Good Sunday, everyone –
It looks like almost everyone is on board and underway now, so bravo. Please let me know if you’re encountering any difficulties with the site, or with leaping forward. And please make sure you’ve completed the Frontiers Poll by the end of today.
Meanwhile, this post offers some thoughts about Week 2.
W02 – Mobile Technologies Review: The materials for our second week (under Content, the Mobile Technologies Review are finalized & you can dive in when ready. Also review Week 2 activities in the Weekly Schedule to get a broader context for where we are in the flow of the course.
Week-to-Week Transitions: Each week of the course ends Sunday at midnight (Pacific), so that’s when you should be finished any contributions relating to the previous week, and can begin posting in relation to the next week. Posting early for the next week or late for the last one will be considered asocial and could impact your participation grade. The only exception to this is when materials specific to the next week’s activity are being posted by myself or any of the A2 teams: Sundays from noon to midnight is an appropriate ‘move-in’ period to set up for the next week.
A1: By now you’ve probably begun thinking about your A1 topic. Hopefully the Frontiers Poll activity helped you to scope out some ideas. You’ll find that W02 activities can also be applied to foundation work for A1, so this is a good time to zero in on a plan. Your A1 analysis topic can be any technology, trend, application, service, project, initiative, phenomenon, etc, related to mobility that is of significant interest to you. Don’t hesitate to ask if you are unsure.
A2: In a few hours I will break out the results of the Frontiers Poll and use these to determine the topics, teams and weeks of the Movable Feast. If you don’t know your Feast topic, team and week by end of day Monday, please let me know about it.
Category Etiquette: Whenever you Post please think carefully about which Category the post should belong to. If you don’t select the right Category your post will be hard to find and may not have the impact it could. Most Posts should only have one Category, so don’t shotgun it all over the place, that also diminishes its value.
Presence: I encourage everyone to experiment with images, video, infographics, etc., as a means to leap beyond text in their postings and to build their presence, which is an essential element of success in a mobile and open world. In particular, try to make sure each of your posts has an appropriate “featured image” which helps to raise its appeal in the stream. For example, have a look at all of the “Authors” introductory posts from this last week – those without a feature image are immediately less engaging.
The most important aspect of presence in 523 is also the simplest: as you connect with the contributions of your peers, seek to add a little value in terms of a rating, a recommendation or a response. Certainly not every post or comment, just to those that you find exceptionally valuable or thought provoking. When you add a little value it benefits everyone.
Enough texty stuff for now. Questions welcome (a direct email to me is always the fastest way to get a response).
Have fun with week 2,
David