on this forum that I had no one else in real life to speak to.  The group has stayed active even after the birth of our babies.  I enjoy participating and seeing how others are handling the trials and tribulations of motherhood.  This is particularly important to me because I am the first in my group of friends to have a baby so there were not a lot of people in my real life that I could relate to at the beginning.  I have gone from a lurker, to an occasional poster to a more regular poster as a result of my participation in this thread. 

Babybells takes up far too much of my time but I just can’t seem to back away.  The question is why?  I suppose the answer is that it fills a need in my life and I get the support and reassurance I am looking for. Seeing that others are going through the same thing as me helps me work through the tough times.  I must admit that now that I have friends with babies and have met mothers with children the same age as my son my need for the forum is much less.  I spend far less time on it then I used to.

Now that I am frequenting the site as part of my social media experience, my approach has changed.  I find myself really thinking about what posts I choose to read and why.  I also am looking to see why some posts get a huge amount of views and responses and why some hardly get any.  I am also exploring the patterns of responses from certain users.  More on these issues as I get a better picture of what is going on.