Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Blog Post #9: RSS & Blogs.....
Hello,
So again, I visited the youtube video ‘RSS in plain English’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU and discovered the following.
So in today’s world there are many sites that people have accounts with. When users want to check the status of their accounts then they need to check several different sites by logging in and searching for new information. I would describe this process as ‘searching’ for news, where the user is doing the work to search for updates.
Searching for news takes too much time and become quite cumbersome. The popular remedy to this situation is to sign up for a ‘reader’ which organizes all one’s personal accounts and delivers the updates from these sites to one location. The user can then quit searching for news and simply log into their reader account and check all of their sites simultaneously. I would describe this process as ‘receiving’ changes or updates, where the reader site is transmitting news and the user is just reading the messages.
To create a single page full of one’s updates, a user must sign up for a ‘reader’ page. There are many sites that offer accounts for this service, but I just set up a reader account at google. Setting up the account is the first step, and then as users surf through their favorite sites, they can add these sites to their own reader by subscribing to the site. Subscribing to a site means that you are interested in receiving updates from those sites. Any updates from a site are then sent to your ‘home base’ or reader account. To begin directing site updates to your reader account you must click the ‘subscribe’ button on a given website. The subscribe button either states ‘subscribe’ or has the ‘+’ sign next to something stating ‘to subscribe to this website, click here’.
I comprehend the need for a reader account because, yes, checking millions of sites for updates could get annoying. I actually have subscribed to a couple of my favorite bands websites. Instead of setting up a reader account, I just linked my email account to receive new updates. This type of service is great when you want to receive offers for rare band material, such as limited edition vinyl records, cd’s, etc. Instead of having to continually search band websites for tour dates or brand-new news, automatic emails are sent out to those fans who are subscribers to the site.
I have also had a bit of experience using this sort of email update system from the social website facebook. I don’t think the service works as well for facebook because it is a bit redundant. Since the facebook main page is a page of most recent updates anyways, why do users then need emails updating the updates. There have been many times when I’ve commented on a friends’ facebook picture or status, only to be emailed later about other people who have also commented on that same friends’ facebook page. I realize that facebook is a social website but I find email notifications regarding more wall posts to be somewhat annoying.
As for educational purposes, using an RSS reader would be great for website updates of an educational variety. If one was researching a certain topic, one could subscribe to websites which keep track of informational break-throughs in a particular subject matter. Then if a website were to update their ‘news’ pages, these updates would be sent to anyone subscribed to the site. From a student perspective, if teachers authored websites containing course material then any updates that a teacher made would directly be distributed to all students that are subscribed.
Overall the RSS approach saves time in searching and brings any new information to the user. I guess the one drawback would be for users to then set aside time to follow all updates on their personal reader site. Even though one doesn’t have to go searching for new information, one now has to keep up with updates or else it would kind of defeat the purpose of email notifications. I never really knew this kind of service existed with most sites before. It reminds me of a notification ‘housekeeping’ service.
Thanks, take care.
-Regen
So again, I visited the youtube video ‘RSS in plain English’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU and discovered the following.
So in today’s world there are many sites that people have accounts with. When users want to check the status of their accounts then they need to check several different sites by logging in and searching for new information. I would describe this process as ‘searching’ for news, where the user is doing the work to search for updates.
Searching for news takes too much time and become quite cumbersome. The popular remedy to this situation is to sign up for a ‘reader’ which organizes all one’s personal accounts and delivers the updates from these sites to one location. The user can then quit searching for news and simply log into their reader account and check all of their sites simultaneously. I would describe this process as ‘receiving’ changes or updates, where the reader site is transmitting news and the user is just reading the messages.
To create a single page full of one’s updates, a user must sign up for a ‘reader’ page. There are many sites that offer accounts for this service, but I just set up a reader account at google. Setting up the account is the first step, and then as users surf through their favorite sites, they can add these sites to their own reader by subscribing to the site. Subscribing to a site means that you are interested in receiving updates from those sites. Any updates from a site are then sent to your ‘home base’ or reader account. To begin directing site updates to your reader account you must click the ‘subscribe’ button on a given website. The subscribe button either states ‘subscribe’ or has the ‘+’ sign next to something stating ‘to subscribe to this website, click here’.
I comprehend the need for a reader account because, yes, checking millions of sites for updates could get annoying. I actually have subscribed to a couple of my favorite bands websites. Instead of setting up a reader account, I just linked my email account to receive new updates. This type of service is great when you want to receive offers for rare band material, such as limited edition vinyl records, cd’s, etc. Instead of having to continually search band websites for tour dates or brand-new news, automatic emails are sent out to those fans who are subscribers to the site.
I have also had a bit of experience using this sort of email update system from the social website facebook. I don’t think the service works as well for facebook because it is a bit redundant. Since the facebook main page is a page of most recent updates anyways, why do users then need emails updating the updates. There have been many times when I’ve commented on a friends’ facebook picture or status, only to be emailed later about other people who have also commented on that same friends’ facebook page. I realize that facebook is a social website but I find email notifications regarding more wall posts to be somewhat annoying.
As for educational purposes, using an RSS reader would be great for website updates of an educational variety. If one was researching a certain topic, one could subscribe to websites which keep track of informational break-throughs in a particular subject matter. Then if a website were to update their ‘news’ pages, these updates would be sent to anyone subscribed to the site. From a student perspective, if teachers authored websites containing course material then any updates that a teacher made would directly be distributed to all students that are subscribed.
Overall the RSS approach saves time in searching and brings any new information to the user. I guess the one drawback would be for users to then set aside time to follow all updates on their personal reader site. Even though one doesn’t have to go searching for new information, one now has to keep up with updates or else it would kind of defeat the purpose of email notifications. I never really knew this kind of service existed with most sites before. It reminds me of a notification ‘housekeeping’ service.
Thanks, take care.
-Regen
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Blog #8: Twitter.....
Hello,
I just finished watching ‘twitter in plain English’ on youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o). My first impression of twitter from the youtube video is that it seemed a lot like the ‘status updates’ portion of facebook accounts. The twitter page also reminded me of an ‘msn’ messenger sort of page where instead of posting to someone specifically, user postings are made public to all ones twitter friends.
Twitter is a free website designed for user’s to socially interact on a more ‘small-talk’ level of friendship. It allows users to post short messages about themselves and what they are currently doing. From these posts I feel that whoever is interested may post back and forth with the original poster. Once you sign up for a twitter account then you can search twitter for friends who also have established twitter accounts.
This website seems very beneficial to those who live ‘on-the-go’ and want to keep track of everyday details about the ones they know and care about. I see this website being more for users who have cell phones, ipods, etc, who can post short messages while walking or resting. I am not sure if I would use this twitter from a home computer. I guess I’m not that outgoing and/or social and would therefore feel kind of strange posting something like ‘I just ate dinner’ or ‘I’m now going to bed.’ On the other hand if I was out doing something away from my home I may be more inclined to twitter something like ‘I just saw a really great concert.’
I’m not sure of a possible educational use for twitter with students but it could definitely be fun with other staff members. Since the program requires people to be ‘friends’ I don’t think it would be appropriate with students. With staff members twitter could definitely be used to break the ice with new staff or to get reacquainted with old staff at the beginning of the school year in September. At the first staff pro-d day we could spend 20-30 minutes adding each other as friends on twitter and posting short messages about current feelings or things other teachers participated in over the summer break. I think this would bridge a lot of similarities between staff in a more relaxed environment.
So I visited twitter.com and signed up for a free account. My user account can be found at the following website link: http://twitter.com/#!/waylonsmithand I posted a few ‘tweets’ just to check if it worked. I also added a picture of my vintage bike to my profile space. It seems like a pretty neat site. During the registration process I was prompted to add some bands to ‘follow’ on twitter. I found a few bands that I enjoy and chose to follow them. In twitter language, the command to ‘follow’ means to add that person/band/thing/ etc to your account so that when there are updates for these items, then you are made aware of the changes. I have yet to find any friends on the twitter site. The twitter site only allowed me to search limited sites for friends. Since most of my friends are located facebook, I couldn’t find any of them directly on twitter. Therefore my new goal is to find some of my friends/relatives/etc who are on twitter and add them to my fiends list.
Twitter seems very hip and I look forward to using it more in the future. Thanks and good night.
-Regen
I just finished watching ‘twitter in plain English’ on youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o). My first impression of twitter from the youtube video is that it seemed a lot like the ‘status updates’ portion of facebook accounts. The twitter page also reminded me of an ‘msn’ messenger sort of page where instead of posting to someone specifically, user postings are made public to all ones twitter friends.
Twitter is a free website designed for user’s to socially interact on a more ‘small-talk’ level of friendship. It allows users to post short messages about themselves and what they are currently doing. From these posts I feel that whoever is interested may post back and forth with the original poster. Once you sign up for a twitter account then you can search twitter for friends who also have established twitter accounts.
This website seems very beneficial to those who live ‘on-the-go’ and want to keep track of everyday details about the ones they know and care about. I see this website being more for users who have cell phones, ipods, etc, who can post short messages while walking or resting. I am not sure if I would use this twitter from a home computer. I guess I’m not that outgoing and/or social and would therefore feel kind of strange posting something like ‘I just ate dinner’ or ‘I’m now going to bed.’ On the other hand if I was out doing something away from my home I may be more inclined to twitter something like ‘I just saw a really great concert.’
I’m not sure of a possible educational use for twitter with students but it could definitely be fun with other staff members. Since the program requires people to be ‘friends’ I don’t think it would be appropriate with students. With staff members twitter could definitely be used to break the ice with new staff or to get reacquainted with old staff at the beginning of the school year in September. At the first staff pro-d day we could spend 20-30 minutes adding each other as friends on twitter and posting short messages about current feelings or things other teachers participated in over the summer break. I think this would bridge a lot of similarities between staff in a more relaxed environment.
So I visited twitter.com and signed up for a free account. My user account can be found at the following website link: http://twitter.com/#!/waylonsmithand I posted a few ‘tweets’ just to check if it worked. I also added a picture of my vintage bike to my profile space. It seems like a pretty neat site. During the registration process I was prompted to add some bands to ‘follow’ on twitter. I found a few bands that I enjoy and chose to follow them. In twitter language, the command to ‘follow’ means to add that person/band/thing/ etc to your account so that when there are updates for these items, then you are made aware of the changes. I have yet to find any friends on the twitter site. The twitter site only allowed me to search limited sites for friends. Since most of my friends are located facebook, I couldn’t find any of them directly on twitter. Therefore my new goal is to find some of my friends/relatives/etc who are on twitter and add them to my fiends list.
Twitter seems very hip and I look forward to using it more in the future. Thanks and good night.
-Regen
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Blog Post #7: Social Networking Sites....
Hello,
Shortly before I started using facebook, I was hooked on the social website myspace. I’m still unsure as to why facebook trumped myspace somewhat because they do offer similar services but myspace even has a great music and band component that facebook doesn’t have. Anyways, facebook grants users free accounts in which they invite friends to be friends with them on the website. Each user has their account profile in which they add information about themselves such as pictures, quotes, favorite movies, favorite music, etc. Facebook also allows users to post comments on their profiles, friend’s profiles, and on pictures. These comments are always attached to profiles or pictures and all comments are date and time stamped to the nearest second, allowing other users to see exactly when comments are made. I believe that ‘comments’ are the biggest aspect of facebook and make up most of the new activity on the networking site.
When a user makes an account they must be aware that other users will see their profiles and see all their pictures and comments. If you are truly friends with someone then having these people see your profile, pictures, and comments isn’t a big deal. Though if you add friends to your facebook account that are more like acquaintances, co-workers, or bosses, then this greatly changes the level of privacy that your facebook account possesses. You must then be aware of all the people who could potentially see everything you have added to your profile. You must also think if these people would judge you by your comments, or in other words how seriously these acquaintances or co-workers will take your comments, pictures, etc.
If I was to list the most useful aspect of facebook, I would say that it would be the ‘event’ creation service that allows users to create an event and send e-invites to friends of facebook. Yes, numerous e-invites can get annoying but I find that this aspect of facebook is very efficient in finding out who will be attending and who will not. The electronic event creation ability of facebook eliminates the need for actual paper invitations and it makes it easier and cheaper to distribute the invites to your friends.
I also enjoy using facebook’s group creator which allows users to create groups of common interest. Once the group is created the moderator or creator of the group can then select which friends they want to send invitations to in order to join the group. If the group is a public group then users I send invites to, can then invite others who they feel may be interested in joining the group.
I am a co-moderator (officer) of a group called ‘Taylor Box Hockey’ at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=2486591360 A friend and I created this group in order to better organize outdoor street hockey games. We play street hockey on rollerblades during the summer in a lacrosse box. We use the facebook group site as a way to better organize drop-in games. It’s great because we can post a game day and start time and then have people show up to play that wouldn’t have otherwise known about the game without the site. One bad aspect of these groups is that if it’s not updated frequently then users and members just quit checking the group site and it eventually becomes obsolete.
I feel the one main drawback or negative aspect of facebook is its privacy settings for user accounts. At one time my wife had a facebook account but deleted her account because she was upset by the fact that user comments could open up one’s profile to exponential numbers of other users who aren’t necessarily friends with you on the site. Meaning if I were to make a comment on a friends picture, then all of my friends could view that comment and further view my friends entire account including all past pictures, comments, etc. On the other hand if one of my friends makes a comment on one of my pictures then all of their friends can then view my entire profile and all of my past pictures and comments.
A possibility of using facebook within a school would be to organize events. Sporting events could be better organized using the event creator on the facebook site. A facebook group site could also be created for the school staff to discuss topics pertaining to social gatherings or specific student’s academic achievement. Creating a group site for a schools staff could make it easier to message everyone at the same time instead of using individual messages or the schools email list.
And yes, I did see the movie 'the social network'. I thought it was pretty good but wasn't sure if it was that accurate or not. I don't know the real story of how facebook was created but the movie did a good job. Especially liked the aspect of the creator not wanting to add advertising to the margins of the facebook page to give it a cheesy look.
Thanks. -Regen
Shortly before I started using facebook, I was hooked on the social website myspace. I’m still unsure as to why facebook trumped myspace somewhat because they do offer similar services but myspace even has a great music and band component that facebook doesn’t have. Anyways, facebook grants users free accounts in which they invite friends to be friends with them on the website. Each user has their account profile in which they add information about themselves such as pictures, quotes, favorite movies, favorite music, etc. Facebook also allows users to post comments on their profiles, friend’s profiles, and on pictures. These comments are always attached to profiles or pictures and all comments are date and time stamped to the nearest second, allowing other users to see exactly when comments are made. I believe that ‘comments’ are the biggest aspect of facebook and make up most of the new activity on the networking site.
When a user makes an account they must be aware that other users will see their profiles and see all their pictures and comments. If you are truly friends with someone then having these people see your profile, pictures, and comments isn’t a big deal. Though if you add friends to your facebook account that are more like acquaintances, co-workers, or bosses, then this greatly changes the level of privacy that your facebook account possesses. You must then be aware of all the people who could potentially see everything you have added to your profile. You must also think if these people would judge you by your comments, or in other words how seriously these acquaintances or co-workers will take your comments, pictures, etc.
If I was to list the most useful aspect of facebook, I would say that it would be the ‘event’ creation service that allows users to create an event and send e-invites to friends of facebook. Yes, numerous e-invites can get annoying but I find that this aspect of facebook is very efficient in finding out who will be attending and who will not. The electronic event creation ability of facebook eliminates the need for actual paper invitations and it makes it easier and cheaper to distribute the invites to your friends.
I also enjoy using facebook’s group creator which allows users to create groups of common interest. Once the group is created the moderator or creator of the group can then select which friends they want to send invitations to in order to join the group. If the group is a public group then users I send invites to, can then invite others who they feel may be interested in joining the group.
I am a co-moderator (officer) of a group called ‘Taylor Box Hockey’ at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=2486591360 A friend and I created this group in order to better organize outdoor street hockey games. We play street hockey on rollerblades during the summer in a lacrosse box. We use the facebook group site as a way to better organize drop-in games. It’s great because we can post a game day and start time and then have people show up to play that wouldn’t have otherwise known about the game without the site. One bad aspect of these groups is that if it’s not updated frequently then users and members just quit checking the group site and it eventually becomes obsolete.
I feel the one main drawback or negative aspect of facebook is its privacy settings for user accounts. At one time my wife had a facebook account but deleted her account because she was upset by the fact that user comments could open up one’s profile to exponential numbers of other users who aren’t necessarily friends with you on the site. Meaning if I were to make a comment on a friends picture, then all of my friends could view that comment and further view my friends entire account including all past pictures, comments, etc. On the other hand if one of my friends makes a comment on one of my pictures then all of their friends can then view my entire profile and all of my past pictures and comments.
A possibility of using facebook within a school would be to organize events. Sporting events could be better organized using the event creator on the facebook site. A facebook group site could also be created for the school staff to discuss topics pertaining to social gatherings or specific student’s academic achievement. Creating a group site for a schools staff could make it easier to message everyone at the same time instead of using individual messages or the schools email list.
And yes, I did see the movie 'the social network'. I thought it was pretty good but wasn't sure if it was that accurate or not. I don't know the real story of how facebook was created but the movie did a good job. Especially liked the aspect of the creator not wanting to add advertising to the margins of the facebook page to give it a cheesy look.
Thanks. -Regen
Monday, March 14, 2011
Blog Post #6: Presentation Sites....
Hello,
I researched Prezi using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpLsF5lh98k
In general ‘Prezi’ is a whiteboard space designed for users to make single-page presentations. The users can input text and pictures and a prezi site allows users to zoom-in and zoom-out. Text size is important to display importance. Users can also make frames around similar topics. I created a quick Prezi regarding fractions, percents, and decimals to possibly use within the junior secondary math curriculum. The whole process was pretty straight forward, though it did take me a while to figure out how to change the size of the font. I have never created an electronic page where font size made such as huge difference. Using the endless zoom-in and zoom-out features made inserting an illegible text size possible. If you can’t read something that’s too small, just zoom-in. Please view the Prezi I created that is embedded in the previous blog thread.
I researched voicethread using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1wlRrKyyk
At first glance it reminded me of an online mind map. Posting a picture and then adding a comment for students and all to observe. I didn’t create anything using voicethread but enjoyed learning about it.
I researched glogster using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80NISdsoouE
Overall it’s an online poster creator with hyperlinks, text, pictures, etc. I didn’t create anything using glogster but enjoyed learning about it.
I researched animoto on youtube and viewed the following promomotional video from the company on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdTn0yRH_-w&feature=fvst
It didn’t say much about how to make a presentation, but displayed great examples of what the animoto site can create. I also watched another cool example on youtube where a user posted an animoto creation using their pictures from a Maui holiday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTrm0s09FQA
Please see my blog posts below for my embedded animoto creation. I gathered a bunch of past Christmas photos together and used them. Animoto grants users free basic accounts for presentations 30 seconds or shorter (‘lite’ account, free). Animoto also allows basic access to a bunch of templates for user to choose from. Animoto also has thousdands of songs to choose from and use within your presentation. If users want more length and more features there is a ‘plus’ account , $30 per year. Presentations created using the ‘lite’ and ‘plus’ accounts have embedded logos and branding within them and require an animoto player to run the presentations. For a ‘pro’ account, $249 per year, the website allows users to create presentations that don’t have any branding and no required animoto player to run presentations.
The presentations created from this website would be great in school for the beginning of a new chapter or unit in order to ‘hook’ the students. Whenever music is combined with video footage or pictures it becomes hard not to be interested. Combining music and video is magical and should be used in class whenever possible as a way to get through the less interesting topic material.
I liked this wesbsite and the features offered but I feel it is not that different from imovie (Mac) or moviemaker (Windows PC). I feel this site provides novice pc users an easier and more convenient presentation product, but if you know just a bit around moviemaker or imovie that one could develop the same thing with more control over song choices and overall appearance of a presentation.
Researched xtranomal on youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtjQlztrA2A
I created an account for the website www.xtranormal.com but I later discovered that users must buy points in order to purchase actors, sets, and music. I also read that educators can get free use of the site but you had to email the site and request to be verified. Although the sample xtranormal videos on youtube were quite entertaining, I didn’t know how much the total cost would be. Each new account gets 300 points to start but the costs of actors was 300-400 points, and more points to buy the set etc. The site sells 1200 points for $10USD, and I was going to buy them, but then didn’t know how far 1200 points would go.
This website is really denying themselves users and potential revenue by not allowing visitors to make their own small presentation that they could take away or embed elsewhere for that matter. This aspect seems very greedy and not user-friendly. Yes, the user can enter in some dialogue and hear some characters speak, but I don’t feel that is enough to get visitors returning to purchase points.
Thanks.
-Regen
I researched Prezi using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpLsF5lh98k
In general ‘Prezi’ is a whiteboard space designed for users to make single-page presentations. The users can input text and pictures and a prezi site allows users to zoom-in and zoom-out. Text size is important to display importance. Users can also make frames around similar topics. I created a quick Prezi regarding fractions, percents, and decimals to possibly use within the junior secondary math curriculum. The whole process was pretty straight forward, though it did take me a while to figure out how to change the size of the font. I have never created an electronic page where font size made such as huge difference. Using the endless zoom-in and zoom-out features made inserting an illegible text size possible. If you can’t read something that’s too small, just zoom-in. Please view the Prezi I created that is embedded in the previous blog thread.
I researched voicethread using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1wlRrKyyk
At first glance it reminded me of an online mind map. Posting a picture and then adding a comment for students and all to observe. I didn’t create anything using voicethread but enjoyed learning about it.
I researched glogster using the following youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80NISdsoouE
Overall it’s an online poster creator with hyperlinks, text, pictures, etc. I didn’t create anything using glogster but enjoyed learning about it.
I researched animoto on youtube and viewed the following promomotional video from the company on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdTn0yRH_-w&feature=fvst
It didn’t say much about how to make a presentation, but displayed great examples of what the animoto site can create. I also watched another cool example on youtube where a user posted an animoto creation using their pictures from a Maui holiday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTrm0s09FQA
Please see my blog posts below for my embedded animoto creation. I gathered a bunch of past Christmas photos together and used them. Animoto grants users free basic accounts for presentations 30 seconds or shorter (‘lite’ account, free). Animoto also allows basic access to a bunch of templates for user to choose from. Animoto also has thousdands of songs to choose from and use within your presentation. If users want more length and more features there is a ‘plus’ account , $30 per year. Presentations created using the ‘lite’ and ‘plus’ accounts have embedded logos and branding within them and require an animoto player to run the presentations. For a ‘pro’ account, $249 per year, the website allows users to create presentations that don’t have any branding and no required animoto player to run presentations.
The presentations created from this website would be great in school for the beginning of a new chapter or unit in order to ‘hook’ the students. Whenever music is combined with video footage or pictures it becomes hard not to be interested. Combining music and video is magical and should be used in class whenever possible as a way to get through the less interesting topic material.
I liked this wesbsite and the features offered but I feel it is not that different from imovie (Mac) or moviemaker (Windows PC). I feel this site provides novice pc users an easier and more convenient presentation product, but if you know just a bit around moviemaker or imovie that one could develop the same thing with more control over song choices and overall appearance of a presentation.
Researched xtranomal on youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtjQlztrA2A
I created an account for the website www.xtranormal.com but I later discovered that users must buy points in order to purchase actors, sets, and music. I also read that educators can get free use of the site but you had to email the site and request to be verified. Although the sample xtranormal videos on youtube were quite entertaining, I didn’t know how much the total cost would be. Each new account gets 300 points to start but the costs of actors was 300-400 points, and more points to buy the set etc. The site sells 1200 points for $10USD, and I was going to buy them, but then didn’t know how far 1200 points would go.
This website is really denying themselves users and potential revenue by not allowing visitors to make their own small presentation that they could take away or embed elsewhere for that matter. This aspect seems very greedy and not user-friendly. Yes, the user can enter in some dialogue and hear some characters speak, but I don’t feel that is enough to get visitors returning to purchase points.
Thanks.
-Regen
Prezi sample...
Hey all,
Here's a sample I created in Prezi for a Percents/Fractions notes page.
Thanks. -Regen
Here's a sample I created in Prezi for a Percents/Fractions notes page.
Thanks. -Regen
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Animoto Sample....
Hello,
Here's an Animoto sample video I created using some Christmas decoration pictures.
It was pretty easy to set up the account and upload the pictures from my computer. I created this demo using the free user account and was tempted to sign up for the fee-based account to access longer video times.
Here's an Animoto sample video I created using some Christmas decoration pictures.
It was pretty easy to set up the account and upload the pictures from my computer. I created this demo using the free user account and was tempted to sign up for the fee-based account to access longer video times.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Blog Post #5: Wikis.....
Hello,
I began to learn about wiki’s on youtube viewing the ‘wikis in plain english’ video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
I instantly related to the hypothetical scenario discussed in the video. The video discussed 4 friends trying to email back and forth to organize a camping trip. Instead or sending out countless emails to each other and making sure to include all members in each email, a ‘wiki’ could be used. Before I discuss more aspects of a ‘wiki’ I just wanted to state some obstacles and/or difficulties that groups encounter in trying to organize group emails. Also note that the use of a ‘wiki’ solves all of these re-occurring problems encountered with group emails.
In organizing group emails the initial ‘sender’ must remember to include all email addresses of a particular group. If people are forgotten then other ‘recipients’ could include missed members if they quickly ‘cc’d’ that person in a ‘reply-all’ email. This gets challenging because new email messages composed by group members must use the ‘reply-all’ message with the missed cc’d members or else any new emails will neglect to include the original missed members as well. Regular email is kind of limited in this regard. Regular email doesn’t update email lists in real time, in response to newly included or removed members. With a ‘wiki’ you can always be adding or removing people to the group list.
Another con to regular email is the accidental comments or poor choice of words offered up by some insensitive group members, either on purpose or by accident. Once you type something and send it, an email cannot be changed. The only option a sender has is to create an entirely different email with corrections noted. Within a wiki anyone can change a comment instantly or add on to the information already contributed. I can remember many instances where I am sure family members would have loved to have been able to change their comments within a group email.
As you may have guest, a ‘wiki’ is a private webpage shared only by members of the wiki. Non-members cannot view or change the pages. A wiki is like a meeting place where members can gather and share, or review information. Once an account is created, friends can be added to the list of people who can read and post items on the wiki. The concept of a wiki reminds me of the concept of conserving paper, in this case electronic paper.
I signed up for a wiki page on https://my.pbworks.com/
I chose this site over three others offered by the youtube video I watched. This site was free and it seemed pretty straightforward to navigate through and sign up for a page. This wiki page also had no advertising and didn’t look overly busy with banners of photos etc. The page I created is at the following address: http://regenslibe477page.pbworks.com/w/page/37183511/FrontPage . Please visit this page and email me if you want to be included. I set the settings to ‘public’ so I’m sure anyone can see it and write on it. Hopefully this was alright to select ‘public’ for the security settings.
In the future I’d like to research the methods these wiki sites use to determine which posts take priority over other posts in reference to times posted. For instance, if two people logged onto the same wiki at similar times and began to modify the same wiki page and then posted their results, which post would appear as the most recent change? Could someone’s post or alteration therefore be ‘cancelled’ out if someone were to make a change a few seconds afterwards? I would also like to research whether users could make their posts read-only or in other words make their posts impossible to alter? I guess if wikis employed this kind of read-only style of post that it would defeat the purpose of a wiki. Having users post responses that cannot be changed is more like a blog or a discussion board than a wiki.
In terms of educational purposes, wiki’s could definitely be used to initiate students to discuss classroom issues and promote more online discussion. I think students would find it exciting to be able to change other students post in order to clarify ideas and make posts more accurate.
I began to learn about wiki’s on youtube viewing the ‘wikis in plain english’ video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
I instantly related to the hypothetical scenario discussed in the video. The video discussed 4 friends trying to email back and forth to organize a camping trip. Instead or sending out countless emails to each other and making sure to include all members in each email, a ‘wiki’ could be used. Before I discuss more aspects of a ‘wiki’ I just wanted to state some obstacles and/or difficulties that groups encounter in trying to organize group emails. Also note that the use of a ‘wiki’ solves all of these re-occurring problems encountered with group emails.
In organizing group emails the initial ‘sender’ must remember to include all email addresses of a particular group. If people are forgotten then other ‘recipients’ could include missed members if they quickly ‘cc’d’ that person in a ‘reply-all’ email. This gets challenging because new email messages composed by group members must use the ‘reply-all’ message with the missed cc’d members or else any new emails will neglect to include the original missed members as well. Regular email is kind of limited in this regard. Regular email doesn’t update email lists in real time, in response to newly included or removed members. With a ‘wiki’ you can always be adding or removing people to the group list.
Another con to regular email is the accidental comments or poor choice of words offered up by some insensitive group members, either on purpose or by accident. Once you type something and send it, an email cannot be changed. The only option a sender has is to create an entirely different email with corrections noted. Within a wiki anyone can change a comment instantly or add on to the information already contributed. I can remember many instances where I am sure family members would have loved to have been able to change their comments within a group email.
As you may have guest, a ‘wiki’ is a private webpage shared only by members of the wiki. Non-members cannot view or change the pages. A wiki is like a meeting place where members can gather and share, or review information. Once an account is created, friends can be added to the list of people who can read and post items on the wiki. The concept of a wiki reminds me of the concept of conserving paper, in this case electronic paper.
I signed up for a wiki page on https://my.pbworks.com/
I chose this site over three others offered by the youtube video I watched. This site was free and it seemed pretty straightforward to navigate through and sign up for a page. This wiki page also had no advertising and didn’t look overly busy with banners of photos etc. The page I created is at the following address: http://regenslibe477page.pbworks.com/w/page/37183511/FrontPage . Please visit this page and email me if you want to be included. I set the settings to ‘public’ so I’m sure anyone can see it and write on it. Hopefully this was alright to select ‘public’ for the security settings.
In the future I’d like to research the methods these wiki sites use to determine which posts take priority over other posts in reference to times posted. For instance, if two people logged onto the same wiki at similar times and began to modify the same wiki page and then posted their results, which post would appear as the most recent change? Could someone’s post or alteration therefore be ‘cancelled’ out if someone were to make a change a few seconds afterwards? I would also like to research whether users could make their posts read-only or in other words make their posts impossible to alter? I guess if wikis employed this kind of read-only style of post that it would defeat the purpose of a wiki. Having users post responses that cannot be changed is more like a blog or a discussion board than a wiki.
In terms of educational purposes, wiki’s could definitely be used to initiate students to discuss classroom issues and promote more online discussion. I think students would find it exciting to be able to change other students post in order to clarify ideas and make posts more accurate.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Blog Post #4: Podcasts....
Hello,
‘Podcasting’ stands for Personal, On, Demand Viewing of videos, or listening to radio programs produced by individuals.
The idea of recording television first became popular because people developed desires to watch their favourite television programs at other times than the television stations were offering them. Listeners also had to tune in to radio stations at the right time to hear radio programs that they enjoyed.
The first solution to this problem was the VCR (video cassette recorder). Sony did produce its own version of the VCR termed the BETA recorder but it virtually performed the same operation as the VCR. Later the DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorder was produced, and currently the most popular form or recording is via the PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
PVR devices are typically supplied by the cable companies as incentives to sign up with them for multi-year contracts. The PVR unit’s record onto a hard drive, meaning there is no media disc or tape. The hard drive can hold hundreds of hours of television and recorded shows can be erased at any time. The nice thing about PVR units is that you can set them to record at similar times during the day or each week. The one drawback of the PVR unit is that it must be connected to a cable source to receive the video feed.
Enter the newest technology of Podcasting. From viewing the youtube video: Podcasting in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMgemQahuFM, I make sense of the technology by comparing it to a wireless version of a PVR. The word ‘wireless’ refers to the lack of internet connection with respect to Mp3 players and wireless internet connections. Where the PVR has to be connected to an internet or cable source to record a television show, a device such as an Ipod or Mp3 player can receive the latest podcast recording wirelessly while in the user’s pocket!
To receive a podcast wirelessly, the user must first download a program that is able to receive or ‘capture’ the incoming podcast information. The capturing devices are termed ‘pod-catchers’ and be as simple as an iTunes program.
The actual technology available for this to work is quite amazing. I never knew what podcasting was until this blog post. Though the technology is great, I feel that the freedom to produce and ‘cast’ radio and video over the internet is far greater. Podcasting creates more ways for people to express themselves in an easy manner, and gives way to a far greater ‘electronic’ freedom of speech.
So for the actual creation of a podcast I visited the website www.podomatic.com and created a user account. Funny, this was one of the first accounts I had to create because google doesn’t own this website and I therefore can’t use my google email address. All the previous web tools have been owned or linked to google and one didn’t need to make a whole new account. Anyways, the podomatic site had a great layout and a very hip feel while you were visiting. Creating an account was easy and I liked how you didn’t need to go back to your email and enter in any verification code. Once you entered your email address and full name, you could begin immediately with your first podcast.
The process of publishing a podcast was similar to other web tools, as the site prompted you for a title and message for your podcast. At first I thought podcasts were all video based and was worried about the transfer process from my camcorder to my computer. Then after searching around I found that podcasts can also be strictly audio-based as well. Before creating my podcast account, and my first podcast, I had used my windows basic audio recorder to record a quick audio clip. I didn’t know where the microphone is on my laptop but as soon as I hit record and began to talk, my message was being recorded.
Once I had created an account, I uploaded my audio recording and posted it on my podcast homepage. One note is that the audio clip must be recorded elsewhere prior to making the podcast posting. The Podomatic site only organizes the already-created media. This site does not help with the specific creation of audio or video. The user must upload established material before entering the ‘make a podcast’ section of Podomatic. After creating my first podcast, I copied the hyperlink and posted it within my blog. It looked fine but I then desired to have it embedded into the site to create an easier access for visitors to my blog. You have to click on a few extra buttons within the Podomatic site and find the button that states ‘embed within facebook or a website’. When you follow the embed button, you’re provided with the embed code in which you can cut and paste as you wish into any sort of web document. One final note, prior to pasting the embed code into your blog, be sure to click the correct tab button so that your blog post accepts, and processes the ‘html’ embed code correctly.
In the future I would love to create more podcasts and would love to later experiment with video as well. As for teaching, a podcast would be a great accompaniment to any teacher website for a course. I teach math so I’ve thought about creating weekly podcasts which would verbally explain math concepts along with video footage too.
Please see my embedded podcast message in my previous blog post.
Thanks. -Regen
‘Podcasting’ stands for Personal, On, Demand Viewing of videos, or listening to radio programs produced by individuals.
The idea of recording television first became popular because people developed desires to watch their favourite television programs at other times than the television stations were offering them. Listeners also had to tune in to radio stations at the right time to hear radio programs that they enjoyed.
The first solution to this problem was the VCR (video cassette recorder). Sony did produce its own version of the VCR termed the BETA recorder but it virtually performed the same operation as the VCR. Later the DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorder was produced, and currently the most popular form or recording is via the PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
PVR devices are typically supplied by the cable companies as incentives to sign up with them for multi-year contracts. The PVR unit’s record onto a hard drive, meaning there is no media disc or tape. The hard drive can hold hundreds of hours of television and recorded shows can be erased at any time. The nice thing about PVR units is that you can set them to record at similar times during the day or each week. The one drawback of the PVR unit is that it must be connected to a cable source to receive the video feed.
Enter the newest technology of Podcasting. From viewing the youtube video: Podcasting in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMgemQahuFM, I make sense of the technology by comparing it to a wireless version of a PVR. The word ‘wireless’ refers to the lack of internet connection with respect to Mp3 players and wireless internet connections. Where the PVR has to be connected to an internet or cable source to record a television show, a device such as an Ipod or Mp3 player can receive the latest podcast recording wirelessly while in the user’s pocket!
To receive a podcast wirelessly, the user must first download a program that is able to receive or ‘capture’ the incoming podcast information. The capturing devices are termed ‘pod-catchers’ and be as simple as an iTunes program.
The actual technology available for this to work is quite amazing. I never knew what podcasting was until this blog post. Though the technology is great, I feel that the freedom to produce and ‘cast’ radio and video over the internet is far greater. Podcasting creates more ways for people to express themselves in an easy manner, and gives way to a far greater ‘electronic’ freedom of speech.
So for the actual creation of a podcast I visited the website www.podomatic.com and created a user account. Funny, this was one of the first accounts I had to create because google doesn’t own this website and I therefore can’t use my google email address. All the previous web tools have been owned or linked to google and one didn’t need to make a whole new account. Anyways, the podomatic site had a great layout and a very hip feel while you were visiting. Creating an account was easy and I liked how you didn’t need to go back to your email and enter in any verification code. Once you entered your email address and full name, you could begin immediately with your first podcast.
The process of publishing a podcast was similar to other web tools, as the site prompted you for a title and message for your podcast. At first I thought podcasts were all video based and was worried about the transfer process from my camcorder to my computer. Then after searching around I found that podcasts can also be strictly audio-based as well. Before creating my podcast account, and my first podcast, I had used my windows basic audio recorder to record a quick audio clip. I didn’t know where the microphone is on my laptop but as soon as I hit record and began to talk, my message was being recorded.
Once I had created an account, I uploaded my audio recording and posted it on my podcast homepage. One note is that the audio clip must be recorded elsewhere prior to making the podcast posting. The Podomatic site only organizes the already-created media. This site does not help with the specific creation of audio or video. The user must upload established material before entering the ‘make a podcast’ section of Podomatic. After creating my first podcast, I copied the hyperlink and posted it within my blog. It looked fine but I then desired to have it embedded into the site to create an easier access for visitors to my blog. You have to click on a few extra buttons within the Podomatic site and find the button that states ‘embed within facebook or a website’. When you follow the embed button, you’re provided with the embed code in which you can cut and paste as you wish into any sort of web document. One final note, prior to pasting the embed code into your blog, be sure to click the correct tab button so that your blog post accepts, and processes the ‘html’ embed code correctly.
In the future I would love to create more podcasts and would love to later experiment with video as well. As for teaching, a podcast would be a great accompaniment to any teacher website for a course. I teach math so I’ve thought about creating weekly podcasts which would verbally explain math concepts along with video footage too.
Please see my embedded podcast message in my previous blog post.
Thanks. -Regen
Monday, February 28, 2011
Now I think I have the embed code....
Ok, 2nd try.
I think I've got the embed code now.
Hopefully this will work better or replace the link to the website.
-Regen
I think I've got the embed code now.
Hopefully this will work better or replace the link to the website.
-Regen
Hello,
Hopefully this works. I've recorded a podcast demo using an audio recorder on my computer. I then wanted to embed this sound clip within a blog post. I then went to the site 'podomatic' and set up an account. I was able to upload my podcast recording and the site gave me a link.
http://schmidt-r.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-28T23_30_12-08_00
I will post this and see what it looks like. I want to have it embedded so there's no link so if this doesn't do that, then I'll find a different way to do it.
Thanks for your patience.
-Regen
Hopefully this works. I've recorded a podcast demo using an audio recorder on my computer. I then wanted to embed this sound clip within a blog post. I then went to the site 'podomatic' and set up an account. I was able to upload my podcast recording and the site gave me a link.
http://schmidt-r.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-28T23_30_12-08_00
I will post this and see what it looks like. I want to have it embedded so there's no link so if this doesn't do that, then I'll find a different way to do it.
Thanks for your patience.
-Regen
Monday, February 14, 2011
Blog #3: Social Bookmarking sites....
Blog #3: Social Bookmarking Sites (Delicious).
Firstly, I watched ‘social bookmarking in plain English’ on youtube. This video clip was very useful in justifying the use of an application such as delicious. The link to the video is … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeBmvDpVbWc
From what I gathered from the video, ‘bookmarking’ refers to the saving of good or useful websites on your internet browser. Though this process can clutter up your ‘favourites’ section if you are bookmarking a lot of sites. And these bookmarks are specific to a particular computer, meaning you can only view your ‘favourites’ or bookmarks on that one computer. Along comes social bookmarking sites such as ‘delicious’ and grants users a free webpage to store these bookmarks. This makes a neater job of storing a bunch of useful sites and it also allows the users to access these bookmarks from any computer with internet access.
I then visited the delicious website and set up an account. The website prompted the user to either make a completely new account, or log in from a yahoo user account, or even login from an existing facebook account. It’s amazing how all of these internet applications are interconnected and one user account can establish accounts on all of these sites. I set up an account using my facebook account. The link to my delicious page is the following http://www.delicious.com/2be9026849256c3e8964b1dc6d7ad2ed
On a side note, I had previously posted the link to my bookmark page on my blog site. To include that same link on this blog post I used the copy and paste function. When I pasted the web address into this report, nothing appeared. It took me a while to realise that within my blog the font is coloured white so when something is copied from it and pasted into a document with a white background, nothing appears. One must select the pasted information ‘blindly’ and change its colour.
The one aspect that makes these sites social is that each users bookmark page is public. Everyone can therefore see which sites you find useful and you can see which other sites that people find useful. This feature doesn’t really make sense unless you know the person and know their interests. From an educational perspective, if you could view the bookmarks of a fellow teacher who also taught the same subjects as you, then you could potentially benefit from sharing bookmarks. In a wider scope, an entire school could sign up for a school-based delicious account to keep track of more general websites that teachers could benefit from.
Our school (Earl Marriott) is currently in debate with the school district over changing the bell schedule to a 5-block day in order to accommodate our 1900+ students. So much technical and legal information is associated within this proposal and our staff union representative is trying hard to keep up with keeping the staff up to date with our/their rights. Instead of attaching documents to emails he could potentially create a school-wide delicious site and bookmark all the pages that he is referencing and presenting to the staff. That way, the staff could access the information more readily and not be limited to the information our staff representative presents us with. If instead, our staff representative presented us with a bookmark site that shows various articles and more information for those who desire more descriptive details, then users could decide the quantity of information they read.
For more ideas on ways to use the delicious bookmark site, I visited the website http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-delicious-social-bookmarking/ in which Kristi Hines offered up 8 ways to use delicious. Kristi brought up some good ideas and I especially enjoyed the idea regarding the creation of a company delicious site for employees to see all the bookmarked sites that could yield good information. I immediately thought of a building contractor and the website links to all the reliable trades companies that worked out great and not-so-great. A contractor could use a bookmark page for future reference of who to hire and this list could be shared with other contractors or companies requiring services.
Educationally this idea of a school-wide bookmark site could be used for purposes such as giving parents links to available tutors or learning centres that work best for students. Also, as educational cutbacks become a yearly reality, teachers could use a social bookmark site to keep track of sites that offer competitive prices on constantly required school supplies such as overhead transparencies, projector bulbs, and photocopy paper etc.
Firstly, I watched ‘social bookmarking in plain English’ on youtube. This video clip was very useful in justifying the use of an application such as delicious. The link to the video is … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeBmvDpVbWc
From what I gathered from the video, ‘bookmarking’ refers to the saving of good or useful websites on your internet browser. Though this process can clutter up your ‘favourites’ section if you are bookmarking a lot of sites. And these bookmarks are specific to a particular computer, meaning you can only view your ‘favourites’ or bookmarks on that one computer. Along comes social bookmarking sites such as ‘delicious’ and grants users a free webpage to store these bookmarks. This makes a neater job of storing a bunch of useful sites and it also allows the users to access these bookmarks from any computer with internet access.
I then visited the delicious website and set up an account. The website prompted the user to either make a completely new account, or log in from a yahoo user account, or even login from an existing facebook account. It’s amazing how all of these internet applications are interconnected and one user account can establish accounts on all of these sites. I set up an account using my facebook account. The link to my delicious page is the following http://www.delicious.com/2be9026849256c3e8964b1dc6d7ad2ed
On a side note, I had previously posted the link to my bookmark page on my blog site. To include that same link on this blog post I used the copy and paste function. When I pasted the web address into this report, nothing appeared. It took me a while to realise that within my blog the font is coloured white so when something is copied from it and pasted into a document with a white background, nothing appears. One must select the pasted information ‘blindly’ and change its colour.
The one aspect that makes these sites social is that each users bookmark page is public. Everyone can therefore see which sites you find useful and you can see which other sites that people find useful. This feature doesn’t really make sense unless you know the person and know their interests. From an educational perspective, if you could view the bookmarks of a fellow teacher who also taught the same subjects as you, then you could potentially benefit from sharing bookmarks. In a wider scope, an entire school could sign up for a school-based delicious account to keep track of more general websites that teachers could benefit from.
Our school (Earl Marriott) is currently in debate with the school district over changing the bell schedule to a 5-block day in order to accommodate our 1900+ students. So much technical and legal information is associated within this proposal and our staff union representative is trying hard to keep up with keeping the staff up to date with our/their rights. Instead of attaching documents to emails he could potentially create a school-wide delicious site and bookmark all the pages that he is referencing and presenting to the staff. That way, the staff could access the information more readily and not be limited to the information our staff representative presents us with. If instead, our staff representative presented us with a bookmark site that shows various articles and more information for those who desire more descriptive details, then users could decide the quantity of information they read.
For more ideas on ways to use the delicious bookmark site, I visited the website http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-delicious-social-bookmarking/ in which Kristi Hines offered up 8 ways to use delicious. Kristi brought up some good ideas and I especially enjoyed the idea regarding the creation of a company delicious site for employees to see all the bookmarked sites that could yield good information. I immediately thought of a building contractor and the website links to all the reliable trades companies that worked out great and not-so-great. A contractor could use a bookmark page for future reference of who to hire and this list could be shared with other contractors or companies requiring services.
Educationally this idea of a school-wide bookmark site could be used for purposes such as giving parents links to available tutors or learning centres that work best for students. Also, as educational cutbacks become a yearly reality, teachers could use a social bookmark site to keep track of sites that offer competitive prices on constantly required school supplies such as overhead transparencies, projector bulbs, and photocopy paper etc.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
My Delicious account link....
Hey all,
I created a bookmark account on the www.delicious.com website.
The URL is below....
http://www.delicious.com/2be9026849256c3e8964b1dc6d7ad2ed
I only have a few bookmarks, but it will definately get more added to it in the future.
-Regen
I created a bookmark account on the www.delicious.com website.
The URL is below....
http://www.delicious.com/2be9026849256c3e8964b1dc6d7ad2ed
I only have a few bookmarks, but it will definately get more added to it in the future.
-Regen
Monday, February 7, 2011
Blog #2 Post: Youtube and its features....
Hello,
Over 2 billion youtube videos are viewed per day, and users upload 24 hours of video footage every minute (from http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet). Youtube is a website that allows registered users a place to upload, store, and share video clips. It can be described as the ‘flickr’ of the video world. The nice aspect of youtube is that it also allows users access to the exact html link to where each video is stored. Like the flickr website, this aspect of youtubes website is great for embedding video footage into any type of web document you could imagine.
Before researching youtube for this blog entry, I previously would visit youtube to see tv highlights that I had heard about but couldn’t access because my wife and I don’t have cable tv. I’ve currently watched so many canucks highlights that a regular speed hockey game seems too slow for me now…..I just want to skip to the highlight reel. Lol. I think that this type of easy access is a key element in youtube’s success. The download time is so fast that it delivers what users want in a speed that’s not boring. It does seem ironic though that in an age of lcd, led, plasma tv’s and high definition standards, that youtube users accept average quality video. I guess it depends on the age and components of your computer as well as the type of video recording equipment the ‘uploader’ used, but some of the videos are quite ‘grainy’ and of poor quality but no one seems to mind. Youtube does offer a ‘full-screen’ button to enlarge the video size but this only magnifies poor quality video footage. The better quality of video does mean larger file types so maybe youtube keeps the file size lower and the quality lower so that it can boast having billions of hours of video footage available with a click of a mouse.
It was quite easy to set up a youtube account. Like all the other web 2.0 tools, youtube allowed me to create an account based of my existing ‘google’ email account that I use for flickr, blogger, and google sites. One gets a good idea of just how many users are registered on youtube when you try to make a unique screen name and realise most of the straight forward names are already taken. New user names must include symbols and numbers to be accepted as unique. After creating an account I made a few short videos with my Nikon D90 digital camera. I then plugged the camera memory card into my computer and downloaded the video files. The video files were then uploaded to my youtube account and are now stored on my account.
My three videos were of a record playing on my record player. I tried to link the videos to the portion of the math 8/9 curriculum that focuses on symmetry, more specifically rotational symmetry and the topics ‘angle of rotation’ and ‘degree of symmetry’. These videos would act as warm-up activities as we entered into the symmetry section. In the future I thought of taking an old record and drawing designs on it so students could better keep track of the rotations.
After making and posting a few short videos using my camera, I wanted to see how to embed these videos within a website of blog page. I then went to youtube and typed in ‘how to embed youtube videos’. From the results page, I clicked on the first video entry that matched my search description. The video I clicked on was a 4-minute video showing exactly how to embed youtube videos in web pages and blogs.
The major key was finding and copying the source code in html format. This was a very similar process to embedding flickr photo slideshows from the previous exercise. This youtube video also went over changing the size of the video as well. Not the file size of the video, but the actual display size of the video screen that would appear on the web page. Within the html code page there were two, three-digit numbers that related to the height and width of the screen size. The video also showed how to insert some html code within the web page so that the video would play automatically as soon as the web page was accessed. On the html screen of a given webpage, just prior to the words ‘&’ one could insert the phrase ‘&autoplay=1’ and your youtube video would start automatically on your webpage or blog. Special thanks to ‘Bummarketer’ who created the youtube video that I watched to learn how this task was completed. The youtube link to his video was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSz_a_yx9hA
The ‘autoplay’ feature is a great ideal for some applications but I’m not exaclty sure how it would work on a blog page where there’s more than one youtube video. Would all the videos start at once? Would the most recent video start and then be followed by the most recent video after that? I will definitely research this more in the future of my youtube use.
Please see my embedded videos on the blog post below.
Thanks. -Regen
Over 2 billion youtube videos are viewed per day, and users upload 24 hours of video footage every minute (from http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet). Youtube is a website that allows registered users a place to upload, store, and share video clips. It can be described as the ‘flickr’ of the video world. The nice aspect of youtube is that it also allows users access to the exact html link to where each video is stored. Like the flickr website, this aspect of youtubes website is great for embedding video footage into any type of web document you could imagine.
Before researching youtube for this blog entry, I previously would visit youtube to see tv highlights that I had heard about but couldn’t access because my wife and I don’t have cable tv. I’ve currently watched so many canucks highlights that a regular speed hockey game seems too slow for me now…..I just want to skip to the highlight reel. Lol. I think that this type of easy access is a key element in youtube’s success. The download time is so fast that it delivers what users want in a speed that’s not boring. It does seem ironic though that in an age of lcd, led, plasma tv’s and high definition standards, that youtube users accept average quality video. I guess it depends on the age and components of your computer as well as the type of video recording equipment the ‘uploader’ used, but some of the videos are quite ‘grainy’ and of poor quality but no one seems to mind. Youtube does offer a ‘full-screen’ button to enlarge the video size but this only magnifies poor quality video footage. The better quality of video does mean larger file types so maybe youtube keeps the file size lower and the quality lower so that it can boast having billions of hours of video footage available with a click of a mouse.
It was quite easy to set up a youtube account. Like all the other web 2.0 tools, youtube allowed me to create an account based of my existing ‘google’ email account that I use for flickr, blogger, and google sites. One gets a good idea of just how many users are registered on youtube when you try to make a unique screen name and realise most of the straight forward names are already taken. New user names must include symbols and numbers to be accepted as unique. After creating an account I made a few short videos with my Nikon D90 digital camera. I then plugged the camera memory card into my computer and downloaded the video files. The video files were then uploaded to my youtube account and are now stored on my account.
My three videos were of a record playing on my record player. I tried to link the videos to the portion of the math 8/9 curriculum that focuses on symmetry, more specifically rotational symmetry and the topics ‘angle of rotation’ and ‘degree of symmetry’. These videos would act as warm-up activities as we entered into the symmetry section. In the future I thought of taking an old record and drawing designs on it so students could better keep track of the rotations.
After making and posting a few short videos using my camera, I wanted to see how to embed these videos within a website of blog page. I then went to youtube and typed in ‘how to embed youtube videos’. From the results page, I clicked on the first video entry that matched my search description. The video I clicked on was a 4-minute video showing exactly how to embed youtube videos in web pages and blogs.
The major key was finding and copying the source code in html format. This was a very similar process to embedding flickr photo slideshows from the previous exercise. This youtube video also went over changing the size of the video as well. Not the file size of the video, but the actual display size of the video screen that would appear on the web page. Within the html code page there were two, three-digit numbers that related to the height and width of the screen size. The video also showed how to insert some html code within the web page so that the video would play automatically as soon as the web page was accessed. On the html screen of a given webpage, just prior to the words ‘&’ one could insert the phrase ‘&autoplay=1’ and your youtube video would start automatically on your webpage or blog. Special thanks to ‘Bummarketer’ who created the youtube video that I watched to learn how this task was completed. The youtube link to his video was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSz_a_yx9hA
The ‘autoplay’ feature is a great ideal for some applications but I’m not exaclty sure how it would work on a blog page where there’s more than one youtube video. Would all the videos start at once? Would the most recent video start and then be followed by the most recent video after that? I will definitely research this more in the future of my youtube use.
Please see my embedded videos on the blog post below.
Thanks. -Regen
embeded youtube videos.....
Hey all,
Here's a few short videos I made with my Nikon D90. I then uploded them to youtube, copied the embed code and pasted them here. Hope this works....lol...
Here's a few short videos I made with my Nikon D90. I then uploded them to youtube, copied the embed code and pasted them here. Hope this works....lol...
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Blog #1: Exploring Flickr....
Blog # 1 – Exploring Flickr
Flickr estimates it currently has over 5 billion photos being publicly shared on its website. Flickr is a website that hosts pictures for basic user accounts, and pictures and video files for ‘pro’ user accounts. From the Wikepedia website I gathered some technical information that described how the Flickr website was created and owned by a Vancouver based company that was later taken over by Yahoo about three years ago.
A popular site for photographers, but an even more popular site for bloggers looking to utilize Flickr’s slideshow application and imbed slideshows of photos within blog posts. It took me a while to understand and even appreciate the reason why this is such a popular function, but now it makes sense.
At first when I was researching what Flickr was, I was apologetically kind of unimpressed that it just held photos and could make slideshows. But when I thought in terms of website production and blog posts, the advantages of an embedded album became clear. If a user wanted to post more than 2-3 photos it would start to look very unorganized and cluttered without a slideshow, album, or folder. Not only does Flickr create the slideshow for you, it supplies the user with the html code required to copy the slideshow into ones blog. If Flickr did not supply this programming code to its users I do not think Flickr would be nearly as popular or as distinguished from other photo sharing sites. Supplying users with the html code for each slideshow makes embedding a slideshow very fast and adds a professional, organized look to a website or blog post.
Next, I will describe my initial experience with the Flickr website. First, I navigated to the Flickr site and set up an account. Instead of setting up a completely new account, I used my yahoo account information to link my yahoo account to my new Flickr account. My yahoo account login information now enables me to log into Flickr. Upon setting this up, Flickr prompted me to add friends from my Facebook account who also have Flickr accounts. It turned out I had 6 Facebook friends who also have Flickr accounts who are now called my ‘contacts’ under Flickr’s terms. Some of these friends were other teachers at school who quickly approached me the following day at work to personally welcome me to Flickr. I was shocked at how fast online actions travel in the real world.
I uploaded my first picture, one of my dog, and it worked great. I was prompted to set the privacy of the picture as public or private. I chose public because it was just a picture of my dog and I don’t care who sees it. It is just a small question but the ‘public’ or ‘private’ setting question definitely makes you wonder who is potentially going to see the photos and what are the associated positive and negative consequences. Yes, I am kind of old-school and feel that people don’t commonly think about the private and public aspects of social webpages until they are prompted about it. I think people should think more regularly about potential pros and cons of public, online photos and comments.
After uploading a single picture I navigated through Youtube to potentially find a tutorial that would help me do something exciting within the Flickr website. I found video showing a step-by-step tutorial which showed the user the basics of Flickr and how to create those sought after embedded slide shows. After uploading some pictures I took around my house, the informational video explained that Flickr works best with photos that contain ‘tags’ which are used to organize or group photos. Once you have tagged your photos, you can hit the ‘create a slideshow’ button. Flickr will then prompt you to list the ‘tag’ name for all the pictures you want to include in the slideshow. After answering with a tag name, the slideshow is completed. The user must then click the ‘share’ button to see the html code that is now associated with the slideshow that was created. Copy and paste this html code into any website or blog post and your slideshow is embedded.
I did a test slideshow and embedded it in my blog within the previous post. My test slideshow was pictures I took of indoor objects that showed some sort of geometrical qualities as a way to get students possibly warmed up to the geometry section of their math curriculum. I feel students would enjoy seeing pictures or any sort of media prior to the start of any unit. I also think the students would be impressed or ‘hooked’ with my use of technology within a presentation. I meant the last sentence to sound sincere and not egocentric. Hopefully it came across that way. I just think students must typically see teachers using old overhead projectors and acetate sheets to deliver material where more technology could easily be present. I couldn’t imagine my students reaction if I plugged in my lcd projector and showed them my Flickr album to help them visualize geometric images. I think they would be shocked and I would enjoy it immensely. I really can’t wait to use my basic Flickr skills within the classroom.
I used the site Wikepedia for the basic information regarding Flickr. Please see the link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr
I also used youtube to obtain an instructional video regarding the embedding process of slideshows within websites and blog posts (Mike Bogle). Please see the great link below to the youtube video, thanks Mike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsJeBBgcByg
Please see my embedded Flickr slideshow below. Thanks. -Regen
Flickr estimates it currently has over 5 billion photos being publicly shared on its website. Flickr is a website that hosts pictures for basic user accounts, and pictures and video files for ‘pro’ user accounts. From the Wikepedia website I gathered some technical information that described how the Flickr website was created and owned by a Vancouver based company that was later taken over by Yahoo about three years ago.
A popular site for photographers, but an even more popular site for bloggers looking to utilize Flickr’s slideshow application and imbed slideshows of photos within blog posts. It took me a while to understand and even appreciate the reason why this is such a popular function, but now it makes sense.
At first when I was researching what Flickr was, I was apologetically kind of unimpressed that it just held photos and could make slideshows. But when I thought in terms of website production and blog posts, the advantages of an embedded album became clear. If a user wanted to post more than 2-3 photos it would start to look very unorganized and cluttered without a slideshow, album, or folder. Not only does Flickr create the slideshow for you, it supplies the user with the html code required to copy the slideshow into ones blog. If Flickr did not supply this programming code to its users I do not think Flickr would be nearly as popular or as distinguished from other photo sharing sites. Supplying users with the html code for each slideshow makes embedding a slideshow very fast and adds a professional, organized look to a website or blog post.
Next, I will describe my initial experience with the Flickr website. First, I navigated to the Flickr site and set up an account. Instead of setting up a completely new account, I used my yahoo account information to link my yahoo account to my new Flickr account. My yahoo account login information now enables me to log into Flickr. Upon setting this up, Flickr prompted me to add friends from my Facebook account who also have Flickr accounts. It turned out I had 6 Facebook friends who also have Flickr accounts who are now called my ‘contacts’ under Flickr’s terms. Some of these friends were other teachers at school who quickly approached me the following day at work to personally welcome me to Flickr. I was shocked at how fast online actions travel in the real world.
I uploaded my first picture, one of my dog, and it worked great. I was prompted to set the privacy of the picture as public or private. I chose public because it was just a picture of my dog and I don’t care who sees it. It is just a small question but the ‘public’ or ‘private’ setting question definitely makes you wonder who is potentially going to see the photos and what are the associated positive and negative consequences. Yes, I am kind of old-school and feel that people don’t commonly think about the private and public aspects of social webpages until they are prompted about it. I think people should think more regularly about potential pros and cons of public, online photos and comments.
After uploading a single picture I navigated through Youtube to potentially find a tutorial that would help me do something exciting within the Flickr website. I found video showing a step-by-step tutorial which showed the user the basics of Flickr and how to create those sought after embedded slide shows. After uploading some pictures I took around my house, the informational video explained that Flickr works best with photos that contain ‘tags’ which are used to organize or group photos. Once you have tagged your photos, you can hit the ‘create a slideshow’ button. Flickr will then prompt you to list the ‘tag’ name for all the pictures you want to include in the slideshow. After answering with a tag name, the slideshow is completed. The user must then click the ‘share’ button to see the html code that is now associated with the slideshow that was created. Copy and paste this html code into any website or blog post and your slideshow is embedded.
I did a test slideshow and embedded it in my blog within the previous post. My test slideshow was pictures I took of indoor objects that showed some sort of geometrical qualities as a way to get students possibly warmed up to the geometry section of their math curriculum. I feel students would enjoy seeing pictures or any sort of media prior to the start of any unit. I also think the students would be impressed or ‘hooked’ with my use of technology within a presentation. I meant the last sentence to sound sincere and not egocentric. Hopefully it came across that way. I just think students must typically see teachers using old overhead projectors and acetate sheets to deliver material where more technology could easily be present. I couldn’t imagine my students reaction if I plugged in my lcd projector and showed them my Flickr album to help them visualize geometric images. I think they would be shocked and I would enjoy it immensely. I really can’t wait to use my basic Flickr skills within the classroom.
I used the site Wikepedia for the basic information regarding Flickr. Please see the link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr
I also used youtube to obtain an instructional video regarding the embedding process of slideshows within websites and blog posts (Mike Bogle). Please see the great link below to the youtube video, thanks Mike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsJeBBgcByg
Please see my embedded Flickr slideshow below. Thanks. -Regen
Monday, January 24, 2011
Slideshow details....
Hello,
So I was brainstorming on how I could use flickr within a secondary school math class. I came up with some pictures and an embedded slideshow which showcases some pictures that I took within my home that all have a geometry/angle theme. I did not know how to do this 'embedding' stuff before this and just visited youtube for some guidance. I think that this sort of thing would be great within a class overhead presentation.
So I was brainstorming on how I could use flickr within a secondary school math class. I came up with some pictures and an embedded slideshow which showcases some pictures that I took within my home that all have a geometry/angle theme. I did not know how to do this 'embedding' stuff before this and just visited youtube for some guidance. I think that this sort of thing would be great within a class overhead presentation.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Intro Email about me & the process of Setting up a Blog Page...
Hello again,
I'll start with a quick into of who I am. I'm currently a UBC student and highschool math teacher. This blog was set up to help archive my experiences in exploring web 2.0 tools within the UBC course Libe477.
I chose this website over others because I had limited experience with this site in a previous course taken at UBC, and I remember it being pretty straight foward. My memory served me well because it was just as easy to set up as I originally remembered.
The whole idea of a blog is quite new to me. I remember when I first heard about it, I wasn't sure what it was, and never went searching for explanations until I took the one UBC course a few semesters ago. I was familiar with the concept of 'discussion board' and used this knowledge to help me make sense of a blog. In summary, I think of a blog as a discussion board in which I am the owner/editor/moderator of, instead of posting to a disucssion board in which someone else owns it. Hopefully this is an accurate way of thinking about it. Let me know if not.
Looking foward to posting more in the future. The whole blog idea is a pretty interesting concept.
-Regen
I'll start with a quick into of who I am. I'm currently a UBC student and highschool math teacher. This blog was set up to help archive my experiences in exploring web 2.0 tools within the UBC course Libe477.
I chose this website over others because I had limited experience with this site in a previous course taken at UBC, and I remember it being pretty straight foward. My memory served me well because it was just as easy to set up as I originally remembered.
The whole idea of a blog is quite new to me. I remember when I first heard about it, I wasn't sure what it was, and never went searching for explanations until I took the one UBC course a few semesters ago. I was familiar with the concept of 'discussion board' and used this knowledge to help me make sense of a blog. In summary, I think of a blog as a discussion board in which I am the owner/editor/moderator of, instead of posting to a disucssion board in which someone else owns it. Hopefully this is an accurate way of thinking about it. Let me know if not.
Looking foward to posting more in the future. The whole blog idea is a pretty interesting concept.
-Regen
Test Blog Post....
Hey all,
Just a quick test to see if this works.
I'll post more once I know that it works.
-Regen
Just a quick test to see if this works.
I'll post more once I know that it works.
-Regen
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