Before this assignment I never kept up or followed any blogs. To be completely honest I hardly knew what blogging was, or how to even set up a blog from blogger. Now I'm managing this one with 13 Things regards web 2.0 and my personal running blog which I post to on a daily basis. I soon found out I enjoyed blogging and following other people's blogs and commenting on them as well.
The only "thing" I was somewhat familiar with before starting this assignment was Twitter, but I never used Twitter or any other of these applications or tools before this class. I found some of the "things" more enjoyable than the others, too. For instance, I really liked the Mashup and word cloud, Wordle, and plan on applying both these to my running blog in a post or two down the road.
Wordle is amazing! I learned a lot from this tool and it gave me great insight on what my blog is about in a nut shell. I think wordle is basically a summary of your entire blog in a cloud of words. If you include this tool into your blog and post your cloud your readers should be able to tell what your blog is is all about in a sentence or two based on the words selected. For instance, some of the words I saw that stood out were the following: word, on-line, Google, vocabulary, thesaurus. From these 5 words it's evident my blog focuses on on-line tools which Google provides using web tools like an on-line thesaurus, etc.
My favorite post is either the Mashup or the word cloud done through Wordle. I enjoyed these two the most because they are visually appealing and are very engaging. Also, they can be used to showcase your abilities to possible employers, future projects, or in other blogs.
I discovered a few new tools which may be helpful in my day-to-day activities such as the visual thesaurus, social bookmarking (Delicious), and map minding. I can apply these in my career possibly when putting together a newsletter, project, or for personal use, too.
Besides these three tools listed above I think I may also use Mashup, word cloud (Wordle), and blogger. I plan on keeping up with my running blog after I graduate and using various gadgets to make it more intriguing along with applying Mashup and Wordle among other tools. The more I add to it the better it will be, and the more enjoyable it will be for my followers, too.
I prefer this "self-discovering" much more than specific due dates or check ups. I feel more accountable and responsible knowing I have to keep up with this project on a weekly basis while preparing me for the "real world." My boss isn't going to be checking over my shoulder every second of the day and will expect me to get a project or assignment done on a future due date. Also, I'll have other projects that I'm juggling as well so I need to be well organized, chip away at them on a regular basis, and do the job right the first time through. This assignment is preparing me for life and my career. I've been given many projects and am expected to have them done by the end of the term. Could I do this my first year in college? Most likely not as well as I can do it now, but that's why we go through various classes and experiences so we can manage tasks like these down the road.
Finally, this assignment and blog will be a good resource to reference for future on-line projects along with showing employers I can use web 2.0 effectively.
I also included a link for a word cloud using Wordle for this reflection: 13 Things Word Cloud Reflection
No comments:
Post a Comment