GEORGEENA MATHEW

Just another TWU Digital Learning Commons site

Category: digital literacy

Recording AUDIO

September 24, 2018 / / 0 Comments

https://anchor.fm/georgeena-mathew-palackamthundathil/episodes/Episode-1-e29g6k

It was interesting to use  Anchor to record audio . Haven’t tried before, so I really do not know if this is the way to share . Just check the link !!! Felt there is limitation in editing the recorded audio. Once I posted the episode 1, I felt I could have been better if I have got an idea or a chance to edit the audio to make it a bit shorter. Each activity is leading me to interesting platforms and getting exposure to various digital skills .<iframe src=”https://anchor.fm/georgeena-mathew-palackamthundathil/embed/episodes/Episode-1-e29g6k” height=”102px” width=”400px” frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”></iframe>

FINDING U

September 17, 2018 / / 0 Comments

 

I have gone through my digital identity search using google and yahoo search engines .Though Georgeena Mathew Palackamthundathil is my official name , I have  recently changed my social media profile title to Georgeena Alphine by adding my husband’s name . It was interesting to see my  google search and it didn’t show up anything that’s disturbing ,rather it was amazing to see few of my unsaved passport size pictures which I have used for immigration purposes and also highlights that I am active in social media especially in Facebook, and of course I am  great at using it wisely to share pictures, events what I  feel like posting but still I manage to keep my personal space . One can easily find my picture posted in google accounts, LinkedIn, KCABC website, Facebook and now in TWU site as I joined Trinity Western University for MA Leadership in Health Care. Interestingly there is none with my name spelled as “Georgeena”. In addition I have seen few pictures of ladies with name ‘Georgina’ . One more mesmerizing fact was that , I could find a bit of similarity in facial features like that of mine with few young ladies with a different name. Did google find out people who looks like me ???? Great!!!

I never tried to google my name before, but I found that if we are into any social networking sites, it will display whatever we have entered in it, so it showed that I work with Classic Life Care since July 2016, worked at P.D. Hinduja National Hospital 2014 to 2016 as a Registered Nurse [RN] and further moved to Vancouver to study at Omni college ,Richmond for preparing to be a Registered Nurse in Canada . She is currently an LPN with Alberta and even about my schooling and so on !!

I love sociocultural activities and actively participate in cultural events organised by the Kerala associations. Moreover as  I am a board member of a non-profit organisation KCABC and helps the association with event coordination, all fields of my interest are seen in Facebook as the associated organisations tags her in their pictures. I love cooking, painting [not perfectionist], anchoring [MC] for events , training kids for cultural events and encouraging youth members in the participation of various activities and one of the recent activity was a Fund Raising Campaign for the Kerala flood relief . There are so many event shares, pictures ,awareness posts about various fund raising events and programs in my Facebook page.

Looking into all these gave me a strike and while going through Kris Shaffer’s page , I gained insight on digital minimization and how one can have even a downfall or even get famous using social media . Need to be wise in this platform where its not only me or my close one seeing, but a lot of eyes are on to it.

ART OF CRAP DETECTION

September 17, 2018 / / 0 Comments

In this intangible social networking globe the rampant use and spread of fake messages/hoax by mendacious minds is untrammeled with legal control and is in fact  fueled with the increase of accessibility to free or cheap internet. The majority chunk of such shared misinformation are stale and are mostly only to induce fear in the minds of people and make them think or act in a particular manner for malafide intentions. These data are circulated way more faster than we can imagine as those who forward it or share it don’t really go to see or check it’s authenticity. It spreads like wild fire.

In the wake of the proliferation of such  misinformation, digital literacy becomes indispensable. Not many realize the consequence of such misinformation being circulated. These information varies from topics related to breakout of viruses to winning lotteries a hundred times. The other day I received a message that is related to the spread of Ebola. The same message was making rounds in the networking world few years back and the exposure to that fact helped me to not really dig into it’s authenticity and further refrained me from further sharing it. But those who lack such exposure to this existing social world end up usually becoming the victims to such unscrupulous practice.

Michael Caulfield’s clearly laid down  the guidelines that really help in the scrutinization of such information before even giving a thought to believe it. His fact checking techniques in the four moves in his guide basically enlightens us to check the authenticity of the messages on the internet  by going to the root of such information and also checking laterally the trustworthiness of the information from other’s and accordingly decide if it is a genuine piece of information that needs to be believed first and shared. Also as an additional tactic or tip to deal with this menace, he points out to the importance or the influence of emotional status of the individual while doing so, as those who are emotionally stirred up with the information can be biased while checking the authenticity of the given piece of data. The frame of mind of such individual’s are not really suitable to genuinely check the same without any predispositions. In such situations we need to stop at the thought of sharing it. So we are to be cautious while believing in such information and see that it is not further shared unless we check it’s genuineness and authenticity and are assured of the same.

 

TRACKING THE TRACKERS!!

September 12, 2018 / / 1 Comment

   Internet browsing has become a routine in today’s life. And majority of the users like me are unaware or careless about the tracking sources available in search engines. I always used google chrome as my default browser and I have noticed that I get many advertisements in social media related to my internet search and it’s catchy as per my interest. However I neglected that because I thought it’s not going to affect me.

As an exercise, when I downloaded Mozilla Firefox ,I felt  it’s much faster than google chrome and it’s my first time to track the trackers using light beam and I was surprised to see nearly 26 trackers were detected within the first minute after installation of light beam . Now I am aware about the seriousness and strongly recommend to have safe and secure internet browsing only because of this exercise . I have visited few sites in this short span, that are YouTube, manormaonline (native online news), Facebook, RBC online banking , Amazon, CNA website . I think more trackers are from Facebook out of these. It may depend on the time spent in each site and am not that clear with the logic. I have noticed that many of the trackers are from the sites which I have not visited too. So I believe that my habit of surfing should be scrutinized and the thoughts should go every angle when the internet is used because internet never forget anything and the users are under sharp surveillance. As per my knowledge, cookies remain there unless it is manually cleared.  This session was indeed very useful because it opened my eyes & and felt ,very close and deep study is required regarding internet security. It will be definitely useful in near future.

Georgeena Mathew

DIGITAL LITERACY

September 7, 2018 / / 0 Comments

In this century where one post or comment on any of your social media handle can risk your career, all future prospects and even life, it is of utmost importance to have the know how of how can one’s opinion be interpreted or taken in and out of context landing the concerned individual in an unforeseen and reprehensible situation.

Though not an avid user of social networking sites, my most frequented social site is Facebook, wherein, once in a while I do share my opinions and thoughts and at times share posts of other’s that are in line with my perspective about a given topic.

There have been quite a few instances wherein I have come across posts and comments that led to series of criticism , humiliating the author of such posts or comments. Of late it was of an employee working in an MNC who lost his job as a result of a post put up by him on his Facebook account. The post garnered attention from all quarters. If at all the concerned employee  had invested his/her time and energy in assessing the repercussion and backlash , if any, that would and/or could be the aftermath of such post, this could be avoided. Here is where the significance of digital literacy comes into the frame.

Being a civilized person it is the duty of every individual to be responsible while putting forth their thoughts and opinions on any public platform or social networking sites. Public shaming is an inexorable thing and one can avoid it by following 2 simple steps:

  1. As the age old saying goes, ‘THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK’  can very well be applied in this context.
  2. As the present day saying goes, ‘Google Before You Post’, one must think about the chances of fallout such posts could have and post accordingly.

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