A Reflection on Communication Theory and Practise in ALES 204

There were four major learning objectives for my Communication Theory and Practise course: to apply what we have learned about writing (online and offline), to provide constructive feedback, to practise reflection on my communication style and to become a knowledgeable and professional communicator (Lacetti, 2012). I have learned a majority of my lessons from the examples that Dr. Lacetti and S. Clarke provided us with. I enjoyed being able to observe a sample of work (Twitter profile, Facebook page, blog, poster presentation and Pecha Kucha) and giving feedback and opinions on it. The lecture that taught me the most about good communication skills and critical literacy was the PowerPoint from Lecture 9: Death by PowerPoint and Hurrah for Pecha Kucha! (Lacetti, 2012) Critical Literacy was the one skill we were taught, asked to understand in depth, and use effectively. This was built by adding comments to the class blog, sending at least 3 critically literate tweets during a lecture, commenting on fellow classmates blogs and working in groups to assess a piece of writing. This experience taught me to always question what I am reading, think about what it means to me and think about how I can connect what I have read to other concepts.

A Critical Literacy Wordle. Retrieved from http://partners.hpedsb.on.ca/booksandbeyond/blog/2010/10/16/critical-literacy/

The Social Media Revolution 2012 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs

The video above, The Social Media Revolution 2012, shows many statistics that are telling us that the world may one day be run by social media. So I have to agree with two of my classmates’ opinions when they speak about the importance of social media in our future careers. Jami Frederick (2012) in her blog states “that social communication skills, which [she is] hoping to learn partially through blogging, is terribly important in today's society, no matter what profession one should choose.” After my experience with Twitter as a professional tool for communication I have seen the success of Registered Dietitians who use Twitter because they have a passion for sharing their knowledge. Another classmate, Carmen Dam also writes a majority of her blog, Hello World!, on the importance of social media use she sees in the nutrition community. In Lecture 6 we were asked to search on TweepML or wefollow to find Twitter users in our future career field.

Fruits vegetables milk and yogurt. From Public Domain Images by Peggy Greb,
U.S. Department of Agriculture.

One user that I feel embodies all the good communication skills that we have seen in class is Rebecca Subbiah R.D., @chowandchatter. She makes exceptional use of her blog; it is interactive, contains good links, healthy recipes, an autobiography, color and design, labels, and an RSS Feed. An RSS Feed is a very useful and convenient way to get a snapshot of what a webpage contains.   Following @chowandchatter on Twitter has solidified the lessons learned in class, Subbiah is very active on her account; she thanks people personally for following her, she is consistent with her tweets and posts new and interesting information constantly. She effectively uses the 140-character limit to express her opinions, promote events or websites, to say thank-you to people, to relay information from other RDs, and to inform people about nutrition. She is a social media genius to say the least, and this is backed by her extensive knowledge about social media use and her app, Go Social, which can be found on iTunes. Rebecca Subbiah was also nominated in the Shorty Awards for food. The Shorty Awards "[honours] the best producers of short content on social media."

Shorty Awards (2012) Retrieved from http://shortyawards.com/chowandchatter

Myself and Twitter. From L. Hegberg (Personal Collection 2012)

Right now and in my future I will be reading many colleagues writing and I will be able to develop a response to what they are saying and try to build on their ideas. I no longer fear using pictures in my presentations because I was taught how to legally share and work with other peoples works. I will be able to easily navigate social media platforms and connect with others in my career field to open myself up to more information from more professionals. In the future I will be able to conduct myself professionally on and offline, and I will be able to share my ideas and knowledge with other colleagues and the general public.  

Links to the five blogs I commented on:

1. Walk In The Woods, by Sara
2. ZooKeeperMarcos, by Marcos
3. ALES 204: Human Ecology Student, by Paige
4. Hello World!, by Carmen
5. ALES 204:Cute Cow Garden, by Nian L

References

Laccetti, J. Public Speaking, Death by PowerPoint and Hurrah for Pecha Kucha! [PowerPoint presentation]. Retrieved from http://ales204-2012.blogspot.ca/2012/01/lecture-9-death-by-powerpoint-and.html

By: Lina Hegberg
TA: Shannon Clarke
Lab: H8