ALES 204 - The Journey and the Pearls

Why social, interactive communication is every student's imperative

I find myself looking back at the progress made in the ALES 204 Communication course with new-found appreciation and insights that I believe will carry me forward more successfully in my career.  Looking back at my first ALES 204 class blog comment, I get a good chuckle and am clearly able to see the positive effects of this experience.  In September I wrote:

Today I can appreciate that my communication scope and skills have broadened remarkably over this term, particularly in the area of social media.  Through experiences like creating this e-portfolio, ALES 204 has taken us students to the current and cutting edge!  As I reflect, I see three exciting and overlapping areas to carry my new found communication skills forward: 

1)      For self-promotion and for establishing social connections and collaborations within my field.  Now with the use of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, I can distribute my CV and profile to a large number of people, contact and follow people and groups in my field, and receive notices and updates of job opportunities. 

2)      For creating online teaching tools and disseminating information.   For the dissemination of information, open publishing certainly opens many doors. With the help of what we’ve learned in the ALES course, I’ve completed a first draft of my own volunteer website for the Brookview Community League (please visit the website at www.brookviewcommunityleague.ca). 

I've also published my first informative nutritional article on Wikipedia (see earlier blog post) and am looking forward to publishing more.  I plan to take this e-Portfolio blog forward by incorporating it into my own nutrition-teaching website in the future.  Tools we learned such as Flickr, Slideshare, and AudioBoo will be useful for this endeavor.   Learning management systems (discussed by Ian in lecture http://ales204ian.blogspot.com/) also look like very promising teaching tools to explore.

3)      For my own research.  Clearly technology has made data collection and analysis and information storage and retrieval much simpler.  Tools we’ve used this term such as online databases for searches and Refworks for citation management will be useful for this purpose.  For collaborative work, Google Docs has proven itself an incredible tool.  I'm looking forward to further engaging pre- and post publication open-peer review (as contributor or reviewer).  My first submission for peer review (Wikipedia article on Dexatrim) is still awaiting a response! 

The biggest pearl I’ve taken from this course is an openness and fearlessness to try different media for getting out and communicating and connecting with people. ALES 204 focused on the broader picture-- not only the importance of learning, but also the importance of sharing what we’ve learned either on- or offline. 

I met some wonderful students in my faculty and got the opportunity to see what they were thinking and talking about and to engage discussion in their blogs.  Please see:

Alyssa’s blog

Amanda’s blog

Emily’s blog

Sydney’s blog

Linda’s blog

I am confident that some time in the future, the contacts made with people in my ALES 204 class will bring forth various collaborative efforts!

All the best to Dr.Laccetti, my TA, Marie-Claude, and all my classmates! 

Google Docs Wins!

My classmate Linda Phan presents a very good case of Twitter vs. Facebook as favorite social media tools (http://lphan22.blogspot.com/2011/11/twitter-vs-facebook.html).  Although Twitter and Facebook have rated well, Google Docs wins hands-down this term as my favorite social media tool. Google Docs is a document management, editing and storage tool that is full functioned, excellent for collaboration, and free (perfect for the student)!  

Google Docs is an office suite, like Microsoft Office, for creating or importing documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms and drawings.  My first exposure to Google Docs was for the purpose of creating a document from scratch.  Setting up an account was very simple—Google Docs is free of charge, so just requires access to the internet and a Google mail account.   While creating my document, some features of Google Docs seemed limited relative to Microsoft Word such as simple copy and paste features.  However the usefulness of the tool became evident soon enough.  First, Google Docs automatically saved my work after any changes and stored my content on its own online server.  As a result, I could access my Google Docs document on another computer without the need to send my file by email or save it on a USB stick.  After years of having transferred Word and Power Point files via USB sticks, I was delighted!  Google Docs also accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc., so I was also able to go ahead and upload my existing Microsoft Power Point Presentations:

Google Docs preserved my images and fonts flawlessly for presentation despite changes in the computer platform - a big plus. This highlights the beauty of Google Docs browser based universality, by working exactly the same way on both Macs and PC's (unlike standard office suites like Microsoft Office).  

Soon after my first exposure to Google Docs, I had the opportunity to use the tool collaboratively.  A typical group project in the past would have included emailing each person with the document, getting separate feedback, and then manually compiling the feedback to the original document.  With Google Docs, after creating my document I had the choice of visibility (choices below) and accessibility  i.e. choice if others can view only, comment, or edit the document. 

All people allowed to collaborate on the project could do so at the same time, edits were visible to everyone involved, and any compilation could be done in real-time right in Google Docs.  Google Docs also has a “show comments stream” in the right-hand side bar – a handy feature for real-time exchange between collaborators.  Please visit http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html for more Google Docs features. Here is a sample of a document that I wrote visible to the public on the web with a comment added (courtesy of roy4):

For other inspired ideas on how to use Google Docs, please see Jen Merkel’s article at  http://engage365.org/2010/11/17-ways-to-use-google-docs-for-meeting-planning/ or Google’s For Educators Google Docs page at http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html .

Wikipedia Article – from Project to Possibilities

     This week I made my first attempt at contributing to Wikipedia.  This was an exercise that touched home -- after all, I've been an avid consumer of Wikipedia's open access information for some time.  My project was to find a Wikipedia stub article in my field of study, then to revise and expand it.  Luckily, I found a stub on a topic I was personally jazzed about (namely over-the-counter weight loss dietary supplements).  As usual, researching and writing the article took some time, however the actual formatting of my contribution into Wikipedia was remarkably simple.  Similar to the experience of my classmate Alyssa, I had initial trepidation with the Wikipedia coding, but after visiting the Help Edit topics offered in Wikipedia, the coding and submission went very smoothly.  Please find following an image of my Wikipedia contribution on the topic of the dietary supplement Dexatrim.

     At the point of publishing my contribution, a mass of thoughts and ideas came flooding to me.  First was the satisfying realization that anyone in the world (with internet) can access my contribution.  I experienced a motivating sense of responsibility for being the co-contributor to such a large audience.  Next was the very cool realization that the article on Dexatrim in Wikipedia is the #2 spot on Page 1 of the Google search for Dexatrim! 

This means that people searching for information on Dexatrim, will likely read the trusted Wikipedia site as well as the more biased and faddish site provided by the manufacturer.  This can only mean a more balanced scope of information for the public!  I am charged with the possibilities of contributing to Wikipedia in the future as a tool to provide sound, scientifically-based information regarding topics of nutrition. Considering Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 422 million different people every month, this is a dream for a nutrition student with a passion for public education. 

     I'm currently in the process of submitting my Dexatrim contribution for Wikipedia Peer Review with hopes it will gain Official Article status over time and revisions.  Next on the list is deciding on a second nutritional topic for Wikipedia contribution!

Using Facebook Profile as an Online CV

     This week I jumped into the challenge of creating a Facebook profile for the purpose of producing an online CV.  This was an interesting experience for someone who had never before delved into the world of Facebook.  As I took my first step, I was delighted to find that the Facebook user interface was intuitive.  While adding my interests, thinking about my favorite quotes to share, reminiscing about college years past, I even started having a little bit of fun.  Similar to the experience my classmate Brian Walker described in his own blog, the process of getting my own page up was relatively easy.  

     Following my experience, I would like to share with you my own personal review (Pros & Cons) of using Facebook as a social medium for an online CV. 

      The PROS:

• Facebook represents a powerful and innovative communications platform with broad world- wide penetration and acceptance (with over 800 million active user accounts).  Facebook would be an effective medium to showcase my CV to many prospective employers simultaneously.
• Facebook has an easy to use platform, with huge potential as a tool to link and “socialize” with professional people and organizations in my field.

      The CONS:

• Facebook, as a platform, is controlled by a commercial entity with a profit motive and not a democratic social or governed social mandate, agenda or regulatory oversight.
• Facebook privacy issues have still not been completely worked out.  A simple Google search for "Facebook announces privacy improvements" yields over 8000 results. Privacy concerns and issues have surrounded Facebook since their inception as displayed beautifully in the INFO GRAPHIC by Lisa Waananen entitled Facebook's Privacy Missteps (noted in the article Facebook Privacy: 6 Years of Controversy (Mashable)).

     The bottom line is that Facebook is an effective tool to publish an online CV and I would error on the side of caution with displaying certain personal information on Facebook.  I stand by the common adage in this age of online mania of self-expression..."Just because you can do (publish) something - doesn't mean you should."

Facebook page image credits: 

Mixed vegetable image by Nevit Dilmen

Red apple image by Abhijit Tembhekar

Egg image by Wildfeuer

Bread image by Mgarten

Kiwi image by Samoborac

(Note: Thanks to Dr. Jess Laccetti for her instruction on how to embed an image from Flickr into Blogger using HTML copy and paste.)

Welcome!

Hello everyone!  For those of you who don't know me, my name is PC.  I'm a second year Nutrition undergraduate in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta.   Besides ruminating over upcoming assignments and exams, lately I've had ideas brewing about the role of mass and social media in the field of nutrition (and now, thanks to my ALES 204 course, I'm going to share them on my very 1st blog!).   I have a passion for public education in the field of proper nutrition and weight management and I think it's time to make healthy eating interesting, cool, sexy and fun! 

I've noticed that almost every person I know outside the field of nutrition, is actually very interested in nutrition and diet.   What strikes me as interesting is that although they have this concern for nutrition, very few are noticing and heeding what qualified specialists (i.e. Registered Dieticians) have to say!  How weird is that!  I think people generally have a vision of the RD as someone who talks or writes about broccoli, fiber and dietary moderation, using formal and academic communication to convey their message.  That form of communication may be interesting for their dietician buddies, but it's just not captivating for the average person!  

Megan Fox

In contrast, a simple visit to popular web media reveals that Megan Fox is on the Paleo diet  (www.vancouversun.com/health/skinny+celebrity+diets.../story.html and image by http://www.lukeford.net/Images/photos4/071209/211.htm).

The result?  Thousands of people frantically looking up the Paleo diet and eager to give it a try!  Does it matter whether or not this diet is recommended by an RD?  Not at all!  The reality is that mass media generally captures our attention and defines how most of us think, know and imagine about nutrition.  Saturday morning commercials have every mom buying probiotic yogurt for their kids' school lunches - and many others are coughing big dollars to buy Ruby Reds, the "groundbreaking new dietary superfood supplement" advertised on the web (http://rubyreds.aitrk.com/default.aspx).

I think there is a great (and still largely untapped) opportunity for dieticians to effectively communicate and interact with the public about healthy eating and quackery using mass and social media.   We are starting to see more and more interactive dietician websites, like the site for Canadian RD, Leslie Becks (http://www.lesliebeck.com/).   But I think we still have a long way to go.  I have a vision for lots of fun, captivating nutritional mass media campaigns backed by qualified nutritionists.  I look forward to your ideas and feedback to my posts.