John-Paul Hatala's Blog – March 2009 Archive (6)

Hello all, I've entered the world of Twitter. If you have a twitter account, my username is jphatala. I would be glad to follow you. What I like best about the concept is that you only have 140 characters to get your point across. My research indicates that the more precise you are in sharing your goals the greater the likelihood that someone will help.Twitter represents the opportunity to practice this important skill at the same time receiving feedback on how well you're doing it. Give it a… Continue

Hello all, I've ventured into the world of twitter (jphatala) and actually like the concept of micro blogging...or better yet, the opportunity to get your point across in 140 characters. It's actually a good exercise for setting goals and an activity that I will be using with individuals who are trying to become better networkers. Twitter forces them to be specific. If you're interested in joining me on a research project using Twitter, drop me a note and I will fill you in and let you know how… Continue

When's the last time you went to your network and offered something up to your contacts? If you don't know the answer, it's time to start thinking about giving something back, especially if you find yourself asking for help during these tough economic times. We sometimes get caught up looking for help so that we can accomplish our own goals and we forget to give back. Remember, social capital is like a savings account, if we keep withdrawing money and don't add more to it, it will eventually go… Continue

Researchers are turning their attention towards the negative side of social capital. If you were to peruse the literature you undoubtedly come up with more studies of how social capital helps us in our lives than you would find how it hurts us.



However, it's important to remember that not all social capital is good. I can think of gangs, poor attitude of students and many others than impact people's lives negatively. It's important to promote positive relationship development in our… Continue

In these tough economic times many people are battling the forces that are at play and impacting their economic reality. Pulling together and leveraging the social resources that exist within our networks is a viable option for making it through these tough times. If this is so, why do so many of us fail to connect strategically with the people in our lives?



I'm probably guilty of this as well and work hard to go against my natural tendencies to retreat and deal with things on my… Continue

I'm now in North Carolina at a conference for technology in education. I'm here to present the concept of social capital development as a mediator for technology use. I find this to be quite interesting. Many educators have found technology adoption to be minimal when it comes to implementing it within a set curriculum. The need to foster a community of technological support is at the forefront of many educators minds and their goal is to get students to adopt technology for learning… Continue