End of the Semester

You know it is getting to be that time of year when the Christmas lights go up at temple square! It is the end of the semester. And today I am writing my final blog post for this class. As I look back over the semester, I'm so glad that I took this class and was able to learn all that I did learn. It was an interesting experience to do so much self-directed learning and to seek out things that I am personally interested in. I struggled sometimes with keeping up with all of the self-directed learning and the posting and the sharing, but I enjoyed the experience. It was fun to take this class while working in social media at the College of Fine Arts and Communications. I had fun learning about digital media and all of the amazing things we can accomplish with it.

Self-directed Learning / Personal Blog Posts

Throughout the semester I took a somewhat casual approach to learn about digital culture. I realized in the beginning of the semester, when I tried to participate in the media fast, that I heavily use digital media for almost every part of my life. I do homework online, I work online, and I even socialize online. Digital Culture plays a big role in my life, so, I decided that I wanted to research my personal everyday interests for this class. Here are a few ways that I investigated and developed thinking about specific topics in digital culture:

1. Reading the Googlization of Everything 
2. Reading A Heartbreaking Tale of Staggering Genius and applying it to digital culture 
3. Researching articles on mashable.com (and other websites) for family connection, benefits of the internet age, social media marketing, internet safety 
4. Talking to friends and family physically and through digital media about blogging, social media, family connectivity, internet safety 
5. Professional development for work in social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Blog, Hootsuite, Hubspot, Webinars, Symposiums, YouTube 
6. Watching YouTube videos 
7. Blogging my responses to research and experiences 
8. Publishing content (while applying my research) for my job on Facebook, Twitter, and Blog accounts for the Museum of Art and College of Fine Arts and Communications 

I meant to go through everything I posted this semester and fit it into neat little categories, but I thought that this list would suffice to show the research that I did throughout the semester. These are just a few categories that I regularly researched and these are a few links that show that research.

Googlization of Everything:

The Googlization of Everything (blog/book)
Video Interview (google+)
Goodreads Review (google+)

Obsession with pop culture:

Fake Celebrity (google+)

Social Media Professional Development/Our use of Social Media:

The Science of Facebook Marketing (google+)
Social Media and Music (google+)
Mashable.com (google+)
Twitter Marketing for Dummies (book)

Connection

Wherever the Winds May Take Us (blog)

Family Connection

Why Do You Mommy Blog? (blog)
More on Mommy Blogs (google+)
The Benefits of Mommy Blogging (google+)
Digital Storytelling (google+)
Upwardly Evolving (blog/book)

Change of Cultural Norms

Heading into Uncharted Territory (blog/book)
The New Model (blog/book)
Life-changing benefits of the Internet Age (google+)

Since I do a lot with social media for my job, I spent a lot of time going over new ways of marketing with social media. I wanted to know how people were creating a market online and how I could increase my audience. I had a lot of fun applying what I learned and could visibly see the number of 'likes' go up on our Facebook pages. I really enjoyed learning about connectivity and how to improve this through the internet. I never really created content on the internet until this year. Now I'm being paid for it. I love it.

Collaboration

For my group project I worked hard with the other group members to research our topic and prepare for our presentations. Over the course of the semester, I found and shared multiple articles and websites that were related to our topic. I read my group member's blog posts and google posts and tried to provide feedback on their research. I came up with my presentation materials for the webinars and presented at each one. I helped write content for all of our group blog posts and contributed to each iteration of our project, including our 'story' and case study. I sought out social proof for our project through presenting the idea to friends, family, and peers. I provided content for our original YouTube playlist and then created and our main YouTube playlist. I was going to present our idea to one of the professors, but all of our schedules conflicted and I was not able to attend.

 I regret not spending more time helping other groups' projects in the class. But, I did provide feedback to other students on google+ and tried to answer their questions or concerns about their projects. I participated in the media fast. I provided feedback for the Remix group and researched their topic. I also provided feedback for the Badge group and advertised their presentation through my job.

 Although I don't speak up in class a lot, I contributed a few of my thoughts in class discussion and enjoyed talking to other groups about their projects before and after class.

Others’ assistance

I have loved getting to know the people in this class. So many of my classmates are excited about digital culture and have inspired me to pay more attention and do a little more research. My group members in Digital Sweet Home were so uplifting and wonderful, I loved working with them. Jake Cannon, Rebecca Johnson, Allie Crafton, and Audrey Blake all worked very hard on our group project and made sure that they were each pulling their load. I was impressed with Katie Wilkie's hard work in the badge group and was impressed with her enthusiasm about digital culture. 

Digital Literacy

I decided to take this class because I thought it would help provide some insight into the digital culture that I was trying to understand for my public relations job at the College of Fine Arts and communications. I wanted to learn how to better tap into social networks and learn more about computers and technology. Basically I wanted to increase my digital literacy, and through my personal research, sitting in lecture, and applying what I have learned at work and in my group project, I feel like my digital literacy has been well developed and I'm excited to learn and do more to immerse myself in digital culture.

Consume

I never have really done anything but consume digital media. This was a part of digital literacy that I understood well. In the past I have spent hours reading things online, researching articles on online databases, reading blog posts by others, checking out websites and games, and reading my Facebook feed. But I think this class has inspired me to consume in new ways. I now know that I can seek out topics that I never even would have considered researching online. I know that I can curate material so that I can consume material more proficiently. I know that it is important to consume wisely, only study the best material online. I must also realize that google's algorithms may not always bring up the best material I want to consume. There are other ways of finding the "best material" online though friends, family, enthusiasts, and experts.

Create

I have never created so much content on the internet in my life. I wanted to learn how to create better content and how to better connect with my audience while working on the public relations team. It has been fascinating to try and use the quick iterations format. I have always been a perfectionist and it is hard for me to send things out to the world wide web before they are complete. But through creating iterations of our ideas and projects the research and development process seemed easy. Instead of developing a full-fledged project that no one liked, we were able to get instant feedback on our creations. I've just started applying this principle to my social media posts for the CFAC. People will follow you if your material is unique and kind of gives an insider's twist on the story. These days people want to see more than just the polished final product of the Phantom of the Opera; they want small tidbits about what is going on backstage, they want to know where the actors are from, and they want to know how many times the ballet cast had to rehearse a certain dance. I'm excited to continue to create content in so many new ways through playlists, Facebook posts, tweets, videos, blog posts, and photos.

Connect

I'm finally learning how important connection is in internet use. As they said at the Mormon Media Studies Symposium: "The electronic age led to a social disconnect and individualism, whereas the digital age leads to connectivity and collaboration through the internet. The internet is our global village, our collective identity." What an awesome statement! I've really learned the truth of this statement this semester through this class and my job at the College of Fine Arts and Communications. I've seen and experienced the influence of connection over the internet. I'm excited to see how this will affect the classic research project in the future. I was always worried about how much digital media I was consuming. I always wondered why my parents were so against TV, but loved letting us use computers in our home. I think this is because they realized the growth that can come from the internet and the use of computers. Computers are more than just sources of entertainment, they are ways to connect to the rest of the world. You can use the internet to collaborate with people all the way around the world in a way that we have never been able to do before. I'm able to apply this in a small way as I work with social media for the CFAC.

Individual Test Questions

Objective Questions:

1. What are three large areas of human concern and conduct that are affected by Googlization in Siva Vaidhyanathan’s
The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Be Worried)? (Answer) 
2. According to Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president, what can save humanity from poverty? (Answer)
3. Since social media is still so new, many businesses are still researching ways to productively use social media. What useful resource can provide you with the latest in social media, business, tech, entertainment, and world news? (Answer)

Essay Questions:

1. Although many people believe that the earlier electronic age led to individualism and created a social disconnect, the current digital age supports connectivity and collaboration through the internet. (Blog posts on the topic: 1, 2, 3)
2. Although technology, if used properly, can positively affect society, parents sometimes struggle with ways to help their children use the internet wisely. Parents must create a healthy relationship of trust with their children while still creating and keeping rules in the home that will help their children learn how to constructively use technology. (Jake Cannon's Posts and some articles on the topic: 1, 2, 3, 4) (Video from playlist)

Launching Our Project

To launch our project, we each created a playlist, and then I combined each of these playlists into one large playlist. Each group member created or picked videos that related to the topic he or she researched and presented on.

We chose to create a playlist to connect with the larger audience on YouTube. We will reference (or have referenced) these videos while presenting our project to peers and professors for our case study. Follow the link to YouTube in the video box to watch the rest of the playlist.

YouTube Playlist is Coming Soon

Now that we are back from Thanksgiving, it is time to kick it into gear and finish up our project. We are delegating out responsibilities and finishing up the semester!

We gathered our extra research information and sent the links to Audrey to create an email to send up as our follow up material to our parents and family members who participated in the webinar. After we send this email out, we will send out a link to our playlist in another email. The Youtube playlist was supposed to be finished this morning before class, but a few of the group members were having technical difficulties, so I will post about the playlist later tonight, when I finish collecting those videos.

Here is Audrey's email that we all contributed links to:


We would like to thank you for joining us in our first ever webinar! The Digital Sweet Home Project has been a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more about how digital media can truly have an impact on strengthening our families. We promised you that we would give you resources that related to each of our presentations. We have organized it into four categories for you: Internet Safety, Media How-To Guides, LDS Links, and Parent & Youth Relationships. There are several resources available to you. We hope that these give you a starting place!
Thanks,
Audrey Blake, Jake Cannon, Allie Crafton, Rebecca Graham, and Cami Wilson
Internet Safety

1. The Internet Safety Project (The largest Wiki on the World Wide Web with articles, podcasts, and newswires all related to Internest Safety. Highly Recommended.)

1. Mary Kay Hoal: Helping Families Have a Positive and Safe Experience Online

1. K9 Web Protection

1. What Parents Need to Know: How Students Use Technology to Cheat

1. Digital Dilemma of Raising Digital Kids: Using Technology to Torment Your Kids 

1. Talking to Kids about Online Porn: How One Dad Handled it

1. Three Ways to Keep Tabs on Your Kids Online

Media How-To Guides

1. LDS Church Resources on How to Use Media

1. Facebook

1. Pinterest

1. Twitter

1. Google Plus

1. Just Family (And here is the link to the video.)

LDS Links

1. Finding Joy in the Journey by President Thomas S. Monson

1. Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet by Elder Russell M. Ballard

1. A Matter of a Few Degrees by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

1. Three Goals to Guide You by President Thomas S. Monson

1. Things as They Really Are by Elder David A. Bednar (Audio version here)

1. Choose the Right Media (Friend)

1. Screening Your Screen Time (New Era)

1. Keeping Safe and Balanced in a Google-YouTube-Twitter-Facebook-iEverything World (Ensign)

1. LDS Media Library Aims to Help Members Learn, Share, and Create

Parent & Youth Relationships

1. Parenting Tip: Recommended Screen Time for Children (Good Housekeeping)

1. A Platform for Good (FANTASTIC! "A project of the Family Online Safety Institute designed to help parents, teachers and teens to connect, share and do good online.")

1. The Fine Line Between Monitoring Your Kids and Spying

1. Yoursphere for Parents (This also relates to Internet Safety)

1. Yoursphere for Youth (A safe place on the web for kids to be social!)

1. Ten Life-Changing Benefits of the Internet Age

1. Family Search: Digital Storytelling (This is a hybrid way to collect and store your family history all in one place!!)

1. Mommy Blogger Benefits (BYU Magazine)

1. Tech Obsessed Kids and What to Do with Them

1. Can You Be a Good Parent Without Tech?

1. Benefits of Online Social Networking

1. E-Parenting: Media Wise Parenting in a Digital World

1. Generation Gap Extends to Perceptions about Teens' Online Behavior

Slides for Presentation

So after the feedback from the class I've decided to keep my presentation very short. I have minimized the information I will share. Dr. Burton recommended that we share very brief ideas and various movies to inspire further discussion. The topics will come up naturally through discussion, so we do not need to worry about bringing up every subject before the actual discussion. We should make this fireside more discussion based instead of turning it into a lecture. Here is how my presentation will go:

After Allie has presented on digital literacy, I will acknowledge that this information might all be very overwhelming or frustrating. Using this slide I will lead into a quick brief discussion about how nothing is constant as change.

In my childhood my parents refused to succumb to the overuse of TV and video games in our home. We didn't have a TV big enough to watch anything on it until I was eight. Our television had about a 12 inch screen. But, my dad has worked with computers all of his life. Before we upgraded our TV we had five computers in my house. And we quickly integrated the internet use into our home. I can't believe how much technology has changed since then. It can be overwhelming and stressful. But with the proper use, digital media can be used to bless our lives and the lives of our family members.

I will read this quote from President Monson's talk Finding Joy in the Journey from the October 2008 conference. This next slide will link to a video about the sisters four. I will connect this to the quote above by explaining that we can find joy in the journey with our families through digital media. Even though the constant change of our digital world can be overwhelming we don't need to stress about it. We don't have to use every new piece of technology. And we have to realize that every family is different. My parents chose to not use video game and television in our home, while we used a lot of computers and internet. We just recently updated to smart phones, but we got along just fine without them. Figure out what works best for your family.

This presentation will obviously have to change if we end up creating a YouTube playlist instead of a fireside.

To inspire discussion and further questions about my subject, we can ask:

-How does your family use digital media to connect?

-What concerns do you have about the rapid change of technology?

-How do you deal with the rapid change of technology?

-What are some ways that current technology has helped you find joy?

Friday at the MMSS

We probably talked about a few of these ideas in class already, but the Mormon Media Studies Symposium presentations that I was able to attend brought up a lot of interesting subjects about Media and Digital Culture. 

A few thoughts I gathered from "Mormonism & Media Literacy: Intersection of Media and Education in LDS Theology and Culture" Panel:

Every time we are introduced to new media we still hold on to our old media. Making us double- and triple-booked. How are we supposed to properly manage our time when we double-book ourselves. This leads to the frustration of trying to do too many things at once.

I can definitely relate to this. Sometimes at work I feel like I am trying to do ten different things at once. I'm trying to post about the Museum of Art on the blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter, I'm trying to post about all of the departments in the College of Fine Arts and Communications on the blog, on the Facebook page, and on the Twitter account, I'm trying to write articles on news, I'm trying to keep in touch with Museum officials about correct credit lines and event information, I'm texting my boss or my boyfriend, I'm talking with the people in my office, I'm trying to update the running awards list I have going, and I'm trying to edit articles and pictures that come through my email. And this is just at work...at home I'm trying to do all of my computer stuff on top of exercising, making meals, eating, sleeping, and receiving phone calls. This isn't all media stuff. But it's definitely following the same pattern of adding one thing on top of another.

The electronic age led to a social disconnect and individualism, whereas the digital age leads to connectivity and collaboration through the internet. The internet is our global village, our collective identity.

I thought this was brilliant! I know we've been talking about this in class, but I love how they broke this down into stages of the digital age. Whereas TV and other electronic devices on their own led to separation, the use of the internet has led to a new connectedness. We don't have to waste time in front of the TV. We can connect about what is on the TV through the internet. We can build positive relationships and create content on the internet. 

Another good point that was made, was that although we have all of this information, just at our fingertips, we cannot assume that this access to information means access to truth. We still need to use the Holy Ghost to determine truths.

Very sound advice. We cannot assume that everything we read on the internet is true. What a wonderful symposium. I was glad that I could listen to so many presentations and learn about how the Church is involved in the current media.

Mormon Media Studies Symposium

Today for work I sat through three hours of presentations at the Mormon Media Studies Symposium. I had a blast video taping, taking notes, tweeting, and making a few Facebook posts. I would like to encourage the class to participate. Here are a few screen shots from twitter and Facebook:

It was fascinating to sit through these presentations to learn about what LDS members are doing today to share the gospel through media. I learned about Mormons in Jerusalem, LDS public affairs in Europe, Visual Framing of the election on religious websites, the LDS bloggernacle, and specific research about LDS public affairs and media in Italy. These are all things that will be beneficial to our presentation in encoraging LDS parents to use digital media as a positive interactive tool in their lives. I will try to make another post about what I learned later. For now, I have to write a paper for another class.