April 2013 – Jim Tigwell

Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/somewhereto_/7772403768/">flicker.com/somewhere_to</a>

Picking a Platform

There are literally hundreds of social media platforms in existence, and you can’t use all of them. It will drive you mad, or you’ll spend so much time clicking and liking and sharing that you’ll never get anything done. It’s best to pick one or two and use them well then to use two dozen and only post or listen once every few weeks. This isn’t a step by step guide to picking the perfect platform, there’s too many variables for that, but I want to present some basic and relevant principles to doing so. Social networks do their best to show that everyone in the world is using them and that they’re intensely relevant to your needs, when that sometimes, even often, isn’t so. So here’s a few tips.

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April 25, 2013

Weekly Update

Shoot for the Head…

Headshots is getting closer and closer, so I'm winding up for that, plus the International Congress on Medieval Studies. Oh, and my 30th birthday is next week. Yeah, it's gonna be a fun month. We're ramping up, with a bunch of new sponsors and a lot of work going on behind the scenes. You should come to our LAN party. The result is that today's post is short, because I have to get back to writing sponsor posts for our blog. The thing I learned this week was that you can never underestimate the importance of breaks, something I need…

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April 21, 2013

Social Media

Tweet Tweet

Not just the cry of the Rockin’ Robin, not for the last seven years. Boasting 500 million registered users, Twitter is a huge social network that favours tiny messages. 140 characters, to be exact. Twitter is an excellent space for academics to connect with students, other scholars, conferences, and all kinds of interesting people. The saying goes “Facebook for people you know, Twitter for people you want to know.” It’s also a great place to get updates on events going on around campus, find interesting news articles, and carry on casual conversations with people around the world. But this isn’t about why Twitter is cool and useful, it’s about why Twitter is cool and useful for higher education.
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April 18, 2013

Weekly Update

Practicing What You Preach

This isn’t about hypocrisy so much as teaching. Most Saturdays I tutor a student in English, and we go over rules, structures, and ideas that are essential to writing. Understanding something well enough to teach it is a lot different from understanding it well enough to use it, and poses a unique challenge. I keep asking myself if I’m abiding by the principles I’m teaching. Whether in writing, in ethics, in gaming, or in communication. And the answer is usually “Sometimes.”

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April 14, 2013

Communication / Social Media

The Alchemy of Connection

It’s time for some more obviousness, I hope. We all know that social media can help connect you with people all over the world. We’ve been railing about it for years, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Youtube. But we also all know that describing the people we’re connected to on Facebook as “Friends” is possibly the grossest abuse of the word. the connections made over this systems aren’t the strong kind that are forged in the fire of battle, the bloody brother-and sisterhoods brought about by shared struggles and a love for Star Trek, but rather the bonds of those people that you met that one time who seemed cool but probably wouldn’t help you move. I have good news. It is within your power to transform the second into the first, like some kind of relationship alchemist. Instead of purging the lead from your connections every six months, transform a portion of it into gold. (more…)

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April 11, 2013