CSL Experience

As a student in CSL, I practiced what we learned in ALES 204 class at Green Hectares, a non-profit organization. Green Hectares helps people partner with or expand agricultural business. In order to teach young businessmen and business women how to communicate their ideas and collaborate effectively with others, Green Hectares has to come up with a 5-point guideline on giving a presentation. My project is to create a tip sheet with the 5-point guidline and to research resources to support these guidelines.

Paglia, R. (2011). Social Media Related Events Icons [Photograph]. 
Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralphpaglia/5467778044/in/photostream/

The CSL experience allowed me to practice the social media tools I learnt in the class. I used several types of social media tools to find the online sources. These tools were BaseCamp, YouTube, TED, twitter and blogs. BaseCamp is an online project manager that I used to communicate with CSL partner and supervisor. Since BaseCamp allowed me to work on the tip sheet without having to meet in person with my partner and supervisor, I had more flexible working hours. The CSL experience also developed my critical literacy because searching online was more than just gathering relevant information, I had to compare and analyze which resources were the most relevant to my points. The first four points emphasized the traditional style of communication while the last one focused on modern style of communication.

Lasica, J. (2009). Bronwyn [Phtotograph]. Retrieved from 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdlasica/4003438246/

The first point on the tip sheet focused on how to be a confident presenter and how to guide the audience through the presentation. The various sources we found for this point included how to properly practice a presentation and how to calm one’s nerves. For the second point, we introduced how to persuade your audience and the power of repetition. The best way is to make audiences feel connected with current issues the presenter is addressing and  then hook your audience by telling them you have the solution to their problems. Repetition of this part draws attention to your ideas. The third point is about how to appeal to the audiences' emotion. According to our resources, the most important thing is that you have to be passionate. Also, making eye contact with audiences conveys your emotions to them. The fourth point explained the importance of having a complete structure with a beginning, middle, and end. Steve Jobs always gave a clear theme and outline at the beginning of his presentations. This strategy is very important to hook people onto your topic. Always divide your presentation in several parts, each ending with an intermediate conclusion. In this way, people who get distracted can easily catch up with you. The final point stressed the need to use PowerPoints effectively. Posters and PowerPoint should be uncluttered with few words and mostly with pictures. PowerPoint and posters should be used as tools, not crutches in presentations.

Saunders, G. (2007). Welcome To Powerpoint 
[Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/
photos/garethjmsaunders/748083829/

 This project allowed me to learn new things. For example, I learnt to use social media like blogs,twitter, and YouTube for professional research. In terms of traditional communication, I learnt how to convey ideas effectively in presentations. A good presentation is not only about good content, but the strategies used to communicate that content. I am sure my CSL partner JenniferWheeler also has some good ideas to share.

Copyright

Ye, X. (2011). Banff [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com
/photos/75289322@N04/6830755768/in/photostream

I recently learned in ALES 204 class that Flickr users can choose one of the several types of licenses on Flickr, which limits usage of their original photos to other people. Coming from a country in which copyright laws are very different, it is important for me to learn the different limitations of each license. For example, I did not know that some of the original photos with certain licenses on Flickr are not allowed to be modified or used for commercial purposes by others. I learned that I need to be careful of the restrictions when I want to use some photos on Flickr if there is a copyright on them. These licenses on Flickr are Creative Commons copyright licenses. These licenses allow creators to own copyright but authorize certain uses of their works. I think Creative Commons provides a platform for every ordinary person sharing their creations and intelligence. Through some social communication tools such as Flickr, everybody can find and use other people's creations or build work on them while the creators still own some copyrights to their creations. I see this as the communication of wisdom through modern communication technology. By sharing and adding wisdom from others' works, more people are able to have better creations. In order to practice usage of these licenses, I uploaded one of my original photos on Flickr.

Ye, X. (2012). Collage Homework Of ALES 204 [Photograph]. 
Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/
75289322@N04/6840424940/in/photostr

The most interesting thing in class was to make a collage which was composed of 3 public domain photos, 3 copyrighted photos and 3 original photos. I learned that the public domain photos are the photos don’t have copyright, so I am free to download them and use them for any purpose. On the other hand, copyrighted photos have certain limitations for usage, depending on the license. I also found out that there are many online collage makers, which is very convenient to use on the internet because I don’t need to download the software.

When talked about copyright, I like Larry Lessig’s point of views on his video about scientific publishing, posted on the class blog. I agree with Larry’s opinion that scientific publishing should be free for everyone to access,not just the university professors. This is especially the case when the fees benefit only publishers and the authors don’t want to limit access to their work. In China, people in the past considered writing books as contributing or donating their knowledge to build up the civilization. Furthermore, they were so proud and happy that their knowledge could be passed on to people from one generation to another. Therefore, there were no copyright laws in history. It’s interesting to see that everybody likes to own something in current western society, even if it is just a personal photo with a Creative Commons license. Many people and publishers today write books or create things to build up their personal wealth. Only the wealthier people are able to afford university textbooks. With the influence of individualism, people tend to stress the importance of personal property and ownership. I think copyright is very much culturally influenced. People with different values hold different opinions about copyright. It is very hard to argue which one is exactly right or wrong, but it is important for everyone to think which way benefits the society the most and why. If you want to read more information about the sharing of information, check out Danielle Lu's blog. She wrote a blog post about another form of communication---Pecha Kucha.

What Is New About Facebook?

I have been using Facebook for about one and half years and I only use that for contacting my friends. This week in ALES 204 class I learnt that Facebook is a good tool for businesses and personal professionals. We created a personal Facebook page as an e-resume. I was able to introduce my academic history, volunteer and work experience, skills, contact information and hobbies on my Facebook profile. Compare to a hard copy resume, I find an e-resume on Facebook to be more attractive. I put links to my blog and Flickr on my Facebook page. By simply clicking on linkage, employers can visit your professional blog or Flickr posts. This provides them access to information about you and your work, in addition to any updates you may have.

 

    Screen Capture from my Facebook page. (Xinru Ye, 2012)

Through the work of making a Facebook personal profile, I learnt how to print a screen picture of a Facebook page and upload it to my blog and Flickr. I needed to use a website called picnik to crop the picture. This website is very interesting since I can use it to crop and edit my personal photos and I will definitely use it for that. In general, I enjoyed creating a personal page like an e-resume. I believe that many of my classmates also have some interesting things to share on their blog. Let us visit Pauline Nguyen's blog and get to know her experience! When you are finished, please check out my Facebook page!