“Learning…is life’s greatest adventure” – Taylor Caldwell, novelist
This is something I’ve always believed in, and something I continue to discover and internalize during my first weeks here at the UCWbL. As the new Social Media GA (or “Social Media Queen,” as Matthew P. has jokingly dubbed me), I’ve been plunged into a world of tweets, hash tags, blog posts, HTML/CSS code, viewer stats, and social media awareness. (Two weeks ago, I was asking “what on earth is CSS code?”, and now I’ve tricked out my digication ePortfolio. Coding win.)
For someone who had an admittedly mediocre social media presence in the past, this new world of social media consciousness is new and exciting for me, and a bit of a whirlwind. I’m a hands-on learner, and I’ve definitely been learning on the job. So, the moral of this story so far is that I’m new at this, but loving every moment of it and looking forward to learning more.
As I look forward to the first Social Media-centered event of this quarter at the UCWbL, the UCWbLing 102 inservice, I know I’ll have a notable role in the event and take some of my first steps as the outward face of Social Media for the UCWbL. While nerve wracking, this is also an exciting learning experience for me, as I’ll get to do more hands-on activities with all of my fellow UCWbLers. In addition to meeting some of those awesome folks, who will be generating content for UCWbLing this year, I’ll get to start putting my own stamp on the UCWbL’s social media presence via UCWbLing (and, importantly, learning and beginning to define what that stamp is going to look like). Mainly, where UCWbLing is concerned, this will be through gathering potential topics for all of the new and old UCWbL bloggers to reflect on and write about throughout the next year.
But, this is not to say that my ideas and suggestions are “queen,” despite my faux title. Part of the goal of the upcoming inservice is to get UCWbLer’s ideas for blog posts, not just mine; by both generating potential ideas and writing about them, they ALL get their chance to put their stamp on the UCWbL’s social media presence. Everyone at the UCWbL knows that the UCWbL is a collaborative environment, and UCWbLing is a collaborative endeavor. So, all UCWbLers are bloggers, and they all get their voices heard when writing for the blog. Essentially, then, where UCWbLing is concerned, my role is a supportive one – I’m not the queen, and I’m here to make sure all UCWbLers get their chance to speak through the blog.
With that, I will say that I’m excited for the upcoming inservice so that I can learn about and get to know all my fellow UCWbLers and start reading the posts they’ll write to make UCWbLing even more colorful, diverse, and collaborative than it already is. Let the blogging begin!