DIG CIT - Assignment Checklist

Use this checklist to see if your assignment is ready for submission. You should be able to answer YES to all of the following questions:

1. Have you answered all five questions in FULL? Each question must be on a separate post and the question number must be in the TITLE of the post.
2. Have you used AT LEAST THREE types of data within your blog. Eg. Text, Image, video, music represent different types of data
3. Have you customised your blog to demonstrate mastery of blogging software? (Refer to Text-book pages 34 and 70)
4. Have you added AT LEAST two gadgets or plug-ins to your blog? Are the gadgets working? Check what they look like for someone viewing your blog. (Refer to Text-book pages 104 and 136)
5. Have you used a range of sources and used sources well? (i.e. Not simply repeated what someone else had said, but used their views to formulate and add your own views.)
6. Does your own voice come through in your blog? (opinion, critique, comment)... (Refer to Text-book page 34)
7. Have you referenced ALL sources, including images, videos etc..?

Assignment Submission Guidelines - 2014 Semester 2

Assignments are due on 5 November. This is what is required for your submission of this assignment:

Complete all posts on your blog by the 5th November 2014

1. Physically hand in one page which contains
1. Your name and Surname
2. Your student number
3. The URL (web address) of your Assignment Blog. Make sure you give me the correct address and NOT your blogger dashboard address. The URL should look like this uniquename.blogspot.com (or wordpress.com depending on what blogger platform you use
2. Attach this sheet to an assignment cover sheet (available in the library) and submit this as you would any other printed assignment on or before 5 November 2014

As an EXTRA step - you can check that you have given me the correct blog address, by e-mailing me the blog address so I can confirm with you that I can access your blog. This however, is NOT in place of submission of the assignment as described above.

Question 1: Introduction & Digital Footprint

 Introduce yourself on this post. Make it personal and you can include a picture or video clip of yourself to add interest to the blog.

Mention what your digital footprint is like now - where you are 'found' most on Social Media and where you would like to be found more in future (how you would like to expand your digital footprint)

Question 2 - Blogs and Wikis

This is a research based question, which means you will need to find a few sources, read and understand blogs and wikis and then identify 3 differences as well as three similarities between Blogs and Wikis.

 

TIP: Use more than one source for your research. Good research involves using a range of sources, NOT just one.

Question 3 - Customising a blog

In this question, you need to show that you have changed the theme of your blog, by taking screen-shots and including them in the post, the way I have done below:

THEME 1

 

 

THEME 2

 

In addition to this, you need to include gadgets or plug-ins and test that they are working. In other words, when I mark your blog, I will need to find these gadgets somewhere on your blog. It needs to be working. (Eg. If it is a poll, I should still be able to answer it)

Question 4 - Popular Blogs about Social Media

There are so many social media platforms to use now, it can be over-whelming as well as confusing to know which platforms to use or not to use. This post has links to some popular blogs about various social media platforms. Reading more about the various plaforms, as well as about social media in general will hopefully help you to decide on your strategy for marketing yourself online.

Social Mouths is a blog offering free advice about marketing yourself online through various social media platforms

South African company Blue Magnet has a blog offering advice about marketing your company online including information about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

For this question, find two popular blogs on a topic of interest to you. Create links to the blogs and also comment on the blogs, saying what you like about the blog (or don't like), who the author is or anything else of interest about the blog. Make sure the links to the blog work.

Question 5 - Social Media trends in 2014

This course is about Social Media in Business.

The Social Media space changes quickly. Identify, using research, key trends predicted for Social Media in Business in 2014.

In addition to trends in 2013, also include an image about trends from 2012/2013

Check the following sites to search for information for your post on Social Media Trends. TIP: Use  a few different sources on the topic to see what a range of people say, rather than using only ONE source.

Social Media Examiner

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-trends-2014/

The next two links are articles based on the same Social Media Trade Show held in San Diego in March. It will therefore not be surprising that the same trends appear in both articles, since their primary source of information is the same. Even so, you can use these two articles to get a better understanding of such trends from two different perspectives.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-garst/social-media-marketing-wo_b_5110966.html

http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/03/social-media-marketing-tremds/

REMINDER: ALL sources must be referenced

Digital Footprint

Varsity College uses the Harvard Referencing Method to acknowledge the sources of information. You need to learn how to reference correctly. This exercise will help you learn to do this.

Whenever you look at another source of information and use it for your own writing, you need to reference it. If you quote directly from the source, you need to use inverted comma's "QUOTES" to show that it is word for word as the other person said it. 

If you use someone's ideas/words, but you put them into your OWN words, you still reference the source, but don't use the quote marks. 

Finally, if you give your opinion, or say something which was from your own thoughts (without looking at another source), there are no quotes because YOU are 'speaking'. 

Therefore, when you look at a text that has been written by someone, you should be able to see, when they are speaking, when they are using someone else's ideas, but saying it in their own words and when they are quoting someone else directly.

Answer the following three questions, each one is an example of the different types of text you should use in an assignment. 

1. Find a definition on “digital footprint” on the web. Copy and paste the exact definition AND the proper reference to it on a post in your blog. Properly reference it as an ‘exact quote’.
2. Underneath the exact quote, write a paraphrased version (writing it into your own words) of the definition and reference it correctly.
3. Write your view on how your digital footprint might affect you positively or negatively in the future.  Write a few sentences.