LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Spring 2010)

1. How has your view of social software changed since starting the course?

Before this course I viewed social software as a means of socializing with friends. I did not understand the ramifications of how your use of social software can affect your career for the good or for the bad. The course has opened my eyes to the importance of monitoring your web presence and how to do so. A prospective employer may use a web search to learn more information about you. You can be proactive to create a professional web presence for yourself and market yourself through the use of your google profile and LinkedIn by tying any work that you post onto the web ex. Blogs, wikis etc. to your profiles making them easily accessible to anyone looking for information about your work or interests.

2. What technology did you find most interesting for your personal use?

I like to use Twitter for personal use because it keeps me in touch with people and organizations that have similar interests that I do. It is a great resource for finding news in your related field or interests because you can quickly scan posts, find articles that are of interest and then go to the article, similar to using an RSS feed but the social element of twitter makes it a fun community activity.

What technology did you think would be most useful professionally?

I really like using the Wiki technology as a CMS. It is easy to use and organize technical data. I also like the search feature so that if you have a user that is looking for specific information they can search for it in the wiki and go right to the information. I think it would be extremely beneficial to my company because we post a lot of technical information on our company website in the form of newsletters in PDF format, by breaking down the information under specific topics in a Wiki the information would be searchable and more readily accessible to a user. My employer just had our website redesigned and we are implementing a proprietary CMS for our website layout. Because of my experience with this class, last week, I was able to easily create navigation for our technical services section and add content to the web pages.

3. What surprised you during the course?

I was very surprised when we conducted a google keyword search for our names because several of the things that came up, I had no idea were even on the internet. I can see how things that I have participated in like performing in plays for the BGP fundraisers for American Cancer Society and participating in the Toys-for-Tots Volkslauf shows my community involvement with charities that I am interested in.

4. What suggestions do you have for improving the learning activities (exercises, assignments, blog posts, readings, examples, etc.)?

I can’t think of any recommendations for improving the class. I think overall the use of Drupal and Mrs. Farkas lessons gave us the guidance to learn, but also “experience” what an online community truly can be.

5. How did your experience using Drupal differ from your experience in Angel classrooms (or classes using other traditional course management systems)?

Drupal “felt” more personable. This is the first class that I have felt a sense of community with my classmates. It also greatly facilitated overall learning because instead of just learning from the teacher, textbooks and readings everyone learned from each other as well. I loved the resources that the other class members shared with each other and consider it a vital resource for staying up-to-date on the newest technologies available. By requiring that everyone post two comments each week to someone else’s posts the course encouraged lively discussion amongst the students that reinforced the course content.

6. Looking back, how would you sum up your experience?

This class has been one of the best that I have had in my SJSU experience so far. I learned a lot about marketing myself, marketing the company I work for and creating a positive online reputation. It is at the end of the course and I find that I will miss all of the resources, articles and information that I received from all of my classmates.