What I learned
Module 4 “Communication and Collaborating Online” was an “Introduction to Social Media.” In this module I learned how to describe the components of e-mail systems and email messages, what the various different online media tools were and how they are used, the different tools used for collaboration, how to use “social networking safely”, and I learned the differences between asynchronous and synchronous.
Email is widely used in the business world today because email has many advantages over postal mail or “snail mail.” The advantages of email are speedy delivery, low cost, accessibility, convenience, and easy management. In order to send an email, you must have an email address (an email address consists of a user ID and a host name) and some sort of email client. A few email clients that can be used are Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows Mail, Windows Live, Opera Mail, Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, Apple Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird. The steps to sending an email are (Discovering the Internet, Chapter 4, pg 166):
- The sender creates and sends the message.
- An outgoing mail SMPT (Single Mail Transfer Protocol) server connects to a DNS name serverto resolve the host domain name portion of the email address to an IP address, determines the best route to message destination, and the message sends.
- The message is typically routed through multiple internet routers until it reaches its final destination mail server (POP, IMAP, or HTTP).
- The mail server than receives the message and stores it into the recipient’s inbox.
Here are a few other ways to communicate online: Blogging, Microblogging, Social Networking sites, text and multimedia messaging, chat, and instant messaging. Blog sites have been around for awhile, but they did not gain popularity until the 2004 Presidential Election. News reporters, special interest groups, and candidate supporters began hosting blogs to get their message out there to general public. Now, blogs are a very useful tool for sharing thoughts and ideas to a World Wide Web audience. Microblogging is a combination of blogging and instant messaging, the message is usually 140 characters or less to a public website or to the cell phone or computers of private subscribers. An example of microblogging is Twiter.com.
Social Networking is individuals who maintain connections with their friends and family to keep them up-to-date on day to day activates, birthdays, special events, and you can usually post pictures and create different picture albums. A few social networking sites are Facebook.com, Myspace.com, and Friendster.com.
As mentioned above, you can also use text messaging, multimedia messaging, chat, and instant messaging to communicate. A text message (SMS – Short Message Service) or multimedia message (MSM) are sent via a cell phone. There are chat clients “that allow two or more people to exchange text or multimedia message in real-time, using either a special client or a Web interface” (Ch4, pg 218). You can also send an instant message, which is a private chat between buddies, with clients such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, or Facebook Chat.
Whenever you are using these kinds of media outlets, they should be used safely. According to the online article, “11 Tips for Social Networking Safety” there are precautions that should be taken such as: use caution when clicking on links, know what you have posted about yourself, do not trust that a message is from who it says it is from, do not allow social networking sites to scan your e-mail address book, type the social media URL directly into the browser yourself or use personal bookmarks, only accept friend request from people you actually know, assume that everything you put online is permanent and cannot be deleted, be careful about installing add-ons or toolbars, and do not use social networking at work.
Lastly, I learned the difference between asynchronous and synchronous communication. Asynchronous is a type of communication that does not require the user to be online at the same time (i.e. e-mail) and synchronous communication, or “real-time”, requires two or more users to be online (i.e. Instant Messaging).
Digital Learning Object
New Terminology
- Asynchronous Communication – does not require users to be online at the same time and includes e-mail, mailing lists, and newsgroups.
- Synchronous Communication – is real-time communication, in which one or more users must ve online at the same time.
- Social Tagging – allows users to post a Web page favorite or bookmark to a public Web site and then tag the bookmark with keywords.
- Signature file - A signature that can be automatically inserted into an e-mail message, containing standard content such as name, title, and connect information of the sender.
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