Post #7: Professional Learning Network

Reflections on the Professional Learning Network
Nov. 25, 2014

While the RSS feeds were my focus early in the course with regards to professional learning networks, I've also started to shift my focus to how Twitter can be a huge benefit to professional development.

One of the Cal Poly Pomona Public Affairs' staff members wrote a story that we shared on BroncoAthletics.com and because of that collaboration, that same staff member invited me to be the first 2014-15 presenter at the regular Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) meeting on campus.

I enjoyed sharing best practices and career development ideas with the students at the meeting. They also asked plenty of great questions about my career in athletics and public relations. I gained several Twitter followers and the @PRSSAatCPP account even provided an infographic recap of the points I made at the presenation.

Obviously Twitter is a great resource for news and other headlines. As I've especially learned through this quarter, it's also a tremendous tool to connect with colleagues and share best practices.

Journal #6: Self Reflection in GED 512

Through my time learning and working with web development and content management, I've always been tentative working with HTML and CSS coding. While working in college athletics and handling team publicity, I've primarily relied on the content management software provided for our department.

Thanks to the progression of the assignments in GED 512, I've become more comfortable with the fundamentals of HTML and CSS. I've always focused on the design and aesthetics of a site, and that helps me realize the importance and usefulness of CSS to set a structure and layout that's easy for a user to look at.

In terms of the hardest and most rewarding assignments so far, I think those two would be separate assignments. The hardest assignment was working with the tables (http://www.csupomona.edu/~ialber/512/table.html) because I'm accustomed to the easy content management software that enables me to create tables quickly.

For the most rewarding assignment, I thought that the form creation was very neat (http://www.csupomona.edu/~ialber/512/exercise92.html). Forms are obviously a very important and useful part of a web site... and I didn't realize how easy it could be to structure a form with different options (radio, check box, etc.).

- Ivan Alber

Blog/Journal 5: Trying Twitter

Although I started my personal Twitter account around 2008, I only began regular activity in July 2014 (@IvanAlberCPP). My first posts in 2008 didn't include any mentions of other accounts or hashtags. Now with a better understanding in 2014, I've done a better job of "interacting" and promoting other users and topics.

I think Twitter serves as a very important tool within the world of collegiate athletics, the career field I'm in currently. One of the best uses is the weekly Twitter chats that are available to those working in sports. Some of these regular chats include:

#sbchat – Sundays, 9:30pm ET (sports business focus)

#SportJC – Every other Monday, 8:00pm ET (focuses specifically on getting a job in sports)

#social4tixsales, Tuesdays, 8:00pm ET (best practices in ticket sales)

#sportsPRchat – Tuesdays, 9:00pm ET (sports PR focus)

#smsportschat – Thursdays, 9:00pm ET (intersection of sports and social media)

Because of time constraints, I haven't been able to participate in many of these chats. I still check in periodically and read the recaps of the chats. There are many mentions of best practices and advice from those folks considered "experts."

Another great aspect of Twitter is the idea of reaching media members easier through social media than it might be through the normal email distribution of press releases. Recently, I was able to contact a Univision sports anchor about an upcoming story. I don't think that contact could have been achieved through regular email communication.

Journal Post #4: Project Plan

• Site title - Cal Poly Pomona Athletic Facilities
• Developer - Ivan Alber
• Rational or focus - The purpose of this page will be to showcase the Cal Poly Pomona athletic facilities to fans and guests. The content will provide photos, directions and ticketing prices to the different athletic venues.
• Main features outline - The main features will be able to access information on the three main athletic facilities at Cal Poly Pomona: Kellogg Gym (basketball, volleyball), Kellogg Field (soccer, track & field) and Scolinos Field (baseball).
• Content - As of right now, the plan will be to have four pages, including a home page along with one page for each of the three facilities. I could break it down further if each facility page will have its sub-pages of directions and ticketing.
• Target audience - The main target audience will be visiting and home fans that are attending games at our campus. The page can also draw attention from other guests to the university or prospective student-athletes.
• Design considerations. The design goal will to keep the navigation simple while also providing useful info (directions/ticketing) and also photos to represent the aesthetics of the facilities.
• Limiting factors - One limiting factor could be being strategic about the number and size of facility photos to keep the web page running quickly while maximizing browser speed.

Journal #3: Commercial Concerns in the Social Web

Friesen, N. (2010, Dec. 6) Education and the Social Web. Retrieved Oct. 18, 2014 from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3149/2718

Summary: Written in 2010, this article delves into the subject of social media and how it is portrayed. At the surface, social media is built up as a personal learning environment where users can tap into a wide range of communities and content. In essence, the user is being portrayed as the focus and purpose of all social media creation. The article gives us a clearer picture of reality, which shows that the bottom line for social media business is the advertising: "Eyeballs to Advertisers." With each passing moment as well, advertisers and the social media developers become more and more wise at creating algorithms to match users with the correct brands, which only increases the demand for more advertising purchases.

Q1: What are some big social media changes that have occurred since this article was written?

In seeing that the "Commercial Concerns in the Social Web" was written in 2010, I can tell that a lot of the issues raised in the article have even increased in importance now that we're almost in 2015. We've seen a drop in Facebook usage among the younger demographic and although some of that has to do with an older demographic being more present on the social media channel, I think the amount of ads and sponsored content also could play a factor with the decision from youth to move to other channels like Instagram and Snapchat.

Q2: How does this article apply in the connected world between sports and social media?

Through research in my current job in college athletics, I've also noticed that even users - specifically, sports organizations - use their own content to incorporate sponsor logos. For example, the Indianapolis Colts recently started placing Taco Bell logos in the bottom corner of their Instagram images. Although some organizations do a decent job of keeping a low profile on these corporate mentions, a careless strategy of content ads could lead to a loss of followers and fans becoming upset with the brand.

Comments anyone?

Blog Post #2: Review of Content Via Digg Reader

In my working in sports media and athletics public relations, I focused my Digg Reader content on news around the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) conference within NCAA Division II.

While looking over the content of all 12 schools within the CCAA, I noticed a few important details:

- Articles posted on UCSDTritons.com don't pull the teaser text and the story photo into the Digg Reader.

- Each athletic media relations department takes a different approach to which headline words they capitalize and also the style of headline writing certainly varies.

- The quality of the photography also varies depending on the school and in one particular case - San Francisco State - the use of social media accounts within the headline seems like a new approach to that implementation,

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Q1: Is Digg Reader more or less beneficial than Twitter?

A1: I think they are both useful for different purposes. I like reading articles through Digg Reader because I know that I'm looking at only the articles posted on those specific sites. Although I could create a list on Twitter, I'd still see a lot of other social media info that doesn't link directly to the web sites' stories.

Q2: How will you use Digg Reader in the future?

A2: I'd like to set up a few different Digg Reader categories so I can delve into a wide range of topics while not limiting myself to just the CCAA sports news. Since my Twitter and regular browsing usage might be scattered, I think Digg Reader could bring me a more focused approach.

Blog Post #1: Recap of First Three Chapters (Robbins)

Summary

Chapter 1 presented an overview of what it takes to be involved in web design while also encouraging readers to not be overwhelmed with all of the aspects that go into web design. Someone can learn web design and pursue a career in the field without mastering every aspect of design, programming, multimedia, etc. The writer stresses the importance of having a basic understanding of HTML and CSS, with those tools having a major impact on many facets to the web development process.

Chapter 2 covered details on how information appears on the Internet and all of the related parts that are needed to make the process complete. I thought it was particularly useful to read about what happens when a URL is placed in a browser. I also enjoyed seeing the side-by-side comparison of the actual web page next to the HTML and CSS code.

Chapter 3 featured a discussion of major concepts, including site performance, accessibility and responsive design. In viewing a Waterfall chart of BroncoAthletics.com, I found it to be a tool that is likely under-utilized by many organizations and the web managers that they employ.

Questions

Q: What makes a great web site?

A: One that is easy to navigate. One that has fast performance and follows web standards with clean code. One that can be accessed on many devices and also by people with disabilities.

Q: What kind of skills does it take to build a great web site?

A: For someone to build a great web site, they'll have to adapt to a constantly changing landscape of devices and user tendencies. As Robbins states, a foundation of HTML, CSS and design is also important.