Summary of the first week and next steps

Hi everyone

If you haven’t yet done so, please let me have your blog url so that your posts can be added to the module blog.

Remember that the module has two main strands of activity: 1) reviewing, commenting and summarising each of the five Topic areas, and 2) developing your own professional profiles on Twitter, your blog and LinkedIn.

Topic 1 starts tomorrow (3rd Feb) and runs until 16th Feb. As explained in the study guide, you are free to work on this task whenever you like, as long as you meet the deadlines of posting your answer to the set question on your blog by the end of day 7, (9th Feb) your comments on two other posts by end of day 10 (12th Feb) and your reflective summaries by end of day 14 (16th Feb)***. Topic 1 is NOT formally assessed but you will get feedback on all aspects by 18th Feb and you should take full opportunity to get into the swing of how the module works.

*** Please make sure that you give your blog posts a CATEGORY called “Topic 1” and that they are TAGGED with #UOSM2008.

Some of you have asked me what an “online professional profile” might look like. Clearly it does not mean simply chatting to friends or following celebrities :-) There is no “one best way”, but as a guide, by the end of the module your digital profile should look something like this:

Twitter – be following influential people in your area of interest, and engaging with them. For example, you could retweet an article posted by an expert in your field of study, or the CEO of a company you’d be keen to work for, with a comment as to why their work was useful/interesting to you. Your own tweets can share useful links, eg articles/videos you have found that are relevant to the module topics, upcoming interesting events etc. or answer questions posed by other students in the group.

LinkedIn – don’t just fill in your profiles as an online CV, but *use the site actively*. For example, get some recommendations from people you’ve worked for/with. Join some groups that interest you, and contribute to discussions on those groups.

Blog – post at least your answers to the five questions, and ideally other relevant posts as well. For example, you could treat it as a progress diary of how you are finding the learning experience, or to report on a useful event you attended that others might like to hear about. These posts can then help you write your reflective piece at the end of the module. Use your blog’ s integration features to pull in your tweets, photos, slideshares etc (as relevant) to showcase your profiles in one place.

Topic 3 will be all about building a professional online profile, but I’m doing a F2F class on this subject for another module on Friday 7th February from 10am – 12.30 in 2/2043. You are very welcome to come along to this as an extra if you wish. It will feature a guest appearance by Flo Broderick via Google Hangout. This article provides a useful rationale for the entire process.

Don’t forget the Tuesday ‘drop in’ lab sessions (1pm in the Library each week) where you can ask questions, demonstrate your progress etc. And feel free to tweet or email your questions at any time.

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