Introductions

An avatar in Second Life ...

Be social digitally

Introducing yourself to others is a necessary part of your work as information professionals, and finding and friending new people to work with is part of the fun of using social media. We will begin this course with introductions. By introducing yourself, you are facilitating the online experience by getting to know one another personally. Online discussions can be rewarding when we come together as a learning community, and find the time to share our enthusiasm about new discoveries. An important first step is to be social.

In the context of LIBR559M, striking up conversation and sharing personal stories is fundamental in building trust with your peers. By getting to know each other (even online) we become engaged in a critical part of human learning - the forming of social relationships.

Social learning is a very powerful way to learn the principles of using social media. The first step in evaluating whether tools have any application in the information professions is to be social digitally. What does that look like? Well, to enjoy the benefits of learning on the web, you may have to put yourself out there in ways that you never have before. Part of the learning process and a key to social media literacy is how to establish your digital credentials and online identity. Don't be afraid to try or say something.

Further, I know that posting pictures can make some people feel uncomfortable (I am extremely camera-shy). For many others, getting to see the human being at the other end of the computer is absolutely critical to making connections. Posting a photo is not a requirement for the course but I encourage you to do so.

Tell us something about yourself

Begin by introducing yourself to your peers. Tell us something about yourself.

You may want to answer a few of the questions below (or focus on one or two areas as you feel most comfortable):

• Tell us something about yourself - your background, where you live, your interests
• Do work in a library or archive? Tell us where, and what you do
• What drew you to a career in library and information science?
• What are your academic or research interests? Where do you want to be in 5 years?
• Have you used any social media before? Tell us what you think about social media, or talk about your experience using it
• What was it about LIBR559M that caught your eye? - what do you hope to gain from this experience?

Post something creatively

• • For something different, you could write your introduction, put it into Wordle and then post the word cloud in the discussion forum
  • If you have a digital picture of yourself, attach it to your message. The image should be in a .jpg or .gif format.
  • Read postings from fellow students, and get to know each other. This is the best part of working in libraries - all the great people~! Dean

now go to: Expectations - 'two-way'