ALES 204 and Social Media

It’s so quick that the term is going to end again, and ALES 204 class will be really hard to forget. It has opened an entirely new point of view towards social media for me, and I’m now hoping to use social media more often.

Author Unknown. (2010). Blog World [JPG].
     Retrieved April 13, 2012, from: http://
     langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/
     2010/06/blog-world.jpg

In the course work, I did a great amount of writing in social media. Even though I did not participate in scientific article assignment like my friend Feiyan did, I learned that it was important to reference properly in social media to keep the writings to be academic. However, the style of writing in social media is very different from a research report, because the audience is the public and the style should not be so serious. For example, the writing in a blog should be like a personal journal that tells the feelings and experiences of the author, or like a conversation that introduces knowledge to a friend. From the dietitians’ blogs I read during the semester, I learned that blogs could be essential on the public health education. Before I knew about these blogs, I thought blogging was only a form of writing diary, and only friends or people who care about me would read the blog posts. But from reading the blogs of Registered Dietitians, I learned that anyone in any field could get great benefits from blogging because it was a form of communication within the field, and health professionals could use them to raise the awareness of healthy facts in public and help eliminate the misunderstanding in health beliefs.

In addition, I gained practical experiences from Community Service Learning component of the class. During our research, we found that not all the resources were well accredited, and we even found two websites that gave exactly the same information, but neither of them had an appropriate reference. Based on these phenomena, it could be seen that the online resources still needed to be regulated for their reliability. Furthermore, from the responses we collected from health care professionals, we learned about their advice for preparing a medical appointment, and those suggestions could also be applied to other types of appointment. For example, the suggestions about writing down the questions before the appointment, researching about the topic before the appointment, and keeping notes during the appointment were all very practical communication skills.

I feel really thankful for ALES 204 class, which has introduced me so much knowledge and technology, and I’m sure that my learning from this class will be used in my future study and career.

Author Unknown. (2011). Communicate [JPG]. Retrieved
     April 13, 2012, from: http://www.studiopinpoint.com/
     wp-content/uploads/2011/03/communicate.jpg

Links to my five comments:

1. Nian Liu’s “Communication…?”

2. Danielle Lu’s “Introductory Post.”

3. Yinglin Huang’s “Introductory Post”

4. Feiyan Zhou’s “Writing a Scientific Article”

5. Xuechan Yang’s “Introductory Post”

Community Service - Supporting Caregivers

Author Unknown. (2010). People Caregiver [JPG].
     Retrieved April 13, 2012, from: http://
     eaicareprovider.files.wordpress.com/2010/
     04/people_caregiver.jpg

The ALES 204 course was the only CSL project I took in the University of Alberta for now. As the term approached its end, my partner Rebecca Saul and I finished our work on the project and made a conclusion to the whole term. CSL stands for Community Service Learning, which is a program that integrates the volunteering in the community as a course component. The organization we did our placement with was Alberta Caregivers Association (ACGA), which supports the family caregivers and cares for the health and wellness of them. And we chose to work on the topic “preparing a meeting with health care team”. I wondered what I could learn from this project at the beginning of the term, and when I finished, I was surprised by the knowledge and experiences I gained.

To start the project, we did research on the topic, and obtained some suggestions on the websites of some non-profit organizations. We created some questions for the caregivers and health care professionals based on the suggestions, but we found that the health care professionals were too busy to attend our interview. So we changed the interview to questionnaires. After we collected the responses, we summarized the information into various forms of social media such as Tweets, tip sheet, and PowerPoint for ACGA to use on their website.

Author Unknown. (2009). Health Care [JPG]. Retrieved
     April 13, 2012, from: http://associateinc.com/images/
     healthcare02.jpg

During the project, I learned that communication is a two-way process. I need to consider the availability of other people, especially when I want to obtain information from them. The health professionals are very busy, so I need to adjust my ways to communicate with them. For example, we changed the interview to questionnaire first, but then I received the email from my friend saying that the questionnaire could take hours to fill out, and the health professionals did not have time for it either. So I changed the questionnaire according to their needs by adding some potential options to the questions based on the most popular suggestions I found on the Internet.

One thing I enjoyed most during my placement was the dinner we had in the organization. It was a workshop for dealing with the difficulties in family conversations, and I think it was very effective to have a workshop in the form of dinner, because dinner made the learning process more relaxing and enjoyable. Besides, people could get better chance to interact with each other during the dinner, and the conversation could be easily open while enjoying the food. During the dinner, I got to know about other caregivers and social workers, who devoted their time on making a difference in other people’s life. I found that the communication between caregivers helped them learn from other people’s experiences, and provided support to each other during their caregiving journey.

Even though there was a large amount of work and I had to take the bus for 40 minutes to reach the organization from the University, I was satisfied about the practical knowledge I obtained. Since my mother is a caregiver as well, I’m looking forward to using the knowledge I learned to help her.

Exploring Blogging by Dietitians

Author Unknown. (2011). CoroWise [JPG]. Retrieved
     April 13, 2012, from: http://
     www.canadianmanufacturing.com/wp-content/
     uploads/2011/06/CoroWise360x215.jpg

I did not know where to find interesting and reliable nutritional information until several weeks ago. Since it was not possible to ask a doctor whenever I had a question, I thought that I could only find reliable knowledge in a textbook or some peer reviewed papers. But during the course work on Delicious in ALES 204, I found several blogs created by Registered Dietitians. Over the weeks, I have been reading two blogs, which are Smart Bytes by Karen Collins and Nutrition 4 You by Aileen Birkitt. The two blogs have completely different styles, but I have enjoyed both of them. Smart Bytes tended to post longer articles that were more academic, along with a reference list, while Nutrition 4 You tended to have a short health tip almost every day in a more casual form.

Recently, Smart Bytes just had a new post “Does Smoking Cessation Mean Weight Gain?”, which I enjoyed reading. It talked about how the health benefits of quitting smoking outweigh the effect of a possible small weight gain, and it gave advice on how to quit smoking successfully and pursue a healthy life style. The part of the post I liked most was about the thinking patterns, which not only applied to quitting smoking, but can also be useful in adopting a healthy habit. It gave advice on dealing with the stress and fear, and argued that people could not change the living habits out of the fear of illness, but a positive attitude was what really mattered (Collins, 2012). When reading it, I had a strong feeling of hope and peace, and I guess it was because the opinions in the article comforted me from the stress I had from the exams. Besides, the objective tone and the introduction of results from studies helped the article to be more convincing, which made me have the feeling of starting a healthy habit immediately.

Author Unknown. (2010). Kids Ads [JPG]. Retrieved
     April 13, 2012, from: http://www.cbc.ca/
     news/pointofview/kidsads.jpg

However, maintaining a healthy life style in a long term requires that one has an optimistic attitude every day, and I found that Nutrition 4 You provided tips about attitudes towards life and healthy eating advice. It was interesting to know these small tips and apply to real life. The posts were all very short, so the information was not overwhelming at all, and it helped to learn knowledge on a daily basis. It has already become a habit for me to check the blog every day, and learn about the healthy drinks and snacks to reduce tiredness and increase fiber and vitamin intake. In addition, the idea about posting a message every day reminded me that I could also write something every day, just like another occupation. It could be a pleasant job and make every day more meaningful. Even if no one read it in the beginning, after keeping doing it for some time, there will be interactions from other people, as long as the messages are critical, informative and enlightening.

I knew my classmate Danielle was also interested in learning more about Nutrition, and I found that she also knew some Nutritional blogs. As for myself, I’m hoping to hold on to the habit of reading blogs from Registered Dietitians in my leisure time for learning, entertaining, and healthy living. 

Reference

Collins, K. (2012, April 11). Does Smoking Cessation Mean Weight Gain? [Web

log comment]. Retrieved from: http://www.karencollinsnutrition.com/

smartbytes/2012/04/11/does-smoking-cessation-mean-weight-gain/

The Creation of My Facebook Page

I wasn’t a heavy user of Facebook before, because I thought that Facebook can only be used in contacting with friends. But this week, I just learned that Facebook page can be used as a stage where one introduces oneself to other people. This kind of online tool can get one’s experiences, skills, and interests published to all over the world, and it is very efficient in advertising oneself. One of the most useful features of Facebook page for students or people who are looking for a job is that it can attract the attention of potential employers. Facebook page contains information about one’s academic experiences, work and volunteer experiences, skills, and interests and activities, which works like an e-Resume. By reading one’s Facebook page, potential employers may find that this is the right person they are looking for, which makes it easier for one to find a job, even without actually handing in a paper resume. Therefore, I think creating a Facebook page can increase the chance for me to get employed in the future after graduation, regardless whether the employers will search for Facebook pages on the Internet.

Here is a picture of my newly created Facebook page.

Xu, Y. (2012). Facebook page [JPG]. Retrieved January 26, 2012, from:

     http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6769128595_5c772a0105.jpg

Another reason why I created my Facebook page is that I found it to be a great space where I can share my experiences and interests with my friends or other online readers. For example, I can post my pictures from a trip onto the Facebook page, and all of my friends can see and talk to me about my trip if they are also interested. It will be a wonderful way to interact with friends, even if some friends might be far away in another country. As for the benefits for my future career, Facebook page can be used to attract people’s attention to a nutritional diet or a healthy eating habit. I can post my newly designed diet plan to the page, plus some pictures of delicious homemade healthy food, and people who read my page will get an idea about nutritional eating. I can also find information from other Facebook pages. For instance, I found a wonderful nutrition website HealthCastle from their Facebook page. Furthermore, if someone is interested in my posts and contact me through the contact information on the page, I will probably have another friend in the field of Nutrition or help another person to promote health level. Overall, I think Facebook page is an excellent tool in sharing information about myself and I hope to benefit from it in the future.

My friend Minmin also created a Facebook page. Check her blog to find out her thoughts about Facebook page!

First Blog Post - Introduction

Hi, my name is Yunke Xu. I’m currently in the second year of Nutrition and Food Major, and I hope to go into Nutrition Major this year. And after that, I hope to be a dietician because I’m really interested in maintaining people’s health level by having a balanced diet.

Author Unknown. (2008). Story food pyramid [JPG]. Retrieved January 20, 2012, from: 

     http://www.dit.ie/media/newsimages/2008/july-dec/story-food-pyramid.jpg

As an International student, I need to face the challenges from the courses while try to adapt to the life in Canada, and I found communication to be very helpful. Communication with fellow students helps to learn more effectively, because we are actively involved when we express our thoughts. And in the daily life, each individual might have a different culture and life style, and people need to communicate to know each other’s hobbies and interests, and get involved in the community.

The importance of communication also applies to the field of dietetic practice, in which I’m interested. Dieticians may work with people of great cultural diversity, and they need communication to know each individual’s different eating habits, emotional state, exercise level, etc. I believe that the proper dietetic plan is not the only thing that dieticians provide; they give people respect, care, and support, and they help people to achieve a higher health level. This is also my lifelong dream, and communication is essential in achieving this goal.

Besides, I’m currently in the Community Service Learning component of ALES 204 course, which I found to be a good way to integrate the communication theory with practice. My placement is Alberta Caregivers Association, and I’m really looking forward to working with them. My task will be conducting an interview with a professional in the field of care giving, and I guess we will post it online to promote the awareness of supporting the caregivers. And that’s where I find the Internet is useful because it can spread the information all around the world at any time. Communicating through the Internet makes the ideas available for the whole world, and hopefully, when we finish our work, more people will know that caregivers need support terribly and there are plenty of ways we can support them.

Author Unknown. (2011). ACGA Logo small [JPG]. Retrieved January 20, 2012, 
     from: http://www.adforum.ca/graphics/ACGA%20Logo%20small.jpg

By the way, my friend Winnie is already in the Nutrition Major. Check her blog to find out more about Nutrition!