Social media marketing for dummies
Un anno di disoccupazione, un anno di tanti lavori precari, un anno di studio.
Il mio 2013 è stato così. Condivido questa esperienza con tantissime persone, e ciò di certo non mi rallegra!
Però dicono che bisogna sfruttare la crisi e farla diventare occasione di cambiamento e miglioramento, e allora ecco qua.
Per chiunque possa averne qualche utile spunto di riflessione e magari tirarne fuori qualche idea, il corso che ho realizzato come progetto di tesi per il Master in Open Education, Social e Mobile Learning dell’Università di Firenze.
L’argomento è il social media marketing, molto di moda, molto cool, molto praticato anche in Italia ma con risultati un po’ così così, almeno secondo me. Per fare bene le cose… bisogna prepararsi bene 🙂
Io certo non sono un’esperta, ma un’autodidatta, perché vengo dal mondo dell’e-learning e di marketing non sapevo proprio niente. Né il Master mi è servito molto per questo argomento specifico, i Social Media infatti sono esaminati solo da una prospettiva accademica e solo in funzione dell’insegnamento/apprendimento.
Quel che ho scritto nel corso è frutto dello studio individuale e delle risorse che ho trovato in rete, che sono tante e soprattutto sono stimolanti, interessanti e fanno venire voglia di saperne di più. Un corso for dummies, proprio per chi ne sa poco e niente, così per stuzzicare l’appetito.
Se volete vedere la versione online (serve il Flash Player aggiornato):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/117127206/social_media_marketing/presentation.html
Chi ha un tablet può scaricare la App gratuita Articulate Mobile Player dall’App Store e vedere il corso da qui:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/117127206/social_media_marketing/ioslaunch.html
Infine, chi è più tradizionale e preferisce guardare le slide, le trova qui:
Enjoy e… any feedback is welcome! 🙂
Infine, un piccolo messaggio a chi, come me, ha perso il lavoro: non scoraggiatevi, mai! E studiate, che in un modo o nell’altro serve sempre!
Architettura dell’informazione
Che cosa sarà mai l’architettura dell’informazione?
Un termine così altisonante potrebbe spaventare o confondere. A una prima lettura, infatti, non sembra che l’informazione e l’architettura possano avere qualcosa in comune.
Proviamo a riflettere pensando al nostro settore lavorativo, dove le informazioni sono veicolate attraverso pagine web, corsi e-learning, e-book.
L’informazione sul web, nel suo formato più semplice, è un testo, e un testo scritto ha una struttura che lo rende funzionale e comprensibile. Anche un sito web ha una struttura: dalla home page accediamo a sezioni diverse che, a loro volta, possono condurre ad altre pagine. Ciascun sistema complesso, come un corso e-learning, richiede la progettazione di una struttura che permetta ai contenuti e alle funzionalità di integrarsi ed essere utilizzabili secondo schemi che si avvicinano il più possible al modello mentale dell’utente.
Per questo è utile familiarizzare con i principi dell’architettura dell’informazione, anche per chi non si occupa specificamente di questa disciplina.
Secondo Peter Morville e Louis Rosenfeld, padri della materia, lo scopo dell’architettura delle informazioni è mettere in relazione utenti e contenuti.
La progettazione di un sistema informativo segue un percorso top-down che prevede:
- architettura generale del sistema e del modello di interazione tra le parti
- analisi dei compiti e degli obiettivi degli utenti per disegnare il flusso di interazione tra utente e sistema
- analisi e progettazione dell’interfaccia che presenta i dati, i contenuti e gli strumenti di interazione per l’utente
Per saperne di più su questa affascinante disciplina il sito web della Società Italiana di Architettura dell’Informazione organizza periodicamente dei webinar e offre un pratico e utile glossario sull’architettura dell’informazione e sullo user experience design.
Ecco le slide di uno dei webinar sull’usabilità delle parole (l’architettura delle informazioni non può che partire da qui!):
Scrivi qui i tuoi pensieri… (opzionale)
How to use images in e-learning courses
Even the instructional designer can suffer from the disorder of the ‘white page’.
How can I illustrate a particular content? Which kind of communication method should I use? If I use images, how can I choose them and where can I find effective images?
It is demonstrated that images can enhance learning:
- it is easier to learn from a text combined with images, rather than from a text-only page;
- it is easier to learn from text and images presented together, rather than from text separated from images (both spatially and temporally).
Given the importance of images, we have to choose them carefully and accurately. There are different kind of images we can use, depending on the kind of content we have to explain and on the function of the images.
Images can be:
- illustrations
- photos
- schemes
- diagrams
Images can have different functions:
- decorative: images with a weak connection with the content of the lesson, a mere adornment. This kind of images can be an obstacle to learning, since they can distract from the object of the lesson;
- representative: images with a strong connection with the text, they reflect and reinforce it, for example a picture that shows the same scene described in a text;
- organizational: provide a structure for a text, for example a conceptual map or a tree chart. These images can be very useful to the learner, because they help to build mental models and to organize the knowledge in ‘scaffolds’;
- interpretative: clarify a text and give the learner a different perspective to interpret it, for example a representation of an electrical circuit;
- transformative: represent something that changes over time, for example a timeline or a data map. These images can be very useful to memorize information.
When we choose an image, it is always recommended to avoid decorative images, to use images that support attention, activate mental processes and help the learner to build mental models and organize information.
As usual, the web can help us to find images and design visualization methods. There are a lot of websites that sell images and a lot that provide free images with Creative Commons licences.
Many useful and effective examples of organizational, interpretative and transformative images can be found in the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods:
A project of great interest is The noun project, a website that collects icons and symbols to build a “global visual language that everyone can understand”. There are hundreds of icons uploaded by different designers under a CC licence:
I will not talk here of the many commercial websites that sell images: finding images is easier than designing and building effective and relevant images. When we have a clear idea of the kind of image we need, and of the function the image must have, it will be easier to search for it or to design it by ourselves.
How to make a digital artefact #edcmooc
If not “the” future of education, e-learning is “a” possible future and a way to spread and enhance education.
But how to transform a traditional lesson into a multimedia and interactive lesson? How to mix together texts, sounds, images, videos, into a coherent and engaging digital artefact?
Teachers and instructional designers often have many ideas and great design projects, but lack the technological skills to implement e-learning courses or multimedia objects.
The Internet can provide easy and free tools to do the work for us. Let’s see some of them.
Thinglink: http://www.thinglink.com
This is one of my favourites. You can make images interactive using tags which open links or text boxes. It is possible to link to images, videos, audio files and any kind of content on the web. Using the visual language in a creative way to tell a story, engage and educate is really easy, starting from a content you already have and looking for connections with different media. Interactive images can be shared and embedded in blogs and social networks. You only need to register to use Thinglink.
Copyright Thinglink.com
Voicethread: http://voicethread.com
VoiceThread collects group conversations and share them with no need to install a software. A VoiceThread is a collaborative, interactive, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos. It allows people to navigate through the slides and leave comments using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file (for VoiceThread Pro users), or video (via a webcam). Useful for building interactive lessons but the final output can be a little confusing.
Storify: http://storify.com
Storify collects relevant posts from social networks and organise them in a personal home page: you can choose an issue and add headlines and comments to build your own story. The implementation of the ‘story’ is very easy, you have to drag and drop the content in the page and organise it as you like. Can be useful to practice the use of different media and the language and style of communication of social media. This is also its limit.
For specific purposes:
Xtranormal: http://www.xtranormal.com
If you want to make a 3D video with animated characters. You don’t need to download a software but there is a cost for some characters and sets. Teachers have a special account.
Pixton: http://pixton.com/uk
Dedicated to school, make it possible to tell a story using comics. Can be used by the students directly online, choosing characters, objects, scenarios. It is not free, there is a subscription for group of students and schools.
Issuu: http://issuu.com
If you want to make a pdf interactive Isuu convert your document into an interactive online publication; no technical skills required. Your content is shared in a web browser without any download or installation so anyone can see it.
Freesound: http://freesound.org
If you need sounds for your multimedia projects, Freesound is a collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds.
Paper.li: http://paper.li
If you want to create an online newspaper collecting articles from the web. To customise the home page you have to buy a pro account.
Are tablets the solution to educational issues? #edcmooc
The second week of the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC is focused on futuristic visions of technology and education.
What is happening now in the sphere of learning technology, and what might happen in the future?
In some of the films (A day made of glass, Productivity future vision), we can see happy families and happy students learning and playing with smart tablets; they use tablets for everything and in every moment of the day and these objects are depicted as the ultimate solution to issues of comunication, learning and working.
I have found on the Internet some articles on the use of tablets in educational projects: these articles are an interesting counterpart to the utopistic view of the videos mentioned above.
eLimu: ‘T’ is for tablet computer
The first article is quite critical on the real usefulness of tablets and technologies in general for education.
One of the main problem is that there is too much emphasis on technology: tablet are useful and engaging for children, but there is a need for strong and contextualised educational content. Making relevant educational, grade-specific content is still a challenge.
Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves
The second article is more enthusiastic. The goal of the One laptop per child project is “to see if illiterate kids with no previous exposure to written words can learn how to read all by themselves, by experimenting with the tablet and its preloaded alphabet-training games, e-books, movies, cartoons, paintings, and other programs.”
The children after several months were able to use the tablets and write some simple words on their own. But it is required more time to reach conclusions about the possibility that children can learn from tablets without teachers.
The aim of the preject, anyway, is an utopistic one in itself and starts from the assumption that technology alone can be the solution for education.
I do not know if tablets can be the answer to educational needs: surely I agree that they are completely useless without good contents, i.g. good apps or intelligent games specifically designed for a particular audience and for specific learning goals.
Anyway, tablets and devices like these are extremely fascinating, not only for their educational potential. Looking at the movies A day made of glass and Productivity future vision you can not wait to have one and moreover it gives you a sense of ‘power’, for the possibiliy to be connected with everyone and everything, and this is exactly the impression that the two movies want to give.
On the other side, the idea of education that emerges from the movies is rather poor: the life of the dinosaurs, the differences of colours, how to make a cake. So, a tablet plus a good content can be a solution, maybe!
Related articles
- Week 2: A day made of glass #edcmooc (mymoocadventure.wordpress.com)
- EDCMOOC Week 2: Looking to the Future (bwatwood.edublogs.org)
- #edcmooc Determining factors for societal change (aboxofthistles.wordpress.com)
- #edcmooc Sleek and white – a utopian vision of the future (aboxofthistles.wordpress.com)
- Red Pill or Blue Pill #edcmooc (lipstickmoonlight.wordpress.com)
Digital natives and digital immigrants #edcmooc
E-learning and digital cultures MOOC Week 1
Reflections on Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
If I think to the italian social context I can easily identify teachers with “digital immigrants”, but it is not so easy to think to students as “digital natives”.
Definitely I see technology as a mean to produce new realities, new ways of communicating, learning and living, and its effects can be unpredictable. But this, in my opinion, does not contradict with the idea that technology is shaped and takes meaning from how individuals and groups choose to use it.
The problem in italian school is that computers and technology are far from being used and familiar: it is most of all a problem of access to technology and its benefits. So this debate does not apply to Italy or, if it does, only to point out that the whole school system is made of “digital immigrants”.
Let’s read an extract of Prensky’s article:
“Legacy” content includes reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the writings and ideas of the past, etc – all of our “traditional” curriculum. It is of course still important, but it is from a different era. Some of it (such as logical thinking) will continue to be important, but some (perhaps like Euclidean geometry) will become less so, as did Latin and Greek.
“Future” content is to a large extent, not surprisingly, digital and technological.
Well, if an italian teacher would read this, maybe he/she were shuttered! But this is not only a problem of Italy, it an issue for a big part of the world. The access to technology, the possibility to use computers and the Internet is now critical for being slkilled and competitive.
From my perspective it is not a problem of technological and social determination, but a problem of equal access and freedom of use of technology.
So I agree that “technology is determined by the political and economic structures of society”, but also in the sense that the access to these means of instruction is still limited and partial.
Related articles
- Edcmooc : E-learning for Digital Natives (mraybould.wordpress.com)
- My thoughts on the videos #edcmooc (mymoocadventure.wordpress.com)
- What does it mean to be a Digital Native? (cnn.com)
- EDCMOOC Week 1: Utopias and Dystopias (bwatwood.edublogs.org)
- #edcmooc Day 2 (aboxofthistles.wordpress.com)
Utopias and Dystopias #edcmooc
This is my first post for the E-learning and digital cultures MOOC on https://www.coursera.org
I have been watching the digital resources for the theme “Looking to the past” – “Popular cultures”. This video, in particular, strucked me for its dystopic view of technology:
Reading the web essay from Chandler, I think that the video depicts a reductionist perspective of technology and could be an example of what the author describes as “the identification of technology with tools and machines… This is merely to substitute a part for the whole”.
In the video there is only one face of technology, the bad one: machines as threatening objects and humans as passive victims of them. Do humans control machines or vice versa?
The Bendito machine let us think that technology controls our lives, but who controls technology?
In the “Inbox” video, instead, I see an utopic view of technology:
A girl and a boy meet thanks to technology (the metaphor of the bag is really nice!): the other side of technology, the good one, here comes out. The possibility to communicate in different and new ways, to overcome our limits and try new roads: technology is not only synonymous of control and passivity, but also a vehicle of communication and discovery.
Open education, social e mobile learning
Ultimi giorni per iscriversi al master “Le nuove competenze digitali: open education, social e mobile learning”, organizzato dal Laboratorio di tecnologie dell’educazione dell’Università di Firenze: la scadenza è il 7 dicembre 2012.
Quest’anno il master si rinnova con tre profili emergenti per il futuro delle tecnologie della formazione:
– Open Education Manager, progettista e gestore esperto di risorse educative aperte
– Network and Mobile Learning Manager, esperto di tecnologie mobili e di cloud-based learning
– Esperto di Media Education e di Competenza digitale
Il focus dell’edizione 2013 del master, attivo ormai da 11 anni, sono i processi formativi sostenuti dai social media, particolarmente rilevanti nel mondo della formazione professionale, della scuola e dell’editoria multimediale.
Il master si svolge completamente a distanza, in modalità e-learning; il costo è 1.800 euro.
Tutte le informazioni sul sito web del LTE
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