A Reflection of ALES 204

Ever since taking ALES 204 I've not only learned how to use social media as a way of communication but I've also learned how to use it in a professional manner. In the beginning I was unsure about how I felt about this class, just like fellow classmate Clara Tran, because the professor encouraged us to bring our laptops and Smartphone and said that we would be “tweeting” a lot. I had no idea how to tweet and how to even navigate through Twitter, but after a few classes I found myself not only engaged in Twitter but I also learned how to write critically literate tweets. I learned that because our tweets are not only showcased to our friends but also to the public, it is important that your tweets are short enough but gets the information out at the same time. Another topic I was unsure about this course was how to use Facebook to connect to thousands of people and also potential employers. It was confusing at first because I thought you had to use your personal Facebook page. I knew that a lot of people wouldn’t get hired and sometimes even fired because of the content that was on their Facebook that was found by employers so I was skeptical of this idea. Later I learned that we could make a Facebook business page aside from our original profile that acts as a business card, resume, and even cover letter to showcase our positive qualities.

Social Media Bandwagon
Retrieved on April 13, 2012 from
http://linxonesolutions.com/blog/?p=246

For me the most interesting topic was about public speaking. There were so many neat tidbits that I learned that week. For example, women should try to talk in a lower voice to make the audience more engaged in them and their presentation. Another interesting thing I learned was the purpose of tag clouds. I knew that I had seen them on random websites before but I had no idea what the purposes of them were until this class. I really like the idea of grouping a whole bunch of similar ideas together and making a cloud of words with it and having the most relevant word being the largest text size. This makes searching for things much easier and it’s also kind of fun.

With creating this e-portfolio I can see why blogging is becoming more popular today. It first started off acting as a journal but today it can be found commonly used as a resource center, such as our ALES 204 class blog. I learned that blogs could be professional too. For the future if I ever find something neat to research I will consider writing a blog about my progress and my findings. Not only will writing a blog allow people to see what my views are and understand me better, but also because blogs can reach out to so many people that it can create some good discussions or comments which may give me new ideas for new research. 

In conclusion the role of technology and social media can end up playing a huge role in my future career and others as well and having this class to teach us how to use it appropriately is really going to help. Even though there will be more different kinds of social media coming out in the future I still feel that I have a better understanding of how to use them to my advantage now than I ever did before thanks to ALES 204.  


Five Blog Comments:
Clara Tran

Danielle Lu
Brenda Le
Daniel Schwenk
Vanesa Flynn

Is Twitter better than Facebook?

Before starting my ALES 204 class I didn’t have a Twitter account and I wasn’t even slightly interested in getting one. But ever since I got one for the class because it was mandatory, I have found so many interesting things on there that helped me gain more knowledge in different areas of life. For example, something that really caught my attention was the number of farmers that use Twitter. Their tweets and pictures helped me become more knowledgeable of where the food I eat comes from and all the hard work that has to be put into the process of making those foods. By following those farmers I also found neat webpages such as Feedstuffs Foodlink that discusses interesting agriculture and food topics. Twitter also helped me find some professionals such as human ecologists who I can follow and keep myself updated on the topics that are being studied by them now.

Twitter is different from Facebook in a way that it is more professional based whereas Facebook is more personal based. Although with that being said, Facebook can be professional based. Because of the popularity of Facebook, many people now have a Facebook page for their business and some even have a page that acts as a resume like fellow classmate Christine L for example. The other unique thing that distinguishes Twitter from Facebook is that you only have a limited number of characters that you can write for your status so everything is to the point whereas on Facebook someone’s status could be a paragraph long.

What I personally like about Twitter is that you can follow anyone to see their status updates and you don’t have to wait for them to authorize anything whereas on Facebook you have to wait for someone to accept your friend request first. This allows me to follow people of my interest such as human ecologists, fashion designers, and textile scientists. Another thing I like is that people can use hash tags in their statuses and that helps to group things together such as in our ALES 204 class. Under that hash tag people can find others who are talking about the same topic.

Although Twitter has so many benefits to it, many people may not find it useful because it doesn’t help one connect with friends and family like Facebook does. Each social network has its advantages and disadvantages and it is up to the person to decide which social network works best for them or if both of them are useful. The bottom line is that Twitter is better from a professional standpoint whereas Facebook is better for personal uses.