Thing 13 is REFLECTION. Write a post reflecting on your 13 Things for Writers experience. Please write a meaty post--multimedia if possible--reflecting on some or all of the following questions:
Did this turn out to be what you expected when you started?
Were you already familiar with any of these "things"? For example, did you already have a Twitter account? Or were they mostly new?
Did your Wordle of your blog give you any insights?
Which was your favorite post?
Did you discover anything new that could be helpful in your day-to-day activities?
Did you discover anything new that you think you might use in your Life After Coe?
How did you feel about "self-discovering" as opposed to having specific due dates created by the professor?
You've probably seen word clouds on various websites. They make a visual image of the words that are used--on a particular website or in a particular document. Words that are used most often become more visually prominent--they're BIGGER. This can help you see which themes are repeated most often.
Often, we can get some great insights from looking at word clouds. For example, look at these cool word clouds of presidential inaugural speeches.
Word clouds can be made using the website Wordle. Luckily, you don't have to create an account or pay to use it. You'll just need to save it to the "public gallery," where your word cloud will get its own URL and embed code. Here's the word cloud for 13 Things for Writers:
You can also make a word cloud of any document. Here's Gorgias's "Helen" speech (if you've taken Rhetorical Theory, you may remember it!) I just copied the text from a website and pasted it into the Wordle box.
I couldn't resist comparing this speech with Socrates' long discourse on "rhetoric" and "flattery" from the dialogue we read in Rhetorical Theory.
Isn't it interesting how "Body" is bigger in Socrates' explanation? "Soul" is in both. And the word "persuasion" never comes up in Socrates. Hmm.
If you haven't taken Rhetorical Theory, don't you wish you had?
For your 13Things blog:
Create a word cloud of your 13 things blog and embed the code into the blog. Then copy and paste the text of something else--something you've written, or a text you've become familiar with recently. Embed the code for that into the blog, too.
Did these word clouds give you any insight about the documents/sites? Which words are most prominent? Did this visual representation of words bring any thoughts that you didn't get from reading? How might you use this in professional life? Or is it just a fun toy?
The word is right there on the tip of your tongue...but you just can't make it come out! You've got lots of other words that mean something close...but just not the right word.
You need a visual thesaurus. A visual thesaurus shows you all the synonyms to your word, plus, with a click of the mouse allows you to drill deeper into one of the related words, and then see all of the synonyms to THAT word. Somewhere in that exercise, you'll find the perfect word.
The Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus is actually a commercial tool, with a limited free interface. Even with it's limitations (you'll have to click "try" when you first start, and you'll be limited to a handful of drill downs) the tool is rich. Enter a word you'd like to explore, and you'll get a pop up application with all the related words, plus definitions of your original word. It totally appeals to my inner word nerd.
Click any of the related words, and get a new view. You can print with the free trial, but you won't be able to save your word searches or share them. A membership will cost $19.95/year. Also worth noting is the information included on the main website: a word of the day section, a blog feed written by writers talking about writing, featured word lists, lesson plans and more.
Other visual thesuarus tools to try:
Visiwords: very similar to The Visual Thesaurus, but not quite as robust: you don't get the drill-down functions, and you'll have to decode the color codes to determine meanings based on word type (nouns have a purple background)
Lexipedia: again, very similar in visuals, but this one, in my humble opinion, is a bit easier to read than Visiwords. I like this one the best. Mouse-over tips help you decipher color coding, and you can show or hide different word forms (keep nouns, hide verbs when applicable).
The benefit that both Visiwords and Lexipedia have over The Visual Thesaurus is that they are free (open source).
Post on your 13Things blog:
Choose a word or two from a recent post, and enter them into the visual thesaurus of your choice. Do you come up with any useful alternatives? List the words you like best, along with their definitions.
In general, do you use a thesaurus when writing? Have you ever had any problems using one (for example, you found out later that the word you chose wasn't exactly what you had in mind . . . )
Play around with the thesaurus for a while and see if you discover--or rediscover--any great words. Sometimes simple ones are the best. Try: say, play, word, table, time . . . Share a couple words you searched and a couple synonyms you found. And/or comment on the connections between words.
Have you ever found a great photo on the Web and used it in a PowerPoint, on a blog, or even in a print publication you were making? Did you feel guilty about it? I know I have! We're not technically supposed to use someone's work without their permission, but, getting permission can be time consuming, and besides, what if the creators don't mind?
The people at Creative Commons have given creators of original works an option to give their works a Creative Commons license. This license allows people to use their works, always with attribution, sometimes with other optional stipulations.
Watch the videos below:
Now visit the Creative Commons website for an overview of the CC philosophy and the different licenses creators may choose for their works. Also, CC licenses aren't just for photos: they can be used with video, music, writing, scientific research, anything that would normally be covered under a copyright license!
I've been amazed at how often I see the Creative Commons license now that I'm aware of it.
Post your thoughts about Creative Commons. Does CC seem like a good idea? What projects would you LIKE to share with other writers--for them to "remix and reuse"? Are there any writing projects you've created that you would NOT want to share?
There are a lot of websites out there, and most of us have certain websites that we check regularly. Now that we are all "following" different colleagues' blogs, we have even more websites to check. What if you could check for updates of all your favorite blogs, online newspapers and other regularly-updated sites by visiting one simple page? That's the beauty of RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. You may have noticed that some of your favorite websites have little orange icons that look like this:
This orange RSS icon lets you know that you can subscribe to the website using a news reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines. You simply have to create an account* with one of these news readers and then start adding websites that have RSS feeds. Watch this Common Craft video to learn more about RSS feeds and Google Reader:
Your job for Thing 9
is to sign up for a Google Reader account, add the blogs of the classmates you're following, plus at least 3 other blogs, online newspapers, or websites to your reader. Chances are, some of the websites you already visit a lot have RSS feeds available. Post about your experiences with Google Reader or Bloglines, if you think you would use it, and how you could use it professionally.
Here's how to set it up:
Go to Google.com
From the "more" drop down on the left-hand top of the page, select "Reader"
Now, go to your favorite, regularly-updated website (see some suggestions below) and find the RSS feed icon (shown above...usually orange, but not always). Click it. You'll be asked if you want to add the feed to your Google Reader or your Google Homepage. Choose Reader.
Repeat step 3 for other newsfeeds/blogs/sites.
You can also add blogs by clicking on "subscribe" at the top left corner and copying in the URL of the blog.
Now instead of going to all these sites daily to read what's new, you go to Google reader (log in on your gmail account) and the news comes to you!
Here are some sites with RSS feeds to get you started:
After you have your Google reader set up, write a post reflecting on your experience with RSS feeds and news readers. How might it be useful professionally? Which sites are you looking forward to following this way?
The next Thing we'll be looking at is online bookmarking using Delicious, which will help you organize all of your favorite websites and bookmark sites, pages, or interesting URLs--that you can now access from anywhere.
Watch this explanation from Common Craft and then sign up for a Delicious account.When you first look at Delicious, check out some of the "Fresh Bookmarks" and "Popular Bookmarks" to see how they have been tagged.
Once you've created a Delicious account, add and tag some of your favorite websites. Post your Delicious username on your blog (I have two: jane.nesmith and jcnesmith), then, once other people have started posting their Delicious usernames, add a few of your classmates to your network. You can add me first just to see how it works.
Then spend some time browsing the web for stories about any topic that you're thinking about these days--can be a topic in one of your classes, something you need to do research on, or a personal interest. Add and tag a few pages. Now you can access these pages from anywhere.
When you're finished, create a post and reflect on your Delicious experience. Discovery Exercise:
add me to your network (jane.nesmith), then add a few of your classmates
Create a post about your experience: Do you see this as a useful tool? How might this be useful for your work in college? How about after college? If you already use one of the other social bookmarking sites, feel free to share that and your thoughts about it rather than create another account (but at least look at Delicious).
AND post your Delicious username
Just for fun: Look at Stumbleupon; you don't have to create an account (unless you want to after learning more about it here), but this is an interesting way to see what the general public is discovering on the web. Click "Discover" and you'll see current sites getting top rankings. On the right-hand side you'll see a list of popular tags. Look around a bit and perhaps you'll find something exciting.
Diggo is another bookmarking site to check out. Diggo is quickly gaining popularity with new features like post-it notes and the ability to create thumbnails of saved link pages. Feel free to complete your discovery exercise using Diggo if you prefer.
You heard all about it during the uprisings in northern Africa--and you learned that it was a great way to share important information with the world.
No longer is Twitter mainly used to let the world know what you had for breakfast: surgeons use it to instruct medical students and educate the public, journalists use it to let their followers preview stories, politicians use it to update their constituents, the Red Cross uses it share emergency information and educational leaders use it to share new ideas and engage in dialogues with interested "followers."
Thing 7: Twitter
Read the article "Twittering, Not Frittering, Professional Development in 140 Characters" from Edutopia OR 10 High Fliers on Twitter from The Chronicle of Higher Education, and then create a Twitter account for yourself. If you're comfortable sharing with the world, set your account as "Public" (that way we can all find you on Twitter). If not, then you have to approve individual people to be your followers. Do a few Internet searches to find leaders in your area, and chances are that they will have a Twitter account. "Follow" at least three of them, post your Twitter name to your blog (mine is jcnesmith), and then let us know who you're following.
If you're interested in a particular topic, you can look for who's tweeting about it. Check out the "trends" box on the right side of twitter. If you tweet about a particular topic and want to make sure people interested in that topic find it, you can add a hash tag, like #writing or #oscars.
To post a link, use tinyurl to create a smaller version of the URL--so you won't use up those 140 characters.
I like to follow other writers . . . and some funny tweeters. Here is an example of some of the people I'm following:
Wired magazine, which posts updates about tech (@wiredmag)
Stephen Fry, the British actor and word nerd (@stephenfry)
essayist Susan Orlean (@susanorlean)
Local journalist Christophe Trappe (@CTrappe)
children's book author Sarah Prineas (@SPrineas)
and The Onion (nice to have 140 character laughs!) (@TheOnion)
I have to admit I don't tweet much. I used to use it for posting updates about my writing, but I'm not doing that now--I just enjoy reading others' posts, and I've learned about some cool stories that way. Plus I get a laugh from The Onion.
If you want, you can have your twitter posts automatically posted to facebook. Just include the hash tag #fb at the end of your post.
Discovery Exercise
Create a Twitter account
Find at least 3 people to follow
Post a tweet about some writing project you're working on
Retweet a post or two from someone you're following
Post a link with a brief comment (use tinyurl)
Add Twitter to your blog (In your dashboard, click on Design tab, then "add gadget," and search for Twitter). This allows blog readers to quickly catch up on your tweets.
In your blog: Tell us who you're following
Reflect on your experience using/reading about Twitter. How do you see professionals using it? How do you see writers or PR people using it? Will you keep tweeting this term? (note that you can tweet from your phone . . . )
