Hi, my name is Nick Barlotta and you can tweet to me at @barlottn. This will be my fourth blog and I'm definitely getting the hang of it while I learn new things and share them with you. I read The Connected Educator this week and it learned some really great information. Professional learning communities are great but connected learning communities are the now. Educators can use connected learning communities to interact with others. Three ways they use a connected learning communities to interact and communicate are professional learning communities, personal learning networks, and communities of practice or inquiry. The connected learning communities uses a three pronged approach to professional development which is local community, global network, and bounded community. Connected learning communities are also a great way to share different ideas and cultures. A successful learning community must embrace diversity in order to evolve with the times and stay relevant. Diversity is a strength not a weakness in all aspects of life.
Zite is an awesome app that caters to your needs when it comes to news. Its a great new way to get your news. Its available in the app store on both iPhone and Android devices. This fantastic app has a topic for everyone even if you are not a big fan news in general. In a few minutes you can set up profile and get all the news you need. You can link Zite up with twitter and share articles with your followers. You can also give Zite a thumbs up or down which tells the app to pull more articles from that source. According to Zite is doesn't give out your information to advertisers which is always a good thing. Zite is user friendly and has hundred of thousands of downloads and was even bought out by CNN.
Zite has been so popular that it was bought by CNN then sold by CNN to Flipboard. The deal between CNN and Flipboard is valued at $60 million. Flipboard wants to capitalize on Zite's technology. Zite's personalization technology is what helped make it so popular and now very coveted. The app delivers great results based upon its ability to cater to the users need. With Zite and Flipboard teaming up together the sky is the limit. Thats all for my week four blog. Hope you enjoyed it.
Hello everybody, my name is Nick Barlotta and you can find me on twitter @barlottn. This is the third week of my blog and I am starting to get the hang of it. Last week I learned about a website that can track your location by tweets or posting on Instagram. Its called "Ready or Not". I found this website interesting and frightening at the same time. My first thought was that it's awesome that it can show every location you tweeted or posted from. Then I thought it's great for someone that wants to stalk you or find you. I doubt theres anyone that wants to find me but this tool could become very problematic for people that owe money to someone or have a crazy stalker. Those two situations are very real for some people out there but not most of us. This is a great tool but in the wrong hands it can be used a weapon. So consider putting putting your twitter and Instagram on private and turn off geotagging while your at it.
Do you remember when you could not save your bookmarks online so that you could access them from other computers? You may but I don't because I'm not old enough to remember that. A website called Del.icio.us. It was founded by Joshua Schechter and this site introduced people to social bookmarking so that people could find great sites that had the information they wanted much easier. Josh Schechters idea of social bookmarking paved the way for newer sites like symbalooedu, Diigo, and eduClipper. Symbaloo is a page with bunch of tiles that can be made into your own personal page of your favorite websites. Diigo is a site that first appears as a blank page which can be turned into a place where all your favorite sites are stored. Educlipper is a similar site but its specifically used for educators to share information with colleagues and students easier. All this information I shared with you in this paragraph can be found in Untangling the Web.
Facebook is a tool for people and friends to share photos and have conversations with each other but little do they know it's a great way for people to stalk you and steal information from you. Your basically giving strangers personal information about yourself. Facebook is also a breeding ground for cyberbullying and catfishing . There are tons of fake profiles out there with pictures that are taken from other facebooks profiles or found online from other sites. Facebook is also allowing marketers to look through your personal information to determine what adds they should market too you. Be careful because Facebook might not be as safe as you thought it was.
Before you make your next tweet or post on Instagram think about how it could make an impact on you in the future. Employers are now checking Twitter and Instagram to see who you really are. So drunken party pics are probably best kept off social media. You don't want to scare away a potential employer just because you like to have fun in your spare time. Keeping your Twitter and Instagram on private is probably a good idea. And most important don't bash your employers and co-workers. Keep it classy. I hope you enjoyed my blog this week and don't worry there will be more next week.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Hi my name is Nick Barlotta and you can find me on twitter @barlottn. I'm back for the second week of my blog and I'm ready to talk about different topics this week. This week I learned that Google is much more than just a great search engine. For the last year I thought that I needed word on my Mac computer so that I could write papers and such. I had no idea that I could use Google Drive to write papers. It's also such an easy and user friendly word processor. With google drive your document will automatically save. As of June 2013 Google drive introduced 65 different languages that you can practice with. No need to bring a flash drive because you can access your documents by logging into your google account from any computer. You can also work on a document with multiple at the same time from different computers which is great for a group presentation. I wish I would of knew about google drive long before I learned about it. Another awesome tool from Google is their translate app that can be used through your phone. You can now use Google Translate on the go through your phone. You just activate the app and set it to what languages you want translated. Watch this video on how it works which is pretty mind boggling:
Personal learning networks (PLN) are a great way to get connected to with other professionals inside and outside of your professional field. These connections and relationships you make can help further your career and possibly lead to a new job and new experiences. The Connected Educator is a great book for developing and learning about PLN's. Networks are a great way to find new information and ideas and bring it back to share with your communities. When developing a PLN always make sure that you conduct yourself in a professional and ethical manner. I hope you learned some new things and enjoyed another week of my blog.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Hello my name is Nick Barlotta and you can find me on twitter @barlottn. After reading a few different articles I chose three that I found the most interesting. One of the most interesting articles that I found was about lists on twitter. I have been on Twitter for about two years now and had no idea what lists were. I mostly just follow friends and YouTube gamers on twitter. I check my twitter feed a few times per day but only tweet a few times a week. I follow close to 70 people on twitter so I can go through my feed with ease and not get too bogged down with tweets. Over the years I have seen many people who follow thousands of people and I always wondered how do they go through all those tweets on their feed. With that many tweets I figured they either did not their check twitter feed or just aimlessly scrolled through twitter all day but who has time for that. I'm actually going to use lists on twitter so that I can organize my tweets and possible find new people through some of my followers lists as well.
The next article I read was about a school in Newport, England using e-learning via Twitter. A few weeks ago I would have never thought that Twitter could be used for learning. Whenever I have used Twitter in the past it has been to communicate with friends and joke around. I saw Twitter as a way to communicate, meet new people, and to stay up to date on breaking news of any kind. The Newport school is taking education to another level with e-learning. Denise Richards the head teacher of the Newport school is the genius and leader behind their new e-learning movement. She wants to further the education her students and keep them informed. This keeps the departments and faculty in sync and up to date with their teaching techniques. E-learning is a great way to keep up with the times.
I have heard about blogs and probably read a few in my life but this is my first blog ever. A Blog
is kind of like an online diary that other people around the world can read. Blogs can be personal, professional, and many other things. They are a good way to express oneself and also get your message out there. Blogs can be written by one author or co-written by multiple authors. Wordpress.com is a popular website where you can create a blog or a website. That's all I have for my blog today but I will be back next week with some new information and my opinions.
