Beginning 23 Things : Developing my digital skills

Over the last several months, I have been a part of Thrive PhD. Which has been a great resource for learning personal and professional skills to help me manage this, at times, chaotic graduate school experience. Through the group, I met another candidate who was interested in starting a blog. She shared the 23Things programme with me, and despite having a blog and engaging through various online platforms, I thought it would be a great experience to learn how to use it more effectively. The programme is designed to introduce individuals to various tools (Things) on the internet. Throughout the journey, they recommend blogging about your experience. Thus, brings us to the first assignment of the 23 Things Programme.

A) what you hope to gain out of the 23 Things programme.

• Despite being someone who provides workshops and presentations to others about how useful the internet can be for students and researchers, I still feel like a novice. There is always more to learn.
• I am hoping to learning how to leverage these digital tools in various ways, to not only build my own portfolio, but provide a starting point to help me see how these tools can be used for research.

B) were you aware of the University’s Social Media Guidelines for Staff and Researchers or the student Social Media Student Handbook? What do you think of the guidelines/handbook?

While I don’t attend the University of Edinburgh, I found the guidelines and handbook useful to provide some practical tips and things to think about when engaging online. I then tried to see if my university has a one. It does not look like there is an easily (public) accessible one. It appears some faculties may have their own, but mine did not. I may need to look in my employee HR documents to determine if there is something there.

I’m looking forward to completing these Things and seeing what I learn along the way. I am hoping to complete at least one Thing a week. Some may be quicker than others, depending on how familiar I already am with the Thing.