Becoming a Blogger 101

What should I include in my blog? Am I doing this right? How can I make this a fun learning and developmental experience for myself?

These are all questions I began asking myself after listening to Dr. Dennen's Week 1 VoiceThread. I knew that the class would challenge me in areas I may not be as familiar with, which is PERFECT. As someone who uses various digital/social media platforms, I have not gotten into blogging, not because I don't see it as exciting but mainly because I never took the time to explore it. I never would have thought that enrolling in EME6414 for the Summer would be my start to making time to learn how to blog. Following the instructions from the VoiceThread, detailed syllabus, and week 1 Blog Journal Assignment Overview, I felt more confident in my abilities to blog. While also practicing grace with my journey of learning all about the "Do's and Don't's" of blogging. To become confident using Blogger.com, I watched different YouTube tutorials. One tutorial, in particular, helped me, which is by Tony Teaches Tech— How to Make a Free Blog Website on Blogger.com. I recommend this tutorial to anyone like myself who is new to the world of blogging, especially with Blogger.com. I used this first week of the summer session to get adjusted to my "new norm" for the next 12 weeks of being a consistent blogger; I hope to look back to this moment and celebrate how far I have come along with celebrating the new knowledge and skills developed along the way. Instead of saying "becoming a blogger," I look forward to calling myself a blogger by the end of the Summer session. If you have any helpful tips, please do share, as I am open to making my blogger journey one to remember.

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Reflections on Slack

I remember the first time I learned about Slack; it was my first year as a Graduate Supervisor in Residential Life at Indiana University. I worked alongside my direct supervisor in co-supervising an undergraduate staff of nine resident assistants (RA's). At the time of staff training, we decided on a platform that could serve as mass communication for the team. We agreed on Slack because there was the option to have multiple channels to engage in different topics. However, this felt far more complicated than a GroupMe chat. After a few failed attempts with Slack, we decided to move forward and not use it as our primary communication forum. I had mixed feelings about Slack. I did not understand any of the other features, so I did not feel I would return to using Slack. We were introduced to Slack in our week 9 module, and I considered giving Slack another try. I checked Slack's website to see if there were any changes, but I did not see any new features or changes. I chose to ...

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Johnnie Allen Jr.

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