Digital Professional Portfolio

I spent the evening creating my professional portfolio on Google Sites. I am pleased with my effort and have made the content available for public view (for the time being). Although very time consuming, I have enjoyed this course and learning about numerous technologies.

Here's the link to my portfolio: http://sites.google.com/site/ryanwalkersite/

This may be the last of my blogs so enjoy...

Plaxo/Linkedin vs. Facebook/MySpace

As required in the course, I just created both a Plaxo and Linkedin account. Plaxo seems to be very similar to Facebook without all the apps (from what I see) and with more emphasis on professional experience and education simply because both areas are boldly featured in your profile as opposed to being options in Facebook. According to the website, [http://help.plaxo.com/al/12/1/article.asp?aid=1076&tab=search&bt=4] “Plaxo is about synchronizing all that’s important to you in one single place. It’s about staying in touch with all those who you care about… your family, your friends and your business contacts. With Plaxo’s Pulse, we keep you up to date with what your friends, family and Business contacts are up to”. The interesting thing available to both Facebook and Plaxo users is that you can link your Facebook account to your Plaxo account “Connect your Facebook account to Plaxo and you'll be able to: Automatically connect with your Facebook friends who already use Plaxo, Share your Facebook Wall Stories (like photos, links, and videos) with your Plaxo friends, [and] Keep your Plaxo and Facebook status in sync.” To sum up—Plaxo and Facebook [even MySpace] are very similar…

Linkedin is also somewhat similar to Plaxo and Facebook [even MySpace], however, the website is mainly attempting to help the user make business/professional social contacts. According to the website, [http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/] “LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 40 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.”

Linkedin allows you to:

1. Establish your professional profile--“LinkedIn gives you the keys to controlling your online identity. Have you Googled yourself lately? You never know what may come up. LinkedIn profiles rise to the top of search results, letting you control the first impression people get when searching for you online.”
2. Stay in touch with colleagues and friends—“In today’s professional world, people change jobs and locations constantly. By connecting on LinkedIn, your address book will never go out of date. Your contacts update their profiles, keeping you current with their latest jobs, projects and contact info. You’ll stay in closer contact with great tools to communicate and collaborate.”
3. Find experts and ideas—“Sometimes your immediate circle can’t resolve a unique business challenge. Tools like Answers and Groups let you locate and interact with experts through trusted introductions. LinkedIn Search lets you explore the broader network by name, title, company, location, and other keywords that will help you find the knowledge you’re looking for.”
4. Explore opportunities—“ Whether you’re looking for a career opportunity, winning new clients or building your professional reputation, LinkedIn connects you to jobs, sales leads and ideal business partners. With our powerful search engine, company research tools and a jobs board that shows who you know at listed companies, LinkedIn is the place to turn for new opportunities.”
   

I don’t know where exactly I’ll go next with all of these technologies and websites we've explored. I do know now, that I have quite a few more tools ready to be used in my knowledge toolbox :)

LibraryThing

I'm very impressed with LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/) and foresee myself using it in the future to find books and read others reviews (just like Amazon). I created an account and began listing books that I've enjoyed in recent years. According to the site, there are now over 700,000 members who all can take advantage of the site's features like finding people with similar reading interests and new books to read.

Here's my library catalog:

Online Image Generator

Here's a map that includes all the states (California, Nevada, Hawaii, Texas, Montana, Oregon and Missouri) I've coached hoops in over the last few seasons...

States where I've coached basketball games

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php

Create your own map today of the places you've visited and get the HTML code to embed here:
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php

Technology changing the face of recruiting

Just as we've discussed how the technology we've gone over in this course can be applied and used in our profession (I mentioned recruiting and PR for coaches), I am happy to have found an article discussing the exact topic...

This article touches on Web 2.0 and how it's changing aspects of recruiting at the collegiate level:
http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=952774

YouTube

I like pretty much everything about YouTube and even created a channel there a couple years ago with a highlight video for our players at West Hills (linked on this blog). I have used YouTube alot both inside and outside of the classroom. Videos can be used in presentations, during lectures, and as reference tools amongst other things. I enjoy YouTube's ease of use and the wide variety of content available. As far as using it in coaching it has alot of use with recruiting and sometimes even scouting (as I mentioned in some prior comments). It's easy to spend alot of time searching around the website and I would advise using it during long layovers at the airport :)

I chose to post this video because I found it very interesting and worth a look. The 11 year-old kid featured, Jashaun Agosto, has a video that has been viewed some 2,000,000+ times... He's also been compared to Lance Armstrong here: http://blog.oregonlive.com/nwheadlines/2008/02/jashaun_agosto_is_11_as_an_adu.html.

Enjoy!

Del.icio.us

After visiting and exploring the Delicious website I can see an advantage to using the site. Similar to Google Docs you can access your Internet "favorites" or "bookmarks" away from your home or personal computer. You can also search through the networks bookmarks under any category and help find the topic of your choice. You can share your bookmarks and see what others are popular and even view the number of people subscribed, which is very beneficial and time saving. As an instructor, you can have students join Delicious and easily find the information they need for a course or research topic, by listing bookmarks and tagging them. Lots of possibilities on this site.

Technorati

When searching troughout the Technorati website I found some interesting information. After searching through the blog directory an article on chocolate milk being the perfect sports drink caught my eye. According to the article found on the "Cycling Tips" blog, during an endurance test cyclists who refueled with chocolate milk during a 4 hour break between exhausting rides were able to ride 50% longer than those who refeuled with common sports drinks such as gatorade. I remember seeing a special on Fresno State athletics and the chocolate milk given to certain athletes and this article further explained the reasoning behind it. Here's the link: http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/05/chocolate-milk-the-perfect-sports-drink/

I typed "kinesiology" in the tags directory under advanced search and found some different blog listings that were not listed in the standard search (and some of the same that were). I found the blog "Awaken Kinesiology" written by a Holistic Kinesiologist named Kerry who focuses on "helping people reduce stress, gain awareness and create more balance ... " Here's the link: http://awakenkinesiology.blogspot.com/

As far as exploring through the different search methods on the site, let's just say I was a little confused with the setup. I did find similar blog listings as far as titles to articles, videos and blog titles under the searches as well as different listings not found on the other search types. I can see how searching through this site can narrow down options as far as the topic you're looking for and it's helpful. I enjoyed reading some of the articles and sifting through various blogs. I really enjoyed the "what's popular" area and the top blogs by fans, top searches, top blogs by authority, top videos and top news.

Podcast Search Engines

I recently searched through http://www.podcastalley.com/and http://podcast.com/and found the sites not only interesting but user friendly. I found quite a few podcast links that were beneficial to me and even linked one to my Bloglines account so I could check up on additions frequently. The great thing about both sites is the categories of podcasts available to you by genre, popularity, awards, recommendation and by language (amongst others). I highly suggest using both of these sites to search for the numerous podcasts that are available.