Highlights of ALES 204

Undoubtedly, ALES 204 was a unique course.  I remember flipping through the syllabus on the first day and getting excited because there were so many interesting topics.  The most valuable thing I gained from ALES 204 was an appreciation for Twitter.  On top of Twitter's greatness mentioned in my previous blog post, I learned another aspect of hashtags has gotten me quite fanatical about them.  Other than their ability to group related tweets for easier searching, hashtags also generate an intriguing, yet subtle, effect.  My classmate Chelsea has an interesting use of hashtags.  Let us dissect one of her tweets:

Le, B. (2012). Chelsea's Tweet [Screenshot]. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/#!/raydeeoh_

One style she uses is to establish sort of a mystery, and then adding hashtags to provide context.  She also uses sentence-long hashtags, which can have a comical effect because it seems to reverse the role of the hashtag and the content.  Here, the hashtags comprise the bulk of the tweet.  In addition, there are some notes of irony involved, because it's highly unlikely that anyone else will use the same super-long hashtag, therefore defeating the purpose of the hashtag.  I'm starting to catch on, but I'm still a #hashtagnoob.  Anyway, enough with this English nerd digression, and onto more ALES 204 excitement.

I also enjoyed using Blogger - it was fun to make my own blog and visit other students' blogs.  Blogging was a great way to strengthen my written communication skills, which science students don't have many chances to do other than writing lab reports.  It also gave me practice using APA citations and Creative Commons licensing.  I have seen CC licensing before, but I didn't know how easy it was to license my own work until ALES 204 showed me how.

Malone, T. (2011). Creative Commons [Logo].
Retrieved from: http://thomasmalone.blogspot.ca
/2011/11/creative-commons.h

CC is a great tool that allows for better sharing of ideas by allowing creators to decide on the extent to which they would like to share their work.  I had a great time blogging, and I hope to continue this blog during my summer break!

ALES 204 also introduced me to a plethora of lesser known social media platforms, so I will mention the most memorable ones.  LinkedIn.  This is a professional social network.  You can find jobs or hire folks through this site, and I think this tool will be an asset in my future career.  Audioboo.  Although I'm not a fan of hearing my electronic voice, I found this website very interesting.  It's like a social network of sounds, which is a great way to practice for interviews or convey messages that are not as effectively expressed in written words.  Delicious.  This is a great way to organize your bookmarks and add tags and descriptions to them, or even share them publicly.  I find it really innovative because it allows you to post ideas without creating any new content, but through sharing good links you've read.  And finally, Prezi.  I was introduced to Prezi in our lab, and it is a magnificent tool.  It has an endless canvas and lots of cool gadgets to help organize ideas.  Prezi is a really neat way to share ideas creatively.  I tried it out by creating a mind map about our CSL project with the Campus Food Bank.

I must conclude, however, with mention of a few drawbacks to ALES 204.  While I enjoyed the class, I do believe there are ways to improve it.  In my opinion, the course was a bit too heavily focused on social media.  Although I agree that social media will be an influential factor in the future of work and academia, I couldn't help but question the relevance of Delicious, Audioboo, and Flickr in my future career.  I would have preferred slightly more emphasis on more practical aspects of professionalism, such as resume building, interviews and presentations.  Overall, it was wonderful being an ALES 204 student and I had a marvelous time learning about such interesting tools.

Here are the five blog posts I commented on:

• Lina H: The Accessibility of Sustainability
• Danielle: My Pecha Kucha Experience
• Lina A: My CSL Placement
• Mark: CSL Placement
• Steph: "Hold on, I'll Wikipedia that!"

CSL with the Campus Food Bank

Campus Food Bank Logo (2008).
Retrieved from: campusfoodbank.com

Community-Service Learning (CSL) completely exceeded my expectations - it was so much more than just 20 hours of volunteer work.  Over the past three months, Nian and I worked on some exciting projects for the  Campus Food Bank (CFB), with guidance from our wonderful supervisors, Ashley Seibert and Jennifer Nguyen.  Our first project was to update the Campus Food Bank's Twitter account about upcoming events, interesting links, needed donations, or volunteer opportunities. When tweeting about events, I learned to link the Facebook event page in the tweet to exclude fine details and make room for creativity and relevant hashtags.  Tweeting for the CFB gave us a chance to practice constructing concise, critically literate tweets.  Here's one of my tweets:

Le, B. (2012). CFB Tweet [Screenshot]. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/#!/campusfoodbank

Our second project was to make classroom presentations about the Campus Food Bank's service and events.  Initially, we found it quite daunting to have hundreds of students stare at us, but with enough practice, we became comfortable with public speaking.  We had the chance to apply ALES 204 knowledge in our presentations, such as the incorporation of hand gestures to make us appear more relaxed.  I also tried lowering the pitch of my voice because we learned that it makes the speaker sound confident.  I think it worked, but at the expense of my enthusiasm, so I am working on finding a balance between the two.  Classroom presentations were a great opportunity for us to explore our strengths and weaknesses with public speaking.

Le, B. (2012). CFB's Glamorous New Office [Photograph].
Retrieved from personal files.

Our third project was to establish the CFB's first external newsletter.  The CFB has an internal newsletter for staff and volunteers, but we decided to try starting a newsletter for the greater campus community.  Our newsletter's main focus was the CFB's recent office move to a spacious, new area in SUB.  It also included information about the organization, events, donations, volunteer opportunities and contact information.  Although we didn't learn about newsletters in ALES 204, we learned about poster-making, which offered some valuable advice we applied to making newsletters.  We used bullet points and sans sherif fonts for easier reading, and put the office move in the center of the page to draw attention to it.  When we completed the newsletter, it was distributed via email to over 15 faculty offices across the U of A campus.

In conclusion, my CSL experience was remarkable.  I had the opportunity to offer service to a local non-profit, and learned about social issues such as food security and student poverty.  I also had the chance to complete projects I never thought I was qualified to do.  These projects strengthened my interpersonal skills and enhanced my understanding of ALES 204 material.  In addition, the Campus Food Bank's exceptionally dedicated staff and volunteers truly inspired me - they have an admirable passion for ending hunger on campus.  Community Service-Learning is an amazing program and I feel extremely grateful that I chose to take part in it.  My fellow CSL classmates have fantastic stories to share!  Read about Mark's experience with Sustain SU, or Lina's experience with the Students' Union. 

Confessions of a Twitter Skeptic

Widder, Oliver. (Cartoonist). (2008).
The Web 2.0 Slogan of the Month - May [Cartoon].
Retrieved February 24, 2012, from:
http://geekandpoke.typepad.com
/geekandpoke/2008/05/the-web-20-slog.html 

I'll admit it.  When I first heard about Twitter a few years ago, I didn't like it.  To me it was unnecessary - wasn't Facebook good enough?  And who would care about trivial things that happened in my daily life?  True, chances are that no one cares about my thoughts on glycolytic enzymes.  However, I was unaware that Twitter had much more to offer than insignificant tidbits of people's lives.

My first time on Twitter was unpleasant.  Everything was a mess.  There were @ and # symbols everywhere, and tweets were often grammatically chaotic.  I preferred Facebook's extremely organized layout.  But at the same time, I was curious to find out why people were so crazy about this emerging social media site.

Giacomazzi, Dino. (Farmer). (2009).
Dino Giacomazzi [Photograph].
Retrieved March 1, 2012, from:
http://www.cafwd.org/thinkers/
entry/dino-giacomazzi 

It didn't take long before ALES 204 changed my cynical view of Twitter.  In class, we discussed Twitter in the professional context, especially with relation to agricultural, life and environmental sciences.  I learned that there are numerous scientists, farmers, and nutritionists tweeting about latest findings or current trends in their respective fields.  I discovered that Twitter can be a useful tool in spreading scientific messages and following meaningful content.  For example, dairy farmer Dino Giacomazzi has a Twitter account (@dairydino) that gives us a glimpse into his farm life.  When interviewed in this article, he said: “We invite people onto our farms through the Internet.  We let people see exactly what it is that we do.”  I find it fascinating how Twitter enables people to share and promote their passion with others, world wide.  My classmate Lina conducted a very interesting investigation of the role of Twitter and other social media outlets in campus sustainability!

In ALES 204 we also discussed how Twitter forces you to be concise with its 140-character limit.  I love to digress, but Twitter prevents me from elaborating into irrelevant territory (to the relief of my followers).  Tweeting made me realize that I tend to use unnecessary words that complicate my message.  Experienced "tweeps" construct extremely concise tweets packed with meaning.

Ploof, Lindsey. (Student). (2012). Game On [Photograph].
Retrieved March 1, 2012, from:
https://twitter.com/#!/ploofster/status/165536884158763008

In addition, I also learned about the value of hashtags, a way to classify tweets.  An example of my personal experience with hashtags was during the U of A's Break the Record dodgeball game.  Participants tweeted before, during and after the game about participant turnout, team scores, and other exciting material including pictures.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, but it was amazing how absent people could still experience the action.  Contrarily, a social networking site like Facebook limits you only to what your Facebook friends are up to.  I probably had at most three Facebook friends who attended Break the Record.  Only one friend posted about the game.  On Twitter, I searched for hashtags like #ualberta, #breaktherecord, and #dodgeball, which gave me a plethora of updates from the dodgeball game.  Twitter is powerful because it allows people with common interests to form a gigantic network, greatly enhancing the sharing of ideas.  It enables you to connect with acquaintances or strangers who share similar passions, without digging into their personal lives.

I'm still a Twitter newbie learning to construct critically literate tweets that demonstrate my engagement with class material.  I will continue to use Twitter throughout my academic and professional careers as I now believe that this social networking site has enormous potential.

Facebook: A New Way to Impress Your Employer

tungphoto (2011).
Business Man Hand Pushing Like Button [Photograph].
Retrieved from: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
images/view_photog.php?photogid=1708

Nowadays, pretty much everyone has Facebook.  Even our parents are catching on.  Therefore, searching the gargantuan social network is a great way to find out about someone.  Employers will see this as a useful tool in the hiring process; a simple Facebook search may be enough to help them decide who to hire (or even fire). 

Because of this possibility, we are often advised to remove inappropriate Facebook content that can deter employers.  Deleting profane status updates or drunk photos will ensure that we do not expose our more crummy side to someone we are trying to impress.  "Censoring" our Facebook profiles is a clever move, but we can step it up a notch and take full advantage of Facebook!  If employers will likely search for us, why not advertise our skills to them?  Creating a resume-inspired Facebook page will really set us apart from other candidates.  According to Job Search Techniques, a social media resume can "turn the tables"; instead of we trying to "push" our traditional resume towards limited opportunities, we can now "pull" employers towards us through our broadcast.  This can really open up multitudes of job opportunities.

Krishnan, Rendith. (2011).
Social Network [Illustration].
Retrieved from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
images/view_photog.php?photogid=721

In our generation, most people are more willing to communicate with each other over the web instead of in person.  In the near future, this trend will likely expand towards the area of job search (Claudio Nader, for example, got hired because of his Facebook CV).  While it is not extremely common just yet, social media is beginning to enter into the professional world, and I think social media resumes will only become more popular in the decades to come.

Below is my professional Facebook page:
If you would like to see another example, be sure to check out my friend Danielle's Facebook resume!

Le, B. (2012). Professional Facebook Page [Screenshot]. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brenda-Le/287014804695395

Introduction

Miles, Stuart (2012).
Dieting Advice Confusion Monitor [Cartoon].
Retrieved from: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2664

Hi there!  My name is Brenda Le and I'm in my second year of the Nutrition and Food Science Major at the University of Alberta.  I think nutrition is fascinating because I like to understand the science behind the food we eat.  I am also interested in healthcare, so it seems fit that my career goal is to become a registered dietitian.  In this post I will discuss the role of communication in the dietetic profession. 

Communication is an indispensable part of a dietitian's career.  They counsel clients about healthy food choices and in order for the clients to understand their advice, dietitians must explain scientific information with common terms.  While most dietitians communicate in person, through telephone, or though e-mail, some are starting to use social media in a professional manner.  An example is @DesireeRD on Twitter.  She is a registered dietitian who tweets tidbits of nutritional information along with updates on her career.

Last year I did some volunteer work for a dietitian with Alberta Health Services.  Our primary methods of communicating with each other were through e-mail and teleconferencing.  I helped her simplify training modules for staff in Nutrition and Food Services (NFS).  The training modules covered topics such as fire safety, food safety, and WHMIS.  We had to ensure that our use of language did not exceed a grade 8 level because many staff members in the NFS department learned English as a second language.  I discovered how challenging it is to simplify information, yet retain its accuracy.  Communication is an integral part of a dietitian's work and they must always consider their audience so they can convey their message at an appropriate level.  This was a great learning experience that was also very rewarding as the modules that I helped her with were distributed to hundreds of NFS staff members across Alberta. 

Campus Food Bank (2008).
Campus Food Bank Logo [Logo}.
Retrieved from: http://campusfoodbank.com/

I will conclude my post with a small update from my ALES 204 class.  I have chosen to take part in Community Service-Learning (CSL), a program where students volunteer with an organization as part of their coursework.  When I first heard about participating in CSL, I jumped at the chance because I've always wanted to get more involved with school, but I never really did.  This term I will be placed with the Campus Food Bank, along with Nian and Aimee.  I look forward to learning more about food, meeting new people, and helping out hungry students!

Thanks for reading!