Serious Academics

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When you think of academics, did the picture above come to mind. Cold marble staircases, old white professors, and even older, whiter marbled busts of professors or benefactors to the university. If so, you may have thrown your hands up in praise when you read this missive about the use of social media in higher education. I read through the article a few times, each time more convinced that it was a troll article that in a day or two, after the obvious social media uproar, was going to come back and say, "See, look at the power of social media in higher education." But alas, it appears to be someone's actual opinion that 21st century culture and technology has no place in our apparent 20th century academic paradigm.

So to show that I am a serious academic, this is my primer for college students and curating their digital presence (as well as other on-line tips).

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1. Get a gmail account along the lines of first.name.last-name@gmail.com. Why gmail? I like how well integrated the google products are across different aspects of on-line life, from blogging (like right here, right now), to e-mail communication, time management (calendar), to storage of digital files (Drive) and photos (Google Photos).  This e-mail allows you to sign-up for further things I recommend below and moves you past your middle school or high school identity Br@1nSl@y3r@hotmail.com.
2. Get twitter. This is where we can start to really think about our on-line presence. You can stay with your name for twitter, but if you have a common name, or you think that you see a future in something on-line related, you may think about creating an on-line brand/identity. I use EngagedBrain because it communicates a few things. I'm a neuroscientist (that's the brain part), but more importantly, engagement (in two senses) explains how I approach teaching and research in that I want to help students really engage with the material and also engage with the public through science communication and outreach. This identity should then be used throughout the different outlets online.
3. Start something about your academic interests. 
1. A blog- I like blogger (see above), but also use wordpress (which is more attractive and extensible - for example you can turn a wordpress site into a personal webpage with a blog component).
2. A podcast
3. Infographics
4. Reach out to people. The easiest step is putting things out on the internet. The next step and most difficult is to then live there. Ask people questions, respond to people who have comments on your work. 
5. Join networks - I have profiles on linkedin, neurotree (and relatives), google scholar, research gate, orcid, impactstory, klout, menedley, zotero, github and figshare. Is that too many? Probably, but each has a slightly different purpose and is used to greater or lesser extents.

Other on-line tips

1. Get an RSS curator. I love google reader, but switched to feedly when google canned the previous product. This allows you to bring your interests together in a common place. I also use flipboard as an app.
2. Start a one-page landing website. You can use wix, weebly or any number of other free services. This will curate your networks and interests. Or if you really want to work on your on-line skills, look into learning some html, css, and javascript. I like twitter bootstrap and use it on my website.

Why do all this?

1. Helps you become an expert in your interests. It takes a lot of work to produce stuff and allows you to really explore topics deeply.
2. Helps your communication. Being able to communicate across different genres/disciplines/outlets are great and fundamental skills. Employers want people who can speak and write clearly no matter what your field.
3. It helps people! We can't be experts in everything, but if we can use our fundamental skills in information acquisition and vetting we can look to the products of others to help us understand.
4. Allows you to own your on-line presence