How will I use social media in the future? - Assignment 4D

So how would I use social media in the future? Well that's kind of a hard question, because I already am quite "extreme" user of it. I use many social medias and know quite well how to benefit them with different things. As I've said earlier, I handle our basketball club's homepage and updating it and also I'm the admin of our Facebook page. Also Instagram account for our club has been under a consideration for a while now and it might take place on this autumn.

For our homepage I've been updating very precisely every event, happening, practice and game and in addition also pictures, news, briefings and reports. I like to update it and want to see everything in order. It's kind of nice to know that visitors will see clean and interesting site and that it's easy to use and find different things. Pictures are probably the most wanted stuff and people always wait for them after events and games, I've heard both negative and positive feedback about them but mostly people think that it's nice to see what's going on events if they're not able to be on the spot.

Our Facebook page is quite new thing but I've been updating it also very frequently. There's also photos and information, everything almost same as in our homepage. Facebook is fast and easy way to update situation even during the game, so people at home will see the score also. Newest thing on our page is videos. We took part in this famous tournament in the end of July and one of our helping coaches was able to film clips from our games. They appeared to Facebook right after they were filmed so players families and friends were able to follow our games almost as live game. That was good idea and I heard really positive feedback about these videos. It might be a good idea to take these clips also in future games. Also I might add that thanks to technology, we were able to publish clips from two different places and games at the same time; one of us used Facebook's "live video" feature and second one filmed clips with a tablet and published them straight after filming.

Twitter is still quite new for me but I might use it also as a channel for our club. But I think that not so many of our players parents aren't really using it so benefits of this account might not be so good as they might be in some different country, like USA. Actually I think that these existing channels are more than enough for some parents and if I create the Instagram account, it would complete the "circle". I've described earlier how good Twitter could work and how we could use it, but I'm guessing that it would need some luck also to work in the way we planned.

When thinking about my future occupation I don't think that I could really use social medias at my work. I'm gonna be a registered nurse and due to privacy and security policies it might risk patient's medical reports and my career, if I tried to use social media in some ways. At least for now, but you never know how things will be in the future. I read an article about future doctors and nurses and if it will be true, there will be no actual human to human contact. Everything is handled and taken care of through computers or different machines and you don't even need to actually see the doctor, if you have some issues. You just sit on your computer and take care of your medical condition through the cables. Haha, well let's hope this will take many years before it comes true but when we know how fast everything has been evolving in the last couple years and new things being invented every day, it might be actual way of handling things after maybe (hopefully at least) 10-20 years.

I think this will be my last blog text and last part of the course, I thank everyone who's maybe been reading my thoughts and texts. It was nice to write something though at first I thought that I would be really bad at this and wouldn't have anything to say but once when started writing, it was kind of easy and thoughts just kept coming through my fingers. Also English is not my mother language, and you might notice it, but it was nice and also kind of easy to write in English. I liked it and I think that this improved my English writing skills as well. I also think that I learned some new things about social medias during this course and it's a good thing. So I'll finish this course now and THANK YOU for everybody. Especially big thanks for my group, with whom we did this quite big assignment. :)

Goodbye, farewell and maybe we'll bump into each other in the social medias someday.

// PS. About that new social media I tried in the beginning of this course, Snapchat... Well.. I'm hooked with it. I use it daily and think that it's almost a must-have application for everyone. Thanks, now I have one more application to open many times a day and keep up with it. I almost don't have time for Pokemon GO with all of these applications. ;)

Evaluation for one of the implementations - Assignment 4C

I had to evaluate one of the implementations someone else had made during this course. Actually I didn't have many choices to pick from and I don't know if this is because I couldn't use this wiki-site we have or if many of the groups hasn't returned their implementations yet. (I'm not sure if I could have used only implementation plan to evaluate, but I wanted the whole creation including the last part, video or summary. If I could have used just plan also, then I would have had more to choose from.) But I chose this one, because it seems to be quite interesting and it's in touch with my field, kind of. I chose implementation which deals with peer support. It's made by Kaisa Ruikkala, Minja Hongisto, Laura Tasala & Susanna Juuth. Minja & Laura are in charge of English translation and presentation and Finnish parts are handled by Kaisa & Susanna. 

Name of the implementation is Vertti Vertaistuki and basically it is a peer support network for parents of preschoolers. Also I think that it might be a good way to get in touch with children and living with them even if you don't have kids, would have them or miss them. First thought was also that this would be good to use with social and health care students, when they're studying about children. I thought that it would be helpful for students to read about real life incidents and difficulties with children, especially if they don't have kids. Second thought was that this sounds really good and actually needed network, because nowadays many people are "suffering" with their difficulties and maybe need to realize that they're not alone with their problems. I'm not sure if that's because the world and people has been changing so much or do people dare to talk about their problems more openly than before or what, but somehow it seems that kids and youth are more undisciplined nowadays. Or that could be that I'm getting old and can't stand kids and youth as well as younger.. But also nowadays people dare to seek for help and Internet is a good way for it because you don't need to really see any people or even show your actual name, if you don't want to. Okay, but let's dive in with this implementation. 

I opened the plan and at first look it seems really clean and easy to read. There's both Finnish and English plans together, but they're divided and does not mix up together. It's very easy to read just the side you want to read. Plan is very thorough and you get good idea about what they're aiming with it. I also found myself nodding when reading this, it sounds so good. They're planning a blog and Pinterest-site as a peer support for parents of small children. In the blog they will gather posts about current issues and relevant topics, it's open for everyone but there's an admin who checks and accepts every post before publishing it. That's very good idea because that way you get the real issues and topics to the audience, but you don't allow any "trolls" or advertisers etc. take a lead in the blog. It also makes it possible that there will be topics from border to border and everyone might get the support they're looking for. Personal blogs are also good idea, but the problem with them is that they're only written by one person and because of that they're also dealing with just one kind of problems and you might need to seek for a long time for a right blog and writer. Many writers and participants guarantee that there's almost every issue handled. Pinterest is also modern and good way to provide some help and support people in need. As they write in their plan they will gather ideas and tips on their Pinterest account and it makes it easy to find some new things to try to. 

It's good that these both platforms can be used anonymously and you don't need to even leave a comment, if you don't want to. Anonymity makes it easier and more comfortable to even seek for support. I agree with them when they're writing that this combination of Pinterest and blog will provide a versatile and comprehensive channel for furthering the well-being of parents. This plan sounds very good for me and I can see that they've really thought about things and invested on this. It sounds so good that it makes me wonder how this hasn't been invented before. All in all, the plan is very thorough, easy to read and gives to reader very clear picture about purpose and environment of the implementation. You get the information fast and don't need to dig for it. Also I think that their target group is just right and that they would actually be in need for this kind of thing.

Between the plan and the implementation, I took a look about their self-evaluation. They've described things and evaluated their works almost same as I would've. I opened their video presentations about the implementation. They've made two of them: one in Finnish and one in English. They tell clearly about their implementation and meanings of it through this short video. I think that if I've only watched this video and not read the plan before it, I still would've get the full picture what they're talking about. Talking in both videos is clear and easy to understand and follow with. The English version is quite a bit longer than the Finnish version and at first I thought it might be because of the problems with the language, but the language is really clear and the speaker has very understandable accent. Length of the video is because it shows really precisely how to use blog site, for example it shows where is the headline of the blog and where you can find all posts. I don't know if that's because I consider myself as skilled when it comes to Internet and different social media platforms, but I think that this is kind of pointless and just takes too much time to watch the video. I think that people would know how to use and move on the blog site without the instructions. After blog there's also instructions of how to use Pinterest. Now that might be useful but I think that it takes bit too long. If it would shorter, it might be a very good thing. 

Apart from that minor flaw this whole (including plans and both Finnish and English implementations) implementation is really good and clear. It's short and pithy and that's nice because I think that people wouldn't want to watch long and/or boring information videos. I think that the Finnish version could as well be some advertisement video for the Vertti Vertaistuki blog and Pinterest. This kind of peer support platform would quickly gather people in need together and really give the support they're looking for. It's really good idea and many people would actually need that. I don't know how to say this more accurately but this implementation is SUPER GOOD! Good work ladies, I really really liked your implementation! *And here you could set thumb (or two) upwards*

Our implementation - Assignment 4A&B

Okay, so as described earlier we decided to give a try for a Twitter account. And especially an account for basketball club, which is quite active in other social medias and sites. Here's a link to our Twitter page, be my quest and take a closer look about it. As you can see, it doesn't really have much information yet and might not have ever. But it's completed layout for our sports club and ready to be used. 

Here you have link to our video presentation about our implementation.

I said that our club is also active in other social medias and sites, so I thought that I'd also give our Facebook page and homepage for a "big" audience to see. Here they are, you're welcome.
Ylivieskan Kuula - koripallo Facebook and our homepage

You're welcome to become our follower and also welcome to give some feedback, if you feel like you want to.

// Contents of these links are only in Finnish