This talk is all about the skills you need to be effective online. Both as a student and as a professional in the workplace. Although you have just started at the university, the time you have with us is short and you need to start thinking about capturing your activities and developing your skills to allow you to be ready in the real world.

Some of the tools that you will use during your lectures and for this module are not common across other modules that you may take.

1. Nearpod is an interactive presentation tool. This will be used throughout GEOG1010. Download the app or use it on anything that can connect to the internet. The app is found at www.nearpod.com

2. Pathbrite (www.pathbrite.com) is a portfolio tool. We will talk about this later but you can set up an account at the web address.

3. Digital Badges - this is the Professional Geographer Badge (Level 1). More about that later too.

Digitally Literate means you know what to use and when. Also how and that you can use web based tools to create new content. Talk to others effectively and also collaborate. These are skills you already have but we can develop them with you to be effective Geographers. This is good for your life as a student, for learning and working with others as well as when you leave and enter the world of working.

Being a professional means that you are able to utilise the web. A great video about people who use web skills in Geography can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mj8MTWZX4M

It is important to think about who could be viewing your work. You are being supported to be an expert in your discipline area. The use of the web to exemplify that knowledge, skills and understanding means that whoever is watching will be able to appreciate what you have to offer.

Making you stand out means that we are encouraging you to develop your online presence in a way that highlights what you have to offer over others doing the same degree.

Everyone has talents and the web allows an even playing field. We are showing you how to use it and to get the best out of your programme of study.

Portfolios are tools that bring together evidence of your activities. We can theme them in separate parts of the portfolio and you can showcase your best work.

You are more than a Geographer. You may have belonged to a band, a sports club or won awards. Showcase these in your portfolio.

You will have undoubtedly developed as a result of co-curricular activities. The University of Southampton has a multitude of clubs and societies that you can keep developing and learning. Showcase these in your portfolios.

Providing evidence of what you do means you can prove what you have done and also how you have done it.

This is good for your peers and for people who you have not met yet. They can see you have done what you have said you could do or have evidenced your contribution to an activity (like the Duke of Edinburgh award) every is different, this is your proof of that.

Open Badges allow us to give you the opportunity to evidence specific tasks and show what you know for a topic.

They can be collected for a range of activities and allow you to bring together the evidence you need into your portfolios. You can display them on your LinkedIn profile, your website or blog.

Badges are online certificates with meta data. They can be clicked on to open information on who issued it, what you did and when it was issued.

They can be collected into pathways for opportunities (so you work on a few badges for a bigger badge) or they can be stand alone.

The value in these Badges sits with you. They are only as impactful as the evidence you can provide.

These are a selection of some of the badges at the University. These belong to various groups or activities.

The badge that you are working on as part of this module is the Professional Geographer Level 1. It comprises of three sets of activities. The evidence for these will be linked to your portfolios.

Over the next few weeks I will be coming along to talk to you about each of these areas and support you to pull together the best evidence that you can.

The three areas are:
Creativity
Communication
Curiosity

This is an example of a Pathbrite portfolio.

You need to login to:
www.pathbrite.com
Sign up
Complete the information so we know who you are (and everyone else)

This is an easy to use, drag and drop, responsive interface. Works on anything and you shouldn't need much help in using it, just how to make a really good portfolio.

Once you have logged in, you will see these tasks.
You can practice now using the Semester 1 Practice tasks section. There a couple of things for you to do there.

The others are for Semester 2 but we are getting you used to adding in content now.

Some things from last years cohorts that you should think about.

One thing you should remember is that you need to put in good work and think about who is looking at it. Its not a win to upload the bare minimum just to say you have done it. Its not just us that see it but the world can too. So use this as your opportunity to show off!

I'm available if you need some help.