Social Media for Learning

My Blogging Journey

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Sue Beckingham

I began this blog a few years ago when teaching Journalism students how to use WordPress to create their own blogs. As I introduced how to embed images, video and audio; I realised that it would be more authentic if I started to write posts of my own. Colleagues new to social media often asked questions about what certain tools were and how to use them. These became the focus of my posts.

Reading articles about blogging, I was encouraged to blog on a regular basis. However writing does not always flow easily. Juggling other commitments the ‘I don’t have time’ is a big issue. However I learnt that taking a gem of an idea I could write a few bullet points and save the idea as a draft post. Very often with a clearer mind I would go back to the draft and complete it. Other times I have discarded the draft, but gone on to write something else in its place.

“You go diving for pearls every night but sometimes you end up with clams.” ~ Jerry Garcia

Blogging has given me a voice and granted whilst it may not be heard by many, the craft of blogging has helped me develop a new confidence in writing. The act of blogging and tagging allows me to catalogue and curate short posts about social media which have been fascinating to research and learn from along the way. The feedback I have had via comments or tweets has been encouraging. Continue reading →

Posted in Blogs | 4 Comments

The affordances of ‘new’ technology and social media

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Sue Beckingham

This latest cartoon from the talented Wrong Hands made me both smile and reflect on the many changes of how new technology has replaced older technology, devices and other things.

Just this week I was asked if I had photos of my recent 103 km trek across the Sahara Desert. My reply was “Yes, they are on Flickr“. I received an email from O2 for our latest bill for the landline telephone we rarely use. I read news via websites. LinkedIn is my ‘rolodex’ and list of connections complete with photos. If I want a business telephone number I google the company but then get agitated at the length of time the automated messages take so turn to Twitter or email if I have a query. Searching for my CV I realise my most current version is saved on a floppy disc and my PC no longer has the holder to read one. I keep VHS tapes mostly for nostalgia but have replaced many favourites with DVDs. Sat nav and google maps have replaced the big bulky maps we used to have in the car. Spell check can trip us up but is so handy when writing online. Shopping in general, but especially books is done via Amazon, Ebay and other online stores. My encyclopaedias are treasured but in some sections outdated, so Google and Google Scholar have taken their place. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Media, Technology | Leave a comment

New: Creating your own personal library of articles from Google Scholar

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Sue Beckingham

Google Scholar provides a simple way to search scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles. However since the update of the Google homepage with its new minimalist look, it is not so high profile. It’s probably quicker just searching for Google Scholar to get to it! Once there you can search for literature and now can save useful and relevant articles to your own library. Continue reading →

Posted in Google Plus + | Leave a comment

Some easy tips to help control what you share on Facebook

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Sue Beckingham

Getting to grips with Facebook settings is an important part of being in control of your online presence. We all love sharing updates and photos, but are you sharing them more publicly than you think? Take a look at who can see your past posts and limit the audience if you’re not comfortable with anything. Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook | 6 Comments

A useful visual guide to choosing the right Creative Commons licence

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Sue Beckingham

In previous posts I wrote about how to find images that have a Creative Commons licence and how to choose and apply a Creative Commons to your work It is important to remember that other people’s images must always be attributed and those which have copyright must not be used without permission. By searching for images that have a Creative Commons licence you will save yourself a lot of time.

The infographic below from Foter is a clear and useful visual guide which captures why a Creative Commons is important and explains what each of the licences represent.

Towards the end of infographic it also shows you how to attribute Creative Commons images that you may wish to use. Attributions can either be placed immediately below the image or within a blog or presentation for example, could be listed at the end.

How To Attribute Creative Commons Photos by Foter – CC BY SA

Posted in Visual Communication | Tagged copyright, Creative Commons | 2 Comments

How to spot a phishing scam in suspicious emails

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Sue Beckingham

Having just watched an excellent screencast on how to spot a phishing scam created by Nik Peachey, I wanted to share his excellent tips.

Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Nik’s screencast takes you through a real example of a fraudulent email which looks as if it has been sent by BT Yahoo. The short video points out the important things to look for to check for authenticity. I recommend you taking a look.

Nik advises that the key pointers to look out for are as follows:

The information in the message. I used Google to check out the content and the name of the sender to see if they were genuine.
Use of English. Grammatical mistakes and use of either too formal or very informal language are often a give away.
The look and design of the message. This is often very poor and at best has some kind of attempt to link to a logo from the company.
Mouse over the hyperlinks and look to see where they go, if they go anywhere. Dead links or non-existent ones are a give away as are ones that are random numbers or letters or which have an odd suffix. The one in my message led to sngsnfjswrsad and had a suffix of .p.ht so that’s very suspicious.
The return address. Although it looked like customer services, it’s very easy to set up an email that shows anything you want it to in the reply, but checking the true address showed this to be a random email account and quite possibly not even the one that belonged to the sender.

To add, Microsoft warn about the misuse of web addresses by Cybercriminals. This is where they re-create an address that resembles the names of well-known companies but are slightly altered by adding, omitting, or transposing letters. For example, the address ‘www.microsoft.com’ could appear instead as:

‘www.micosoft.com’
‘www.mircosoft.com’
‘www.verify-microsoft.com’

This is called “typo-squatting” or “cybersquatting.”

Emails that sound too good to be true very often are. Taking care to check the points above will help to minimise risks. Microsoft offer further advice on how to protect yourself from email and webscams.

Posted in Safety, Tips | Tagged Identity theft, Phishing | 1 Comment

Adding profile pictures and cover photos to your social sites: A guide to sizing

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Sue Beckingham

This is a very useful sizing guide for selecting images for Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube. Thank you Ashleigh Lay for sharing this infographic and the embed code for others to share on their blogs.