My Take-Aways from Online Video and Social Media

In my first blog, regarding my course expectations, I mostly wrote about the opportunities in social media for marketing. I've learned lots about how to utilize different elements in order to get a message out to an audience. But I'm also glad that we learned about all of the exciting opportunities for education! I teach dance at Pace University, and as a dancer video is such an important part of capturing the history of the performing arts. With YouTube and other websites, anyone can view clips of all types of choreography. During this course I started a blog project with my dance students at Pace. It's a forum for us to share and discuss clips of choreography relating to the work we do in class. It has been so fun for me to get their comments, and to 'see' the work through their eyes through this blog conversation!

On the marketing end, I'm the head of a student organization here at TC (Student Advocates for the Arts, visit the link below!) and we use Facebook and a blog that we maintain as a website to inform our members. Over the holiday break, one of my projects for SAA is to create a video to let everyone know about our upcoming advocacy trips to Albany and DC. Video captures attention moreso than just an email (I hope!) and just seems to be a more personal message. I'm also going to rework our blog site (through Wordpress, although I wish we used Blogger now that I feel so comfortable with it) to include live feeds from other arts advocacy organizations to provide a better flow of up-to-date information.

I'm very glad that we've not only learned about all of these different avenues for online communication, but also that we've spent a lot of time through assignments actually using them. Although I've updated our student organization blog multiple times, I had no idea of all of the other ways to utilize a blog and all of the fun, interesting things I could do with it! I will definitely use all of these skills with Student Advocates for the Arts blog and with my classroom blog at Pace (I'm reworking my curriculum over the break to make use of the blog regularly). Thanks so much! Happy blogging to everyone (and have a great holiday)!

Social Networking Post #2

My previous blog (#7) about social networking prior to this class somewhat covered our requirements for Blogpost 8. This class wasn't my first interaction with Facebook or MySpace, I use both frequently, almost more so now that I'm in school because a lot of student organization/networking groups only use Facebook to promote events or update members on upcoming activities. LinkedIn is on my to-do list, I think it would be more useful in finding a job post-graduation than the other sites since it is specifically for professional connections.

These sites have changed the way I communicate with my friends - there are some that I don't use email with at all, particularly groups of friends because we can all communicate simultaneously (sort of, with Facebook threads). Also, the visual element makes keeping in contact more interesting, I feel like I can see what their lives are like rather than just read about them. It makes for quicker and easier communication, as pictures/videos can tell stories faster than text.

Shannon a.k.a. Liza Foxclaw in Second Life

I'm not sure about that name, Liza Foxclaw, but I just saw Liza Minnelli in concert and then Second Life chooses your last name for you...

This afternoon I tried Second Life for the third time, and I have to say I'm still not very hooked at all. I haven't found much to do other than walk around, and living in NYC provides a much better 'real life' walking around experience. I read the articles on the syllabus, and one of them mentions that one of Second Life's downfalls is its lack of engagement for first-time users (hmmm... 'OK, I'm here, so now what?...'). I guess my feelings so far are summed up in: why would I go to a bar in Second Life when I can do that in real life?

But I can see where this would be great for education, especially in creating an international setting. That said, as a child I was totally fascinated by the rest of the world. I had pen pals (back in the day before email :) from various different countries. If I was given the chance then to participate in some sort of international classroom, I would have jumped on it (I still would!). How exciting to think of that as an answer to 'the next best thing'? A virtual classroom, taking place in different replica countries in Second Life, with students from all backgrounds and cultures!! Sounds much more interesting than my 8th grade social studies class...

I found this wiki, Second Life in Education, that lists a bunch of different schools and organizations and the ways that they use Second Life. There are descriptions, screen shots, and links to visit in Second Life. It was really interesting to see all of the different ways institutions utilize this phenomena. For example, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard presents a course on persuasive argument in media space that meets in Second Life, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Second Life Island provides simulations of weather conditions like tsunamis, hurricanes, and melting glaciers. The wiki gives SLURLs, which I now know stands for Second Life URLs, so you can click and open in Second Life and transport to each of these places (do we call them places, this is confusing!..)
http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses

Also, I found this article on museums in Second Life, which is interesting for me to read since my degree is Arts Administration.
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/rothfarb/rothfarb.html