Reflections on a Semester of ALES 204

As the world moves more and more into a digital era, having an online presence becomes increasingly important. Although there is no replacement for face-to-face interactions, a knowledge and presence on the web is undeniably useful and beneficial for anyone in a scientific career, and most careers. In this class we have touched on so many aspects of the internet that will help me in my future career and as a science student now. I look forward to using what I have learned in this class to build my online presence.

My attitude has been changed quite a lot about the use of social media for work purposes. For instance, in the past few months I have found countless blogs about topics I find interesting, and also relate to Nutrition. For example, nutritionunplugged.com  is written by a registered dietician, and the blog has tons of useful tips for food and health. Some of my favourite topics that we have learned about this semester have been Google documents, CV writing, Wikipedia articles and public speaking. I loved the lesson on Google documents because I truly believe they are the future of projects and sharing. In fact, for a group project in another class we used Google documents to write almost the entire thing. It was easy to give feedback on my group member’s writing, editing was easy and receiving feedback was great. I also enjoyed learning about CV’s because I had never heard of them before. I was only familiar with a traditional resume, and the idea of a more interesting way to present your information was intriguing. My favourite assignment was definitely the Wikipedia stub article assignment. I feel like I contributed to the world just a little bit with my article and I know that many people will see what I have written. My favourite all time lesson was the one about public speaking. I loved doing Pecha Kucha in the lab also. Being able to speak, and having people listen to what I have to say, is such a privilege! And I would be lying if I said I didn’t like the attention.

Overall I found that I learned a lot about social networking, and general internet trends that can help me in my future career. I went into the class thinking I knew plenty about social networking, but all I really knew about was Facebook. Now, I can’t promise that I will use my Twitter account much after this class, because I found it hard to connect to professionals in my field, but it was really fun and easy to connect with others in the class. For instance, I found yet another nutrition student in our class, Steph, and she agrees that what we have learned in this class can give us an edge in the classroom and in the professional world. One thing I found very interesting about this class is the attention it got from other students around the school. Many of my friends had heard about the so-called “Twitter Class” before I had even mentioned ALES 204. It was cool to see the impact this class had on my friends and peers from other classes, and I bet not many other classes have had such an impact on the school community as this one has. This class has not only impacted the university, it has reached all over the world, mainly via the class blog. It was cool to see how many people I reached with just my blog. As of right now, 418 people have viewed my blog. It is astounding to me just how much of an impact my little blog has had! It makes me hopeful about what kind of difference I can make in the world, and social media and the internet are the first step.

Some Stats from December 5, 2011. 

The graph is of views in the past few months and the number stats do not include my own views. 

Below is a list of my classmate's blogs that I have commented on:

Leigh

Steph

Larkin

Julie

Madeleine

Wordle

Here is a Wordle about me and it also includes the words from my introductory post.

I had this Wordle on my sidebar, but since it appeared so small there, I decided to give it its own post. 

Wikipedia Stub Article

When we first got this assignment I admit, I was worried. I thought we would have to do an extremely scientific Wikipedia article and do intensive research. I found the code a bit difficult at first, to which my classmate Larkin agrees. Also, I wanted to be sure that I would not misinform the general public, so I chose a stub that I was fairly knowledgeable about already.  I was glad I chose to build on the Canada’s Food Guide stub. It was a really short article before I started editing it and I think such an important document needs a good Wikipedia page. This is especially true because when you search “Canada’s food guide” using the Google search engine, this Wikipedia page is the fourth result.

I started editing the stub this past weekend, before I went to the lab. When I got to the lab I found out two things that may work to my disadvantage. The first thing is our TA informed us that we were supposed to write a paragraph, and not thin out our information too much. This is exactly what I did when editing the stub, but I think it was necessary. The main point of the food guide is to help Canadian’s choose the right foods in the right amounts in each food group. It only made sense to have a heading for each food group and some basic, easy to understand information on each food group. This made the page easy to read and understand for the everyday Canadian, a feature I thought was done so well by Health Canada that I wanted to make sure the Wikipedia article lived up to it.

The second thing that happened once I got to the lab was I found out someone had edited the Canada’s Food Guide article. They had messaged me, saying my writing was not encyclopedic enough. This may have been true, as I had included tips for each food group and addressed the reader directly. I appreciated that this other editor helped me be more correct in my writing, but I did not appreciate that they deleted a lot of my work. I was also concerned that this other editor would change my writing a lot, but for the most part, they only changed the voice to less personal. I was then forced to improve upon what the other editor left for me. I added more information from some other sources and the article was looking pretty good once I was done. Here are some screen shots, I decided to do it in four shots, rather than one very zoomed-out shot, for easier reading:

Communication: Theory or Practice?

This week’s blog post is a reflection on the two “lectures” we had this week. Unfortunately, both of these lectures were given online and not in person. This directly relates to what I would like to address in this blog post. As the world today becomes more computerized and technological, people are being replaced. Only two generations ago, people had to hand-write a letter and send it by ‘snail mail’ to contact anyone far away. Compared to today, this is a very personal and meaningful connection. You had to sit and write and put effort into your letter. Nowadays if you want to contact a friend, you could reach them by dialing a number, typing a few characters on Twitter, sending them a Facebook message, emailing them or connecting to their Blog . I can’t remember the last time I got a real, hard copy letter in the mail. This makes me a bit sad.

My mood was not good on Monday. I didn’t realize the class was cancelled until I got there. Later, when it was time for my lab, I didn’t know where to go because the room was booked by some other group. I took a wild guess on where the lab was, and turned out it was right. Well by then I was not in the mood to do a lab. Luckily, we were practicing a skill which I think is essential for the repertoire of a successful student and worker. That skill, of course, is public speaking and the lab proved to be useful practice.

I was glad to see we were going to learn about public speaking this week because of its importance.  But my mood was dampened yet again this week when I learned that the lecture would be online today. How, I ask, does one learn how to speak publicly from reading directions off a screen? The answer: communication theory can only broaden your skills so much and the real improvement comes from practice.  I hope that we will be practicing our speaking skills soon, I long to un-glue my eyes from this screen and look into the eyes of my fellow students as we communicate.  Online may be the fastest, cheapest, most efficient way to communicate, but nothing beats face to face.


Picture Citations:
1.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2y7wAFt5ACiJ6HBiIoKtHl2qNaw33UsLnvP5iHuB1w63bpCybbk3qsNtOqatmdNX0INR65BF_cICjVuKHXr5Z9RF3WLTFuOvnz_s87LAVkbn-25jSXKiEdF1ega3evUWwGbcasXOhQZE/s1600/letter%252520writing%252520skills.jpg
2. http://nataliecopuroglu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/twitter-email.jpg
3. http://www.smcdsb.on.ca/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6/Image/Shared%20Image%20Library/Educational/public-speaking-micorphone-crowd.jpg

Module 3 Blog Post

You have been introduced to me, now it’s time to go in depth a little further. Have a look at my new Facebook profile. It includes all you need to know about me if you were to hire me. You can check out the profile photos on my Flickr page as well. It also has some of my interests and favorite movies and the like, so a prospective hirer can get a picture of what my personality is like.

At first I was a little skeptical of making another Facebook profile for business purposes, but now I am starting to realize that it could be very useful. My personal Facebook profile can be used exclusively for entertainment purposes, but my business profile can be used to connect to future jobs. This profile can also be used to connect with co-workes and researchers in my field of study. We could use Facebook to set up meeting events, or get the word out on a new breakthrough in food science. Its easy to connect with other Nutrition students, for example, take a look at Madelein's Blog. It is neat to find other students who share the same passion for food that I have. 

The main reason I think this Facebook profile is a good idea is to inform future bosses of what I stand for and who I am professionally. When interviewers or bosses are looking for some information on their applicants, one of the things many do is “google” their name. I would like it if my future bosses ‘googled’ my name and found my new Facebook profile. They could see a bit about me and what my ambitions are for my future career.

ALES 204 Online Class

Hi, my name is Alyssa VanKooten. I am in my second year of Nutrition and I am really excited to be starting this blog!  I am hoping to use this blog to connect to Dietitians in the Edmonton area, as well as fellow Nutrition students. The blog is something I will use beyond this class, for career and entertainment reasons. It would be cool to blog about my studies and, in the future, about my career and life. As of now, I don't use too much social media. This ALES class has introduced me to Twitter but, before that, all I have had is Facebook. Communication plays a huge role in my field of study. To be a Dietitian you have to have people skills and be warm and understanding. It is also crucial that people in the Nutrition field be able to report any research findings properly. If there is a problem in communicating, for example, the amount of Vitamin B12 someone should be taking, they could end up seriously sick. Communicating in the Nutrition field isn't always verbal, it is also digital. Lately, nutrition has become a popular topic among the media. More and more studies are coming out about how unhealthy the first-world population is becoming due to poor nutrition. This has sparked many positive articles, news stories, TV shows, diets and web-sites. In addition to this, the awareness of nutrition issues to the public has resulted in a lot of false studies and 'facts.' These things have to be watched for carefully, and show how important it is to communicate that your facts and research are verified. Web sites are a great way to share information about nutrition. For example, this is an informative and reliable resource: Health Canada. Communication is essential to the Nutrition field, and I hope that ALES 204 helps me become an expert on using communication techniques to the best of my abilities.