Ales 204

Hello everyone!

We are nearing the end of the semester, and the last day of classes has come and gone. It is time for us to reflect on the things we have learned this year in our Ales 204 Communication class.

Walking into this class, I was very skeptical of what we would be doing. I had been strongly opposed to Twitter, and had vowed to never sign up for it. Imagine my dismay when I realized that I had to use Twitter for in class participation! As we learned about the different social media platforms throughout the semester, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and also online references such as Wikipedia, I began to realize how important staying connected was. Our world is becoming increasingly competitive, and it is important to make yourself stand out in every aspect, including having a good online profile. The internet is a good way to promote yourself and also gain knowledge, if you know how to look. One part of this class I really learned from was the Pecha Kucha presentations. I have always had trouble with public speaking, and being forced to present to my lab was a good way for me to really step out of my comfort zone and practice public speaking. The Pecha Kucha is also a great way to plan presentations that can keep the audience engaged, and not bore them to death.

Figure 1: Social MediaFrom 1st Web Designer Blog (2010). [digital image]
Retrieved April 13, 2012 from:  http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/freebies/integrate-social-media-your-website/ 

Another experience I really enjoyed was editing our own Wikipedia stub. It really taught me how to be critical of what I was reading online, and also improved my researching skills. Usually, when I want to learn something, I first go to Wikipedia to gain a brief understanding of my topic, and go off from there. However, this time, there was no Wikipedia to refer to! Editing Wikipedia was a struggle for me, since I was unfamiliar with their formatting. It really made me appreciate the many users who go out of their way to share their information on Wikipedia.

However, while I did enjoy this class, and learn a lot, I must agree with my classmate NutritionStudent, that a lot of the things we covered in class were intuitive, and things we could have learned on our own. As a generation that grew up with the internet, I believe that we are quite capable of navigating and learning how to make use of these different platforms. While I did enjoy this class, I think that a lot of the things we did in class could have been homework assignments, while we discussed more things during class time.

Overall, I enjoyed this class, and the fact that there are no quizzes or exams is a plus! There were some aspects that I felt we could have spent more time on, such as learning how to write memos, public speaking, learning about different online databases to find information, etc. Things such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn were fun, and made the class more interactive, but were things that we could have all done on our own time. I found the blog a great way to express what I learned in class, and also to learn about the thoughts of my fellow students. I've had a great semester in this class, and it was a pleasure reading the blogs that everyone has written!

Here are some of the blogs that I really enjoyed reading, and wrote comments on:

• Cassandra Holte 
• Jenna Patterson
• Lindsay Gervais
• Becky Bohlender
• Marney Steadman

 Thanks to Jess and all the TAs for everything they have taught us this semester!

Wiki-Know-How

Hello Everyone! It has been a while! Today's topic is going to be... *drumroll*… Wikipedia! Everyone’s favourite online encyclopedia!

Wikipedia Logo. (2012, March 23). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 23, 2012. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo

Wikipedia is a free online resource that can be accessed by anyone, and has millions of articles on a wide variety of subjects. Volunteers world-wide work collaboratively to write and edit these articles, as well as keep the site running. The website was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, and was launched in January of 2001. Wikipedia is a quick and easy way to search for information, and is often the first site people go to whenever they need to know something. In fact, on search engines such as Google or Yahoo, Wikipedia is usually one of the first links to show up. However, while Wikipedia is undeniably a popular and vast resource, many academic institutions do not accept Wikipedia as a reliable reference. Why is this?

This is likely due to the fact that Wikipedia is an open source that can be edited by anyone. As long as one has access to the internet, they are able to edit existing articles or write new ones. In some cases, this has led to abuse, or page vandalism, as Wikipedia calls it, where users will post biased, misleading, or false information. Many people feel that due to this feature, Wikipedia is an unreliable source, and should not be trusted, especially for academic purposes. However, studies have shown otherwise. In a study conducted by Nature, it was found that Wikipedia was almost as accurate a source as Britannica. You can read about that article here. Science Daily also published an article stating that a peer-reviewed study showed Wikipedia to be a reliable source of political information. It appears that Wikipedia is gaining acknowledgement as a trustworthy source, and continues to be used by millions all over the world each day.

I am a huge supporter of Wikipedia and have been using it since it came out. I believe that everyone should have access to information, and Wikipedia allows that. However, for the first time, I not only used Wikipedia, but contributed to it! I found a stub, which is an incomplete Wikipedia article, and edited it by adding relevant information and references. I found it to be a lot more challenging than I expected, but also a lot of fun! The topic that I chose was the Jelly Bean Rule. This is a regulation set by the FDA (Food and Drugs Association) of the United States, stating that “foods cannot claim to be healthy unless they contain at least 10 percent of the Daily Value of: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, protein, fiber, or iron. .. [and] companies could not fortify foods with the sole intent of making that claim.” When I first saw the stub, it looked something like this: 

Yo, C. (2012). Jelly Bean Rule Wikipedia Entry [Screen Capture]. Retrieved on March 23, 2012. 

After I edited it, it looked like this:

Yo, C. (2012). Jelly Bean Rule, Wikipedia Entry [Screen Capture]. Retrieved on March 23, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelly_bean_rule

While researching and looking for information was not too difficult, I found formatting Wikipedia to be rather challenging. I am inexperienced with formatting web pages, and it took a lot of time to get used to it. However, Wikipedia itself has many different pages and tutorials on how to write a Wikipedia article, and even has a sandbox page, where you can experiment and see what the page will look like. Through this process, I realized that page vandalism was not an easy feat, as articles are constantly being regulated and monitored. A bot is used to correct simple errors, such as formatting or spelling mistakes, while registered users are constantly checking over articles that have been newly modified or written. With the millions of users online, it does not take very long for mistakes to be caught. While there is still the possibility of error, one of the great things about Wikipedia is that it encourages the use of proper citations. We learned how to reference our information in class earlier, and this information was used in order to cite the references I had found for my Wikipedia article. When looking through other articles, you can look not only at the information provided, but also at the original sources the information was taken from.  This is another handy way to make use of Wikipedia. 

Well, that's it for this week! Make sure to check out the blog of Clara T, and her thoughts on Wikipedia. 

References:

Study: Wikipedia as Accurate as Britannica. (2012, March 23). In CNet News. Retrieved on March 23, 2012 from: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1038_3-5997332.html

Wikipedia. (2012, March 23). In Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on March 23, 2012 from:    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia 

Wikipedia Deemed a Reliable Source for Political Information, According to Study. (2012, March 23). In The Science Daily. Retrieved on March 23, 2012 from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110414131855.htm