Linkedin

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 175 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.

Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking.  As of June 2012, LinkedIn reports more than 175 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories.^[4]
The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Polish, Korean, Indonesian, and Malay. Quantcast reports LinkedIn has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally. In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors, up 63 percent from a year earlier and surpassing MySpace. LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol "LNKD".

One purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people with whom they have some level of relationship, called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. However, if the invitee selects "I don't know" or "Spam", this counts against the inviter. If the inviter gets too many of such responses, the account may be restricted or closed.

This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

• A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual contact.
• Users can upload their resume or design their own profile in order to showcase work and community experiences.
• It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
• Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.
• Users can post their own photos and view photos of others to aid in identification.
• Users can now follow different companies and can get notification about the new joining and offers available.
• Users can save (i.e. bookmark) jobs which they would like to apply for.

The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either an existing relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participates in the EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.^[42]
The feature LinkedIn Answers,^[43] similar to Yahoo! Answers, allows users to ask questions for the community to answer. This feature is free, and the main difference from the latter is that questions are potentially more business-oriented, and the identity of the people asking and answering questions is known.

Another LinkedIn feature is LinkedIn Polls. In December 2011, LinkedIn announced that they are rolling out polls to their one million groups.

In mid-2008, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn DirectAds as a form of sponsored advertising.
In October 2008, LinkedIn revealed plans to opening its social network of 30 million professionals globally as a potential sample for business-to-business research. It is testing a potential social-network revenue model-research that to some appears more promising than advertising.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlUwwgOfKw&feature=player_embedded

Virtual Learning Environments - Moodle

Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students.  There are many of these CMS-cum-LMS-cum-VLE such as Blackboard, WebCT and Sakai. You can find out more about Moodle, how to get it and use it, on the Moodle community site moodle.org.

Many TAFE courses use the Moodle system as a supplementary course delivery platform. Teachers use Moodle to store course information, such as assessment dates and instructions, as well as Student Assessment Guides*. Teachers may also upload resources for students on the  Moodle, such as readings, links, videos and photos. Students are often required to upload their assignments to the course Moodle.

Creating a skype account

An introduction to creating a skype account

Skype is a provider for connecting people through audio, audio-visual and/or online chat.

Skype-to-skype is free, but for skype-to-mobile and skype-to-landline you need to have an account with credit in it.  You can also SMS from a skype account to mobile phone or 'chat'.

The options for audio and audio-visual communication in Skype are flexible as you can choose between them at the begining of your Skype contact or switch between the audio and audio-visual facility during a call.

To create a Skype account, go to skype.com

Select 'create an account'

Enter your details (email and username), password and personal details.

Wikispaces

Hi all!

From what I've been able to glean, Wikispaces is an incredible online resource for creating and running a learning resource where everybody can contribute ... something like an old-style tutorial where we can sit around and 'chew the fat' on an issue or theme, and learn something new in the process.

So, following the instructions of Roie, below is a brief introduction to setting up a wikispace:

First, an administrator will create a wikispace, and will then invite people to become members via an email.

In this email, there will be a link which they can then follow to create a username and password.

And then you are set to contribute to your wiki.

Dismantling of TAFE

Hi all,

I'm not sure if you are interested but our future as students is under threat.

This morning on the radio (702 AM) there was a discussion about how state governments are radically reducing funding for TAFEs.  In Victoria, the process is well under way with most TAFEs having been closed.  In NSW and QLD, it seems that, among other things, the educational opportunities for people with disabilities and the Outreach programs have been slashed or radically restricted.

For me, all forms of education are an investment in our future - the skills, the knowledge, the awareness that we need to have to live to our potential and to be responsible citizens in our society.  These funding cuts are, in effect, a reflection of a government attitude of not caring for our future, and, at worst, a part of a cynical exercise to dumb down society - in any event, funding cuts represent a non-investment in our future - a sad reflection on those who have been elected to care for and lead our society forward.

I would like to hear your thoughts.

Cheers, Robert

Disengaged senior high school students and leaving age

In Friday 1/11/12 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, there was an article entitled 'More students disengaged since rise in leaving age' by Anna Patty.

My reaction to this article was a mixture of sadness and bemusement.  As an ex-high school teacher in NSW and having visited high schools overseas, the impact of the state government's decision in 2010 was predictable and predicted.  The reasons centre on the chronic lack of resources focussed on the diversity of students - their needs, expectations and aspirations - and a bureacracy divorced from the day-to-day experience of school life.  Also, teachers are increasingly burdened with a workload that is unrealistic for  established but narrowly-defined outcomes.

My sadness at this article stems from what this situation of disengagement means for the youth who have had a negative experience of school - a supposedly learning environment where knowledge and skills are developed as the students' perceptions, attitudes and values are brought into relief and negiotated, abused and/or established in an environment where care and nurturing are difficult to establish, let alone a semblance of the same.

These are just some thoughts.  Maybe I'll develop them and others later.  But I would love to hear of your reactions on this article.

Looking at Wikis

Looking at Wikis – a Social Media class exercise

Firstly, some definitions and ideas about Wikis to give a context to the idea of ‘wiki’.

Looking at Wikis – a Social Media class exercise

'Wiki' is a relatively new term in English that is connected with e-media.  Below are some introductory ideas and a definition about wikis to give some clarity and a context to the idea of ‘wiki’.

 

From the website  http://www.techterms.com/definition/wiki   (retrieved 23/10/12 and adapted):

A wiki is a Web site that allows users to add and update content on the site using their own Web browser.  This is made possible by Wiki software that runs on a Web server.  Wikis end up being created mainly by a collaborative effort of the site visitors.  A good example of a large wiki is the Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia in many languages that anyone can edit.  The term "wiki" comes from the Hawaiian phrase, "wiki wiki," which means "super fast."

It should be noted that the content of a wiki is frequently unreliable in terms of its accuracy but they are usually monitored for false and offensive information (which is usually deleted or modified).

Wikis can be on any topic – a person, place, event, or phenomenon, such as a notable person, an historical site, a movie festival, regional cuisine, or interplanetary travel.

A listing of wikis can be found at    www.wikiindex.org  Also, if you google 'wikis' and go the Wikipedia (the most popular of all the wikis) you will find a rather humorous article.

Finding good videos

Hi all,

I've been searching the net for good quality information/videos and found a great site.  It's called ted.com  It's well organized and is easy to navigate through.  I've embedded one of their producations here as an example of what this medium can do.

Uploading a Video from youtube

Today in our 'Social Media' class, we have been quite busy.  But most importantly we focussed how to upload videos.  Below are the steps we took to achieve this.

1.  Create a 'new post' in Blogger.

2.  Click on 'insert a video' from the toolbar.

3.  Select from LH column ('Select a file'), eg, 'from youtube'

4.  Type the name of the video in the search bar.

5.  Click on 'enter'.

6.  Select from the menu the video you would like to upload.

7.  Click on 'Select' and the selection will be automatically uploaded to your blog.

Creating a youtube account

Creating a youtube account

Having already created a google account, signing up to youtube is straightforward.

To sign-up for a youtube account, simply enter your gmail address and then select the youtube icon.

When the youtube homepage opens, it will show that you are already logged in.

[Apparently, when you create an account in one of the google suite of software, you are automatically signed into all the accounts.]

Creating a Twitter Account

Creating a Twitter Account

To set up a Twitter account is quite straightforward - even simpler than for Facebook.  Click on the link below to find out more about Twitter and to set up an account:

https://twitter.com/about 

Creating a Facebook Account

Creating a Facebook Account

1.  Type 'facebook.com' into your address bar; hit the enter key

2.  The facebook homepage will appear.

3.  Fill in your details under 'Sign up'.

4.  You'll need a current email address and to come up with a suitable password.

5.  When you have finished entering your details, click on 'sign up'.

6.  Once your account has been created make sure you change your privacy and security settings.

7.  To sign into your account, enter 'facebook.com' into your address bar and hit the 'enter' key.

8.  Enter your email and password in the 'sign in' are at the top of the page.

Creating a Post on Blogger

Creating a Post on Blogger

1.  Go to blogger.com

2.  Once you are inside your email account, you can access your Blog by signing in to your 'blogspot.com' account.

3.  Select 'New Post' or click on the orange box with an image of a pencil inside.  

4.  Choose a title for your post.

5.  Write your title for your post in the title box, just like using 'Word' software.

6.  Enter or copy text into the 'edit box'.

7.  Add video or a picture(s) by selecting tools from the 'Tool Ribbon' (aka 'Toolbar').

8.  Highlight text to edit, for example, to change the font size or style.

9.  Select 'Preview' to see how your post will appear to the audience/viewers.

10.  Once you are happy with the appearance of your post, select 'Publish'.

Creating a blog

Creating a blog

The first thing you need to do is decide what blogging provider you would like to use. There are a wide range of free providers, we are going to use Blogger as it is automatically connected to our Gmail accounts.

Secondly you need to come up with a name you would like to call your blog. This is important because its what people first see when looking at your blog  and how people will find your blog when using a search engine such as ‘Google’ or ‘Yahoo’.

We will be using our names for our class blogs as we did with our email accounts.

In your address bar type blogger.com and hit the ‘Enter’ key

A login page will be displayed. Enter your Gmail account information and click login.

A page like the one below will appear, this is where you’ll enter your preferred display name.

Select continue, once you have entered a display name.

On the following page select ‘new blog’You now need to choose a title of your page and the address of your blog, for class we will use the same as our email addresses ‘your name’sm12@blogspot.com. Then ‘click’ create blog!

Creating an email account

Creating your own electronic letter system, or 'email'

To create an email account is a relatively straightforward process.  We will use a free email service called 'gmail' as our example of provider that allows you to make your own email account.  Before you begin this process, have your username and password ready.

The first thing to do is to access the 'login - or 'sign in page' via google.  Type 'gmail login' in the search box and the gmail login page will appear.

When this page is 'live' (you will see a blinking cursor in one of the boxes), in the top right corner of the page is a box with 'Create an account'.  Click once on the left side of the mouse.

A new page will appear.  It is headed 'Create a new Google account'.  Enter the requested information (ie, personal details, username, etc), moving from one box to the next by a single tap on the 'Tab' key.  One the requested pieces of information is your mobile phone number: Google (the owner of gmail) says this is for security purposes.

When you have finished entering all the required information, click on 'next step'.

A new page will tell you that your gmail account has been created.  Click on 'continue' to enter your new email account and now you can start sending and receiving email.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is all about designing things to suit their users.
The design could be on a physical level, like making sure a chair, knife or shovel is easy to use for the task intended, or it could be on a psychological level, like making sure a computer program or instrument panel is easy to understand.
Ergonomics plays a particularly important role in making sure that safety critical industries like nuclear power stations can be controlled by their users, and in everyday life by making sure that workstations, checkouts, factory machinery can be used comfortably on a day to day basis.
Ergonomics is concerned with the 'fit' between people and their work. It takes account of the worker's capabilities and limitations in seeking to ensure that tasks, equipment, information and the environment suit each worker. What are the four areas of concern regarding computer egonomics?
How often should we have a break?
What angle should your elbows and knees be at when you are sitting at the computer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbV5dGvJWyo&feature=relmfu
http://www.ergonomics.com.au/pages/400_useful_info/420_how_to_sit.htm