Month: September 2013

Twitter 101

It seems as if “everyone” is tweeting today! What is it and how can you get involved? “Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read “tweets”, which are text messages limited to 140 characters. Registered users can read and post tweets but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or mobile device app.[10] Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco and has offices in New York City, Boston, and San Antonio.” (Thanks to Wiki for the definition).

For many twitter can serve as a professional learning network, and allows for quick news items, and immediate sharing with out the time of putting together an entire blog posting. Many refer to it as micro-blogging, or 140 character tidbits to share links, pictures, media and information.

How to Sign up for a  Twitter account

1. Go to https://twitter.com/
2. Fill out the “New to Twitter, Sign Up” box including your name, email and password.
3. Click the sign up button.
4. The next page will allow you to choose a unique username.
5. Check all information in the boxes, and “Create my  Account”
6. Check email for confirmation to access account!

Terminology

Tweet: The message you post. Twitter has limited the length of tweets to under 140 characters, so you must be direct and to the point.

Follower: A follower is someone that you are connected to on twitter. They can see your updates, and if you follow them, you can see theirs.

Retweet: Used when someone would like to share what you said to their own followers. RT @username is what it will look like.

Mention: To tweet with another person, you can either send a direct message or mention them in your tweet so others can also see. In order to mention someone, you will place an @ (at) sign before the person’s username.

DM: Direct Messaging, or private messages that are not posted online or searchable.

Hashtag: A keyword or phrase that has a # (pound) symbol before it. It organizes hastags together all in one feed for exploration of a single topic.

The biggest tip for twitter that I can give someone is take some time to explore people on twitter, follow similar people who you may not know, professionals in the field and specialists from other states! You never know when you might learn something from someone else that would be useful in your own programming.  This provides a snapshot of what twitter is, but more information will be added continually. Keep checking back for twitter posts!

BuckeyeBox for OSU Extension

About BuckeyeBox

The BuckeyeBox service provides an easy way to share files and folders online. Box consolidates your content in a single location, easily accessible from anywhere, on any device. You can create files and folders, share them using a direct link, invite colleagues and classmates to collaborate, and continue to revise and review your content. Though similar in appearance to other consumer services such as DropBox, Box can directly integrate with existing OSU single sign-on authentication systems.

The box is just like the “My documents” on your computer. Each OSU Employee gets 50GB of space – more than you can get with Dropbox (2GB).  You can also download “Box Sync” which puts a folder called “My Box Files” in the My Documents folder on your desktop.  There is also an app for your smart phone.

Learn More About BuckeyeBox

Getting Started with BuckeyeBox

Managing Files and Folders

Carmen Connect – Need More Training?

Make plans to attend our session at Annual Conference (Ken Kulka and Teresa Johnson) to learn more about Carmen Connect and get your questions answered. In the meantime…. there are several resources on the web to help with using Carmen Connect.

Carmen Connect Quick Start/Host/Presenter Info

Tips and Tricks Video

Uploading a document into Carmen Connect vs Sharing a Document/Desktop

To use your CarmenConnect account, you can go to the portal at https://carmenconnect.osu.edu/ or you can go to the direct URL for any Connect room in our system. The username is your “lastname.#@osu.edu” and the initial password is “carmenconnect1”. This is a one-time use password. You will be asked to create a new password for yourself after you have successfully logged in. In the CarmenConnect portal, you can create new rooms for yourself or manage any existing rooms under your account. Most of these features can also be accessed from the menus in a Connect room

Carmen Connect Contact: 
Ken Kulka:   kulka.1@osu.edu
614-292-2012
Instructional Development Specialist
Communications and Technology

 

New University Branding: How to Update Your Social Media Profile Pictures

With the new University branding came some confusion as to how those of us utilizing social media should update our Facebook or Twitter profile pictures to reflect the new logo… or if it was even possible. The University branding site now includes social media button and logo templates for you to download and use in order to update your pictures. (You’ll need to download the “Digital/Web” interactive assets). The only catch: you need to have a recent version of Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop installed on your computer to pull up the images and edit them therein.

If you don’t have Photoshop, you have a couple options:

1. You can order Photoshop Elements 11 for less than $100 through Wired Out or  E-Stores. You’ll receive it as a digital download, meaning you won’t have to wait for a physical disc to arrive before you can start using it. Easy-peasy.

2. You may be able to have a colleague who does have Photoshop edit the logo for you, save as a JPEG, GIF or TIFF file, and e-mail it to you. If they’re Photoshop savvy, this shouldn’t take more than a few minutes as long as you know what changes you want them to make.

(If you didn’t catch the linked text above that takes you to the template site – here it is: http://www.osu.edu/brand/downloads.html )

Have questions about social media profile pictures? Leave a comment and I’ll answer!

– Jamie

Welcome to the EdgeU Tech blog!

Four OSU Extension program professionals began .5 FTE (50%) appointments as Educational Technology Specialists this past July. Over the course of the next year, Teresa, Heather, Jamie, and Kimberly will be serving as Ed Tech mentors, coaches, and resource persons (among other things). They’ll be utilizing this blog space as an online “warehouse” to park FAQs, helpful information, tech resources, and general thoughts on technology use in Extension. If you haven’t already done so, take a look at the Ed Tech intro video for an idea of why these positions were created and what topics each Ed Tech will be specializing in over the next few months. Leave a comment with a tech question or issue and the Ed Techs will answer it in an upcoming blog post!