Journal 7

Twitter has been interesting to use thus far. Although I've used it in the past for personal reasons, it has been a new experience using it educationally. Since we've started using Twitter for our class, I've learned about the professional opportunities that Twitter offers. For example, Twitter chats connect professionals from all over the world as they discuss a common topic. The ability to connect with others that you wouldn't be able to connect with otherwise because of living in different geographical locations is a major benefit of using Twitter. Twitter is also beneficial because it gives the user the opportunity to read tweets from people that possess different perspectives and life experiences than their own. The only issue I have with Twitter is that it's necessary to be intentional with tweeting. For example, some days you may just forget to go on social media and miss an opportunity to tweet, so it's important for me to set reminders for myself to tweet otherwise I'll forget to do so.

The web page design assignment allowed me to have experience with creating a webpage using a different design platform. There was a little bit of a learning curve when it came to navigating Weebly, but after learning about the features it possesses it was fairly easy to use. I did feel like the interface was a little limiting and at times it was hard to use. For example, the header images needed to be light enough so that the dark text I chose to overlay on it would be readable. I also had to choose font colors based on the theme's light/dark mode. Next time I can choose different themes and play around with fonts more to see which ones are easier to read and contrast the most. I'll be working in schools in the future, so this is helpful because it familiarized me with the setup of class pages and the content that they could include. My webpage can be found here and I've included a screenshot of the homepage below.

Diigo was also a new platform for me, and using it was a beneficial experience I learned how to share and annotate articles within their original websites, and collaborate with others to see their annotations. This platform is extremely helpful because it allows for quick and efficient sharing of knowledge along with people's personal thoughts about what they read. This will help me in my career because it's important to stay up to date with what's happening and the field and provide and explore resources with colleagues that will allow me to be better at my job.