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Week 7: How do we use social networking sites? And why might we choose not to use them?

With the Online Identity Analysis project in our rearview mirror, it’s time to turn our attention to our own professional electronic portfolios. I hope our first web workshop went smoothly for everyone, and I hope you’re ready to dig a little deeper into HTML and CSS next week. If you felt overwhelmed last night, or if you just want to review the things we covered, I recommend working your way through some of the basic tutorials on Codecademy, Code School, or Lynda.com. (Top-secret hint: All Lynda.com courses are free for Virginia Tech students.)

Next week, Renee and Shelby will be our discussion superheroes, and David and Mandy will show us how to use Google Scholar. In addition, we’ll talk about how our online networks function as virtual communities and consider the role of social networking sites in the workplace.

To read before class:

  • A Networked Self, Part 2 (pp. 105–82)
  • Howard Rheingold’s introduction to The Virtual Community (first published in 1993)

To do before class:

  • Submit (in your Google Drive folder) an assessment of your current professional online identity, following the guidelines in the electronic portfolio assignment.

Bonus reading (as time and interest permit):

(I hope you’ll make time for this week’s bonus readings — I think they connect quite nicely with the conversation we had during Week 6.)

As always, let me know if you’d like to talk about anything related to the readings, your blogging, or our new assignment.

UPDATE: Here are the files we’ll use for our CSS workshop. You don’t need to do anything with these until you come to class.