Archive for April 2011

SpARC is coming!!!!!!

Posted by Emily ⋅ April 26, 2011 ⋅ 2 Comments

I hope you all can appreciate my excitement for the Spring Annual Research Conference at Agnes Scott (you can refer to this post for more of the same). The schedule with presentation details has been released (in PDF), and I’ve spent some time this morning perusing it; for me, this is kind of like academic Christmas. Maybe this makes me a nerd (eh), but I get really psyched about the different presentations that Scotties will be giving. It’s putting semesters of research to the best use possible!

I encourage everyone to check it out, and make time to see me yap about ePortfolios and the liberal arts education — 11:15-11:35 AM, in Room 210 East of the Bullock Science Center.

Here’s a screen cap of my presentation, in case you’re not inclined to download the full program just to check it out:

Around this time last year, I’d spent so much time writing my thesis, I thought my brainwires were going to short out. I was nearly finished with my labor of love by the time of SpARC 2010 (but not quite), and I knew I had to present the thing in French to my Senior Seminar class eventually. Having the option to present my year of labor, in my native language, at SpARC was an invaluable experience — if terrifying, at least at first. But at least I had a captive audience I could yap uninterrupted to about Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer for twenty minutes, which is a lot longer than I’d normally subject others (i.e., my friends). Beyond my own presentation, since classes are canceled on SpARC day I was able to attend my friends’ presentations, and whatever else sounded interesting on the program!

A few of this year’s presentations that caught my eye at first perusal: “Violence and Cruelty in French Nursery Rhymes” (9-9:20, Bullock Science Center 103W, and given by a fellow former French Senior Seminar classmate); “Drag Queens: Issues of Femininity Reexamined” (9:40-9:55, BSC 308); and, of course, “Whose Paper Is It Anyway?: Encouraging the Writer’s Ownership in Tutoring Sessions” (9:25-9:45 in BSC 209W, given by my good friend/work spouse and Writing Center Coordinator Neil Simpkins, as well as next year’s WC Coordinator and my soon-to-be housemate, Kate Whitney). I just wish I could attend all presentations at once — there are several during my timeslot that I would really like to watch.

Also, I promise I’ve got a new topic to cover on this site, one that doesn’t involve upcoming events! If it’s not up by tomorrow, expect it early next week — and no complaints from the peanut gallery, please, this week may actually be the end of me.

Event recap and audio recording …

Posted by Emily ⋅ April 21, 2011 ⋅ Leave a Comment

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who came out to the Defining Our Digital Identity [...] event! Seems like we all learned a lot from the discussion, and my colleagues from the Educational Technology Center were generous enough to record the event (I misspoke earlier — it was to be a voice recording, not video). It’s a pretty massive thing — just shy of 55 minutes — but hopefully all interested parties will be able to listen to it in its entirety! As things go, I’ve been experiencing some uploading snafus with the file, so it’s shared on Mediafire for your listening and downloading pleasure. The things I do for my fans …

So, vanities aside, what were some highlights from the discussion?

Identifying the “key players” of social media and how we use them;
Managing your personal brand — at this point, is there really a distinction between your personal and professional profiles?;
Appearing personable and professional — not necessarily mutually exclusive on social networks;
Should you add your boss as a Facebook friend?;
Googling yourself: it’s not as narcissistic as it sounds, and how much control you have over those search results;
Monitoring your digital content, particularly in regards to microblogging platforms (who can see your Tumblr and Twitter content, for example, and the possible implications of that);
The community-building (and, possibly, breaking) aspects of having an online life;
Location-based apps like Foursquare: yay or nay?

There’s a lot of good stuff to be mined from our talk! I encourage you to listen to at least part of our discussion, and wish there were more time in the academic year to hold another one.

(Partially unrelated, but listening to this audio recording made me realize how quickly I speak! My Southern grandmother would not be pleased.)

http://www.mediafire.com/?cwbane6l2ua87ed

Upcoming event: Designing Our Digital Identity, 4/7

Posted by Emily ⋅ April 6, 2011 ⋅ 4 Comments

Ohh, springtime. A time when a young [person]‘s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, the trees are a-bloom, and there seems to be a new event every day at Agnes Scott.* This particular roundtable discussion event is one that’s been in the idea pipeline for me and my good friend and Writing Center Coordinator Neil Simpkins (’10) for some time, and we’ll be joined by the Interactive Communications Fellow, Kimberly Brewer (’10). Becoming a “responsible citizen of the Internet” is, admittedly, a broad topic to cover in an hour. So we split guiding topics of discussion amongst the three of us, in the hopes that a roundtable discussion will make for a worthwhile collaborative experience!

So, on my end: I’ll bring up a discussion topic about blogging and ePortfolios — namely, how to present yourself in the best possible light. As social networks have proven a force not only in job searches, but talent recruitment by potential employers, it’s important to put your best foot forward in terms of your online presence. Your well-designed, thoughtfully crafted ePortfolio could rise to the top of the Google search under your name, and has the ability to give you an advantage in a tough job market! On the other hand, the second search result might be that LiveJournal you forgot to delete from when you were 14 and angsty … which may not be the face you want to show off to HR for a position you’d applied for.

The underlying theme here is digital responsibility.

Key players of social media are constantly rotating (think MySpace to Facebook), and you want to make sure you’re on top of the digital dialogue you’ve produced. What is considered positive content? How can you contribute to productive discussion and content with social and digital networks? What are some “best practices” for blogging and building ePortfolios?

My fellow (heh) discussion leaders will be tackling issues of general social media Netiquette (think standbys like Facebook, Twitter, and others), building your online “brand,” and the significance of what (and how) you post. We’ll also talk about the impact and possible repercussions of certain digital content — and give some real life examples of the heavier implications of sharing.

The event is open to the community at large, and will be held in the Alston Student Center from 1-2 PM, so feel free to bring your lunch! The event will also be filmed by my lovely colleagues from the Educational Technology Center — so if you’re unable to attend, I’ll be posting that video on this site afterward.