Assessment 2 – Community

An online community for me is somewhere people can discuss, share and enlighten each other with similar interests or topics.

When I had to think about who or what community I belong and am involved in I came to a blank wall then a superabundance. I realised that every day on the internet I involved myself in a community. Then It was a case of sifting through and reflecting on who, what, and how my online presence is influenced by this. Knowing That I am posting and others are looking changes in the way we project our thoughts into the internet.

While writing my blog my topic of choice has been traveling. I have found at first I have no followers, no comments or likes, it was a little disheartening and un-motivational to keep writing when I knew no one was reading so my next step was to gain some traffic towards my blog my first point of call was obvious. Facebook. A place where all my friends and family resigned and eagerly waited for the next update on my travels. When advertising yourself can be seen a cheesy or sleazy, I had to think of a sophisticated way to say “HEY look over here!!” With a nonchalant status update choosing a good time to get The most attention. 

Within minutes I had doubled in views but saying that I still hadn’t gained many comments. In order to be part of a community I need to be part of a discussion. I had to find other bloggers. I done this by first comparing my blog use to Instagram (probably my most used social media platform) I get between 10 and 20 likes per post and around 1 – 2 new followers. It was the use of hashtags, hashtags open up a whole new world of communication between people on the internet. It’s a case of people looking for information vs people giving information in this case information being travel photos.

It is important to use hashtags responsibly, wildly using 50 tags won’t do anything you will only be seen as spam and desperate for attention. There has to be something of value given back to the reader whether that be a funny insight, a beautiful photo, a nice story or a review.  My first post using tags on WordPress was the “Grampians trip” and it is the most viewed post to date. 

I then went back and tagged all my post with similar but relevant tags. This didn’t have the same effect, people respond better to new posts and bloggers that post frequently. I found this out the hard way with my latest post (about two weeks later) not gaining anything near the number of views at the Grampians. I posted and used relevant tags but nothing yet. An online community will appreciate what you give but the first step of giving posts and receiving comments is to receive posts and give comments yourself. You will only get back what you give.

1. Bolter, Jay David. “Social Media and the Future of Political Narrative.” Travels in Intermediality. Lebanon, US: Dartmouth, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 8 February 2016. 206-226
2. Oatway, Jay, Apr 26, 2012, Mastering Story, Community and Influence : How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader Wiley, Hoboken. 97-109. ISBN: 9781119943457.

Assesment one

I started my blog 6 weeks ago. I have 10 post and three categories. I have been blogging a little about Networked media but my main posts are about the things i’ve been up to while on exchange. I have been blogging about my trips with RMIT recreation, and I plan to blog more about what Melbourne has to offer as in bars, restaurants and things to do.

While participating in the course i’ve been asked “what is blogging?” Well what is writing online? I think that it is a personal take on a public platform. It is a number of things, the internet is a large network of information weather it be a trip advisor review or a video its all information that is networked together by people sharing, mentioning and commenting on it. Without this network of converse would it exist? It would but either not be discovered or be forgotten. In the second reading It is the connectivity that is discussed. To be “network literate” we have to understand the importance to contribute as much as we consume. Writing online is about the larger conversation that is the internet. Unfortunately no one has left any comments on my blog, why? Maybe no one is reading it? I have not promoted my blog on any other social media but I have just started adding tags to my posts to try and engage with a wider audience. I have to look at my key audience and play my writing style and posts to them without compromising my own goals. Engaging with other blogs is a sure way to help this telling people “Hey i’m here!” Looking at my online presence it is definitely the biggest on Instagram I post at least every other day and people from all over the world like my photos and adventures. My blog dose translate to that my post about the Great ocean road trip is my favourite photos from the trip and some writings about the highlights. I want to be a good blogger and I also want to be a good writer. While writing my blog I have my own voice and my own passion, I have tried to write in a manner that mimics having a conversation with someone, being chatty but sometimes giving trivial details. The first reading gave me some good blogging tips that I wrote about in this post. Miles also has a very interesting point about collaborative learning, students and teachers and see each others opinions and overall understandings on what is being learnt this opens up “peer support”. I really enjoy blogging and I want to blog more often with a larger audience. I have downloaded the wordpress app onto my phone for some easy on the go reviews in the future like the soup place post where I done a short review on a place I went for lunch. My blog will help me improve my writing, improve my knowledge about contribution in the internet.It will help me have the best experience I can have while living in Melbourne. It will help me share my experiences with friends, family even future employers.

 

Bibliography

 

• Miles, Adrian. Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning [online]. Screen Education, No. 43, 2006: 66-69.

•  Miles, Adrian. Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge [online]. Screen Education, No. 45, 2007: 24-30.

 

Reading 1

(found this in my drafts I thought I posted this 3 weeks ago!!)

Reading one was about using blogs in education it covered What a blog is, why use one, and the advantages of using a blog in the classroom. A blog is a web based publication much like a journal or diary but different in the sence that it is written with the intent of being read. It can have categories what are useful especially for a blog like this where I can have a category for “Networked Media” and a less formal more personal category called “living in Melbourne”.

But one of my favorite key points made was the benefit of collaborative learning. Giving students the chance to share notes, gain peer support, ask/answer questions, reflect on our work and have the teacher understand. We can link to each others blog using a Blogroll 

Top blog writing tips I gained from this reading!

• Write so the subject makes sence to everyone
• Tag & categories smart
• Use a Blog roll
• Be active. Comment, share, ask, answer, be part of the larger community
• Take care in your writing its public!

 

overall this can let teachers see students honest opinions and understandings, let students see others understandings

Miles, Adrian. Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning [online]. Screen Education, No. 43, 2006: 66-69.

Great ocean road

I went on another trip with Rmit recreation this week and again it was only $60 so super cheap!

I wasn’t sure what to expect I’ve done a little bit of the great ocean road when I was younger with family and I thought it was a big boring beach. Essentially it is a very long beach but it is abasloutly gorgeous! And when you have a proper tour guide it just makes the whole experience so much more with a little bit of history and trivia.

So here we go! the first stop:

 

Then we drove on hoping to see some koalas 🐨

We saw some of these lovley guys and if you bought bird seed from the little shop they would eat right out of your hand! So Obvsisly that calls for animal selfies

And we where lucky enough to see some koalas this one was super close.

There’s was a nice beach here too but I’m not posting all the beach photos I have because there is a lot.

I’m going to talk about the best ice team I’ve ever had in my life from our next stop

(It was a lot bigger) Dooleys ice cream Apollo bay was honestly hevan. I got honeycomb chocolate but there was a whole load of flavours including vegimite which I heard is quite good. I’ve had marmite chocolate in the past so it might be similar.

Next up we went on a little rainforest walk and learned about some trees Austraila is fascinating with the amount of different climates in one area. 

Sorry not the greatest photos the lighting was not the best in the rain forest who knew?

This stop was the 12 appostils (there’s only 8)  but these where my favourite views of the day just look at the fantastic colours
  
It was so beautiful my iPhone dose not do it justice at all

Then we went down to Loch ard gorge where there was a famous shipwreck in 1878 the ship was called Loch ard funnily enough

But this was just again a beautifull beach the colour of the water was fantastic

Last stop of the day was our tour guides secret spot where you have to walk up steps for about 5 miniotes to get to a view of the whole 12 apostles and other sights we passed

Because of the time of day and my old iPhone you can’t see much but it would be a great spot to come up to at sunset with a glass of wine 😊

And a perfect way to end the trip I had a fab time with some great people! If you want to go on any trips with RMIT REC click here! I really recommend them! #explormit