Fake news, red herrings and conspiracy theories – is it true!

Posted on January 7, 2020 by johart1

Seeing all the fake news, red herrings and conspiracy theories posted lately I though it might be worth making a few points about searching for information, the veracity of information and sources available and ways of checking the reliability and accuracy of sources.

There are a variety of ways to check out the accuracy, reliability, authenticity and validity of Internet items: Consider the source – who is posting this? What is the purpose of the site, does the organisation and/or the author have credentials or other credibility in the field. Look beyond the headline to the whole story, is it consistent? Are there supporting links – if so do they check out? Look at the date – old stories are frequently re-posted long after they have ceased to be relevant. Is it a joke/satire look at the site and author to find out? Consider your own biases, are you allowing your own beliefs to affect your judgement – do you want it to be true because you agree with the opinions? Ask the experts – librarians are good, or use one or more of the many fact checking sites! https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/true-5-factchecking-websites/

Google itself is simply a search engine not a “source” if a key word appears in an Internet publication then Google will pull up the doc in the search results. Google DOES NOT check accuracy of information, reliability, authenticity, validity or anything else. It may find possible sources but it is up to the searcher to check accuracy, reliability, authenticity, validity etc. “Google Scholar” is an offshoot of Google that “tries” not always successfully to access academic sources and avoid the “junk”, biased news items and opinions from Joe Blow down the street.

DuckDuckGo is another search engine (again not a source in itself) of the meta-search type – this means it pulls its results from searches of other search engines and other sources. DuckDuckGo has a focus on privacy for the searcher.

Because Google customises results using data it collects about what users read, two people asking the same question are likely to get different lists of search results (often similar but in a different order). DuckDuckGo does not collect such information so two people with the same question will probably (although not definitely) get the same list.

So with time Google will tend to reinforce people’s “confirmation bias” ie. it will provide documents which have similar views to those the person has accessed before. This means that if you hold a particular opinion Google is likely to preferentially provide you with search results that support that opinion. This can be overcome to some extent by using the settings in Google search, but much more reliably by ensuring that you open items you disagree with rather than just those you agree with!

You don’t have to use Google there are a number of other search engines around. If you are happy to stay with the ones that collect your information and will probably sell it on and may also use it to skew the results they give you then you can try Bing or Yahoo. If you want to try and get away from the “Big Brother” aspect then DuckDuckGo is probably the best known of the “Private” search engines but there are others – https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/best-private-search-engines-true-no-log-services

Facebook groups – are you being manipulated?

Posted on September 22, 2017 by johart1

If you are a member of several Facebook groups then it is quite possible that you are to some extent being manipulated! I have become aware of this because I am part of a small community where there is a local Facebook Group which has a large membership in local terms. The area in which I live has a population of around 4,500 of which around 700 are too young to be on Facebook officially – the group has a membership of over 3,100. Even assuming that some members are outside the area this group has a large proportion of local residents as members and thus by “managing” posts the admin have the potential to influence a lot of events for example local elections!

I am a member of quite a large number of Facebook Groups. Note I do mean Groups not, as they are so often incorrectly termed “Pages”. I also admin/moderate in several groups and provide professional development for colleagues (other educators) in using Facebook Groups with students.

Groups that I belong to are of several types: professional, special interest/hobby, student and also local community groups that include both buy/sell and general local discussion groups. Most of the groups are easy and enjoyable to work with. The professional groups and special interest groups rarely have members who communicate disrespectfully, in any way inappropriately or who post in ways not permitted in the group. If this does happen then admin usually deal with it quickly, efficiently and openly. Student groups are also easy as long as they have clearly stated ground rules that are enforced.

Community Groups could be expected to be more problematic, but on the whole those I belong to also pose few problems. However they may have admin/moderators with vested interests, or who simply don’t understand the complexities of good admin/moderation, or that when they take on this task they actually have a moral responsibility to do it ethically and properly. So I can almost hear you wondering how you can tell if you may be being manipulated.

Indications that group members may be being manipulated.

Sketchy ground rules are posted as a pinned post but sometimes with more are “hidden” in the group description where they are rarely seen.
Ground rules are posted but are not properly/consistently applied by admin.
Ground rules are posted but lack explicit mention of “respect”/”appropriate language” or similar standards.
Some topics are banned (but these are not made explicit in the ground rules).
Admin are inconsistent in their responses eg enforcing some ground rules on some but not all members.
Posts and associated comments – often related to specific topics “disappear” usually overnight with no explanation to either the group as a whole or to the poster.
Whole threads are removed rather than just any inappropriate comments, this persists even when admin are fully aware that they can just remove the inappropriate comments.
Reasons for removing entire threads are rarely given even when requested, and maybe of the form:
- “it (the thread) was too long to check all the comments” or
- “we are being monitored and will be sued for what others post”
- “the post was attracting nasty comments/angry responses.”
Admin indicate that they don’t have time to run the group properly but make no attempt to bring more members in to the role.
Admin responding disrespectfully to comments from some members – particularly if that member has previously questioned admin practice.

Of course in some cases it may not be admin that are being manipulative but others who are manipulating them to manipulate group members. For example:

Once some members become aware that they can get a whole post removed by adding abusive comments then they may do this as a deliberate strategy so that posts are taken down.
Threat of legal action may also cause admin to become extra cautious – especially if they are unsure of the legal position.
Personal abuse of admin may also be used (by phone or face-to-face) to get posts taken down. Especially in small communities where admin contact details may be known by group members outside the Facebook environment.

Existence of any of the above doesn’t necessarily mean that group members are being manipulated but if you belong to a community Facebook Group – particularly one with a large membership in proportion to the population of the community then it is worth being aware of the possibility.

ACAL and ACTA Exchanging ways of being.

Posted on May 1, 2016 by johart1

Introduction

A few weeks ago (7th-11th April 2016) I went to a great conference! The “Diversity: exchanging ways of being” Conference was jointly organised by the “Australian Council for Adult Literacy” (ACAL) and the “Australian Council of TESOL Associations” (ACTA) with the local host organisations being the “WA Adult Literacy Council” (WAALC) and the “Westralian Association for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages” (WATESOL). It was fantastic to have so many LLN oriented people all together in one place, fabulous sessions and incredible networking!

As always after conferences/events whether face-to-face or online I like to let my personal dust settle a little before I post my thoughts and reflections on the event. Now a few weeks later it feels like the right time to post!

I rarely attend face-to-face conferences – our own annual local WA Adult Literacy Council Conference being the only one I have attended for many years. There are several reasons for this:

I live in regional Western Australia, not too far from Perth but a long way from the Eastern states of Australia and the rest of the world so most conferences are not easy to get to;
I loathe flying – being both claustrophobic and not very good at heights – I find it frightening and stressful and it leaves me useless for a couple of days afterwards;
Large International conferences are expensive – I work in the public vocational education and training sector and my organisation has only limited funds available for professional development/conferences.

I do find it frustrating that with the multiple streams available in large conferences there are always so many sessions that I can’t attend! Online conferences by contrast usually record sessions so it is possible to catch up with any of particular interest later.

The Conference

I am just so delighted that I had the opportunity not just to attend the conference but also to present a workshop.

The buzz of all those LLN people gathered in one place was phenomenal and very exciting. Strictly it was two places – because sessions were in two Perth hotels just across a street from one another. However the need to move between buildings didn’t prevent the conference running (at least as far as I saw) extremely smoothly throughout, thanks to the efforts of the organisers.

The sessions I attended were all excellent and the Keynotes were outstanding. For me this conference “walked the talk” of “exchanging ways of being”. I think that combining the ACAL and ACTA conferences provided exceptional opportunities for networking and “cross pollination” of ideas and is something the two organisations should consider again, perhaps more regularly, in the future

The only downside for me was all those sessions I would love to have attended but couldn’t because they were concurrent with something else! In my opinion this is a huge and intractable problem with all major conferences. While providing concurrent sessions is a terrific way of catering for varied interests, it does also mean often being unable to attend everything that is relevant. Possible options for large conferences might include adopting some of the practices used in online conferences such as recording of some sessions so that they can be made available afterwards as videocasts or similar.

My own session

I deliver quite a lot of presentations/workshops on using technologies for facilitating learning to colleagues. This is in my own organisation, more widely in WA and Australia and also globally. Most of these in the last 10 years (with the exception of my own organisation and our WA Adult Literacy Council Conference) have been online. In all of these sessions (face-to-face and online I strive to use interaction and activities to keep the content interesting and illustrate the engagement potential of using technology as an adjunct to learning.

There were no computers available at the conference venue for session participants so I needed to make activities feasible for a “Bring your own device” (BYOD) context. A big challenge for me as in the majority of my past face-to-face sessions the participants were using desktop computers that all had the same operating system (ie Windows) and online they were mostly using their own familiar desktops or laptops rather than mobile devices. This made it relatively easy to be sure that everyone would be able to access the same tools, that we were exploring and using in the session. In this session we had a mixture of mobile phones and tablets and Android and iOS – some of the tools I use regularly with students are not compatible with one or more of these others need an installed app to work. So it was important to have illustrations of usage in my slides to minimise the frustrations felt by those who couldn’t easily access the tools via their device.

A further challenge for me was that I wanted the session to do two things: illustrate and provide opportunities for participants to extend their PLNs (ie exchange their own ways of being), and also introduce and explore some “tech” tools that could be used with students to facilitate them in exchanging their own ways of being.

My sessions always include a lot of link sharing – online this is very easy as links can usually be shared in chat boxes and/or on whiteboards. Not so easy in a face-to-face environment! However I have developed an approach that seems to work well – I put all the links I will need to share on a blog page – in this case ACAL/ACTA Conference 2016 – with some narrative, and then create a customised “bit.ly” link for that page so that people can easily type it into their device.

Integrating PLN development with tool sharing seemed to work very well. A lot of participants joined our FSTeach Facebook Group during the session and some tweeted with the #tag #FSTeach.

As is my wont in PD sessions I used a variety of tools and activities to encourage participation including online polling, online sticky notes and social media. I have posted the slides in Slideshare, and links to the tools and to the sticky not canvases are on the blog page ACAL/ACTA Conference 2016.

Exchanging ways of being through connections with the world out there from Jo Hart

I really enjoyed doing this session – despite being quite nervous and apprehensive about whether the strategies I had planned would work. The participants were wonderful – so supportive throughout and happy and enthusiastic about engaging with the technologies. The two hours flew by and before I knew it the session was over!

Conclusion

When I was completing my workbased Adult Ed teaching qualification in the UK over 25 years ago one of our lecturers was always telling us to “take risks” – she gave us a list of strategies and said we should try them all. I felt unhappy with this – my students were studying for national exams and I was unwilling to take risks with their learning. However when I looked at the list I had already used almost all of them! My whole life in teaching seems to have been about trying different things, or the same things in different ways. Always seeking to keep it interesting and to challenge students to get involved in their own learning. I try to do this ie “walk my own talk” in PD and conference presentations as well. For me this is particularly important, with respect to technology, and using the technology to support the learning – not as an end in itself. However, having said that, with the continually increasing significance of digital skills and digital literacy for future workplaces using the technology effectively, safely and critically is itself becoming one of the objectives!

I would love to see your thoughts (comments):

on the session – if you were there!
on the blog page and slideshare
on “taking risks”
on the increasing importance of digital skills and digital literacy to foundation skills/literacy/language/numeracy teaching.

30 Goals Conference – Bouncing back!

Posted on July 26, 2015 by johart1

Introduction

Last weekend I was involved (thanks to Shelly Sanchez Terrell) in an online conference for the first time in about 3 years. Shelly has been part of my PLN since 2009 and we met face-to-face for the first time in early June this year when Shelly came to Australia for a conference and was able to take a few days out to stay with us in Western Australia. We talked continuously for the whole time – including about resilience which ended up being the topic for my Keynote at the “30 Goals Free E-Conference”

This post is about the experience of planning and presenting a Keynote “Bouncing back! Resilience and survival as an educator.” for the “30 Goals Free E-Conference” through Google Hangout On Air – a new conference platform for me. You can catch the full presentation and the associated textchat through my profile page on the 30Goals website

Planning and preparing

I approached this presentation with some trepidation for several reasons:

The length of time available for the session – I have never done a session as short as this (20 minutes speaking, plus ten minutes questions/comment) at a conference before, although I have done a couple of PechaKucha style clips. My sessions are mostly workshops and tend to be a minimum of an hour and often rather longer.
The topic was much more philosophically based than my usual ones which tend to be very practice and/or theory into practice oriented.
Although I have used Google Hangouts a few times, Google Hangout On Air was completely new to me. So I had no idea how to make it work for my presentation style which is very interactive.
I was worried about connection dropout – in my experience Google Hangouts are very bandwidth heavy and I live in a “bandwidth challenged” area
I am totally spoilt in that I have mostly been using BlackboardCollaborate (BbC) – in my opinion one of the best platforms – for online presentations and workshops, although I have also recently used Skype.
It’s around 3 years since I took part in a totally online conference and I am not doing regular webinars at the moment so I was definitely feeling a bit “rusty”!

Resilience is something I am very aware of – in the educator community, the community I live in and to some extent in myself. I did feel that it was a bit presumptuous of me to talk about it in a global presentation. However once having submitted a title there was no going back! It did take me a long time to prepare the presentation – a lot of thinking and reflecting, and also a lot of time actually putting the words and slides together. For the first time in years I actually wrote down (or at least typed) what I planned to talk about – usually I have just key points or reminders of practical issues. I also tried to make sure I didn’t have excessive amounts of text on slides – having worked so much in BbC and in presenting practical workshops I tend to have more text than I would use in face-to-face and/or purely presentation contexts. Luckily living in rural Western Australia I have an excellent resilience analogy to hand in our native bush which “bounces back” amazingly from severe bush fire events.

The other thing that exercised my mind during preparation was how to incorporate some interaction. I knew we would have ChatWING but wasn’t sure how easily I would be able to monitor the chat and anyway I really prefer more interaction than just chat. Eventually I decided to use two LinoIt canvases and ask for people to add “stickies”.

The session

Thank you Shelly, Jake and Judy for the huge support before and during the session! You all helped me to feel more confident. After a great introduction from Shelly I was launched on the uncharted waters of “Hangout On Air”.

It certainly felt strange to start with to be talking to an unknown number of people and without the feedback (through emoticons, chat and audio) that I am able to get when using BbC. Having ChatWING certainly helped to some extent but I felt peculiarly detached from my audience because:

I had no idea how many of them were listening/watching
I didn’t know who they were
I couldn’t tell if I was holding the attention of all, any or none (no body language as in face-to-face or emoticons/audio etc as in BbC)

On the whole I think the session went quite well. I was happy with my slides (now uploaded to Slideshare – although not very useful without the audio) and how I synchronised them with what I was saying. I only had two that were just text, being bullet points about which I spoke in some detail. I was pleased that I had done my usual things of trying to include interaction and pushing the boundaries in order to do so by using the LinoIt canvases. Including interaction in a very short session was challenging both for me and for participants. I was so delighted that it worked to some extent with some comments being added during the session even though there wasn’t really time to discuss the comments.

I have included the two LinoIt canvases here and would love more “stickies” to be added. The first canvas “Challenges” asks you to add your educator challenges.

The second canvas “Being resilient” asks for your own personal tips on being resilient.

There were inevitably some glitches! That panic moment when bandwidth won and I was dropped out of the session – however I was half expecting that to happen and so I managed to reconnect very quickly. Also I think (although I am not sure) that I got in a muddle with my two LinoIt canvases and gave the second link first.

Aftermath

One of the things that this conference has done for me is to nudge me into reconnecting globally again. This year I have not been doing as much teaching as in the past and have been focussing on doing some LMS e-learning development for my orgnisation and on facilitating colleagues (both in my organisation and across Australia) in using e-tools and social media for professional development and working with students. On a personal basis – I am still recovering from illness last year and am also concerned with a threat to my home community from mining. These factors have led me to look inward rather than outward as is more usual for me. However I am beginning to feel the “outward urge” again and hear the “wild geese calling” me to the wider world.

#Twitterati Challenge – my top five!

Posted on May 13, 2015 by johart1

I was honoured to be named in company with @cybraryman1 @gtchatmod @GiftedHF @murcha as one of @jofrei ‘s top five “Go to” Educators in the #TwitteratiChallenge. All of @jofrei‘s other top five and @jofrei herself have been part of my PLN for over five years.

I don’t usually do these sorts of “round robin” things but on this occasion I accept the #TwitteratiChallenge and will name my top five “Go to” Educators – the rules prevent me including any of the educators named by @jofrei, or indeed Jo herself!

The conditions of the challenge are posted on Mary Myatt’s blog at

http://marymyatt.com/blog/2015-05-03/the-twitterati-challenge

Here they are:

Started by by Ross (never known to nap) @TeacherToolkit – “In the spirit of social-media-educator friendships, this summer it is time to recognise your most supportive colleagues in a simple blogpost shout-out. Whatever your reason, these 5 educators should be your 5 go-to people in times of challenge and critique, or for verification and support”

There are only 3 rules.

You cannot knowingly include someone you work with in real life.
2. You cannot list somebody that has already been named if you are already made aware of them being listed on#TwitteratiChallenge.
3. You will need to copy and paste the title of this blogpost and (the rules and what to do) information into your own blog post.
What to do?
This what to do:
1. Within 7 days of being nominated by somebody else, you need to identify colleagues that you rely regularly go-to for support and challenge. They have now been challenged and must act and must act as participants of the #TwitteratiChallenge.
If you’ve been nominated, please write your own #TwitteratiChallenge blogpost within 7 days. If you do not have your own blog, try @staffrm.
5. The educator that is now (newly) nominated, has 7 days to compose their own #TwitteratiChallenge blogpost and identify who their top 5 go-to educators are.

So here are my choices in no particular order – because no way could I choose a “top of the list” person:

@suewaters Sue was my PLN mentor when first started to dip a toe in the water of PLNs back in 2008, she is so often my first “port of call” when something online doesn’t make sense, as well as being my edublogs saviour when I have problems with my blog. We do live in the same state (WA) of Australia and do know one another “for real” and not just virtually but we don’t work together so I hope this is OK.

@shellterrell Shelly (based in the US) has been part of my PLN almost as long as Sue! She came to some of our early webinars and also presented several. I participated in some of the early #Edchats the twitter #chats initiated originally by Shelly and a couple of others so Shelly has been a long time colleague and I am so excited that I will be meeting her in real life when she visits Australia in early June – I only wish she could bring #RoscoThePug with her!

@mgraffin Another WA tweep – we communicated extensively online before we met “for real”. Michael has been in my PLN since about 2010 and has been a real as well a a virtual friend for almost as long. As in Sue’s case we don’t work together Michael is in the school sector.

@penpln Penny is based in Victoria, Australia and has been part of my PLN since around 2010 both on Twitter and Facebook especially through the FacingIT group on Facebook. We have so many interests in common including teaching science and photography.

@poulingail Gail is a Kindy teacher from the USA and has been part of my PLN since around 2010. We got to know each other very well because Gail was a regular participant in our Edublogs Serendipity FineFocus webinars. Gail shares so many great things!

So these are my top five – this was really hard! My PLN is one of the very best things that has ever happened to me.

Social media for professional development and networking

Posted on April 22, 2015 by johart1

Introduction

A post for my colleagues who are beginning to consider social media for professional development.

The associated presentation is available on Slideshare

We all have some sort of Personal/Professional Learning Network (PLN). In the past this was based around people that we met face-to-face or communicated with by phone or letter. However the growth in online communication and social media has given rise to an immense expansion in the potential for learning through networks.

Personal/Professional Learning Networks

I have a large global network of educators across all sectors with whom I “chat” frequently and acquire links to many excellent resources, websites and articles. The main networks that I use are Twitter and Facebook, but I also use our statewide Adult Literacy and Numeracy Network (a Google Group), Google+, LinkedIn, social bookmarking and web conferencing. These “platforms” constitute my own Personal Learning Environment (PLE).

Much has been written about PLNs and how to develop your own PLN, this can only be a guide! Every PLN is different because it reflects the interests and personality of its “owner” and because the balance of platforms forming the PLE will vary.

One of the best ways to get started is through someone who already uses one or more of these platforms, who will act as your mentor. Both Twitter and Facebook are good platforms to start with – Twitter has the advantage of brevity, and Facebook the advantage of familiarity for many people. I usually recommend that people use both – they are both relatively easy to manage and it is also possible using one of the available clients to cross-post (this means post the same post on both platforms at the same time).

LinkedIn is a little different from other platforms in that it has more of a job/workplace focus. Many people who use it do so for the purpose of career development rather than professional learning.

Be careful about where and what personal information you share. Keep your home address, mobile and home phone number, private email, and anything similar out of comments and posts.

If you are new to PLN/PLE you can find getting started information in:

Conclusion

This post and those about Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are intended to help you get started. The next step will be actively participating in those networks.

If you have any questions please use the comments on this or one of the other posts to ask them and I will do my best to reply.

Twitter for professional development/networking

Posted on April 22, 2015 by johart1

Introduction

Twitter is a social networking/microblogging platform. The main difference between Twitter and other platforms is that posts may only be 140 characters long – and no, this doesn’t restrict conversations! Twitter is great for quick updates – and yes we do sometimes mention food! Just as we might ask “How was lunch?” when a colleague returns past our desk. As with all networking the “social” interaction “oils the wheels” of the professional relationship. So how do you get started with Twitter as a professional development and networking tool?

Getting started

1. Go to the Twitter website and sign up.

This includes creating a “username”. Ideally your username should be fairly short and should identify you – your name or a variant on it usually works well (my own Twitter name or “handle” is “@JoHart”).

2. Once you have signed up it is important to add an image (avatar) and complete your biography (bio). These will influence people to “follow you” or not. Twitter only gives you 140 characters for your bio so make every word count! If you want an example visit my Twitter page. There is much discussion about what is appropriate in terms of images. If you are using Twitter largely for PD then a photo is probably best, alternatively a cartoon image that you can create with a tool such as Mangatar.

3. Now it’s time to start following people and posting! There is no rush to build a huge list of followers, take your time – there are educators from all over the world on Twitter. You can tap into ideas and conversations from all sectors not just VET/Adult Ed.

4. If you follow @JoHart and Tweet me – put @JoHart in your Tweet and I will see it, I will be able to Tweet you with a couple of lists with relevant people and also some individuals that share interesting content and links.

TwitterChat

Once you have got started – especially if you want to join in or follow Twitter chats – it is a good idea to use a “Twitter Client” to help you organise and manage the flow of Tweets. A TwitterChat is a conversation carried out between any number of people using a #tag so that they can all follow and participate in the conversation. There are some excellent structured TwitterChats that select a topic each week (often using a poll) and then have a designated time for discussion the topic for one hour using Twitter. The discussion is then often summarised and made available online. One of the TwitterChats that I have joined in the past is #ELTchat, this has a focus on English Language Teaching and posts regular summaries of the chats.

As with starting to use Twitter or Facebook there are many “how to” posts available for using Twitter Clients, this “Beginners Guide to Tweetdeck” from “Mashable” is quite comprehensive.

Conclusion

This post focuses on getting started. If you have any questions please use comments to ask your question and I will try to help.

Facebook as a professional development resource/platform

Posted on April 21, 2015 by johart1

Introduction

This post is for my colleagues considering the use for Facebook as a professional development platform. At some time soon I will post on using Facebook with students.

Facebook is used for social connections around the world, however it is also a great platform for professional development. Facebook has the capacity for you to “meet” others with similar interests and come together in “Groups” to discuss and share those interests. It is particularly important with Facebook that you understand and use your privacy settings so that you know who sees your posts. You also need to keep an eye on the Facebook settings because Facebook sometimes reverts things to defaults – especially what appears in your Newsfeed.

Getting started

1. Go to the Facebook website and sign up. Facebook expects you to use your own name and this is the preferred option anyway if you are using Fb for professional development. I have a second completely separate Fb account (using my work email) that I use for any student interaction.

2. Once you have signed up it is important to complete at least part of your profile ideally including an image (avatar). There is much discussion about what is appropriate in terms of images. If you are using Facebook largely for PD then a photo is probably best, alternatively a cartoon image that you can create with a tool such as Mangatar.

3. Now it’s time to start “Friending” people and/or joining Groups and posting! These are two Facebook groups for VET sector educators:

VET Training and Assessment Networking opportunity for VET trainers and assessors across all Industry groups
FS Teach Specialist group for Foundation Skills (LLN and Employability Skills) practitioners

There are many other educator groups globally and a lot of these are cross-sectoral, here are just few:

Educators using Facebook For educators to share resources ,experiences ,teaching opportunities , educational innovations , best practices and other useful links with other educators
FacingIT A group managed by Australian educators for anyone facing up to the challenges of using information technologies for communicating, teaching and learning.
Apps for Education This group was started so that educators can share any apps that they use for education.

For industry connections look up your own industry area in the Facebook search to find groups relevant to your industry.

Some privacy and security points

I use one Facebook account for personal purposes and professional development. If you mostly use groups for your pd then your personal connections won’t get all your pd type posts. I use a second account to keep my student interaction separate and the two accounts are not “Friends” with one another.

It is particularly important with Facebook that you understand and use your privacy settings so that you know who sees your posts.

You also need to keep an eye on the Facebook settings because Facebook sometimes reverts things to defaults – especially what appears in your Newsfeed. If it doesn’t say “Viewing most recent stories” under the box where you type your post then you will be seeing “Top posts” ie the most popular. To correct this and see all posts from your connections go to the left hand column and look at the dropdown beside “Newsfeed” (top menu item under your avatar). Choose “Most recent” then you will see all posts from those you are connected to.

Your groups are listed on the left hand side, to see posts and to post in the groups you need to be on the group page.

Conclusion

This post is just about getting started and finding some potentially useful groups for professional development and networking. If you have any questions please comment on this post and ask your question in the comment.

Session on Blogging at WAALC

Posted on April 17, 2015 by johart1

This post contains most of the content from a workshop session on getting started with blogging and its potential with students that I presented at the WA Adult Literacy Council Conference on 17/4/15. Apologies for the length of the post – I just wanted to put all the content in one place! The slides are now uploaded to Slideshare.

Writing for the world out there

Blogging for you & your students – writing for an authentic audience. In today’s session we will look at:

What is a blog/blogging?
Why should we and our students blog?
Why comment on posts?
Ground rules.
The mechanics of blogging – getting started.

What is a blog/blogging

personal place
work/professional space
online journal/diary – ideas, PD, reflecting/sharing
self-publishing online for a global or specific audience
place to share media, resources etc
networking – commenting
online portfolio – developmental, evidential
submit tasks & get feedback

A look at some educator and student blogs:

The following images are from student blogs created during completion of Certificates in General Education for Adults. They show some of the evidence gathering activities for which the blogs were used.

Why we blog

The “mechanics” of blogging

There are many blogging platforms, personally I use Edublogs for a number of reasons:

educator/student focus
can create and manage student blogs
good personalisation options
mobile friendly
excellent privacy/security options
outstanding support/help

Getting your blog

Go to the Edublogs signup page

Complete the details and submit the information. Once your blog has been created you will get a “Congratulations” message. This will contain your:

Blog URL
Username
Password

Make sure you write these down!

Then you can “Login to your new blog” and start customising it. Here are a couple of posts that might help:

When you are looking for a theme to change the appearance, be sure that you use a “Mobile friendly” one.

Creating Posts

Blogs are very individual so what and how you post is very much your own decision, however you might find the following posts helpful in getting started.

Writing your first post
Writing a post – the “techie” bit
Writing a post – the “writing” bit (this one was written for my CGEA students)

Blogging is not just about writing/text,you can embed a variety of media and other tools including:

Slideshare
Prezi
Voki
Padlet
Polling (lots of different online polls exist)
Glogster
Video (lots of different video sites exist)
ToonDoo
Wordle

as described in this post on embedding media

You can also upload various file types including:

Word
Powerpoint
Images

These can be linked to from posts for:

Assignment submission
Evidencing competence
Drafting and feedback

If you have questions or need help then please comment on this post.

E-verything!

All things "e" that might have a link to learning & I think that means everything! Also sometimes digress into food, gardening and managing the wonderful place where we live.

Fake news, red herrings and conspiracy theories – is it true!

Session on Blogging at WAALC

Writing for the world out there

What is a blog/blogging

The “mechanics” of blogging

Getting your blog

Creating Posts