Monthly Archives: September 2019

Buffer – A Tool Allowing You to Create Your PLN/PLC 24/7

Nowadays, people are trying so hard to develop their networks online. Although this platform diminishes the geographic limitation so that people can communicate and share with everyone all around the world, the time zone conflict is somehow cannot be solved. Imagine you are living in the U.S., and you want to collaborate with professionals in an Asian county (i.e., Japan). There are 13 hours of differences. That means when you just back to the office at 9 a.m., People in Japan just finish work, and ready for dinner. It is inconvenient that the time you are posting and sharing on social media may limit some people to get notifications immediately.


A screenshot of Buffer app webpage showing people how is the webpage look like, and what function buttons are available.
A screenshot of Buffer webpage.

Fortunately, there is an app called Buffer, which belongs to the workflow and scheduling category, helping you to schedule posts. Buffer is a good tool that you can link it with your different social media, such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can pre-type all the contents, pre-embed all links and images on Buffer, then schedule a date, day of the week, and/or specific time to post automatically. For example, you want to share a research article on Twitter in the morning time in Asia, which is your sleeping time in the U.S., you can schedule your tweet to be posted in the midnight of the U.S. time zone. Therefore, you can be active on social media anytime that you can then reply to any comments once you wake up or when you are free.

A quick guide on how to use Buffer.

A social media educator, Mattew J. Kushin, introduced Buffer to his social media collage class. With the use and comparison of two Apps (Buffer as one of the two), he wanted his students to learn the importance of scheduling, as well as the ability to analysis the best time to post to maximize the viewers. Here are his ideas for this classroom project:

“1. Students schedule content they’ve created as part of a campaign (e.g., original Tweets, Tweets sharing their blog posts, etc). using Hootsuite.

2. Students use Buffer as a compliment to Hootsuite – setting up their Buffer to post ONLY at those times that they are not posting their original content via Hoostuie. That way, when they find relevant and timely content to share, they can add it to their Buffer. If there’s no content, nothing is posted.”

Mattew Kushin (2013)

Details of Dr. Kushin’s lesson plan: USING BUFFER IN THE CLASSROOM TO TEACH STUDENTS SOCIAL MEDIA SCHEDULING.

A college student, Katherout, also shared her own experiences using Buffer for her Internship during the semester. She also mentioned the time zone problem and the characteristics of Buffer – being able to share the same/different post(s) to one or more media account(s) at the same time.

In her video, she talked about Buffer from 4:08 to 4:52.

Katherout, a college student introduced apps she found useful.

I also used Buffer before to manage my Instagram account. I had a planner account sharing my planner decoration ideas, calligraphy practices, and any other kinds of writing stuff. I wanted to regularly post as much as so I could boost my number of followers. However, I was too busy with my class schedule that I did not have break time between classes. Therefore, I scheduled posting on Buffer to help me post on Instagram while I was having classes, and even during my sleep. I found it useful that I could keep my account active even I was not online every day. As I remembered, I had about 20 followers more within two weeks, which was a great increasing ratio to me when comparing to the past.

Finally, hope you all find this post helpful, and feel free to share your ideas or toolbox with me!

Please don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for updates and more relevant information sharing.
Twitter: @PoYeeWong4

Get Fired Because of Your Misuse of Social Media.

How many social media account(s) do you have?
Do you seperate your professional and personal accounts?

Do you think there are limitations on posting due to your identity?

With the technology improvement, online activities are also included in the background check session for recruiting selection. Juju Kim wrote an article showing data about how misusing social media leads to firing.  She found that about 85% of candidates are disqualified because of their unprofessional behaviors on social media. The 8 things to get fired are:

  1. Post off-color remarks.
  2. Post confidential details.
  3. Bad-mouth your clients.
  4. Disrespect your employer.
  5. Post inappropriate photos.
  6. Create animated videos of your coworkers.
  7. Talk trash about your boss.
  8. Play hooky and post about it.

Here is the full article: Can Social Media Get You Fired?
https://www.themuse.com/advice/can-social-media-get-you-fired

Not only misbehaving on social media will lead to a loss of a job but also the wrong timing to use social media. CNBC article indicates that 28% of employers fired employees because they use the Internet, during working time, for personal use, such as checking out social media, shopping online, answering private phone calls, etc. Even employees are just browsing without misbehaving or posting inappropriate comments on social media, they are still unrespectful and irresponsible to their employers, colleagues, and themselves as they are doing the wrong thing in a wrong timing.

“To expect someone to maintain focus for eight hours straight is unreasonable. People need a break and, in today’s world, that break includes social media access.”

Suzana Flores (2016)

It is also true that break time is important! Therefore, all employees please make good use of your break time, and do what you should be doing in your worktime.

Here is the full article: How Using Social Media Can Get You Fired
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/05/how-using-social-media-can-get-you-fired.html

The following website also shares 17 stories that people were fired for using Facebook.
https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-fired-2011-5

Logos of different social media.
There are many social media that people can freely share their daily lives and/or professional ideas online.

Additional examples of getting fired because of the misbehaviors on social media.

Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing your ideas with me! 

Please don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for updates and more article sharing.
Twitter: @PoYeeWong4

How To Create Sticky Learning?

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog, and here is my first post! As a Psychology major, I am always interested in reading research articles related to my field (either clinical or organizational psychology). Also, with good use of Twitter, I can easily find information by search #edtechchat and #psychology. The article below is one that caught my eyes the most recently. 

How To Make Learning Stick: Top Tips From Learning Psychology

The article “How To Make Learning Stick: Top Tips From Learning Psychology” is written by Steve Penfold and published on the eLearning Industry webpage. Penfold was inspired by Stella Collins, a Learning Psychologist, on how to learn better. Penfold introduced 7 ways to make learning more effective as a long term memory. Below is an outline of the article:

  1. Encourage active engagement – try to be an active learner. Beyond only listening to your educators’ explanations on different topics, learners should actively show their responses. For example, learners can give feedback, join discussions, and participate in related activities.
  2. Use what people already know – make connections with past knowledge. You can imagine it as adding a new thing to an existing network which you are accustomed to. Linking new information to what you have already known and familiar with makes it easier to be part of your long term memory, which is then easier to retrieve.
  3. Make deliberate links – try to make as many connections to the things you know as possible. Similar to the previous point, connections are hints in learning and memorizing. The more hints you have, the easier you can recall when needed. 
  4. Tap into emotions – strong feelings help memorize. Both positive and negative emotions help to learn because those feelings also represent your own experiences and reactions to the situations.
  5. Repeat – regular practices keep brain neurons and muscles active. Repeating the same materials help move the information from short term memory to long term memory, as well as, leading to the faster recall.
  6. Keep it fresh – excitement catches attention. Even you are learning the same things, learn from new perspectives and different methods can make you feel more passionate to learn and review.
  7. Use storytelling – remember and share materials like you are telling others an impressive story. When you gather all the details and relevant points of a topic you want to learn, try to make them an easy remembering story. You are learning, recalling, and teaching when you are telling the story to others.

Have you ever tried any of these ways? Are they useful?
Or any other learning methods you wan to share with me?

I was firstly attracted by the keywords “Tips” and “Learning Psychology.” I took Psychology of Learning class before, and I understand that everyone can learn as diverse as they want and as efficient as possible. They just need the appropriate strategies!

I agree with the tips shared in this article that I use most of them for my years of school life. Learning and teaching are lifetime activities that people should find ways to keep themselves passionate. Together with other reinforcement strategies, I believe that learners can boost their learning capability in a stress-free environment.

If you are interested in more learning tips, this article may help. Full video of Learning Psychologist Stella Collins’s interview is included in this article.
A image of two people chatting.
Feel free to share your experiences!

Thanks for reading my first blog and sharing your ideas with me! 

Please don’t forget to follow me on Twitter for updates and more article sharing.
Twitter: @PoYeeWong4