Weekly Report & Reflection #10

I had the opportunity to explore a video slideshow maker called Animoto! I found this tool to be very useful for the purpose of making short video presentations. When creating a presentation, it allows users to choose from different background themes and music themes from a list provided by Animoto while also uploading pictures to be used in the slideshow. In addition, text can also be added to the slides along with captions to the uploaded images. In conclusion, this tool can be used as a convenient way to create a short and informative presentations that can be useful when trying to convey a message in schools and in business meetings. It is especially useful for school purposes because it is very user friendly and you will not encounter any setbacks with adding animations or background music as the options are provided on the website. A person who is not great with computer tools can easily create what looks to be a very creative and sophisticated presentation. The only drawback with Animoto is that there are better features available but only if you upgrade your account. In addition, a free user is limited to a 30-second clip while a premium user can create longer presentations. There are also more themes and music available for premium members. Finally, you can edit the duration that you want each slide to display for while as a free user, you cannot control how long each slide is shown for.

Photo copied from: https://pbltech.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/animoto-narrated-slide-shows/

Becoming aware of Animoto will improve my Digital Literacy as I had previously only used Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Drive to create slideshow presentations. Now I can create a short and professional slideshow presentations using tools like Animoto. Tools like Animoto helps me become more knowledgeable in digital literacy. Using Animoto to create my presentation gave me a better understanding of Copyrights and Creative Commons. As mentioned in Sites2See - Copyright for Students, Every image or text extract you use in school materials is subject to copyright. By having to find images online, I have to give credit to the owners of the images and not treat the images as my own. This helped me greatly as I will know to give proper citation when using online images for school assignments.

Photo copied from: http://features.en.softonic.com/16-must-have-apps-for-every-teacher

Tools like Animoto can be added to my PLE. Animoto can be used in my create category. Firstly, it can be used as a web tool that is used for building my knowledge because tools like Animoto provide viewers with knowledge and information in a concise format. For example, an Animoto presentation can introduce you to unfamiliar topics very efficiently within a 30-second presentation through pictures and texts. I did not have much knowledge about Copyrights and Creative Commons but looking at other student's Animoto presentations gave me a better understanding about the topic. Animoto can also help improve my communication skills because there is a certain limit on the amount of text that can be written on each slide meaning that you must be concise while also getting your point across. The 30-second limit also attributes to effective communication. People do not want to read a wall of text on a slideshow presentation. Learning to be very concise (50 characters per slide) and the 30-second limit will make me a better communicator as well. 

Photo copied from: http://www.madamasr.com/file/facebook-logopng

An interesting article from this week was about Facebook was performing psychological test on its users. Facebook tested more than 600,000 users by manipulation of the news feeds. Some users were shown with a lot of positive news feeds while some users were shown with negative news feeds. This ties into Digital Rights and Responsibilities. They wanted to study that if showing friends with positive feeds would make the user more depressed or vice versa. By running these "covert" web experiments, Facebook users do not have a right to Digital Transparency. In this Digital Age, we must be aware of our digital rights that we gave away when we agree to AUPs of websites. For example, Facebook policy states: "We may use the informative we receive about you for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and service improvement." We must be aware of these type of controversial tests and what digital rights we give up for these online services.

Technology Use Scenario

Scenario 11:

Photo copied from: 
http://www.greatlakescomputer.com/blog

Mrs. Smith considers herself to be a pretty savvy computer user. She has been working with computers for five years and uses them regularly in class. Mrs. Smith gets an email from someone she does not know but opens the email anyway. When she opens it, the message has some advertisement for a free gift, so she deletes the email. Several days later she is working on her computer and notices that her Internet browser is working very slowly. She decides to check the computer with an antivirus program and discovers that she has a virus on her computer. She determines that the virus came from the email she received several days previously. 

Mrs. Smith seems to be competent with digital literacy by knowing that she most likely received the virus by opening an unknown email. Mrs. Smith demonstrated digital literacy by noticing that her internet browser was slow and the most likely cause was a virus. She also demonstrated digital literacy by using an antivirus program to remove it and determining that the email was the root of the problem. However, there were still some actions that should be done differently. I came across an article that says the 2 best defences against e-mail viruses are: never opening an e-mail with attachment unless you know the sender and ensure that you are using an antivirus or firewall to scan the e-mail before opening it. As you can see, Mrs. Smith did not follow these rules. Mrs. Smith should not have opened the e-mail from someone that she did not know. If she had decided to open it, she should have scanned the e-mail using a firewall or antivirus first, which she did not do as well. Overall, Mrs. Smith should never open unknown e-mails with links or attachments as they most likely contain e-mail viruses.

Photo copied from:
http://cynergistek.com/understanding-reducing-security-threats-webinar/6201702-shield-antivirus-abstract-done-in-3d/

Also this article talks about the different kinds of viruses that exist and how they can enter your computer. This website talks about the Worm Virus that is very commonly spread through emails. However the website does mention that in order for the virus to get into your computer you need to click a link or open an attachment. In general opening up these kinds of emails should not be a concern if you do not open links or attachments. Mrs. Smith took very appropriate actions when she noticed that her Internet browser was working slowly. Her use of the antivirus was correct as it lead her to determine the source of the virus. This website describes very well what an antivirus is and how it can help users detect viruses. 

Photo copied from:
https://connections.cu.edu/did-you-know/protect-your-computer/

Mrs. Smith could have opened the unknown email but avoided opening any links or attachments from the unknown sender. Also she could have altogether not opened the email but instead try to find out who the sender is. There is also software like this one that can detect email viruses.

Many people have done the same as Mrs. Smith. Have you? What was the outcome?

Weekly Report & Reflection #9

Photo Copied from:
http://voicethread.com/mobile/

VoiceThread

VoiceThread is a very creative and collaborative tool.  First a user creates a slideshow and then, as others are viewing it, they can leave their own comments using voice clips, typing, etc.  This allows not only the presenter to share his ideas, but for listeners to have their inputs when they may not otherwise be able to. This can be a very useful tool in the classroom as well as in the workplace.

Teachers can have their students participate with VoiceThread in various different ways. It could be used as a homework assignment where the student has to comment on a couple of slides, as we did in this week’s activities. Then they could present the slides in the classroom and use the comments students made as a discussion tool.  This can also help students get involved that may not be comfortable participating in a classroom setting.

Photo copied from: http://www.nccu.edu/voicethread/

PollDaddy

PollDaddy is more of an information gathering tool. It allows you to post your own survey questions and have anyone with a link answer the question. It can be very useful when conducting any sort of survey or again, to get students involved in the classroom. With PollDaddy, it may be a little easier to use as an in class activity, as the students will not necessarily need to talk into a mic as they may with VoiceThread. It could be used as a quick quiz or opinion tool and then lead into a discussion with the student following viewing the classroom poll results.

Photo copied from:http://sandiego.wordcamp.org/2011/sponsor/polldaddy/

These two tools have a more specific purpose than other collaboration and communication tools we have explored in the past. Where Google Docs has a very broad purpose, from word processing to creating presentations, VoiceThread only allows the creation of presentations and then gathering opinions and comments from others. Also, PollDaddy only allows users to communicate their answers based on the options provided.

Photo copied from:
http://www.wtamu.edu/administration/buffalo-gold-card-faculty-and-staff.aspx

Through becoming a digital citizen I am learning that the same rules apply to the online community as in everyday society. I am learning that being a digital citizen is harder than it sounds. I have noticed that many people do not have digital etiquette and this all comes down to one thing that is not having respect for other and themselves when using technology. With increases in technology bullying has now stemmed to the cyber bullying. Bullying still continues in schools, but it does not stop there, it continues through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc. We have seen many youth take their own life because of cyber bullying. If we educate our society on proper digital etiquette, we can prevent cyber bullying from happening.

Photo copied from:http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031908/the-5-biggest-online-privacy-threats-of-2013.html

Since we have been talking so much about digital responsibility the last little while, I found a blog from my feedly reader and although it is from the UK, it shows various stats about how much people are concerned about privacy on the Internet. According to the blog, only 46% of people think online privacy is a major issue and only 43% of people believe they are ultimately responsible for protecting their own privacy. See "Stats: internet privacy and responsibility among consumers" for the full blog.

Weekly Report & Reflection #8

Photo copied form: http://nancy-rubin.com/tag/wikis/

I had the opportunity to explore wikis this week. For people like me who were not fully aware of what a wiki is, a wiki is a website that anyone can edit using a web browser. The most famous wiki is called Wikipedia as it is one of the most used wikis in today's digital universe. I usually rely on Wikipedia if I need to find information on something. I use other wikis too that are useful in finding most of the television shows I watch or when I do not understand something. For example, I browse the Game of Thrones wiki to look up character information because I may not have understood the characters from simply watching the show. One concern with wikis is that it can be changed by anyone meaning that anyone can edit and add anything to the wiki; this can include false information that readers understand to be facts. There are many ways in which wikis can be used effectively but despite this, I would not completely rely on a wiki site because anyone online can change or add content and the content may not be exact or it may not be related to the topic of choice. Wikis are also meant to be quick as they provide information with regards to a topic. I find using wikis effective because, as a student, I find the need to look up concepts that I am unfamiliar with and I can read about the concept on the wiki source while quickly becoming informed and without having to read a wordy academic journal that does not completely make sense when you read it for the first time. Using a wiki effectively also means clicking the hyperlinked words to see if you can gain more knowledge and information about the specific topic.

Sarwar, F. (CC) 2015.

Wikis are similar to tools like Google Docs and Evernote because of the collaboration of information. While the main idea of Google Docs, Evernote and wiki is for people to work together, there are some differences between the three tools. Wikis are like Wikipedia and are designed for public use meaning that it is accessible for anyone with an internet browser. In contrast, Google Docs is meant for the use of a specific audience and is not for meant everyone to access as the audience depends on who you want your audience to be and who you give access to. Google Docs is better for times when you want a limited viewing audience whereas wikis are better if you want to share your information with everyone. A wiki is very different from Google Docs because Google Docs is essentially like using Microsoft Office tools whereas a wiki is a search engine for research material and/or topics. Evernote allows users to store important information by clipping or saving links to academic content in an organized digital notebook.

Photo copied from:
http://news.groupsoftware.com.br/index.php/novidades-na-documentacao-wikis/

I think wikis can be a great tool for educational purposes because wikis can be composed of many unique individuals' knowledge. There can be many sources that can be pooled together and later added into the wiki. As the saying goes, more minds are better than one! The drawback with wikis is that the information may not always be accurate; this is true for topics that may be complicated and are very detailed. Therefore, wikis can be used as a source of information, but it should not be used as the single and most reliable source, especially when you are writing a school paper. The paper should use more sources than just Wikipedia.

Throughout the experimentation in this course, I am continuing to build on my knowledge of being a digital citizen. Being a digital citizen comes with many digital rights and responsibilities and the biggest right and responsibility for me is respect. Everyone needs to be responsible in respecting others and everyone has the right to be respected because without respect, the Internet can be a very dangerous place.  It can be used for many positive things but it also can be used for many negative things.

Photo copied from: http://www.greenwichschools.org/page.cfm?p=1673

I have found that one of the most interesting article I found in my feedly reader this week is from Edudemic and is named 10 Most Popular Teaching Tools Used This Year. The article lists digital tools that have become known to be "the most essential and popular educational tools used in modern classrooms across the globe." Throughout the course thus far, there have been many digital tools I have had the opportunity explore and it makes me proud to read about those tools on this list as it indicates that I am further developing my knowledge of the digital world while also growing my PLE.

Weekly Report & Relfection #7

Photo copied from:
http://emrefirat.edublogs.org/2012/08/18/todaysmeet/

I really enjoyed working with my group members and discussing the collaborative project using TodaysMeet. The interesting aspect of this project was that neither of the group members physically met in person yet everyone was able to collaborate and create a presentation online. Thinking back to years ago, it is quite evident that successfully working on this project would have been quite difficult. With the help of cloud technology, people around the world can work together without having to meet each other in a face-to-face setting. One of the challenges of working on a project in a digital environment is having the ability to share work in an effective and organized manner as communication takes place using countless emails. To overcome this problem, Google has created a tool known as Google Docs. The tool can be found in a person’s Google Drive and is used to allow group members to work on a single document, whether it be a PowerPoint or a Word document to name a few, at the same time.

Photo copied from: http://www.youngupstarts.com/2012/04/12/52-great-google-docs-secrets-for-students/

Working with Google Docs was a great experience. I have used Google Docs in the past and I find that after taking a few minutes to set up the Google Docs PowerPoint presentation and adding the group members who can view and edit the presentation, I feel great ease. I no longer have to worry about my respective group members waiting for me to send them my portion of the project because they can work on the presentation at the same time and they see any updates made within seconds. After the responsibilities of the project are divided, everyone can independently finish their parts while viewing what everyone is doing and they can discuss where improvements can be made by adding comments to the specific slides. By having access to this tool, people can save time that tends to be spent on figuring out when group members are free and setting up a meeting time. Google Docs can be used in a company to share and work on files between co-workers who are possibly dispersed around the world as long as the person has access to the internet. Most importantly, I no longer have to worry about carrying a USB or having to send emails back and forth.

Photo copied from:
http://blog.arvixe.com/what-is-a-personal-learning-environment/

With regards to the PLE I created in Week 2, I do not feel the need to remove any of the tools I initially I added because I have used those tools in the past, have found them to be useful and will continue to utilize them in the future. Some of the new tools I have discovered can be more useful to the work I wish to complete and therefore I will be adding them to my PLE diagram. Feedly, Google Docs, Evernotes, and Diigo are all new applications that I will be adding to my PLE because they are tools I can benefit from. My PLE is evidently increasing in size simply due to the fact that I am being exposed to new tools that I did now know about before. I feel that I have been able to take advantage of the new tools and feel they will prove to be beneficial when I use them for school, work, and/or my personal purposes. After completing half of this course, I have found that I have been able to learn about new features on the sites and tools I used before taking this course which is great.

Through my Feedly Reader, I found an article about 5 questions teachers can ask students to help boost their learning experience. The questions suggested are quite simple but "powerful" as suggested by the article. I think questions like "Why do you think that" or " How do you know this" will let teachers really reach their students as they try to help them understand and further develop their train of thought on various topics. Although teachers may have already thought about these questions, I believe keeping track of how often and when these questions are asked is very important as it ensures that these questions are consistently being asked. These questions can be beneficial as they can potentially allow students to become more comfortable and confident when asking questions and/or sharing their opinions. 

Weekly Report & Reflection #6

I had the opportunity of exploring Evernote this week. The basic premise of Evernote is that it is a note taking tool. However, there are more features than just note taking. You can add research, web pages, clips, tasks and to-dos, photos of whiteboards, emails, handwritten organizers in a notepad, and camera phone snapshots all to your Evernote notebooks (Hamilton, 2010). Considering all that Evernote has to offer, it is obvious that it is not a standard note taking application.  

My favourite feature about Evernote is the synchronization and multi-platform ability. Evernote works with computers (Windows and Mac), mobile phones, tablets, and even webOS! As you can see, there are so many platforms you can use Evernote on. For example, if I make notes on my laptop during a lecture, I can view the notes on my phone when I am on the bus as long as I have internet connection. The cloud access and the ability to access notes on almost anything with internet is a very beneficial feature that will attract more users to Evernote in the future. As a note taking application, Evernote is helpful for educational purposes as it includes a feature that helps learning by sharing notebooks. You do not have to give a physical copy of your notes to someone but can allow users to access your notebook. This results in knowledge sharing and is helpful for collaboration in group projects. This will be a helpful tool when I work on my research project with my partners. Furthermore, I also liked the reminder feature that I explored with as it allowed me to set reminders on my account and through emails. Doing this will help me with keeping track of due dates due or remind me that I should start working on my task as the deadline is coming up. For example, I can use this tool to create notes for a topic while I work on it. Afterwards, I can set a reminders for next week stating that I need finish it before the project is due making Evernote a great tool that can benefit my time management skills. This blog is helpful in helping you set out reminders. Make sure you take a look!

Photo copied from: http://goinswriter.com/capture-ideas-evernote/

What's great about Evernote is that it meets many needs and, like some of the other tools I have been introduced to, can fit into more than one category within my PLE. Evernote can be part of the categories create and organize because it not only organizes content that I have collected but it also helps me to compile research into notebooks I create. I will add Evernote to my PLE because, as I previously mentioned, it is an extremely useful tool with everyday applications! With the help of Evernote, I was able to bring my Digital Communication to another level.

I am open-minded towards using Evernote for working with a partner for an online assignment. Using digital communication to work with a partner is going to be a new experience. All of my university class assignments involved meeting and interacting with group member face-to-face. At the same time, I feel that being able to use Evernote will develop stronger communication skills by interacting using different methods.

When I was first learning about Evernote, I had doubts about facing difficulty when using the program so I checked my Feedly reader to see if there were any blogs about Evernote and I found one. The Evernote blog gives you tips and stories about Evernote, updates with Evernote and just helps you use Evernote to the best of your abilities. So if you are interesting in learning more about Evernote, or how to best use it for your tasks take a look at this blog!

Weekly Report & Reflection #5

Photo copied from: Metamorphosis in Education: Personal Learning Networks

This week’s session allowed me to create a Twitter account while exploring the social media tool and learning how tweeting can enhance my educational experience. Before I talk about Twitter, I want to touch upon my experiences with regards to how I participated in learning from others in a personal learning network (PLN). Using various methods and channels of communication, I was able to discuss tools and topics that have been covered in this ADED course thus far. I enjoy hearing my peers’ opinions and thoughts on a variety of topics, specifically ones that I have discussed in my blog. I truly appreciate it when my peers leave me a comment on what I have wrote or a new discovery they made while reading my blogs because it allows me to think about new perspectives while also viewing a topic from a different angle. Considering this, I hope to learn quite a bit from my PLN. Overall, I think learning and communicating with others in my PLN is one of the best learning experiences I have had and I hope to continue to explore new tools and ideas by utilizing it.

Twitter was quite a fascinating tool that I explored this week. Twitter is famous for its micro-blog approach and its ability to create a social network market by using symbols and limited characters that users can glance at with ease. Some say that Twitter builds your PLN but in reality it is up to you to make it work as a positive learning network and tool. Only you can contribute to Twitter and only you can enhance your PLN within the social network tools. Twitter’s advantages include having the ease of navigation and sorting out great resources that can assist in building your PLN but it is still important to remember that it is still up to you to discover which resources are credible when following and adding people to your PLN.

Photo copied from:

Advice to Junior Academics on How to Get Involved With Twitter

Twitter fits in my PLE, but similar to the other tools I use, it cannot be added into one section of my PLE because it is a multi-purpose tool.  When looking back at my PLE diagram from week 2, it is obvious that Twitter can fit in to all of the 4 categories: create, learn, organize, and search and learn.  Twitter allows me to create personalized short tweets on my own which can be posted on Twitter. It allows me to connect and search for my fellow classmates, friends and whatever else I may be interested in. It allows me to organize information by creating lists for specific groups, such as my ADED 1P32 classmates.  Overall, Twitter is a very well rounded tool that fits well into my PLE.

Looking at my Feedly reader I have added a few more blogs and websites to my reader as the weeks have gone by. My reader includes a mix of personal interests as well as helpful learning websites that are useful in my classes. I have a midterm coming up next week for one of my in class courses which means it is time to study. I am finding it hard to study as I am a bit lost with regards to where I should start since I am yet to be informed about what the setup of the midterm will look like. To help me through this next week of studying I added http://studysuccessful.com/ to my Feedly reader. Not only does this link provide me with a variety of studying techniques, it also provides tips that can be beneficial when trying to survive as a university student who is under stress. I recommend people to look out for tips, facts and other helpful guides as they are likely to help you in your college and/or university careers. 

From my Feedly reader I am able to connect what I read to my learning inside and outside of this class. As stated in the paragraph above, everything people learn about is connected to what educators and individuals are using to learn and educate each other across the world. Feedly allows me to read relevant information and twitter allows me to share that information with like-minded individuals. I am constantly reading articles that stress the importance of technology in education and that discuss the merits of using technology to create an environment where one can grow.

Considering the points I have made in this week’s blog, I look forward to adding more tools to my PLN!