Blog# 12 Reflections

Reflections

This class has really opened my eyes to the new possibilities for using these technologies to grow in my career. Prior to taking this class I really had no interest in blogging, twittering or any of the other technologies that we have used in this class. Now I ask myself how I can grow in my career without these, the answer is I simply cannot.   After using the blog and seeing how easy it is to connect to others in my profession I cannot imagine trying to make this connection any other way.  For the connections I make on the street are now better because I can add them to my network and they can contribute to the larger network thanks to these technologies.  Knowing how to use these technologies has helped me to have a stronger outlook for my career. 

Blog #11 Creating a Wiki

Creating a Wiki

The one thing I liked about the wiki was how easy it was to use. Formatting was very simple and the tool is very user friendly.  One of the best things that I learned about making this wiki is how to organize my ideas so that my readers understand.  However the most frustrating thing about creating this Wiki was trying to manage the information so that I had the most important things added.  In the future my plan is to use the Wiki as a way to introduce new technologies to my friends and colleges in the medical field. The way I would us this in my profession is that I would build wikis to train new hires and to retrain and certify current employes.

Blog 10 My Seleted Technology

My Selected Technology

 

The reason I wanted to work with Google sites it that I have always liked working with websites. Google sites is a great technology that give me all the tools I need to make a good looking site and best of all it is free.  Google sites can be very helpful in the future because it give people the tools they need to market their ideas.  The cool thing that I discovered about google sites is that after dealing with it I found that it is very easy and straight forward to use.  So far everything that I have learned about Google sites has been very interesting. I can’t say that I am disappointed in anything that I have learned.  For the most part I am using YouTube and the Google sites website to learn all the features that it has to offer.  Google sites have a great feature called Webmaster tools this allow me to fix error on my site so that people can find it on Google fast and easy.  This site works well with my PLN because I can market my ideas about healthcare to others who are in the field.

Blog Post #9 My PLN

 My PLN

Currently my PLN includes 3 main topics which all relate to the healthcare field, I also have about 5 companies which all help my PLN’s goal of providing information about healthcare administration.  My PLN has about 8 or 9 people in it all who are healthcare professionals and administrators. Currently I only have one organization which offers a discussion board for current health administration topics. The biggest holes in my PLN is that I need to add more organizations and professional seeking to improve the healthcare administration. 

Blog Post #8

The first thing that made me like Google sites was the fact that they had templates for the backgrounds and buttons.  Without templates I would have had to make all my own backgrounds as well as buttons in paint brush. This would have been very time consuming and difficult so this is initially attracted me to Google sites.

Having the knowledge of knowing how to build a site with Google sites will help me with my career because I can quickly build a site to respond to a problem that needs to be solved in my profession.  For example if I need to build a site to enhance a new PLN I now have the knowledge to do just that.

The coolest thing that I learned about Google sites is that I can change the privacy setting of the site.  I can make it totally private or I can make it available to people in a group or to only people who have been sent a link to the site. Having this feature is really important because many organizations do not want their information just going to anyone who wants it.  For the most part I am very pleased with what I have been learning up to this point; however I am a little disappointed because I don’t get to work on it as much as I would like because it is very time consuming activity.

The way I have been learning the most about this tool is by watching YouTube and viewing how others are using the tool. I found that watching YouTube videos on how to use the tool is very beneficial and the fastest way to learn how to use it. For example I learned how to add charts to the website by clicking on inter tab and adding a chart to the website. I would have not figured this out as fast if I was to only read the Google sites articles.

A Google site is really beneficial to a PLN because it can serve as the central location that the users go to. This allows users to have a common meeting place which can have links to RSS feeds and twitter feeds. Google sites are an ideal start for any PLN.

Blog 7 Google websites

This week I have been working on my wiki page and I have learned a lot about how to build a website with Google websites.  Researching how to build a good site has a lot more details than I originally expected. For example the placement of pictures in the text helps the reader because it makes the website more user friendly.  This is important because the more user friendly you website is the more people will visit your website.  However too many pictures on a website can be confusing and can make a website not user friendly at all.

Some other things that make website user are good content. This means having buttons and icons in good position where people will naturally look.  This can be kind of tricky because not everyone thinks a like but there are some things that can be placed in common areas such as the home button and log out.  I learn something new every day about how to build a more effective website I really have found this class to be very helpful.