My Final ALES204 Blog Post!!!

The journey that occurred during my ALES204 class was very successful and an eye opener to many different forms of social media that I was not previously aware of. The class began with signing up with Twitter which until the ALES class I was familar with Twitter but was skeptical and thought it was pointless. When looking through my class members blog spots I came across Brenda Le's and her post of being a twitter skeptic too, I thoroughly enjoyed her post and left my first comment there. Once I joined Twitter I was thrilled as to the different options and what could be done with Twitter. From following celebrities, my favorite events, and hash tagging it was a great start to the adventure and become involved. I can see myself later in my career using Twitter more professionally so others can follow my business. The class later visited Facebook and how to make your own professional Facebook page which is again great for people to inform the public of their business and post information, sales and information about themselves and their store or company. The ALES class briefly studied Flickr and the different copyright laws you can place on uploaded pictures. Flickr is great because it allows for your pictures to be shared but not necessarily changed or copied by others. All the pictures I uploaded and shared on Flickr I selected the creative commons option allowing for anyone to use my photo as long as I was given credit in the final work.

            One of the neatest networks we looked at was Wordle which took any paragraph you wanted and pulled all the important words out arranging them in a unique cloud shape. I find myself using Wordle quite often to see what words it found to be important and then compared to what I thought was important. The ALES204 class looked at Delicious briefly as well as LinkedIn. LinkedIn was very interesting as it is like an online resume that you can create with all your information on previous jobs, information about yourself and interests etc. LinkedIn also allows you to search for people and jobs that may be of interest to you. You can then contact the person and they can look at your profile and maybe decide whether they are interested in meeting with you.

Screenshot of the word cloud constructed by Wordle of the important components of my final ALES204 blog post. Screenshot taken by Christie Badach on April 11th 2012. Can be seen online at: http://www.wordle.net/delete?index=5132983&d=WBTB

An assignment the class was presented with was editing a stub on Wikipedia which until recently I had no idea that was possible. It was a fun experience as I feel the information I was able to add to my selected stub Gestation Crates for swine will be valuable information for the next reader. I left my second comment on a student’s blogspot that discusses their feelings and difficulty on choosing and adding to a stub to which I agreed to as there were many stubs to choose from but the searchable information was limited. The class also completed practice in writing appropriate e-mails and practicing interviews. Both are very important social aspects to the real world as everyone will go for multiple interviews in their life and the way you speak and present yourself can be the difference between a job-offering and no job. Well written e-mails are also important in order to remain professional and the way you write and convey your ideas need to be in a way that you are in no means inadequate. Social media is a big part of the world’s life, an example of this was the Kony 2012 that recently exploded all over the web. I had never heard of Kony until it was all over Facebook and my friends were sending links to me to join Kony 2012 groups. My third comment was left on Steph Nash's blog spot where she disgusted how quickly the Kony 2012 campaign spread. The spread of Kony 2012 shows exactly how quickly the internet and social media can spread current information in seconds.

My of my favorite posts I found and where I left my fourth comment was on Alyssa Coulombe's blogspot where she discusses social media in the equine world. Being a horse lover and in the equine industry it was very interesting to read the different social medias she is now aware of in the equine industry that she had never noticed before. I found myself in a similar situation and began searching my favorite equine stores, hot spots and businesses on the different social media sites discussed in class and was amazed how many were availble. I made my final comment on Becky Bohlender's post. As she was, I was very uncertain to what the ALES204 class would bring. Being a Communication and Theory class I too thought we would have to make lots of presentations to the class. It turned out to be a great learning experience and was not only about communicating with each other in class but with the world. The few practice presentations we did take part in were in our lab groups meaning a smaller audience and less intimidating. After the ALES class I actually feel more comfortable presenting in front of others. We were given great pointers on how to present yourself and speak during a presentation, as well as making useful and helpful PowerPoint’s to help yourself and your audience. I have learned and enormous amount of new social media information throughout the semester that I know I will surely use in the future!!

Pros and Cons of Twitter

Prior to starting the ALES204 course I was familiar with the word "Twitter" and new it was an online website where people could tweet what was on their mind etc. I have had Facebook for years and although on the news and talk shows would mention others were tweeting or themselves tweeting to their followers, I never was interested in joining. Even though I really had no idea as to what twitter was all about (Follow me at Christie Badach @chrischris65). Within the first week of my ALES204 class we were required to join Twitter and follow our professor. Very quickly I learned how precise tweets must be. Limited to only 140 characters it was initially very difficult to express what I wanted to say and it mad you consciously think of only the important words.  By joining twitter the members of the class were able to participate during the class time by tweeting our ideas, opinions and suggestions to the topics being discussed or a presentation being made.  Twitter made it easy to stay involved with the class and also gave the professor an idea of who is present and participating in the class. We learned about hash tagging and how easy it was to connect anyone who was looking and wanted to follow a specific word or topic. A few examples of hash tags used are #ALES204, #smoothsailing, #ABroads, as you can see it is very easy to create or find a hash tag on anything. The hash tag was a great use in the ALES204 class because your personal tweet with the #ALES204 hash tag could be searched and found by anyone in the class or worldwide.

Screenshot of Twitter Homepage where you can sign-up and begin tweeting. Screen shot taken by Christie Badach on April 5th, 2012 and original site found at https://twitter.com/.

 I found Twitter as being a very useful form of social media as it allows you to follow anyone you would like without them following you. I was also pleased to find local businesses and others further away with Twitter accounts that allowed me to follow them and keep up to date with sales, new products and upcoming events. I few businesses I was happy and surprised to find were Greenhawk Equestrian supplies ( @greenhawkinc) and Sprucemeadows ( @Spruce_Meadows) both which I frequently visit every year to buy horse supplies and watch the show jumping. I was also please to find Ellen DeGeneres ( @TheEllenShow ) who’s show I enjoy watching and can now follow online as well. Twitter is great to get yourself known or your business exposed. The most important aspect is to remain professional as you never know who may be reading your posts.

Recently with the up-coming elections it was shown how Twitter could be used unprofessionally and how it could negatively impact someone. The dispute was between Progressive Conservative Leader Alison Redford and the Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith. An executive assistant of Alison Reford tweeted an inappropriate message attacking Danielle Smith, stating "If @ElectDanielle likes young and growing families so much, why doesn't she have children of her own?” Although Alison Reford apologized and the executive assistant resigned the damage had been done and the comment until removed was seen worldwide. The disappointing part is the assumption was made that Smith did not want kids when in fact her and her husband had tried having children even with assistance of a fertility clinic and were unsuccessful. As with any online social media people are at free will to post and write what they want but this is where I find Twitter more dangerous as messages put on twitter can be seen worldwide whereas with another social media such as Facebook, the user must be friends to see other peoples pages. As well there are privacy settings that allow for adjustments to be made to who and what can be viewed.

Regardless of the social media one is involved in it is the user’s responsibility to be careful and professional about what they are posting and to realize any potential impact. The decisions made may not only affect others but they can affect one as well. Employer’s family members can all search and read what has been said and inappropriate events could lead to loss of jobs and family disputes. The way in which a post is written can also have an impact on what opinion could be made. I think it is great we have sites that can allow us to express our opinions but it is important to keep everything as neutral as possible. After searching other students blogs I found one who was also a twitter skepic and her post can be found on her blogspot.

Wikipedia: Stub-article Improvement

As many of you know Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia full of information on every imaginable topic. During this week's ALES204 lab the class had a very interesting assignment, which was to edit and improve a post on Wikipedia. Until recently I was unaware how easy it is to create an account and begin editing any section that has been flagged for improvement on Wikipedia. Although it is great Wikipedia is available worldwide via the internet and many people including myself use it frequently a concern arises on how reliable is the information being posted? When anyone worldwide can add information we would hope the information is true and the poster is trying to share valuable knowledge. Wikipedia has its own page where one can read up on the reliability of Wikipedia but to the extent of the usage of the information posted is up to the reader themselves.

The stub-article I choose to improve was on sow Gestation Crates specifically the newer design inventions of Farrowing crates. Gestation crates are where a sow is kept during her pregnancy and there are many concerns and animal welfare activists that have concerns with the small area and lack of movement the sow is contained in for long periods of time. A guest speaker from a swine production farm I had the pleasure of listening to mentioned his use free moving gestation stalls. Each sow has her own stall but they are free to leave and move whenever they please. Even with this freedom it was found the sows still tend to spend around 95% of the day in the stall.   Farrowing crates are where the sows are moved to right before giving birth and decrease and prevent the crushing of the young piglets when the sow goes to lay down. From pervious animal science classes I have taken the farrowing stalls are necessary to increase the survival rate of the young piglets. The separate stalls also allow for adjustment of feed with the changes in requirements of the sow from pregnancy to lactation to weaning. Two newer inventions of the farrowing crate are VIP design by Ikadan and the 360° Freedom designed by Midland Pig Producers. Both new designs allow for a greater space for the sow increasing movement and also allowing for the sow to demonstrate motherly instincts to her piglets. Another student edited a Wikipedia stub on EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified), which can also be found on her blogspot.

Screen shot from the entry I improved on Wikipedia from Christie Badachs own photo folder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestation_crate

When first given the Wikipedia assignment I was concerned with how difficult it would be to find a topic that interested me and how easy it be to improve the article. After a minimal amount of searching I was able to find a stub that was interesting to me and one I felt I could improve. Even with concern of the reliability issue with my searching I notice many posts others have made have done their research and are projecting the knowledge they have obtained to the best of their ability. It was also found surveillance does take place and if there is information that may be wrongfully posted it can be report and removed.

In conclusion if anyone is interested in sharing their knowledge with the world and would like to take a shot at editing a stub-article on Wikipedia you can visit the link of a list of stubs available for improvement.

My Facebook Page!!

untitled, a photo by jumpingbeamer on Flickr.

Create a Facebook Page

Today was extremely interesting in regards to how Facebook can be used more professionally rather than strictly a social media. Once a Facebook account is acquired it is possible to create a page outside of your own personal profile which can be shared on your homepage or not. A page can be created for an array of scenarios including an actor, business, lawyer, music and bands, public figure and many other professional and nonprofessional aspects. The page is great to become noticed worldwide whether it be a small business or a top star. It can give people updates, information about products, contact information, location and much more.

I created my Facebook page as a public figure which supplies information on my personal accomplishments, where I am in my schooling, my career path and more information on jobs I have completed. The page at the moment is perfect to be used for a resume in which employers could look up my page before physically asking me to come in for an interview. Though I did not add references, if I chose to I could add contact info for those references making it quick and easy for an employer. Another example of a Facebook page made by another class member who is focused on Nutrition and Wellness can be found at her blogspot or directly to her facebook page.

                                Screen shot of my Facebook Page from Christie Badachs own Private File, picture can also be viewed on Flikr as shown in
                                the previous post or at http://www.flickr.com/photos/75349354@N08/6769185327/

In the future I could use a Facebook page for my career as if I become a Certified Beginner riding instructor I could post information on my location, who I am, my accomplishments, references, contacts to people who have used my services before and my rates. If I obtained a position as an Equine Nutritionist I could create the page with the same information but it would also allow people to comment on my page and for questions to be answered. Any career path I choose would have a use for a professional Facebook page. I would recommend everyone   create a page for themselves whether you use the page for a business or for your own personal resume it is a perfect way to get your name out there. One never knows who might read the page and what opportunities may come from something as simple as a Facebook page. A couple people I know whom have created a facebook page for their businesses can be found at Stonecountry Welsh and Whitemud Equine Learning Centre.

Hey all,

First I will talk a little bit about myself!! I absolutely love animals, my family members called me Dr. Doolittle for the longest time a little embarrassing I might add but hey what family does not embarrass their children. I have owned many different animals as pets such as hamsters, gerbils, mice, hermit crabs, a Pueblan Milksnake, Bearded Dragon, cats, budgies, a Cockatiel, an assortment of little lizards and horses!! Many of my pets I owned at one time and people would say our home was a zoo. I am very outgoing and love to spend a night at the movies with my friends and family. The majority of my spare time is spent out at the barn. I have been riding horses for 8 years and currently have a 4 year old Welsh Cob gelding that I have been training from a 2 year old.

As for my schooling three years ago I started my studies at Grant MacEwan University in Bachelor of Science transfer and my goal was to complete the two year program and apply for Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary or University of Saskatchewan. Well as many of you may know the area of study you choose can and will change many times during your schooling so I decided to transfer to the University of Alberta's Animal Health Science Program. I am currently registered in my second year majoring in Performance and Companion Animals and have recently decided to complete a double major adding Food Animals to the list. Although applying to vet school is still on the list my plans are now to focus on becoming an Equine Nutritionist or a Food Animal inspector. On the side I would also like to have re-sale horses and instruct beginner riders. My ultimate goal would be to have my own boarding and training facility however a good job defiantly is a must first.

In regards to communication I use Hotmail for my personal e-mails for work and to keep up to date on promotions from my favorite websites. I also use MSN messenger occasionally to chat with old friends but the majority of the time I use Facebook to keep in contact with friends and family or to stay aware of what is happening with those nearby and further away. I have an university e-mail account which I use only when needing to contact an instructor with questions or concerns. After starting the ALES class I have joined Twitter and am finding it to be a very interesting form of social media and it is fun to follow others without having to "accept a friend request". My cell phone plays a very important role in communication whether it is a text message or a phone call my friends, family and colleagues can get in touch with me. Finally I use YouTube quite to bit to learn some extra information, watch videos on topics I enjoy, keeping up with what is happening around the world or to have a good laugh as we all know there are many funny videos posted every day!!

I am very excited to complete the ALES 204 course at the U of A as it seems to be an extremely fun way of learning about different forms of communication. For a summary about what takes place in the ALES 204 class click on the link for a short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chSFLkt3YaU&noredirect=1. I also enjoyed the following blog created by a student in 2011, it really shows how creativity and communication can do hand in hand: http://ales204wilsonl.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html.