So once again #byod4l has provided me with an opportunity to do something new. Last night, along with Sam Illingworth and Mike Nicholson I facilitated the day 2 tweet chat on communication. As ever the chat was fast, furious and good natured, and a wide range of approaches to communication both for learning and teaching and in more general terms was discussed.
Our mobile devices give us access to instant communication however there was a note of caution coming through about being “always on” and the temptation to reply instantly. Sometimes it is good to take a pause before sending that tweet, email, text. It might actually be better to pick up the phone and speak to someone too.
Finding the “right balance” is always tricky. I know that I have started to slowly move away from certain communication channels at certain times. For example twitter is something that is really work related for me so I try and stay away from it at weekends, evenings and holidays. At these times I tend now to communicate online via photographs using instagram and blipfoto which I sometimes share to twitter and Facebook. I’m finding that after a period of sharing everything, everywhere I’m becoming far more discerning about where, when and how I share things. I think my online presence is becoming much more compartmentalised.
#BYOD4L is challenging my own Facebook use. I try to keep it work free, but it is being used to communicate with the facilitators group. So although I am really enjoying being part of the BYOD4L team, FB isn’t my favourite communication channel to keep in touch. I feel a bit guilty if I’m looking at Facebook at work and if I’m looking at it at home seeing the BYOD4L notifications reminds me of work. I’m probably in a bit of communication rut, I use the spaces I’m comfortable in and that are useful to me, but maybe I need to challenge myself more. Can I cope with yet another one? I did experiment with Medium last year but it doesn’t seem to be working for me yet . . . Or maybe I just need to work more on my f2f communication skills.
Anyway lots to think about, and I particularly liked Julie Gillin’s approach to email.
Q6 Well, if I think an email I’ve received seems a bit terse I try singing it. It doesn’t seem too bad then #byod4lchat
— Julie Gillin (@juliegillin) January 13, 2015
Looking forward to today’s topic of curation.
howsheilaseesIT 
Great summary, I look forward to joining your next #byod twitterchat!
Thank you and great stuff – same time and place tonight
I love the Network diagram – from the image, it looks as if you’ve found a lite version of bottlenose – though I can only find what appears to be a full, commercial version, wanting a ton of details before it’ll let me register. Is there another page I’ve yet to find?
Hi Emma, yes it is from Bottlenose lite – there should be an option to login to the lite version from the main site, but I might get this as I registered with the services ages before it became all commercial.
I couldn’t find a “register” link, but hopefully tried “I forgot my password” on lite.bottlenose.com – either I have had an account in the past & totally forgotten about it, or it just sent me a link to change the password without my having an a/c in the past.
fingers crossed
Hi Sheila,
So lovely to read this post on your BYOD4L experience so far. Pleased this is also an opportunity for you to try new things 😉 Very interesting what you say also about Facebook. You are not alone. Alex, for example has had similar thoughts with you. In the past we have used a Google + community on different project but found that it didn’t work so well? Perhaps we could try again? We are also very open to suggestions.
Looking forward to reading more about your experience over the coming days. Thanks again for joining us and all your valuable input and support so far.
Chrissi
Thanks for the comment Chrissi – I’m just trying to share a little bit each day. I don’t mind using FB it just has highlighted to me how I am using it differently now than say a couple of years ago. The good thing is that I will see the notifications in FB as I do check it more regularly than Google+. We are really enjoying the week here at GCU and have a couple of converts to tweet chats which is great. Very happy to be part of the wider team.
I know exactly what you mean about Facebook and had this conversation with of our Student Union Officers who use FB Groups for various committees. She did admit mixing work in her social space was distracting for the very reasons you mention and I too experience. That said as BYOD4L is for a short time I find it ok, but its worth thinking about G+ community for the future.
Interesting Sue – it’s fine I don’t mind but I am surprised at how I treat my online spaces now.
[…] are many who capture their activities and reflections in their portfolios (see Deb’s and Sheila’s posts for example). Our last tweetchat was another speedy and rich exchange and took many of us to […]
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From Sheila’s personal blog