For this fun photo, I used the Pho.to tool and played around with the cartoon affect!
I have been an Instagram user for quite a while now and it is one of my favorite photo sharing websites, and honestly the only one I have any real experience with. The aspects of the Instagram that I like is the ability that I have to follow so many different people, from my Facebook friends to celebrities, and the tags that can be used similar to that in twitter to group photos together and search similar posts, and of course the unique photo editing options.
For my own personal learning experience, the internet has played a big role. Through my undergraduate degree, I remember looking things up or visiting websites to help with studying and using it on a weekly basis. Now, in the pursuit of my master’s degree I am in an online program so the internet and learning go hand in hand for me in several ways. I am on the internet every day for several hours a day with school work and not only does the internet allow me access to my classes and assignments, it is an excellent study tool. Without the use of the internet, I could not access the school library resources which I have used in each and every class thus far but I also would not have had this opportunity to work towards the degree in the first place. The internet has become a resource in learning for so many different people and provides the option to learn in the first place for so many others. On a regular basis, I visit the National Athletic Training Association’s webpage and try to keep current on some of the articles of upcoming research, even if it is to read one new journal article a month. As far as following certain authors to keep current with goes, it is not something that I am consistent with but am not opposed to trying. Overall, I think that the internet is one of the most helpful and most useful resources at a students’ disposal in the realm of learning. On the other side of that coin however, I am almost sure that the internet can be a large distraction for everyone at one point in time or another. There are other sites and webpages to visit that are not entirely educational in basis and would serve as a distraction which I can admit I am guilty of once in awhile. If one can keep focused and stay on task, the internet can open doors to providing endless learning opportunities and experiences.
The topic that I want to follow the most and collect the most resources from and about would be athletic training. In setting up a PLN, I went with a tool provided by Scoop.It! because I felt that this particular resource would get the job done in a manner that I could most relate. I selected resources to follow that will discuss the athletic training realm throughout our country and will provide news about new and upcoming treatments. In addition to this, I hope to see new stories about athletes that had success with certain programs and could utilize it as another rehabilitation tool. Feel free to visit this is at the url address of http://www.scoop.it/t/the-life-of-an-atc.
I have days in my profession where I come home from work and feel accomplished and I feel like I made a real difference in somebody’s life and those are the days that remind me of why I love what I do. I think it is safe to assume that just about everybody has these types of days along with the days that make you want to pull your hair out and make you question your sanity for doing the job that you do. Then there are the in between days that aren’t necessarily bad but then again aren’t extraordinary. I think it is crucial to have a balance of all of these types of days, otherwise we wouldn’t know the difference. The days that I would consider feeling in my “sweet spot” are the days that I first described, the days that remind me of why I really love my job. I find that on these days, I have a lot of interaction with athletes and with athletes that are eager and thankful for my help. When I feel like I am making progress with an athlete in their rehab and have helped them overcome an obstacle whether it was physical or emotional in the rehabilitation process, I crave to feel a part of it and to witness the moment when something clicks for an athlete. The moment where the light bulb goes on and they’ve realized they can do something that they couldn’t do before or when they have reached what once seemed like an unattainable goal. I also feel in my “sweet spot” when an athlete is first injured and I am the one in charge and the one there to help and offer my guidance or care, whatever the situation may entail. I like the feeling of being in control of the situation and that the athlete is counting on me and my expertise to care for them and make the best decision for the health and safety. The areas that I feel are out of my “area of strengths” is when I don’t feel like the athlete is invested in themselves enough to put in the work I am asking of them. I can admit that I lose my patience with these types of athletes rather quickly and it is a skill that I actively try to improve on a daily basis. I can say this because I do have this opportunity almost daily with the athletic population that I most often work with. I work in a high school setting where most of the students are used to always getting their way and can have lazy tendencies when it comes to doing something that they do not want to do. I do not like to feel as though I have to hold the athletes hand to walk them through their rehab for example and get frustrated when I constantly have to be the one to initiate or ask when they are going to do their exercises. When this type of athlete comes in I do not press the matter but two or three times and after that I let them come to me if that is what they want. I know this happens when I lose patience and if I had better patience I could speak with the athlete or their coach about what they are not doing and how it won’t get them on the field any faster. It is very difficult for me to put forth effort that I do not see from my athletes on some occasions and this is where I lose patience the easiest. I have recognized this trait in myself before and know that it is something that I will probably always have to work on and I am absolutely willing to do so. I have had a twitter account for about two and a half years and have hardly used it. I've even gone so as to delete it on a couple of occasions and am now back at it. I mainly used it to follow friends and others in the athletic training world. My favorite pages were always the ones posting and re-tweeting injury pictures! I had never really understood the design purpose of the website and hadn't thought of it being involved in educational purposes until today when I started doing some more research on the meaning and purposes of twitter and the variety of it uses. I think that social media is too large of a presence to ignore and instead of trying to steer students away from the social media craze, microblogging in education could encourage the use of it in a positive and productive manner. Educators could use this as an avenue for projects or encouraging students to come together and create trends about what they feel is most important and it could be a helpful teacher to gain public perspectives.
In the athletic world, I feel that microblogging is already more established. I think this is because several professional athletes have their own twitter accounts and the fans of these athletes follow them to get the inside scoop, so to speak. In the news and on other social media sites it is not uncommon for a referral to be made about what one of these individual's tweeted about and can sometimes lead to negative media coverage for the athletes themselves. I think that microblogging in education vs athletics are two very different types of social media and I think that in regards to athletics it will always be done for entertainment purposes. In regards to education however, I think that the more classrooms and teachers that accept and implement this into their classes the larger this will become and before we know it, it very well may be a force to be reckoned with. I think that this will take the time and patience of select teachers who have a great understanding of microblogging and have ideas of how to put it to educational use. For now, I am still brainstorming on this myself and look forward to the semester of learning what this will mean for me and my own education. Before beginning the online master's program with Fresno Pacific University, I did not have any solid experience with online courses and therefore did not think about the personal web presence (PWP) of my educators. I had of course had this thought growing up in other realms and always did my best to keep my own PWP as professional and age appropriate as possible. In my experience I feel as though in order for a PWP to clearly define and represent an educator, the responsibilities and expectations of the educator should be clearly defined. Thus far in my educators that have done so, I have found this to be very helpful and I like that I feel as though their PWP is powerful enough that even though the course is online, they have established themselves in a manner just as if the course were taking place in a classroom. One of my educators in particular put forth expectations and lectures with conversational bits that made their PWP feel more personable. I cannot think of any improvements at this time for the educators PWP and do not feel as though there are any gaps in the course design that wouldn't have the possibility to exist in a classroom. I felt as though this educator has represented themselves on the web in a very professional and personable manner which I feel more comfortable adjusting to as a student, especially as a student that is new to online courses. I feel as though the educator's PWP is mostly professional as that is the scope that I observe it in with some exception to being personal when communication can take place, but I feel as though they do have an appropriate balance. A features of this educator's PWP that I would copy is that fact that they encourage their students to "be human" and to make mistakes and in doing this, I feel as though some of the pressure is relieved to have the perfect PWP. It is hard to say which features of the PWP that I would change and I don't think that this is a question that I can truly answer until I practice this skill for myself.
My name is Jessica Smalley and I am from Littleton, Colorado. I was born and raised here and firmly believe that Colorado is the best state there is! I live in a beautiful home with my boyfriend, Matt and my puppy Axel, who is one bundle of energy. We live a very active lifestyle and are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do so in such a beautiful state. Growing up I was an athlete and as most athletic trainers do at some point, suffered a career ending injury. After that experience, the world of sports medicine opened my eyes to the possibilities of new passions. I have been an athletic trainer since May of 2012 and have predominantly worked in the high school setting ever since. I am currently earning a master's degree and cannot wait to break into the collegiate level of sports and athletic training upon completion of my degree. My field of work is uniquely rewarding and I love the opportunity that I have been given to be able to help so many different people in so many different ways.
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