Ales204 Blog and Analytics

Miarcel Salanthe created Webpages As Graphs, a visualizer applet that will turn any weblink into a graphic form. You can view the graph being plotted in real-time as little colored nodes branch out into snowflake-like patterns. Each color dot represents a certain aspect of the web structure, such as blue if for links, red is for tables, violet for images and so on.
Webpages As Graphs uses Processing, Traer Physics and HTMLParser. Salathe has also provided instructions on how to print out the graph into poster-size.

via PSFK.


Have a look at our own "snowflake"

Image created here. 

Lecture 23: Wikis & Writing

IMPORTANT: Online class on Wednesday so you can work on your Wikipedia assignment!!

Note: As discussed in class, after choosing your stub article, check the revision history to make sure no one is currently (as of today) working on the stub. Then, add an edit (perhaps a quotation or reference) so that anyone can see that the stub article is now being worked on. Also, if you wish, you can add a comment on today's blog post noting (with a link) which stub article you are working on.

Although Wikipedia does use a WYSIWYG editor, you might want to use Wiki MarkUp. You can find out more about Wiki MarkUp Language (in order to add bulleted lists or bold and italicise your work), look here and here.

Read about our Wikipedia assignment here. But here is a short summary:

In this assignment, each student will update one "stub," or incomplete article in Wikipedia, to a complete encyclopedic article. Ideally, we would like your article to qualify for "Good Article" status. For reference, less than 1% of the articles on Wikipedia achieve this status, so this is no small feat!
Here a few caveats to keep in mind for this assignment:

• You will need to learn some basic wiki code. The code is not difficult, and there is a graphical editor with buttons to insert links and the like.
• Others can (and will) alter your contribution. In most cases, other users will add to and occasionally correct your work. But your work could be vandalized or deleted. You can always change the page back to what it was before, but such "revert wars" are frowned upon.
• The entire Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means you do not own the articles you work on.
• There is no standard length for a Wikipedia article. For the purposes of this assignment, a reasonable article will contain 300-600 words, which correspond to 1.5-3 pages of standard double-space text.

Part 1: Select a stub (needs to be done BEFORE your lab)

• Read the Wikipedia Getting Started page.
• Create an account .
• Find a "stub" that you would like to complete to a full article. Here is a list of stubs. Particular stub categories that may be of interest include Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic disease
•  stubs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Endocrine,_nutritional_and_metabolic_disease_stubs) and the Alberta Research Council stub (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Research_Council) . Here are tips for picking a good stub.

Lecture 23 Wikis & Writing

View more presentations from Jessica Laccetti

Employability & Social Media Use

Students should find this infographic very informative!

Infographic by Reppler via Mashable.

E-Portfolio Rubric

Seeing as next week is e-portfolio week, here is the rubric that we will use to mark your work. This should guide you when you craft and design your posts.

As always, e-mail me should you have any questions!

Remember to comment on someone else's blog.

See the rubric about the final reflective blog post - remember to add all your four (or more) comments in your blog post and have them linked.

Remember too, if you want to review what is required of the e-portoflio, see here for the google doc which I recommend that you PRINT out for your easy reference:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17P4d3DQvb7MRGSfNkTiwOEHlNXzZpPwXL2HkcXjbmVE/edit?hl=en_US


Remember, no labs this week.

#ALES204 Blog Stats

I thought you all would be interested to know that in this young blog's life (only 2 months old!), we have already had over 14 THOUSAND people coming to view your work! Congratulations!


Here is some information on the most popular blog posts, where people are coming from and how they find us.

Also of interest, are the words people use to search for us. The most common are:

ales 204
university of alberta blog
jessica laccetti class blog
science blog agriculture

Lecture 5: Online Class Today

Lots to do today!

By the end of class today students must:

Complete the social media survey on the Module 2 blog post

Set up a blog using Blogger and write an introductory post about you and your field of study and what role communication plays in your work (dissemination of results, linking with fellow researchers, etc.…)


In a comment on the Module 2 blog post, leave a link to your newly started blog and note which Lab Section you are in (absolutely necessary so the professor and TAs can grade your work)


 Note: you require a personal blog for your E-Portfolio.






Here is the rubric that will be used to grade your work. Keep it in mind as you write and create your blog so you can satisfy all criteria:

Lecture 4: Science Journalism

Outline:

• Review of Science Journalism
• Review of Readings
• Science Journalism Activity
• Friday = Online Class

Review:

•  Science communication: explaining the science
• Science popularization: making science popular, promoting science
• Science journalism: critically assessing science and its claim
• Your role: ALL THREE 

Knowing Your Audience and the PLoS Blogs:

• Choose one of the blog posts at PLoS that you read for homework:

• Think about the blogger’s writing style, which is most related: Science communication: explaining the science, Science popularization: making science popular, promoting science, or Science journalism: critically assessing science and its claim

• Who do you think is the intended audience? How does the blogger convey her/his information
• In groups of 5-6, answer these questions in a comment on today’s lecture post (Lecture 5) on the class blog.

Perspective:

nclose to a single person, e.g. a patient or a victim;

n

nhigh above a scene, reporting from a distance, independent and little involved;

n

nclose to an organisation that offers information, such as an NGO or a company;

n

nclose to the scientific community; 

n

nclose to the audience, examining problems in their daily life

Activity on Perspective:

• Choose one article/blog post from Scientopia (http://scientopia.org/blogs/ )  & one from Not Exactly Rocket Science (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/)  
• Compare the writing perspectives: what view does each blogger take? Does their view hamper the “objectivity” of the story? How or why?

• Send your responses to @JessL 

Final Thought

“Some journalists are still stuck in the model: We give you journalism, that’s the way it is. In this world, where we don’t know if there’s going to be a pandemic, or where the next terrorist attack will be, or how bad global warming is going to be, if I’m not engaged in a two-way street with scientifically engaged readers, I’m not responsible.”

Andrew Revkin

Friday's Online Class - By the end of class students must: 

• Complete the social media survey on the Module 2 blog post
• Set up a blog using Blogger and write an introductory post about you and your field of study and what role communication plays in your work (dissemination of results, linking with fellow researchers, etc.…)
• In a comment on the Module 2 blog post, leave a link to your newly started blog (absolutely necessary so the professor and TAs can grade your work) 
• Note: you require a personal blog for your E-Portfolio.

Lecture 3: Blogs & Twitter 101

Lecture 3: Blogs & Twitter 101, Intro to Science Journalism

View more presentations from Jessica Laccetti.

How To Use Twitter Effectively

Homework:

Come to next class having read:

Public Library of Science (PLoS): http://blogs.plos.org/blogosphere/ 

Scientopia: http://scientopia.org/blogs/ 

Not Exactly Rocket Science:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/