Week 5 Post

This week I discovered certain functions of Twitter and how it interacts with other social media sites.  I was always very hesitant to start an account as I really had no idea how the site worked.  After setting up my account I began following certain people, events and companies.  With the Olympics going on right now I thought it might be a good idea to follow some of my favourite athletes.  Now I am updated on the regular with information that they post along with links to interesting stories they may share with the Twitter world.  For example, I was able to share this great story from my Feedly page and posted it to my Twitter in hopes that others will see and read it.

By posting my first handful of posts to my Twitter account, I learned about the 140 character limit.  This is an interesting requirement but makes posts to the point and makes it easy to read.  Through my research for finding some fellow Tweeters to add to my following list I discovered pages such as CPA Ontario and CGA Ontario.  These two pages are great for me to follow as I am looking to pursue an Accounting designation.  There are some changes going on within these organizations that will have an effect on my education and by following them I hope to remain in the loop and stay informed. 

When going back to Week 2 of this course, we were asked to create a PLE diagram with the tools that we use.  With the addition of Twitter I have updated this picture to create a better representation of my use of social media as a tool.  I have also included the use of Feedly after we began using it a few weeks ago.  This tool helps bring all my news into one location without having to spend time searching through individual websites.

Overall I am learning that a lot goes into becoming a digital citizen.  There are a lot of tools that are out there to help make research easier however I was not aware of most of them before this course.  Learning about these tools is making my everyday life easier since I am now spending less time searching for news and having it come straight to me.  Once you can organize yourself online with the tools you like using, it becomes easy to maintain and update.

Bourque, N. (CC) 2014.