It is time to do a a social media spring cleaning

Spring Cleaning

With spring right around the corner, it is a good time to do a little social media spring cleaning. Here is are some suggestions for knocking the cob webs from your social media sites.

Facebook

Facebook continuously adds and removes features. Here are some ideas for both your personal profile and fan pages.

• Review your profile settings. Click on your name in the upper right corner and then on Update Info button under your cover photo.
  • This is a great time to ensure your settings are how you want them.
  • Is it time for a new profile picture?
  • Are you featuring the people you want to feature? with the right relationship?
  • Have you included your education and work information? While certainly optional, this is a nice way to find old friends.
  • You should also update your philosophy, arts and entertainment, sports, and activities and interests.
  • Finally, you should review and update your contact information. Are all your social media sites interconnected?
• Review your profile privacy settings.  Click on the “gear”  in the upper right corner and then click on Privacy Settings.
  • Review each of the settings, and adjust them to where you feel comfortable.
  • Once you have updated your privacy settings, select Apps from the left hand menu and clean out all of the applications you no longer use.
• Review your “friends” and lists. Click on your name in the upper right corner and then click on Friends.
  • This a great time to purge your lists of those names unfamiliar to you or individuals that you wish to drop.
  • Lists are a great way to manage your Facebook views. From the Friends link, you can create new lists by clicking on the Create a List link.
• Review all of your Fan pages. Go to your fan page and select Edit Page from the admin panel.
  • Starting with the Update Info. Is your Basic Information Current? This is a great time to make any updates.
  • determine how you want to post to the page, and when you want to be notified of activity on your site.
  • Review and update the Manage Permissions settings.
  • Is it time for a new Profile Picture?
  • You can also identify with pages and page owners your would like to be Featured.
  • Have you considered adding additional admins to help manage the load, you can do this through Admin Roles.

If you take time to go through this list for your Facebook pages, your site will be considered spring cleaned.

Twitter

When cleaning up your Twitter accounts, yes, I have multiple accounts, I recommend attending to three basic chores: removing inactive users, create lists to manage the individuals you are following, create Twitter newsletters to keep you informed, and update your profile.

• Removing inactive accounts. Sometimes it is time to cull the herd. There is a very useful program to identify users who are just not active with Twitter, it is called Untweeps. I personally set it for 90 days to give users the benefit of the doubt. Select the accounts you want to remove and submit the results.
• Create a list to manage users. Lists are a great way to manage conversations on Twitter. You can create a list to follow users around a specific them. Check out this post to learn more about creating lists.
• Create Twitter newsletters to keep you informed. I have found Twitter newsletters using paper.li to be a great way to stay informed. Here is more information about Twitter newsletters.
• Update your profile. You should take this opportunity to update your profile.  Log into Twitter, and select Profile then Edit your profile.  At this point, you can update your account information, password, mobile phone settings, notification settings, profile information, design and connections to applications. It is always a good idea to review which applications are accessing your accounts. Naturally, revoke access to accounts you no longer use.

With four simple things to do, you can have a squeaky clean Twitter account.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an important networking tool, but like most tools it needs to be cleaned and oiled. Here are some things you can do to keep LinkedIn servicing you needs.

• Update your profile. When is the last time you reviewed your profile? Have you changed jobs or responsibilities? Have you updated your profile picture? Have you updated the new skills feature? Have you been published? What about your education? This is also a great time to update your Web sites, Twitter accounts, and interests.
• Examine the groups you are following. Are they serving you well? Are there some you should drop because they are inactive? This may be a good time to join some new groups.
• This is also a good time to reach out to those you worked with and ask for a recommendation.  Speaking of recommendations, you should also review your contacts and take a moment to hand out some much deserved recommendations.
• Update your settings. To locate the Settings link, move your cursor over your name in the top right of your home page. Here you can update your email preferences, group preferences, applications that you use, and your basic account information.
• Update the applications you use. Under the More tab, you have an opportunity to add or delete applications you way want to use. Some applications are extremely beneficial, I personally use seven of them.
• Finally, it is time to review your contacts. You should purge your contact list of names which you are unfamiliar or who simply do not use LinkedIn. Focus on the contacts who will help you succeed and who you help to succeed.

Diigo

Diigo is a great tool for managing favorite links… at least, in my opinion. I only have a couple of suggestions for spring cleaning Diigo: update your profile, update your tags, update your network, and update your groups.

• Update your profile. This is a great opportunity to update you profile. Click on your name that the top of the screen and then select Profile. Review and update your information under the Basic, Interests, Privacy, Me elsewhere, and Picture tabs.
• Update your tags.  I personally have 817 different tags. In some cases, I have a basic name and a plural of that name; it would be useful to consolidate. In other cases, I have only one or two bookmarks under a tag; again, it may be good to consolidate. To edit your tags, go to My Library and then click on Edit next to My Tags.
• Update your network. Click on My Network and see if your network is serving your needs.  This is a good time to search through your contacts and add new ones, or look the individuals you are following and drop them if they are no longer beneficial.
• Finally, update your groups. Look at your groups, again, are they beneficial to you. If not, enter the group and Quit group. Perhaps you have new interests, this is a great time to search out and follow new groups.

Google+

Google+ is another great tool for keeping abreast and discussion issues. I only have a couple of suggestions for spring cleaning Google+: update your profile, update your tags, update your network, and update your groups.

• Update your profile. Take a moment to review an update your profile. Click on your name that the top of the screen and then select View Profile. Then click on the “gear” and choose settings. Review and update your information such as who can interact with you, how you will receive notifications, manage apps and circles, and profile information. Update your image as necessary.
• Review your Circles.  Check your circles to see if you are benefiting from the individuals you are following. To do this, click on Find People button on the left hand menu, and then the Your circles tab at the top. Click on a circle to review its membership.
• Update how much news you wish to see from each circle. Click on Home and then click on a circle name from the tabs provided at the top of the news list.  Adjust the slider to control how much news you want to have appear from that particular circle.
• Finally, update your communities. Look at your communities, again, are they beneficial to you. If not, enter the community, Click on the Actions dropdown menu, and Leave Community. Perhaps you have new interests, this is a great time to search out and follow new communities.

If you have completed these tasks, you have gone a long way to cleaning up your social media presence. If you think I missed something important, please leave a comment.

My 10 Favorite Google Chrome Extensions

This is another tool review that is part of Jane Hart’s 10 Tool Challenge. In this post, I will briefly talk about a series of tools that I use on a daily basis. Basically, they are my Google Chrome extensions.

Google Chrome is my browser of choice; it is fast, and it has given me minimal problems. However, there are times when I wish that Chrome had a specific capability, and that is where the extensions come to play. With extensions, I can add non-native features to Chrome or add capabilities of other programs such as Evernote or Diigo.

Google Chrome has a library of extensions that you can easily add to your browser. I, typically, find extensions through recommendations found in tweets and blog posts. If I try them and find them useful, I will keep them and install them on all my computers as well as share the find with others. Here are extensions that I am currently using:

AutoPagerize – Autopagerize is a great little find that has saved me time as I browse through Web sites. Basically, if the page extends to an additional page, AutoPagerize will append the pages to create a single scrolling page. This has been great as I review my Diigo lists or Google searches.

Bit.ly – If I am working with long links, the bit.ly tool allows me to create shortened customized links with one click that I can share with others. It is connected with my bit.ly account.

Clearly – Clearly strips away ads and unnecessary menus from Web-based articles to make them cleaner to print as well as save to Evernote. Clearly also has a text to speech capability.

Diigo Web Collector – This is my most used tool. I use the Diigo Web Collector to bookmark Web pages I feel are useful. With the Diigo Web Collector, you can also annotate and highlight Web pages. New features make it easy for you to share a page by email, Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

Evernote Clipper – With Evernote Web Clipper, you can capture and send to Evernote — images, URLs, parts of a Web page, PDF documents, or the entire Web page. I have been using this tool with increasing regularity, especially, if I need only part of a Web page.

Google Reader Notifier – The Google Reader Notifier simply lets me know if I have any articles to read in Google Reader, and it opens up Google Reader automatically when I click on it.

IE Tab – Basically, the IE Tab let’s you emulate an IE browser. Unfortunately, I still run into a couple of pages that were designed specifically for IE.

Hootsuite Hootlet – The Hootsuite Hootlet will let you quickly send a message to your social media channels, e.g., Twitter and Facebook with the content from the page you are currently viewing. This lets you easily share content without leaving the page. 

Save to Google Drive – The Save to Google Drive extension allows me to save Web-based content to my Google Drive with a right click of my mouse. I can save images, text, URLs, audio and video files, etc. If you save an entire page, you can save it in raw format or as a Google Document.

Zotero Connector – Finally, the Zotero Connector allows me to save research finds to Zotero. When I am looking through our University library, I can save the results directly to Zotero. This has made researching easier and more accurate.

Well, this is my list of favorite extensions for Google Chrome. If you have a favorite extension you can not live without, please let me know.

21st Century Tools Through the Lens of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Over this past weekend, I attended the 1st Annual Wyoming TEC Conference. TEC stands for Technology in the Evolving Classroom. During this conference, I had the fortunate opportunity to sit in on Angie Spann‘s session on 21st Century Tools. Angie is a Librarian and Media Specialist at Sweetwater School District #1. Here is the session’s abstract, “Our students need several skills to help them learn and become productive in the 21st Century. This session will explore web 2.0 tools to help students learn/practice these skills that they will need. Skills discussed will focus on Bloom’s Taxonomy and well as 21st Century Literacies.”

During the presentation, Angie introduced recommended technologies to use based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, or more correctly the digital Bloom’s Taxonomy. Starting with the lower order thinking skills as outlined in the the revised digital Bloom’s Taxonomy, she also highlighted the digital skills associated with each level.

Comparison of Bloom's new and Old Taxonomies

Remembering

Here are tools that Angie highlighted to help students engage with the Remembering level:

• Quizlet – “Quizlet is the largest flash cards and study games website with over 11 million free sets of flashcards covering every possible subject. It’s the best place to play educational games, memorize vocabulary and study online.”
• Quizstar – “Use QuizStar to create online quizzes for your students, disseminate quizzes to students, automatically grade quizzes and view the quiz results online.”
• Mindmeister – A mind mapping tool.
• Diigo – Social bookmarking tool making it easy to collect, annotate, and share references.
• Evernote – A tool for capturing all of your digital content with the additional benefit of accessing it anywhere.
• Google docs – A tool set that will allow you to create and share your work online. The tool set includes applications that allow you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms.

Understanding

Here are tools that Angie highlighted to help students engage with the Understanding level:

• Google docs - A tool set that will allow you to create and share your work online. The tool set includes applications that allow you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms.
• Popplet – Popplet is a tool for developing ideas in the form of a mind map
• Pinterest – “Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”
• Pearltrees – “Pearltrees is a place to collect, organize and share everything you like on the web.” It is another method for collecting and organize resources and ideas.

Applying

Here are tools that Angie highlighted to help students engage with the Applying level:

• Scribble maps – This tool allows you to draw on maps and share them with your friends.
• Gliffy – With Gliffy you can easily create professional-quality flowcharts, diagrams, floor plans, technical drawings, and more!
• Evernote - A tool for capturing all of your digital content with the additional benefit of accessing it anywhere.
• Jing – With Jing, you can capture 5-minute screencasts.
• WordPress – WordPress is a blogging tool that will also enable you to create a fully functional Web site.
• Google docs - A tool set that will allow you to create and share your work online. The tool set includes applications that allow you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms.
• Pixton – Pixton is a comic creation tool.
• Slide rocket – SlideRocket is an online presentation tool. You can create presentations in SlideRocket as well as upload and enhance presentations.

Analyzing

Here are tools that Angie highlighted to help students engage with the Analyzing level:

• Google docs - A tool set that will allow you to create and share your work online. The tool set includes applications that allow you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms.
• Kids zone: Create a graph – Kids Zone: Create a graph is a youngster friendly site where students can build their own graphs and charts.
• Exploratree – “Exploratree is a free web resource where you can access a library of ready-made interactive thinking guides, print them, edit them or make your own.”
• Many eyes – This is an IBM experiment. It is a collection of data visualizations.
• Google earth – “Google Earth allows you to travel the world through a virtual globe and view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, and much more.”

Evaluating

Here are tools that Angie highlighted to help students engage with the Evaluating level:

• Twitter – Twitter is a micro-blogging tool. “Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting.”
• Storify – “Storify helps its users tell stories by curating social media.”
• Rubistar – “RubiStar is a free tool to help teachers create quality rubrics.”
• Protagonize – Protagonize allows you write original stories.
• Edmodo – “Edmodo provides teachers and students a secure place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications.”
• Google docs - A tool set that will allow you to create and share your work online. The tool set includes applications that allow you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms.
• WordPress - WordPress is a blogging tool that will also enable you to create a fully functional Web site.
• YouTube - YouTube is the most popular video viewing site. They display over 2 billion videos per day.

Creating

Here are tools that Angie highlighted to help students engage with the Creating level:

• Google docs - A tool set that will allow you to create and share your work online. The tool set includes applications that allow you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms.
• Wikispaces – Wikispaces is a secure environment where students can collaborate using text, video, audio, and imagery.
• Glogster – “Glogster debuted in 2007 as a unique social network based on the creation and sharing of Glogs – interactive posters loaded with text, graphics, music, videos, and more.”
• Vuvox – “VUVOX is an easy to use production and instant sharing service that allows you to mix, create and blend your personal media – video, photos and music into rich personal expressions.”
• Storybird – “Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you make to share, read, and print.”
• Animoto -”Turn your photos, video clips, and music into stunning video masterpieces to share with everyone.”
• Voice thread – “A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam).”

Angie Spann did a great job exposing the participants to these tools. Now it is a matter to explore them at greater depth. I look forward to attending the next Wyoming TEC conference to see what else Angie has to offer.

Great Organizations are Constantly Learning and Improving

I would like to challenge you this new year to learn something new to improve your craft and organization. Two often, we become comfortable with what has worked for us in the past, and we are hesitant to try something new. We are afraid of failing. We are afraid what others think of us when we try and fail.

Great organizations become great organizations because the learn and adapt to an ever changing environment. There are many organizations and programs that failed to adapt and as a result are now extinct. Here is a list of good stores that never adapted quickly enough. These stores failed because they were content to doing it the same way.

I am interested in education. I am interested in my personal education, informal education, corporate education, extension education, higher education, non-profit education, adult education, technology in education, etc. What is fascinating is the more I read about education and learning, and the more I am involved in education and learning, the more disconnection I am finding. Dewey, Lindeman, Knowles, and others have been admonishing educators for over 80 years that the lecture method is not the best method for instruction, yet, it is the most common method in our schools today. We need to listen to their advice and make changes.

There are three areas I would like you to look at when you look for something new to try: subject matter improvement, instruction methods improvement, technology implementation improvement. As an educator, these are the three areas I consider most important. Presently, I am looking at it from the vantage point of extension.  Here are some ideas you might want to consider:

• Stay abreast of changes in your field of study by subscribing to or creating a Paper.li newsletter. More.
• Reflect on what you learn using a blog or podcast.
• Improve support to your courses with performance support and job aids. More.
• Make your course more engaging by flipping your instruction. More.
• Use QR Codes to enrich your physical documents. More.
• Use tools like Evernote, Diigo, Zotero, and Dropbox to become more organized in your research. More.
• Read a book on improving your instruction.
• Read a book on implementing new technology.
• Teach a class in a way that you never have before.
• Let others know what you are reading and why. More.
• Keep an eye out for what others are doing well and benchmark the ideas. More.
• Add fun and engagement to your class through gamification. More.
• Improve your operations by creating a checklist. More.
• Make time for learning, attend a Webinar, read a book, explore a program, just do it.

One of the most frustrating things I face is when people dismiss something on heresay instead of investigating it for themselves. I challenge you to honestly explore new methods, techniques, and technologies for yourself before dismissing them, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Make a commitment to yourself this new year to go out and learn something new. Try something new in your classes, your students will appreciate it, especially if you are not lecturing.

Have you completed your social media spring cleaning yet?

Spring Cleaning

When I was much younger, I remembered how my mom would get so excited about spring and her chance to do spring cleaning. She would throw up the windows and refresh the stale air with a sense of newness. I am personally looking forward to spring so I can do the same. Being in Wyoming, we still have to wait a couple of weeks. In the meantime, this is a great time to do spring cleaning on your social media sites. Here is are some suggestions for knocking the cob webs from your social media sites.

Facebook

Facebook continuously adds and removes features. Here are some ideas for both your personal profile and fan pages.

• Review your profile settings. Click on Profile in the upper right corner and then on Edit Profile.
• This is a great time to ensure your settings are how you want them.
• Is it time for a new profile picture?
• Are you featuring the people you want to feature? with the right relationship?
• Have you included your education and work information? While certainly optional, this is a nice way to find old friends.
• You should also update your philosophy, arts and entertainment, sports, and activities and interests.
• Finally, you should review and update your contact information.
• Review your profile privacy settings.  Click on Account in the upper right corner and then click on Privacy Settings.
• I recommend that you click on Customize Settings in the lower middle of the screen to set the settings how you would like.
• Once you have updated your privacy settings, select Edit your Settings under Apps and Websites to clean out all of the applications you no longer use.
• Review your “friends” and lists. Click on Account in the upper right corner and then click on Edit Friends.
• This a great time to purge your lists of those names unfamiliar to you.
• Lists are a great way to manage your Facebook views. From the Friends link, you can create new lists by clicking on the Create a List link. Once you have identified your lists, click on the Friends Not on a List to see who needs to be added to a list or to be purged.
• Review all of your Fan pages. Go to your fan page and select Edit Page in the upper right corner.
• Starting with the General Settings, determine how you want to post to the page, and when you want to be notified of activity on your site.
• Review and update the Manage Permissions settings.
• Is your Basic Information Current? This is a great time to make any updates.
• Is it time for a new Profile Picture?
• You can also identify with pages and page owners your would like to be Featured.
• Have you considered adding additional admins to help manage the load, you can do this through Manage Admins.

If you take time to go through this list for your Facebook pages, your site will be considered spring cleaned.

Twitter

When cleaning up your Twitter accounts, yes, I have multiple accounts, I recommend attending to three basic chores: removing inactive users, create lists to manage the individuals you are following, create Twitter newsletters to keep you informed, and update your profile.

• Removing inactive accounts. Sometimes it is time to cull the herd. There is a very useful program to identify users who are just not active with Twitter, it is called Untweeps. I personally set it for 90 days to give users the benefit of the doubt. Select the accounts you want to remove and submit the results.
• Create a list to manage users. Lists are a great way to manage conversations on Twitter. You can create a list to follow users around a specific them. Check out this post to learn more about creating lists.
• Create Twitter newsletters to keep you informed. I have found Twitter newsletters using paper.li to be a great way to stay informed. Here is more information about Twitter newsletters.
• Update your profile. You should take this opportunity to update your profile.  Log into Twitter, and select Profile then Edit your profile.  At this point, you can update your account information, password, mobile phone settings, notification settings, profile information, design and connections to applications. It is always a good idea to review which applications are accessing your accounts. Naturally, revoke access to accounts you no longer use.

With four simple things to do, you can have a squeaky clean Twitter account.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an important networking tool, but like most tools it needs to be cleaned and oiled. Here are some things you can do to keep LinkedIn servicing you needs.

• Update your profile. When is the last time you reviewed your profile? Have you changed jobs or responsibilities? Have you updated your profile picture? Have you updated the new skills feature? Have you been published? What about your education? This is also a great time to update your Web sites, Twitter accounts, and interests.
• Examine the groups you are following. Are they serving you well? Are there some you should drop because they are inactive? This may be a good time to join some new groups.
• This is also a good time to reach out to those you worked with and ask for a recommendation.  Speaking of recommendations, you should also review your contacts and take a moment to hand out some much deserved recommendations.
• Update your settings. To locate the Settings link, move your cursor over your name in the top right of your home page. Here you can update your email preferences, group preferences, applications that you use, and your basic account information.
• Update the applications you use. Under the More tab, you have an opportunity to add or delete applications you way want to use. Some applications are extremely beneficial, I personally use seven of them.
• Finally, it is time to review your contacts. You should purge your contact list of names which you are unfamiliar or who simply do not use LinkedIn. Focus on the contacts who will help you succeed and who you help to succeed.

Diigo

Diigo is a great tool for managing favorite links… at least, in my opinion. I only have a couple of suggestions for spring cleaning Diigo: update your profile, update your tags, update your network, and update your groups.

• Update your profile. This is a great opportunity to update you profile. Click on your name that the top of the screen and then select Profile. Review and update your information under the Basic, Interests, Privacy, Me elsewhere, and Picture tabs.
• Update your tags.  I personally have 608 different tags. In some cases, I have a basic name and a plural of that name; it would be useful to consolidate. In other cases, I have only one or two bookmarks under a tag; again, it may be good to consolidate. To edit your tags, go to My Library and then click on Edit next to My Tags.
• Update your network. Click on My Network and see if your network is serving your needs.  This is a good time to search through your contacts and add new ones, or look the individuals you are following and drop them if they are no longer beneficial.
• Finally, update your groups. Look at your groups, again, are they beneficial to you. If not, enter the group and Quit group. Perhaps you have new interests, this is a great time to search out and follow new groups.

If you have completed these tasks, you have gone a long way to cleaning up your social media presence. If you think I missed something important, please leave a comment.