Tuesday 15 August 2017

Earn your second digital badge on the new Rudaí 23 free online course

Earn your second digital badge on the new Rudaí 23 free online course

Second Digital Badge: Online Networker Badge 

Welcome to the second of our series of four blog posts that explains all 23 things in this updated Rudaí 23 online course. 

Check out our first blog post here on how to earn your Rudaí 23 Visual Communicator badge. 

Today we are going to show you how to earn your Rudaí 23 Online Networker badge.

Firstly, I would suggest that you do follow Rudaí 23’s blog, add in your email address on the right hand side of the website and hit submit. Doing this will allow you to get regular updates as the course progresses, which will act as a gentle reminder as the weeks go by.

Date for the Diary: 28th of August is registration day, details will be available soon.

Networking is to “interact with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts”. Transfer this onto online capacity and you become an online networker. These terms networker & online networker are not new to the LIS community. Dalton (2013) has written about new professional’s attitudes towards Twitter, Maleeff & Hicks (2015) have written with encouragement on how to develop your networking skill, Monagle & Finnegan (2016) have explored the connection between social media and independent continuing professional development within the LIS community.

Online networking is very easy, you can begin by focusing on one or two social platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn to build your profile. You could expand your networking circle by setting up a profile on ResearchGate where you can showcase your academic writing, and link in with other researchers that have similar interests to your profession. Within each thing for online networking, we cover some of the platforms mentioned and more. Each thing has been designed to give you the skills to be a competent online networker.

To begin thinking about online networking take a look at what it is you are doing already, what would you like to change? Are you using social media for personal reasons only and wish to transfer into a more professional space? Things to get you thinking could be your profile picture (no selfies). Think about the content you wish to share but more importantly the content you wish to engage with. Think about the conversation you wish to have with likeminded people online, maybe you are a school librarian and wish to reach out to teachers for information? Thing 10 will introduce you to networking tools, like Twitter. From there we will look how to build your professional brand through tools like LinkedIn. The most interesting part of building an online network is the many projects you become involved with. For that purpose, we will lastly look at how online collaboration tools such as Slack can help you develop a virtual relationship through team building.

So what do you have to do?
1. Complete a task for each module, each task will be at the end of each blog post.  
2. Write a reflective blog about modules 10- 12 and post it to your blog in order to apply for the Online Networker badge.
3.     
         Remember: Each badge is certified by the Library Association of Ireland, this is a great achievement and if you are a new professional it will look great on your CV going forward.

Here is the time line for the modules on Online Networker in November.

11th November Thing 10 - Networking Tools
18th November Thing 11 – Your Professional Brand
25th November Thing 12 – Collaboration Tools
25th November Thing 13 - Reflective Practice 

Good luck with Online Networker Thing 10-12 in November. We look forward to learning with you. 

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