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Good Night favorites, Diigo is our new library tool!

Diigo has become one of my new favorite technology tools.  I can’t imagine using favorites to save all of my important resources for my school projects/research papers and professional resources.  Now that I have a solid knowledge of Diigo’s features, completing the literacy project using Diigo with my staff seemed like a great idea.  I started by giving a workshop to the staff about Diigo’s features.  Once they became comfortable using Diigo we started bookmarking items into our Advising  Library.  The goal was to create a digital library with information about higher education that we could use to start a department blog/discussion board.  The collaboration and participation of the department was great because everyone wants to stay informed about higher education issues and trends to better serve our students to promote academic success.  Check out our library to see a wide range of topics that have utilized many of the Diigo features.

https://www.diigo.com/user/goodwinadvising

Below is the survey that I used to poll the staff about their Diigo experience.

I Need to Register for a College Class

Xtranormal was a fun web 2.0 tool to create a movie with.  I love that it allows you to be creative with the entire process.  Starting with a template and being able to choose the setting, the characters, the movements, and background sounds made this a fun learning experience.  The noise you hear in the background (which sounds like static) is an option called "rain in the background".   The process was easy to follow.  It guided you step by step to the publishing phase. The only problem I had was with the preview option.  Every time I tried to preview my movie an error message appeared stating “try again later”.  I never got to preview before I published it.  You also have to be mindful of word pronunciations.  The female student was stating her grades and the letter A was not correct.  The next time I have the opportunity to work with students, I will be using Xtranormal.  I think they will love creating a movie that relates to college academic success.

A Digital Footprint Message

What a great piece of software that can be used in any academic setting with any age.  It was really fun creating this Voki.  Having so many options (backgrounds, clothes, voices, etc) to create this "public service announcement" is amazing for a free account.  One mistake I made was creating a complete Voki and then realized to publish it you had to have an Educator's account.  I lost my first dialog and could not remember what I had typed in the text box!  The graduation cap on the characters head indicates that you must have an educator's account to use that character.  I did explore the site and there are many things that you can do with your students (lesson plans for teachers, calendars and photo collages.

Navigating Registration, My Digital Story Journey

My digital story was created so I could incorporate registration awareness into my daily advising sessions with applicant and current students.  Creating a story that would benefit the students I work with was important to me when thinking about ideas for this project.  The purpose of my digital story is to educate students about the registration function of the college’s online web based computer system.  Students meet with their advisors to discuss course selection but not everyone understands how to use the registration portal.   I hope that when students view this tutorial they will have a clear understanding of how to register for their semester courses.  The goal is to have all applicant students proficient and aware of the software.  This will enable them to register and complete their degree requirements on time.

Using Photo Story as a platform to create my digital story was a great learning experience.  I was amazed at how easy it was to create the story.  The program walked you through a step by step process.  I am going to use this program in the future to create additional stories that contribute to academic success with college students.

The Beginning of the Story....

This is the rough, rough draft of my digital story!  As of today, my experiences with Photo Story have been positive.  I watched several videos on how to use and format Photo Story.  They were very helpful for starting the digital story process.  What I like about Photo Story is the step by step process of the software.   For a first time user, creating the story has been easy.  Once I uploaded the pictures I found that I did not completely stick to my original script that I wrote on the Story Board template.  After I finish creating all the voice narrations I will make a decision on the style of music that I will use.

I am creating a digital story that I can incorporate into my advising and or orientation sessions with new students.  It will instruct them how to register for classes using our live web based computer system.  I know this will benefit students who do not know how to use our system.  The goal of the staff is make sure all students are aware and proficient of the software so they are able to register and complete their degree program on time.

Creating a Digital Footprint with Social Media

With all of the recent stories on the morning news programs, I feel compelled to blog about social media, especially Facebook.  I am very interested in reading about any issues that relate to Digital Citizenship or creating or adding to one’s digital footprint.  Everyone I know has Facebook and they keep asking why I am not on Facebook.  I am very torn about the decision.  I do not want to publicize my life publicly  but I do like keeping in touch with what is going on with my family and friends.  I can see how an individual could spend a great deal of time on Facebook.  I don’t have that kind of time to spend surfing Facebook or any other social media outlet.

The other topic that needs to be addressed with college students (I mention this group because I work with college students) is what they post on social media outlets.  I am amazed at what some students deem appropriate to post for the world to see.  I wonder if they realize that what is being posted is out there for everyone to see even if it is private.  I really feel that a class or workshop should be built into a freshman curriculum to teach students about proper netiquette, how social media outlets work, privacy rights and posting.  The key thing to remember is that students in college are getting ready to start careers and what they post today could hurt their chances of getting that dream job.  Facebook was a topic that Richardson devoted time to in his book that we read for class.  Once a post or pictures are posted, that digital footprint is created for everyone to view for eternity!   As a test, Google yourself and see what your footprint says about you.

Should I cave and join Facebook to connect with family and friends?

What are your thoughts or ideas about educating students on safe and proper social media usage?