Ravi's Reflections!

  Ok everyone has to have heard this before, stay away from the comments! It is said to celebrities all the time, essentially becoming a tool of the trade. Comments are consistently filled with folks’ opinions and sometimes they can be extremely rude or vile and offensive. This summer, I found myself applying this “stay away from the comments” adage in my own utilization of social media. I found that as Pride celebrations continue around the world, comments varied in the celebration of them. While several folks expressed the incredible joy and happiness that comes with such a celebration, several more expressed hate and vulgarity towards to celebrated communities. Discouraged, I made a conscious decision to take a step back from looking at comments. I find it easier this way to celebrate and express my own thoughts without the negative and toxic thoughts of folks in comment sections.  Comment sections are akin to cyberbullying at times, but are not often a space that is monito...

Time is a really interesting experience in that with it comes influence and education by everyone around you. When social media first took off, there was such an intense emphasis on our utilization of it. A mixture of capitalism and consumerism drove (and drives) companies to encourage people to buy their digital products and the associated technologies needed to utilize them. While this remains true to this day, well past the early days of smartphone sales, there has been a considerable shift in the thoughts toward phone consumerism and mental health resulting from research and experience. One such result from this shift is the integration of such tracking measures as “Screen Time” in iPhones that indicate phone usage for the user. While I personally have fallen victim to using my phone far longer than I should have, I really appreciated the challenge of the digital detox.  I have been really intentional this summer with keeping work at work and school at school. This results in...

  This past week, I have been packing my apartment up, and as I continue to do so my Amazon Echo proudly plays “Scamanda”. If you recall from a previous post, Amanda and Her Blog , I was listening to a story about someone pretending to have cancer. Well, the podcast has gotten really really interesting because it is telling me about how much of the case that the Police Department and the investigator have against Amanda is coming from HER VERY OWN BLOG (Webster, 2023). She is literally writing down everything that is happening to her day in and day out.  Amanda’s own words will lead to her downfall and it makes me think about this topic of online appearance and digital footprint.  We all hear about the digital footprint in different capacities, especially when it comes to social media spaces. There’s an adage that says, what is out there will always stay out there , referring to social media. We see that as celebrities are constantly put under the microscope and we see th...

OpenCourseWare should be implemented within educational pedagogies to empower students to reach resources while ensuring these resources are accessible to all learners (Caswell et al., 2008). OCWs sound like a promising way to engage learners in a productive way in the 21st Century. While this remains true, I do not forget the number of times I was in class in elementary, middle, and highschool, and our teachers told us never to use anything form of information unless gathered from a scholarly source. ESPECIALLY NOT WIKIPEDIA. So, what balance exists, or not, in utilizing online sources? Using resources such as Wikipedia is not a bad thing, in my own opinion, as a quick educational opportunity on a topic I may be curious about. For example, if I am trying to understand how lava lamps are invited, I am going to hop onto Wikipedia or Youtube for a quick explanation. However, if I am writing a paper on lava lamps and labor laws, I will likely not be going anywhere near Wikipedia. Why? Bec...

  #SumItUpSunday This week was the only time in my entire life I have logged into Twitter every single day consecutively. I started this class out being anxious about Twitter, not knowing how to navigate it, and not seeing the full purpose of it, but wow this week's engagingly forced me to get involved in my own and other folk’s Twitter posts. It was interesting to participate in this challenge as I was able to connect my life with my online life in a meaningful and intentional way. Truly, isn’t that what the digital social media space is all about? I hope to continue getting more comfortable with Twitter and am excited to grow and expand my network of higher education scholars, friends, and peers! Check out my posts for the Twitter Days of the Week below: #MemeMonday you say? Below is me in this exact moment because I am truly out of coffee today 😭 #eme6414 pic.twitter.com/1Lz0SwJXmc — Ravi Bhatt (@RaviBhatt_) June 12, 2023 Happy Tuesday, #eme6414 ! My favorite online t...

       “Fifty-seven respondents [of 70] said badges could be helpful in the hiring process by allowing employers to see a candidate’s competencies, skills set, or other strengths and qualifications” says Randall and West in their study on badges within the hiring process of teachers (2020, p.75). 57 respondents represent over 80% of the respondents indicating the apparent and important reliance on badges when recruiting certified and reliable teachers. This is certainly representative of the increase in digital recognition of testing and certification. At FSU, PIE training, trainings prior to attending as an undergraduate and graduate student, standardized testing, and other various certifications exist to ensure folks continue to maintain their expected certifications to gain access to the education and accreditation.  It is interesting to see how this reliance on digital certification almost juxtaposes the antiquated trope of, “everyone gets a trophy”, as...

     This morning, I knew I needed to check in on the recent air-quality situation impacting the Northeast United States as my parents live in Maryland. Doing this got me thinking, though, about how I even found out about the air-quality issue. I did not find out from watching ABC 27, which is our local Tallahassee News station as I just learned, or Good Morning America, or a news article; I found out about the air-quality issue from TikTok.  TikTok! The newest and quickest way to acquire quick tips on how to hang your paper towels, watch hilarious videos, and see point- of- views of incidents and lived experience like never before (besides videos on Twitter and Facebook). Of course that is not exactly how TikTok is branded, but it is not far from the truth. Quite frankly, TikTok is a space where I get a lot of initial news, which is usually followed up by a news article or additional source if I am interested. I found out about this incredibly severe air quality i...