Post semester reflect

Throughout this semester I have studied and learned more about different types of technology. Learning about these various forms of writing and composing things online has gotten my mind to a productive and creative space. Before this semester I did not really take design principles into consideration when doing a lot of designs that I would want to execute. After using design principles learned I can already see a large difference in my designs and how I cater them to their target. This class was also very good because it was a break from the typical, boring, straight from the book type of class. Because everything was electronic and online I had a very easy time dealing with and adapting with new technologies as im sure most of my classmates did. This is a class I would recommend to anyone who enjoys writing and technology as it is as strong combination of both elements. I am glad I took this class and sincerely learned a few things because of the hands on experiences

Questions about your organization

1. The non profit organization I am choosing to represent is called entrepreneur development. It is located in downtown providence and is targeted towards high school and early college students. The organization can get a lot more citizens to join by advertising at local high schools and colleges. This can work as an easy way to connect to other entrepreneur minded people that are focused on learning things outside of school. This will eventually spread to many other people from many other places that have the same vision but are willing to come to providence in order to learn. This organization will also beadvertised through facebook, twitter, youtube, and tumblr. I am choosing to advertise using these channels because they are the ones where my target demographic tends to use the most.
2. I will be able to get a lot of information from the RI-CIE (Rhode island center for innovation and entrepreneurship). I will be able to get a lot of my questions about how to handle this organization if I run into any problems very easily. Because they have been in almost the same type of organization they would also know many tactics for advertising that would be the most effective. RI-CIE is a great organization to target because they already have the same base that I am looking to reach for the most part. This organization always holds multiple events every month where my target audience would be for me to advertise or get a message across to them.  If I were to have any questions I believe I could easily get them answered by members of this organization.
3. For any questions that arise as an organization I can ask either enstituteu, ri-cie, or a more national organization that supports entrepreneurship. I can also ask questions to who ever is in charge of getting the organization together itself legally. I can also find information for organizations of this type through regular news stations website such as cnn, nbc, or fox because they provide a lot of info on the topic occasionally

Project 2 Brainstorming activity

Global Organization: For my topic there is not really one single global or national organization commited to my topic. I believe the reason for this is because this is such a new issue. With more students now more than ever looking to skip college and/or be entrepreneurs, I believe there will be a set route for people who would rather not do college and do hands on learning. There are currently a few programs that are beginning regionally in hopes that they can extend their program to have a national focus within the next few years.

Regional organization: EnstituteU. The name of this organization is enstituteu and their motto is “learn by doing”. The enstitute program is located in Manhattan, New york as well as all around the city. There are two founders of enstitute and twelve current interns. The aim of this organization is to prove that two full years of hands on experience in technology can get you a more successful career than any degree can. What they are most dedicated to changing is the automatic thought of going straight to college and instead simply reaching for all real world experience. They are mostly dedicated to students ages 19-23, they are dedicated to this age because around this time is when you have a lot of choices concerning school if you are actively researching.

1. Enstitute uses facebook and twitter

2. I believe they use twitter more than facebook because it fits better with their demographic and they can also build credibility very easily by re tweeting large name news corporations when they write an article or blog building their credibility. If they were to use face book more I do not think they would able to get to their target audience as easy.

3. In comparison with the similar local organization that I discovered, enstituteu does a great job using their social media, the local organization has not tweeted since may and only has 317 facebook likes. In terms of design they are actually both very similar because they have simple text logos as their main pictures on both twitter and facebook. One similarity that these sites had in common was they both seemed to use their twitter to mainly retweet articles about their organization in order to build credibility.

4. The specific aim of most of enstituteu’s posts is to preach that their are other programs and alternatives for people that do not want to go to college. Although they retweet a lot of their own articles, sometimes they will retweet messages from other programs that support them as well as promote the other program.

5. The audience and groups that this is reaching is high school students and students that are currently in college as well.  The secondary audience could be people who are either beginning high school or already out of college and can not apply to the program because it is either too early or too late in their life.

Local Organization: RI-CIE (Rhode Island center for innovation and entrepreneurship) This group is located in downtown providence. Its members are young entrepreneurs, mentors, and people looking to try and gain a more entrepreneurial spirit through taking affordable classes. The aim of this organization is to provide mentoring and resources for young entrepreneurs. Some of the services this organization provides is a startup incubator, a mentoring program, and entrepreneur classes. They are helping any young professional become an entrepreneur or at least simply give them the tools to realistically do it.

1. this organization uses facebook and twitter to promote their messages.

2. It seems like they prefer facebook over twitter, although they do not use either very well or frequently enough.

3. This organization does not use social media as well as enstitute does, enstitute is sure to post something every day, this organization on the other hand seems to not believe in using social media much. Which is interesting for a technology and innovation program to mess up on

4. For the posts that they actually do have up it seems that they are either promoting their own classes, workshops, or an article to raise their credibility.

5. The audience that this organization targets is young people in providence who want to become entrepreneurs or have products that they would like to monetize off of. A secondary audience could possibly be young people in Boston, MA because they are able to actually commute to this program if they want to.

Learning on Lynda

Using the Lynda service for the first time was very helpful and I will most likely use it in the future. I went into lynda trying to learn a few things about photoshop and marketing online because I am very interested in both. Upon first logging on to the site I assumed that this site would not have much to offer me as an advanced user of the internet. I found the topics I wanted to learn about by using the search engine and specifying my search down to advanced topics only. I found one advanced tutorial for both topics and began to watch. During the photoshop tutorial, I had to switch and pause in and out of photoshop and the web browser in order to try the tactics that were being taught. During the advanced marketing tutorial I simply listened and tried to gain valuable information. One thing I learned from the marketing tutorial s that on twitter you can search for exact phrases people are saying by putting quotation marks around whatever you search. Also I learned that on facebook you can pay to sponsor certain advertisements in order for a larger group of people to see your post. The biggest “ah ha” moment I had was when I found out how to really use the twitter search more effectively. This gave me a moment of clarity because this could be used in twitter for advertising a lot as well as very easily. If I watched the twitter marketing tutorial again I would take notes while watching because it is a lot to take in even though it did not seem like it was at the time. Writing notes down during the tutorial could also help you directly use strategies and tactics you would have forgot about.  I think we could use a lot of these tutorials in real classrooms, they are all a direct example of something that you can use in real life. I believe it is the most practical way for people to learn online and get used to the technology. If I was a teacher I would use this as an aid to help students learn from another source besides me, comparable to a co teacher.

Project 1 Post write

In terms of blogging, my greatest challenge is worrying about how formal I should be in my writing as well as trying to make my blog itself look perfect which I do not think I’ll ever really achieve. To solve my problem of possibly not being formal enough I will keep my blog posts as formal as possible but try to use typical language that everyone can understand at the same time. In terms of working too slow because I want my blog to look so perfect I will focus on content first and the overall look and feel after. A blog with undeniable content cannot be denied even if it does not look like the best blog you’ve seen.

I believe the greatest strength of my activist blog, is that there is an untapped audience that would be thrilled to read the information I will post in favor of other means of education. I am proud of the fact that my blog is focused on a topic that I wish I had found already. Knowing a blog like this can relate to multiple people who are looking for such a rare topic makes my blog very rare as well as helpful.

The greatest limitation my activist blog has is I may have trouble staying around the same topic of programs that support alternate ways of learning. Although there are many programs moving in the direction of a more independent education, the older style of education is still what is most prevalent. I think this is the greatest limitation because it could eventually take away from my conviction if my posts aren’t filled with consistency and strong points.

First, I would like to improve my blog visually. I want to spend a lot of time adding and editing widgets as well as making my own photoshop banners and possibly some custom css. Second, I would improve my blog by seeing what topics actually interest people and doing more in that writing and subject style. Finally, I will improve my blog by taking constructive criticism from outside sources that aren’t in class to get a general opinion. I believe these strategies will work as the semester goes on because I would mainly be using direct feed back to edit my site for the better.