Tag: INFO506

Beginning this subject, I thought I was fairly fluent with social media. Only being in my 20’s and having grown up using social media from the days of Myspace, I thought I knew what I was doing. Through this subject, I realised that I only knew a tiny fraction of the world of social media. This subject has opened up my eyes to the amount of different platforms that there are, the volume of people who use them and how I can use them in my professional life.

Beginning this subject I used Facebook and Instagram religiously. At the end of this subject, I find myself now using Twitter and reading blogs by other professionals to help me keep up to date with educational news and theories. I initially thought social media was the place to keep in touch with friends and family, not the place to learn of new professional learning, connect with colleagues and peer teach. This subject has really opened my world up online.

Twitter was never my go to social media platform. I always found it informal and too brief. Through this subject, I was introduced to the idea of peer mentoring and collaboration through Twitter. Whilst I still don’t really tweet, I follow many librarians and library networks both here and overseas. This allows me to see what others are doing in their library spaces to make them engaging and also to be better informed about professional learning in the library space. By having these relationships with other librarians, I am gaining knowledge that I just couldn’t get in my school alone due to having no other TL. I now have a network at my finger tips to ask questions to, ask for suggestions or just watch as they innovate. This network is free professional learning that allows me to continue growing as an educator without leaving my classroom (Willemse, 2016).

This course has also made me think about my online identity. As much as I hate to admit it, there are two versions of myself; my personal life version and my professional life version. When online, I don’t want to bombard my friends and family with post after post of new educational reform but at the same time I also don’t want all of my colleagues to see photographs of my nieces and nephews. This made me think about creating a “personal professional” account (Cho & Jimerson, 2016). This now means that I can confidently share my personal photos still without the fear of a colleague seeing something that they shouldn’t as well as not making my friends’ unfriend me as I post a link to a new professional learning aimed at low literacy.

Moving into the future and considering social media and the internet, I am slightly concerned about what these platforms know about my identity and what they will retain even if were to delete my profile. This thought was presented to me through this subject and since then, I have been more concerned with what I am posting or even searching online (Me and my shadow). I am worried that in the future private medical companies may have access to our online trace and will be able to see our past searches which could flag medical issues to drive up premiums. Despite this, there are too many advantages to staying online. The only solution is to very carefully consider what I post and ensure that I read terms and conditions to see who my private information is being shared with. Ultimately my privacy is up to me and I will ensure that I take all necessary precautions to cover myself both now and in the future.

Throughout this subject, my ideas have definitely evolved. I no longer see social media as a recreational tool. I see it as a professional networking tool as well. I am now more informed about the dangers of sharing too much information online and will work towards minimising this risk. I am now utilising more platforms in a much more effective way to make the most of my experience both professionally and personally.

 

References

Cho, V., & Jimerson, J. B. (2016). Managing digital identity on Twitter: The case of school administrators. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 45(5), 884-900. doi: 10.1177/1741143216659295

Me and my shadow, (n.d.). Take control of your data. Retrieved from https://myshadow.org/

Willemse, A. J. (2016). #TwitMentoring: Librarians using Twitter in forming and cultivating mentoring relationships. In D. Lowe-Wincentsen (Ed.), Beyond mentoring : A guide for librarians and information professionals. Oxford: Elsevier Science. Retrieved from Ebook Central.

 

INFO506 has been an enlightening and eye-opening experience for me this session. It has encouraged me, through various readings, to consider the often unspoken aspect of social media for professionals. Coming from an educational background the majority of my experience for social media was sending through photographs or events to our social media member who then took care of the legalities of posting and what we posted. Since completing this subject, I have begun to get an understanding of the politics of social media, the challenges and the opportunities that it provides for us.

Social media has developed rapidly over the last decade and as a result society has been given more autonomy over what happens to and for them. Despite large governmental organisations having online presence, there are more “everyday” people who utilise social media. This has resulted in the larger organisations trying to manipulate society into their way of thinking using a top down model whilst society now has access to a much wider range of information to disprove or question their governments through a bottom up model (Gruzd, Jacobson, Wellman & Mai, 2017). This has given the opportunity of having more control over knowing what is happening, not only in our back yards but all across the world which gives us more insight when making important decisions such as voting.

These challenges not just specific for political parties but now is the case for schools, hospitals and police. They are being forced to be transparent in their decision making because it gets plastered across social media as soon as they make a questionable decision. These organisations utilise social media in the hopes to create more transparency and accountability to help ensure that the public feels safe and supported by them (Bonsón, Torres, Royo & Flores, 2012). This is a great concept expect that most of these platforms are only used in a way to give one way communication (Schwerdtfeger, 2013, March 17). They will either turn off comments or not monitor them once their piece of information has been shared. This can create resentment in the 72% of Americans (Pew Research Centre, 2019) who utilise social media who may feel like their voices aren’t being heard.

One major opportunity that social media allows to organisations is the ability to interact with their target audience in the comfort of their own homes. For example a high school library often is not the first place students would choose to hang out in at lunch times. However, if the library was running events or activities to become a more central place, they would need to get their information out to patrons. This can be done through social media. Through creating an online presence using a platform that students use. With 79% of all Australians using Facebook or Youtube and 62% using Instagram (Digital 2019 in Australia, 2019), it can be said that through using one of these platforms to access patrons they would have a large chance of success of getting their message out there. Through strategic social media posts to advertise games clubs, movie events or competitions, the library would greatly improve the number of students who access and use the library (Orzechowski, 2017, January 10). Through this, the library would be able to help more students realise how the service could assist them and continue to increase users.

This opportunity, despite it being so great comes with challenges. In order to run a successful social media page, the person running it needs to ensure that they are trained in the correct social media policies as well as stay up to date on new platforms and services they provide (Business.gov.au, 2018). This can be costly and time consuming which can detract from the services that the organisation provides. Working on social media when you work in an environment dealing with children and young adults under 18 is extremely sensitive. You need to ensure that the person maintaining the account understands the restrictions around what is appropriate to post and ensures that the site is fully compliant with privacy restrictions. For example, for the Department of Education NSW, the social media member must only keep students photos on their device for up to 24 hours and they must be deleted after that point (Social Media Policy, 2018). Due to the high amount of staff turnover in schools, this could be extremely costly to ensure that a staff member is consistently trained. If the school puts someone in this position that isn’t familiar with social media policies and schools, they could post something confidential that would open the school up to lawsuits.

At the beginning of this subject, I had no idea about any of the policies or the history of social media. Throughout this session, I have learnt about the policies and procedures that are put in place to protect me whilst using social media as well as the many advantages and disadvantages of social media.

 

References

Bonsón, E., Torres, L., Royo, S., & Flores, F. (2012). Local e-government 2.0: Social media and corporate transparency in municipalities. Government information quarterly, 29(2), 123-132.

Business.gov.au (2018). Benefits of social media for business. Retrieved from https://www.business.gov.au/marketing/social-media/benefits-of-social-media

Digital 2019 in Australia. (2019). Retrieved 21 December 2019, from https://wearesocial.com/au/digital-2019-australia?mc_cid=2627112634&mc_eid=632bbf90f7

Gruzd, A., Jacobson, J., Wellman, B., & Mai, P. H. (2017). Social media and society: Introduction to the special issue. American Behavioral Scientist, 61(7), 647-652. doi:10.1177/0002764217717567

Orzechowski, V. (2017, January 10). #NoFilter: Social media content ideas for libraries [blog post]. LITA Blog. Retrieved from http://litablog.org/2017/01/nofilter-social-media-content-ideas-for-libraries/

Pew Research Centre. (2019). Social media fact sheet. Retrieved from https://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social-media/

Schwerdtfeger, P. (2013, March 17). What is Web 2.0? What is Social Media? What comes next?? . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iStkxcK6_vY&feature=youtu.be

Social Media Policy, Social Media Policy (2018). Retrieved from https://policies.education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/associated-documents/social-media-procedures.pdf

Technology is rapidly evolving which means that infrastructure and humans must keep up with these changes. With the advancement of the internet and the connectivity that it allows, libraries need to be evolving in order to remain seen as useful and necessary. The internet offers many opportunities for the library to evolve such as electronic tracking systems and user identification systems. Along with these advantages there are also negatives to consider such as privacy and expenditure.

By utilising an electronic tracking system for all resources within a library, it would allow patrons to access the items that they are looking for efficiently. They could look up their resource on a network and then using the app on their phone they could be sent directions specific to their library of where to go to retrieve their item. This could even be updated to a hot and cold system where the phone registers where the user is and tells them if they are going in the correct direction to retrieve their item. This would be useful for people who suffer from anxiety and social conditions that may stop them from interacting with the librarian. Whilst this won’t replace the librarian, it will allow the librarian more time to spend on other initiatives within the library.

The internet could also provide the opportunity for the user to create a digital library card that tracks the resources that they are borrowing and would begin to recommend resources based off the history. This could offer personalisation to the patron that could not be offered exclusively through the librarian who would have not read every single resource in the collection. Through this personalisation the librarian could utilise the system to purchase books of a specific genre that are extremely popular and could use the system to help them choose recommended books.

Despite all of these benefits there are downfalls to this technology. Due to the internet being accessible by nearly everyone, it leaves its users open to privacy risks. Hackers could track users and use their sensitive information on other websites (Bansal, Arora & Suri, 2018) which leaves the patron open to many issues.

Also, online systems are constantly being upgraded and changed. This alone is very expensive but when you add into the equation training to ensure that staff are up to date on how to operate the technology effectively it becomes almost too expensive to make it worthwhile implementing.

Technology is definitely advancing society but both the advantages and disadvantages must be considered before implementing these internet based technologies into the library to ensure that the longevity is sustainable in your environment.

 

References

Bansal, A., Arora, D., & Suri, A. (2018). Internet of Things: Beginning of new era for libraries. Library Philosophy & Practice, 1-7.

Having an online identity is a complex notion that needs to take into account the purpose of the account, the audience and the social media platform. The user’s identity is shaped around how they view themselves as well as who they aspire to be both professionally and personally (Cho and Jimerson, 2016). This notion becomes even more complex when dealing with professionals who wish to use these platforms for professional reasons but often are confronted with many issues and dilemmas about what is appropriate to post and when to censor yourself online.

The first important issue that needs to be taken into account is the purpose of the account. The user needs to determine their intention for their account before they begin to post. Once they begin posting, their digital trace is there for everyone to see and possibly use against them in the future if their post is deemed to be inappropriate or controversial (Me and my shadow). If they deem the purpose of the account is to inform and educate their peers and fellow teachers then they should restrict their posts to educational based posts that are not politicised. This will stop the user from becoming a target of being labelled as a “policy pusher” or advocate for a specific party. This is incredibly important for educators as they are not allowed to advocate for political parties on a public forum.

Another issue is knowing what to post and what to keep private. Due to the emergence of social media platforms and their surge in popularity professionals are now confronted with how much of their personality to show through their posts. If they don’t use any personality in their posts, they are often deemed too robotic, however, if they use too much then their sense of professionalism is taken away. This can be managed through having a “personal-professional account” which is aimed at professional development and education matters and a separate account for the user to reach friends and family which is in no way connected to their profession (Cho and Jimerson, 2016). This allows for the user to manage their accounts to ensure that what they post or who they follow on each account is appropriate and reflective of their digital presence. This will stop parents and community members seeing personal information such as holiday photos or sporting preferences but also allows the users family and friends to not have to see resources relating to education or a specific school of it does not concern them.

Having an online presence in the modern day is almost necessary in order to stay up to date with policy changes, reforms and recent developments but it is also as necessary in order to stay connected with friends and family who may be spread across a country or even the globe. This leads to the necessity of a professional needing multiple social media accounts in order to stay up to date both professionally and personally without sacrificing their personal privacy or professional learning.

 

References

Me and my shadow, (n.d.). Take control of your data. Retrieved from https://myshadow.org/

Cho, V., & Jimerson, J. B. (2016). Managing digital identity on Twitter: The case of school administrators. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 45(5), 884-900. doi: 10.1177/1741143216659295

 

Moving into the 21^st century, both patrons and organisations are changing and must develop and sustain a relationship with each other in order to create libraries that are both practical and engaging. This can be done with a mindset of a Library 2.0 ethos. This mindset involves the 4 C’s, which are collaboration, conversation, community, and content creation. This mindset strives to create a more efficient and effective way of creating and maintaining an engaging library space and service (Casey & Savastinuk, 2010).

Laura Cole (2016) makes 4 key points that guides libraries in the direction of becoming a Library 2.0. This points are ensuring that there is information accessibility for all patrons, the library shouldn’t depend on a physical space, the role of the librarian is to be a navigator and that digital libraries become a fluid idea. These ideas can be applied to any library space to help with the transition to a 2.0 library.

Information accessibility for all is a fundamental concept. In my current high school, there is a range of student ability. There are vision impaired students, students who read 10 grade levels below and students who read many grade levels above. In order to ensure that all of these students have access to the information, a range of resources need to be available. This can be achieved through having both the traditional, physical book stacks as well as having a more modern, technological approach such as an e-Library collection that offers audio books for students who can’t physically read and e-books which filters such as the dyslexia filter for students who need more personalised help to access the text on screen. This allows all students the chance to find resources or even books to just read for pleasure. Through this move, the library becomes more digital and students begin to move away from the idea that the library is the place of just books and begin to see the space as a collaborative space that they are able to create things in, rather than looking for an outdated, dusty old book.

In a school, there is often a struggle for maintaining classrooms and space. This could be eased through the library space which could be utilised as a skills space rather than a book storage. Through moving to a more online domain with an e-library, the librarian could focus their space on technology to allow students the opportunity to learn the valuable skills to access these resources as well as learning basic digital literacy skills. Through this transition, the librarian becomes more of a navigator than an instructor. This allows the students to collaborate with the librarian and begins the conversation to open up the possibility of deeper learning.

By moving away from the idea of libraries being places of quiet and reading and moving towards the idea that libraries should be loud, collaborative and engaging, students will begin to regard the library as a place that is invaluable to their education which is an idea that they will take with them into their lives.

 

References

Casey, M. & Savastinuk, L. (2010, May 21). Library 2.0: Service for the next-generation library. Library Journal.

Cole, Laura (2016) BiblioTech as the Re-Imagined Public Library: Where Will it Find You? Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2016 – Columbus, OH – Connections. Collaboration. Community in Session 213 – Metropolitan Libraries.

 

 

 

Washington Post

The Washington Post Twitter account seems to post only news related articles. These articles are directed at adults from their 30s onwards. They utilise keywords in their tweets such as “analysis”, “opinion” and interesting topics like “Trump” in order for users to be able to search and find articles that are relevant and useful. There are every limited pop culture or entertainment related articles through this account which means that it most likely does not reach younger audiences which could mean that they were deemed to not be part of the target audience. Also, the majority of the articles are about issues that are aimed at Americans which makes sense seeing as it is the “Washington post” Twitter account. This would also mean that people from other nations would not access this twitter feed regularly unless there was an issue that they were interested in and sought out the information. The account has a following of 14.5 million subscribers which shows that is it successful as a high percentage of twitter users deem their information important enough to be following in order to receive updates regularly.

 

The Australian Library & Information Association

The Australian Library & Information Association Twitter account seems to post to a relatively small demographic of library users and professionals. Just because it is posting to a smaller demographic does not mean that the content is less professional or less important. The content that this page seems to tweet or retweet include information about reading programs, library initiatives and articles and links about library memberships and opportunities for those members. The target audience seems to be librarians, students and parents who may be looking for opportunities for reading or similar activities for their children. This Twitter account seems to be fairly successful but as successful as The Washington Post. This account has 10 800 followers who subscribe to its feed.

When looking at both accounts it becomes clearer why one account has a larger following. The Washington Post account is linked closely with the news publication of the same name. This means that the readers of this would likely follow the account in order to get access to breaking news before it hits the shelves in physical print. This paper is also well known around the world. I am based in Australia and despite this, I know of the Washington Post. Whereas, the ALIA account has a fairly small target market. It does what it needs to do well, however, it is not widely known and therefore can’t be as successful as an account that has affiliations with larger information channels such as a newspaper.

References

Australian Library and Information Association. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/alianational

The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/washingtonpost

 

Social media has impacted the Department of Education and schools in Australia in various ways over the last decade. These impacts are both positive and negative and often influence how or why decisions are made.

A positive influence that social media has had on schools within the DET is that schools will now often have their own social media presence. The form in which this presence takes varies from school to school but most schools will now usually have at least their own Facebook page. Through Facebook the school is able to communicate easily with its community and share information between parties. This is especially important when emergencies arise when information is needed to widespread and quickly received. An example of this were the recent NSW and QLD bushfires. Schools that had their own social media accounts were able to post up to date and accurate information that parents and students could easily access. This allowed schools to communicate whether or not they were closed or open or even if they were being forced to evacuate (Guzman, 2016). This allowed one channel to be known as the authority for the school and for parents to be able to trust this source (Social Media Policy, 2018). This was helpful when schools needed to get the message to hundreds of parents at one time without having to call or text them individually.

Social media is not without its downsides though. One negative influence that social media has had and continues to have is the issue of cyber bullying within schools. Schools often struggle to effectively manage cyber bullying due to the multiple platforms of social media and that it is used outside of school. This leads to students being bullied in schools which can be managed through teachers and executive staff but when that bullying continues in their own homes and via devices that they just simply cannot be parted from, this leads to issues coming into the classroom which escalate often into violence and self-harm. These issues were not as common 10 years ago but due to the increase of social media usage students are finding themselves faced with cyber bullying more and more frequently and schools are forced to deal with the fallout from this despite not having any control over the situation.

Social media has both positive and negative influences in school settings but these platforms need to be managed effectively to ensure that all users are protected and safe.

References

Guzman, A. (2016, April). Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/6-ways-social-media-is-changing-the-world/

Social Media Policy, Social Media Policy (2018). Retrieved from https://policies.education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/associated-documents/social-media-procedures.pdf

Technology is becoming more and more necessary in our modern world. The majority of retailers and companies that no longer are registered and appear in local directories and phone books such as the Yellow Pages are growing. This means that companies and retailers will often move to cheaper and more accessible ways of advertising and drawing in consumers such as the internet and social media.

In Australia, the population in 2019 is around 25 million people. Out of those 25 million people 87% use the internet whilst 64% use social media (Digital 2019 in Australia, 2019)This means that in order to reach their consumer base they need to create more of an online presence. This can often be done effectively through social media apps and websites whereas in the past they would have relied heavily on great service to generate word of mouth advertisement, large and expensive advertisements in phone directories and print advertisements in newspaper and magazines.

With more and more people utilising social media, companies need to be tuned into their target audience and utilise social media sites that target their specified target market. For example, a company may want a low cost social media presence to draw in customers and may opt for a lesser known platform such as Twitter which in 2019 had 326 million active users which sounds great but compared to a more well-known and utilised service such as Facebook which had 2271 million active users (Digital 2019 in Australia, 2019), seems to only target a very small share of the market. Companies would have to analyse the data and the weigh up the cost of advertising on more well-known, but more expensive platforms compared to more cost-effective but lesser known platforms.

Companies in the 21^st century now need to think critically about their target market and how best to draw them in through an online platform. This is effectively getting rid of paper advertisements in favour of a purely electronic presence.

This also leads onto physical stores being made redundant more commonly. Due to an increased online presence and the ease of online shopping, more and more consumers are opting to purchase directly from their lounge rather than going in-store and making the purchase. Companies now need to create an engaging and captivating online store presence that will lure shoppers away from their competitors and into their store instead. Through this move to more online shopping, companies are now having to compete in a larger market. A local Australian company will now often have to compete with a large scale business in America or China who have the ability to create the same products but for lower prices. This forces smaller online stores to look for and create incentives for people to shop with them rather than larger online retailers.

Reference List

Digital 2019 in Australia. (2019). Retrieved 30 November 2019, from https://wearesocial.com/au/digital-2019-australia?mc_cid=2627112634&mc_eid=632bbf90f7

The article “From Netflix Streaming to Netflix and Chill: The (Dis)Connected Body of Serial Binge-Viewer” looks at the streaming service Netflix and how it gathers and uses data from your online viewing and creates a personalised service for you. This service then allows and encourages the user to “binge-watch” several episodes of a series in one sitting in order to create “immersive and algorithmically pushed media marathoning” (Perks, 2015; Pittman & Sheehan, 2015). This is further encouraged through societal expectations due to the rise of Netflix over the past 10 years and the reliance on this digital streaming service.

The article goes on to state that Netflix aims to change the perception of being a couch potato and the negativity that goes with that into more of a positive mindset of an active participation activity where the user’s preferences and history is used to inform Netflix of further shows that may be of interest in order to promote them and to continue this “binge.” Netflix utilises a tagging system where each film, series and episode is tagged with specific words that identify actors, emotions or genres that are used to target and appeal to its users. This is used to allow the consumer to connect with media that they would more than likely enjoy in order to continue spending their time and money with Netflix.

Netflix is strongly linked in with social media in the sense that the majority of Netflix users would also be utilising some form of social media. Through these social media accounts, the users would promote their own viewing habits in the forms of memes, fan pages and recommendations. This allows other users to see this data entries and in turn begin watching shows that they feel like they would connect with. Therefore ensnaring more users who in turn, recreate this chain and pull in more users.

Netflix and Chill was a term that came to popularity in 2015 and has multiple interpretations and meanings. The article examines the multiple interpretations such as recommendations and co-presence, attention and distraction and attachment and detachment. These different interpretations have been encouraged by Netflix and they have utilised these different meanings to identify an area of the market that they could expand into.

I somewhat agree with this article in the sense that Netflix as a digital streaming service provides its users with personalised content by collecting and analysing data about an individual’s streaming preferences. Once they have these preferences they would then go about capitalising on these preferences by creating new shows, films or products which allow them to gain more control and money. Netflix should be seen as a business like any other on an online platform. I believe that users often forget or disregard that Netflix often takes information about them and their viewing habits and uses this to their own advantage. Moving into a more technological world, I believe this is where we will run into more serious privacy issues when people don’t read their terms and conditions and just click that they have been read. This will lead to people have less and less privacy, especially in the online world and our social media platforms.

 

Reference List

Perks, L. G. (2015). Media marathoning: Immersions in morality. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Pilipets, E. (2019). From Netflix Streaming to Netflix and Chill: The (Dis)Connected Body of Serial Binge-Viewer. Social Media + Society.