Weekly Report & Reflection Post #11 - Jing

Hey everyone, its been another great week and I am sad to say I am almost at the end of the road for this class. I've learned so much about digital tools and what it means to be a digital citizen. In this week's exploration, I came by a fantastic tool that I have never used before, a screencast software. Screencast softwares are typically used to make video tutorials and guides online, found in sites such as Youtube. It does this by capturing a video of your computer screen and audio at the same time if you so desire!

I explored a screencast software called Jing. It is a free software by TechSmith and it does everything you could possibly want in a screencast software. I really like Jing because it lets you capture any part of your screen that you want, making it really customizable and as a result allows you to customize it to your audience. Tools like Jing will definitely be useful to my educational activities as it can not only let me learn through tutorial videos made by others but it will also allow me to reinforce my own knowledge by creating videos for others! When others use Jing to create a video tutorial, I always find them extremely interesting and understandable. This is because I am a visual learner, I can learn something much better and faster if I see it done then compared to me reading instructions or hearing instructions without the visual aspect. So Jing really fits into the way I learn and will enhance my digital learning experience and knowledge building.

I think Jing is different from some of the other communication and collaborative tools I have used in the past. This is because unlike tools like Google Docs, Jing is a one way communication tool. The creator of the video or image with Jing shares it with others and transfers their knowledge to the viewer. Whereas other collaborating tools like Google Docs can be a two way communication tool, that is they allow transfer of knowledge between parties. Both sides can edit the creation and work on it collaboratively. Jing is also a unique presentation tool in terms of it being something that basically takes a mirror what you are physically doing in real time and using that as your presentation. I would put Jing into my PLE's Synthesizing and Creating category. This is because that is what Jing essentially is, it allows you to synthesize something from your computer. I would definitely add this to my PLE because I can see it as extremely useful in the future if I wish to share my digital knowledge through a video format.

Province of Ontario, source

I want to share an  article/news release from the government of Ontario that talks about helping universities focus on their unique strengths. First of all, I think this is a great idea. I think that in order to advance the level of post-secondary education in Canada, universities need to specialize more in field that they are good at. For example, it well known that University of Waterloo has a great computer science program. And I think if more universities like Brock can focus and be great at something, Canadian education as a whole will benefit. I think that universities should also expand their learning environments as the news release says. For example, universities should offer more online courses and options in order to expand the ways students can access education.

That's it for this week, my final week is approaching in week 12 as I discuss how my PLE has changed! Thanks for reading.

Billy

Copyright Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #10 - Animoto

This week I explored some new Digital tools including a slideshow maker called Animoto! Animoto is a great tool to make a quick presentation regardless of the topic. Once you make an account, it allows you to choose from a variety of background themes. Then you can upload pictures of your choice for your slideshow. Animoto also allows you to add from a list of music provided, to use as background music. Of course you can also add text to the slideshow to be more informative. Overall, this tool allows you to build a very quick and informative slideshow that is great for school presentations or to compliment an assignment. I think the slideshows created via tools like Animoto are great as resources for school work for several reasons. One of them simply being that it is extremely easy! Creating what looks like a very sophisticated slideshow will take only minutes and knowledge of computer programming is not necessary. Another reason I think Animoto is great for educational purposes is because it is really fun to watch, it can get points across very easily and efficiently. It is not meant to convey complicated concepts or ideas, but it is great for giving a preview of what you want to talk about and can set a direction for where you want to go. When I use to think of slideshows, I would think of PowerPoint by Microsoft. This is because my Digital Literacy is limited to basic tools such as PowerPoint. But throughout this course I was able to explore tools like Animoto.

Tools like Animoto and Prezi can contribute to building my knowledge by providing information in a fast and compressed format. For example, a 30 second Animoto slideshow can present new concepts and ideas to me very efficiently through pictures and texts. This way, if I find it interesting, I can do more research into it. So basically what presentation tools like Animoto and Prezi do is that they present a general concept of something and one can look into it if they find it intereting. This means I will not need to read pages and pages of an essay that does not interest me or is not relevant to my assignment. Because a quick slideshow presentation will be able to convey the general ideas to me in a summarized format.

Seyfang, M. Flickr. Link 

I came by an article this week that was related to the copyright theme of week 10. It was an article by the Columbus Dispatch that discussed a study based on figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The study showed that the U.S copyright industries contributed more than $1 trillion to the GDP.  From my readings in the "Your Digital Presence" article, I learned that things like literary work, artistic work, performer's performances and sound recordings are all copyrighted and protected by the law. This explains why such a large amount of money is generated by copyright works, because it includes things like video games, movies, books and newspapers. However, I think that this $1 trillion dollar amount could be even bigger if it was not Fair Dealing for Media Education, an article from my readings. This article discussed the idea of Fair Dealing, which is "certain rights to use copyrighted material without permission or license from the owner of the copyright". I found this concept quite intriguing as it lays out for what purposes and under what conditions one can claim the Fair Dealing rule. I think learning about what copyright is and what is copyrighted has really benefited my digital literacy and citizenship. In addition, learning about things like Fair Dealing will be beneficial to me educationally as I will now understand when I can use others' work without their permission. It has benefited my digital literacy and citizenship as a whole because now I have a greater understanding of the "rules" of the digital world. This is useful as I will now be able to safely and confidently use others' work while following the copyright rules without worrying about breaking the law. Plus I learned interesting things while reading the textbook, like that "anything that is produced by an individual is copyrighted whether they have gone through the legal process or not." (Ribble, M. (2011). Digital citizenship in schools (2nd ed.). Chapter 6. Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education.).

That's it for this week, thanks for reading! Understanding the concept of copyrights and the rules around it was quite an amount of content to swallow. Please join me in next week's post as I continue to explore the digital world!

Thank,

Billy

My Slideshow "Animoto"

I recently explored a digital tool called  Animoto This tool helps users create short slideshows using a combination of texts, images and music! Before this exercise, I never fully understood the implications of Creative Commons (CC) or Copyrights. Finding images on Flickr and posting them onto Animoto helped me reflect on what I am doing. That is, I was taking content created by others and using it in my own work. This made me wonder what kind of laws are involved in these actions. As I researched CC and Copyrights, I learned about what can be copied and what cannot and under what conditions. For example, in Flickr under "Additional Info", a link to the copyright details are provided. This allowed me to learn more about what is required to be referenced and what I am allowed to do with the specific image. This really contributed to my Digital Literacy and Citizenship for two reasons. Firstly, I improved my Digital Literacy because I always knew how to use Google Images, but I never knew you were able to search images using preferences related to copyright options. This will allow me to search for resources for a school project in the future without worrying if the resources displayed are allowed for sharing or editing as I can narrow my search results down with advanced preferences searching. Secondly, I learned that I must always reference a resource like an image when it is copyrighted by an author. This is part of being a good digital citizen and a good citizen in general as it is the law!


My Slideshow (Animoto). Images in the video are referenced as (same order as the video):

1. WikiMedia Commons. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from Flickr  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACreative_commons.jpg

2. Seyfang, M. Copyright Symbols. Flickr. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeblogs/3020966500/

3. Casale, V. Handcuffs. Flickr. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/v1ctor/6711234961/

4. Vollmer, T. (2008, June 20). fair use classroom poster draft. Flickr. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/2596569134/

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #9 - VoiceThread

It's finally week 9 of this very long journey of digital learning! This week I explored a tool called VoiceThread, it is very unique in the way it helps people collaborate. Voice Thread allows you to create slide shows and add comments to it. Of course it also allows other users who are signed in to also add comments to your slides if you so desire. However the uniqueness of VoiceThread is that you can leave your comment in not just text but also audio and video format. For me, that sounds really cool but also useful, which I will discuss below.

As I mentioned, VoiceThread allows you to leave audio or video comments on slides created by yourself or others. I think this will contribute to my learning as that will allow me to hear what others have to say about my work, quite literarily. It will help my learning because while others can leave text feedback, there are some things that are much better communicated verbally. By receiving a combination of text, audio and video comments on slides that I can create, I will be able to maximize the quality of my work. I think VoiceThread will fit very well into my PLE's Collaborating and Socializing category. This is because overall VoiceThread is truly a socializing and collaborating tool, it allows you to comment on others' work and also discuss them through the comments. I will be able to use this tool very effectively when I need to work with others for academic projects. I think this tool is similar to other collaborating tools in terms of the basic functions it can provide, that is it allows you to share work with others through the cloud. However what makes this tool different is the way you can communicate with others regarding the material you have shared. Adding audio and video as a medium of communication can enrich the learning process of participants.

Common Sense Media

This week I found an interesting article in my Feedly reader. It is an article that talks about an app called Digital Passport for Kids. The app has games that teach children how to be "safe, smart, and kind online". I think this game is really important as it addresses some crucial digital responsibilities and allows kids to expand their digital literacy. By teaching young children digital responsibilities like protecting one's privacy or being respectful online will go a long way for when they become adults. I strongly believe that by teaching young children early on in their life how to deal with the fast growing technologies of today will help protect them in the future and prevent any abuse of the technologies.

Thanks for reading this week's blog. Be prepared for more reflection from me in next weeks' blog on new digital tools that I will explore.

Technology Use Scenarios

Scenario 11: 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 appears based on the facts of the article be a very capable person in terms of technology use and digital know how. She used her digital technology both appropriately and inappropriately for several reasons. She used her email inappropriately because one should avoid opening emails from unknown senders as they may often contain viruses. 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. 

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 are also softwares like this one that can detect email viruses.

Your Weekly Report & Reflection #8 - Wiki

Hey it's been a great week so far as I wrapped up my Google Docs collaboration project and explored wikis! Some of you may not know what a wiki is, it is a website that anyone can edit easily using a regular web browser. You have probably heard of the wiki called Wikipedia. It is one of the most used wikis in the digital world.

I can definitely see myself using a wiki on a daily basis. In fact, I am already using a wiki called Wikipedia on a daily basis. It is one of my first sources for information before I look anywhere else. I think one of the biggest concerns with wikis is that it can be changed by anyone! This means anyone can add false information to a wiki and viewers may take it as a fact. However from my experience with Wikipedia, I have not encountered any situations where there were false information in something I read. This is mainly because for every person who adds incorrect information to the wiki, there is a hundred or more people who are there to correct it immediately. Wikis are similar to some collaboration tools like Google Docs and Evernote, however they can also be very different. This is because while the fundamental idea of a wiki and Google Docs is for people to come together and work on a topic, the purposes and situation in where they are used are different. Many wikis like Wikipedia is designed for the mass public, meaning it is accessible and edible by anyone and everyone. However in many situations, tools like Google Docs are meant for a target audience, a select group of individuals and not for the world at large. I think wikis are a great source of information and a great way to contribute to a topic that you are knowledgable about for the world to see. While I think Google Docs is a great tool to collaborate with a limited number of people. At the end of the day, which tool you prefer really depends on what your intention with that tool is. Depending on the situation, your preference can easily change.

I think wikis are a great and effective tool for supporting learning. This is because wikis can be composed of thousands and even millions of individuals' minds. This allows information to be widely available as there many sources available to add into the wiki. However the issue with wikis is that it may not be always accurate, especially regarding controversial or complicated topics. Wikis can be used as a source of information, however I do not believe it should be used as a sole source of information. It should always be corroborated with other sources whenever possible. By doing this, one can support their learning very successfully with wikis as it will act as one of their many sources of information.

Stephen Morton for The New York Times

This week in my Feedly reader, I found an article about how the U.S government cut food stamps to those who are in need. This article's headline really caught my attention because while I understand there are many people in the world who rely on food stamps to survive, I did not think that so many of these people would be in the U.S. It was a huge shock to me to learn about how dependent some people are on food stamps and how high the poverty level is. It really makes me sad to learn that there are people starving in the U.S and with food stamp cuts in recent times, it will be even harder on them. As a result, this article makes me think twice about wasting food next time and it also made me appreciate how lucky some of us are to be able to have enough fresh food every day.

Thanks for reading as always, please stay tuned for next week!

Billy

Weekly Report & Reflection #7 - Google Doc it!

It's been a busy but exciting week as we kicked off the group collaboration project! I really enjoyed working with my group members and chatting on Todays Meet about our group project. What's really exciting about this project is that we don't actually meet, but we have to collaborately create a presentation online! Several years ago, this would not have been possible. But now, with cloud technology, people around the world can work together on anything without actually having to meet. One of the challenges of working on a project together through the digital world is sharing with each other your own work. Traditionally, emails would be used, however a tool created by Google called Google Docs via the Google Drive now allows group members to work on a single document or slide together at the same time!

Working with Google Docs was quite the pleasure. I love how I did not need to click save or click email or share. It was all done automatically! What was more fantastic about Google Docs is that our group can work on the same document or slide at the exact same time without any conflict. Another great benefit of Google Docs is that you can make Word like documents or PowerPoint like slide shows using Google Docs' built in software that does not require any installations. This means we had a vast amount of tools available to us when we were creating our presentation slides and all for free. This tool will be extremely useful for education activities in two ways. Firstly, I can access and create Word like documents anywhere I go and on any computer as long as I have an internet connection. Secondly, I can collaborate with my group mates easily on Google Docs because there is no need to email each other our works or worry about compatibility between a Mac Word and a Windows Word document. Exploring and learning about Google Docs has been a great help to my Digital Literacy. I thought I had great knowledge about online sharing tools but Google Docs really surprised me! Not to mention how much my Digital Communication will now be improved as I add Google Docs as a tool under my belt. My three ideas for using Google Docs in a classroom or professional environment  are the following. Firstly, it would be a great tool to use at school with group members or collaborators. Instead of working on different documents at different times, Google Doc will allow everything to be combined into one single document available virtually anywhere. Secondly, Google Docs can be used as a personal too at school when taking notes or jotting down thoughts. Instead of saving those notes on a USB or emailing it, Google Docs stores it in your account automatically. This means if you travel somewhere and forget your computer or USB, you can still access your documents online from a different device. Lastly, Google Docs will be a great tool for inside the work place! Like working on a school project, co-worker often share materials and resources while working together on a work project. This means you can easily share your work with a colleague who might be located in a different office or even different country! By working on the same documents together, you are able to keep track of what each member is doing and when at all times

              Image credit: Veer, Edutopia

This week through my Feedly Reader, I found an article about 5 questions teachers can ask students to help boost their learning experience. The questions suggested in this article are quite simple but "powerful" as suggested by the article. I think questions like "Why do your think that" or " How do you know this" will let teachers really reach into the minds of their students and try to help their students understand and further develop their train of thought on various topics. While you may have already thought about these questions, I believe keeping track of how often and when you ask these questions is very important. This allows you to be able to "routinely and relentlessly" ask these questions which will in turn help make your students more comfortable and confident when asking questions or communicating their opinions.

That's it for this week! As always thanks for reading and please stay tuned for next week's post as my group wraps up our presentation!

Thanks,

Billy