Team project

I worked on the LMS team with Thomas, Shelly, Amy and Maureen. I really enjoyed working with all of them and getting to know them a little more.

I chose the LMS project because I work with the LMS Administrator in my position at work. Until this semester I had not really experienced using an LMS as a student, I have always gone in from the backside as an administrator. UNC Health Care has been exploring acquiring a new LMS as ours really does not function the way we would like it too. A few weeks ago I was able to sit in on Learn.com's presentation about what they can do for us. So far they are our front runner. Their system is very impressive and offers a lot of possibilities.

I liked hearing from my other teammates how they use an LMS and what capabilities they would like as instructors as well as student users. I am intrigued to see what our Facebook page might bring as far as discussions and other ideas.

I learned a lot doing this project. I have really started to learn how to create with Prezi. I have started looking at what LMS's can do and why they are an integral part of education.

Don't Worry be Happy

I wanted to share my lip sync video. I did have it for the group video, but I don't think it got loaded to the server properly and therefore didn't make it in.

So here it is.

My individual project

For my individual final project I chose the idea of using web 2.0 tools to promote my friend's romance novel, Hunting JC. I put together a prezi presentation to show what I would do to accomplish this goal.

Click the forward arrow to move through the presentation.

Using prezi to create this was fun and pretty easy. It is a lot more interesting that power point presentations. The pictures are screen shots of some of the things I have done. I have started to blog about the book and added a link from my blog to her website. I worked on creating an ad for Facebook, I sent out some tweets with links to the book's site.

I don't know much about marketing, but it has been fun to try to get people to check out her book. Hopefully it helps too.

I created the internet - wordsmithing

I think like some of my other classmates, I wasn't quite sure what to do with this. Do I just edit what DI has already written? I thought what was there was already pretty good. I don't really consider myself a master of the written or even spoken word most days. I don't seem to be able to find the right words sometimes. So, I waited, and then I forgot, and then someone else posted about it and I had to prompt myself to look at it again.

I got the impression that DI didn't want us to just edit what was there, but add to it, create more. I added a few things, in orange. There are s few other things that came to mind, but couldn't quite figure out how to make the words flow well together to keep the rhythm that seems to already be there. I would like to keep watching to see what might get added to see if I could make more additions.

I do remember buying my first computer, my first year for grad school 1995. I didn't get Internet right away. I had email at school and wasn't sure if I would ever need my own. Boy, was I wrong. The next year I signed up for mindpsring, which became earthnet. I kept them for years before going to free email. I remember being so excited to get home and check to see if I had emails. I also remember spending an entire evening staying up and emailing back and forth to my boyfriend at the time. I would send an email and then wait for his reply, hitting refresh every few minutes. I was so excited when instant messenger came about. At one time I was jealous of those on AOL because they had the little voice that said "You've Got Mail". I quickly got over that and actually try to avoid AOL.

It's hard to believe that I have witnessed the birth of the Internet. It seems that is has always been there. What did we do before it? Students now have more access to things for research and don't have to spend hours going through card catalogues and studying the dewy decimal system. You can do all of your Christmas shopping without every leaving your house. While you can make great contacts and connections, I do think that they are not the same as some of the ones you have in person with someone. I know people make the comments that the Internet is so impersonal, you don't learn social skills. True, there will always be those who take it to the extreme and keep human contact to a minimum, but I don't think it is the norm, at least not yet.

Geotagging

When I first got my Mac and started uploading photos, I thought it was really cool how it could automatically read the dates of when the images had been taken. I could also then go in and add tags to say where they had been taken and it would put everything on a map for me. I had never seen anything like that before.

I hadn't realized that Flickr could do that as well. It did take me a little time to figure out how to actually add the geotag to my photos. I easily figured out tagging them, but getting them onto the map was a little more tricky. I think I ended up doing it in a rather round about way, but it all worked out. It's fun to see where everyone in our class has been. There are some great traveler's out there. I am hoping that I will be able to add some international pictures soon.

I knew a little about EXIF, although not that term. I know that a lot of things now have the capability of tracking your exact location. My cell phone has that, but it is only activated if I dial 911. Other than that I don't think it has any idea of where I really am. I think GPS technology is really amazing, but there are times I really wonder if we really need all of it to be so accessible. I have to say I am not terribly excited that you can look up my exact house on google earth, even though I think the concept is cool. I don't know if it's that I worry about the "big brother" concept, or that I really just don't think that people need to know all about that unless I want them to. It just seems to much like someone spying or being that annoying busy body always in everyone else's business.

On the other hand, after watching the TED video, I think that is amazing. I agree with Morgon that I would put some of my images out there to let people pull from them and create full images of places or things. I can see al sorts of ways that technology could be used. It would be great in the classroom. Imagine studying architecture and being able to look at the building from all angles and not just a one dimensional picture. I went to the website and looked at some of things they have on there and was just fascinated.

maps to adventure

I used to spend my summers working in Ogden, UT for a small summer stock theatre. At the beginning of each summer I would plot my route, pack up my cats and head west. Most times I did the drive by myself, so I would try to find things along the way to make the drive worth it.

This route is similar to the one I normally took, but I added some stops that I would like to make if I did this trip again.

First stop would be Louisville, KY, home of the Kentucky Derby. The one time I tried to stop there to tour Churchill Downs, they were actually closed for some fund raiser. The next stop would be Santa Claus, IN. It looks like a neat little place and they have an amusement park. Third stop would be Hastings, NE, home of the Kool-Aid museum. I have always wanted to stop there just to check it out. Could stop in Omaha to see the largest ball of stamps too. Last stop Ogden, UT.

I often find some of the places to stop from RoadsideAmerica.com. Completely random things.

I have used Mapquest and Google maps for some time. I love road trips and finding new routes. They are both pretty easy to use. You can just type in your destinations and they plot the route. You can also set some parameters to include avoiding toll roads and other things like that. Once the map route is shown, you can even drag the line on the map around to change your route.

I don't use mapping sites as much anymore now that I have access to GPS.

Hunting JC

My best friend has just had her first book published. It is a romance story. I have never really understood the romance genre. I prefer stories with a plot and real characters. I have to be honest, at first I bought her book with no real intention of reading it. But then I thought, what kind of friend am I? Not a very supportive one. So I have begun reading it. I might be a little biased, but so far it is pretty good. I like that as I am reading I can see my friend in every line. I guess it is true, good writers write from what they know. She does this very well.

She writes under a pseudonym, Dominique Eastwick. I should ask her how she chose that name. She is the mother of two boys and teaches pre-school. She used to work in theatre as a costumer. She designed and built costumes for a lot of shows and was very good at it. After getting married and having her second child, she decided the theatre life was just too time consuming to enjoy her family, so she "retired" from that career and moved into being a full time stay at home mom.

This is where she really began writing. She always wrote little things here and there, but she really started expanding and wanting to be published. The first book she wrote hasn't been published yet. It is a historical romance. She says it is hard to break into that area of the genre.

Her current book, Hunting JC, has already received good reviews.

Curtain up (and down)

Last week was a very long week. We had rehearsal every night and worked hard to get the performers to feel comfortable. Many of them kept forgetting their lines. We had several run throughs of the show with people skipping over huge chunks of dialogue and causing others to get confused as to where they were. One of the office assistants for Hidden Voices worked tirelessly with individuals to run lines and help them. On Friday, we felt it had all been worth it.

Friday before the show, we all arrived early so we could have dinner together. We thought it would be good for everyone to relax and spend time just hanging out. Everyone was nervous. I kept getting asked what should they do if they skip lines, as we said all week, you just go with it. One girls actually asked what would I do if someone passed out during the show. At first I just laughed, and then she said she was serious. I reassured her that we would stop the show, make sure she was ok and then see if everyone felt they could continue. We wouldn't leave anyone out there alone.

That night was great. We had a large audience and they were very receptive. The cast did great. There were a few lines missed, but nothing large. A few times cast members helped each other remember lines they forgot. It was wonderful, a true ensemble.

The second night was even better. They cast was more relaxed. They had a great energy and didn't miss any lines. I felt like such a proud parent. I know I said it before, but it is really great to get to choose the theatre projects I want to be involved with now.

It was just an amazing experience. We did video tape the first night. I am hoping to get a copy soon. So far most of the cast has said they don't mind if we post it on Youtube, but still need to make sure. We have one woman in the cast who is still trying to avoid her abusive ex-husband, so I want to make sure she is comfortable.

The picture is of me along with Jojo and Miguel. They were two of the cast members. They are both in high school. Jojo plays football and is a big teddy bear, although don't tell him that:) Miguel started out as a very quiet kid. He stayed close to Jojo and didn't say much. But he was this first to have all his lines and blocking memorized. He even knew everyone else's blocking. He really started to come out of his shell the last week we all worked together. He is a great kid living in some tough circumstances. His mother disappeared when he was younger, they assume she may have been deported. His father was deported a few years ago. He now lives with his aunt, her three kids and boyfriend in a one bedroom apartment. I plan and hope to stay in touch with him long after this.

We will all get together this weekend to celebrate. I will hopefully post more pictures then.

Riddle

Countdown to opening night

The volunteer project I am working on has entered Tech Week. For those who might not be familiar with the term, this is where we finally add all the technical elements and put the actors and the show together.

This is not always an easy thing, especially working with inexperienced actors. Last night just the tech staff met, the director, lighting designer, sound designer and myself. We tried to go through the entire show without actors and decide where sound and light cues should be placed. This in theory should help save some time in tonight's rehearsal. But there will be plenty of stopping and starting as we figure out sound levels and actual light versus actor placement.

It becomes sort of tedious to most people and I am worried that this group will become easily distracted or frustrated since they have never done anything like this. My plan is to explain the process and its importance and that should help, but three hours of standing around while we try to get things just right will be long.

I also plan to get some pictures of the process over the next few days. I will try to post things throughout the week, but it may not all get posted until the week is over. We have rehearsals every night this week, so I may or may not be coherent enough to blog.

I am really excited about the show. We had a run through this weekend, and while they are still struggling to remember lines, they are really doing a great job of telling the stories. If we all survive the tech process it's really going tobe a great show.

Objectives

In looking back at the objectives I wrote at the beginning of this class, I have found that I think I have achieved most of them. I could add that I don't think I set any goals that I didn't think that I would be able to achieve in this class, but I don't think I made my objectives too simple either.

We touched on a lot of tools, many of which I am still not too sure what to do with. Google Wave is still something I am not sure I will really use. I have found Moodle to be useful and of course I still like Google groups, mostly because I can respond from my own email. You cannot do this with yahoo groups, very annoying.

I read Christie's post earlier and I do agree that it would be useful to really see how these tools could be applied in actual educational setting, but I think we have at least touched on that. We may not have put it into practice, but I can see many of the options the tools can give. I do think that I need to play more with each tool to see what it's true applications are. I don't think we really did that and that would be nice so we could bounce ideas off of one another. That has happened on a small scale but not as much as I would like.

I still think I would have liked a better road map for this course. I guess primarily because I would like to plan ahead. I often felt rushed to finish the list of tasks and not actually really learn about what I was doing. So now I am trying to go back and play with some of the applications to see if I find them useful or not. There are many things that I see purpose for, but not something that I will use right now, such as Twitter.

Fun group project - one idea

I am a fan of "where the hell is matt" videos. I can't remember when I saw the first one, but it was before he has sponsorship.

I saw an interview with Diane Sawyer a few weeks ago about this. Lisa Lavie collected videos from singers all over the world and made a video for Youtube of We Are the World. It is really pretty amazing. Some people are in recording studios, while others are singing in their bathrooms with their iPods. Talk about using web 2.0 to collaborate. This is not just putting a presnetation together, but blending voices and people. Of course someone had to put the pieces together into one video, but the concept behind it was great. Lisa just thought the song shouldn't belong just to the "famous" singers, but it should belong to everyone. She doesn't really explain how she got everyone invloved, but the end result is great.

While I am not suggesting we all sing, we could easily piece together something like this. Be it a lipsync as DI has suggested, reading a short story, or something more Wesch-like. I am not so great with coming up with the idea part, but am open to suggestions.

I am still looking for some other videos, but not really sure what to search for. I will post more ideas as I come across them.

Rehearsals continue

So our cast has changed a few times over the last week. The kid I mentioned in the previous blog who is the protagonist of the show, has dropped out. While he doesn't mind having his story told, he just can't be the one to tell it right now. He was really having a struggle with this decision, he didn't want to let everyone down by not performing. The group was really great with the support they gave him and he will come to the performance.

We also had another young girl drop out because her mother felt she should be getting something from participating. So we have had to do some last minute recasting by calling friends to see who is available.

On Sunday we actually tried running the entire show. The first half was really pretty good, most everyone knows their lines and their blocking (stage movement). But we hit about mid script and it all kind of fell apart. We aren't too suprised, but the cast is a bit worried. At last night's rehearsal someone actually asked me if I thought we were going to be able to pull this off. I said I really thought we could. The great thing about this story is no one knows it, so if someone messes up the audience won't know. The words and the people saying them are powerful. The cast is very supportive of each other and it is funny to see how people know other people's lines and help cue them when someone gets lost.

Kathy, the director, asked me if I was enjoying the process since it is so different from working in the professional settings I am used to. I told her it was great. While I wish there were more structure, we can never seem to start on time, the cast is so excited about the project it makes all the difference. Professional actors are often excited about a role, but not to the extent that this group is. They are personally invested, even those that were just brought in to the group. It isn't that they want to create theatre that is Broadway worthy, they want to tell an important story so that it is heard.

I really think this is something I would love to continue doing. I get to choose the shows I would like to be involved with because they mean something to me. In past I worked on whatever shows were chosen for the season. I think I could return to enjoying stage managing for groups that have passion to present things that could mean more than just getting butts in seats and making money. (not to say all comercial theatre is just about making money, it just plays a bigger role)

Shameless plug: The show performs for two nights, April 9th and 10th at The Arts Center in Carrboro. If you are in the area, please come.

Setting the stage

So I began searching for meet up groups in my area to sign up for to complete our project. Last fall I was part of a women's group that I really liked but they started turning into the kind of group that only wanted to go clubbing in Raleigh and I just couldn't keep up with all of it and my schedule.

The first group I signed up for was a group that met at a local wine and art bar. I was really kind of excited about this since the place was about two blocks from here. A week later I found out that the wine bar was closing.

While searching groups, I did sign up with a group that puts you in contact with volunteer opportunities with not for profit groups. I thought this would be interesting and possibly be something I kept up with after this class. They don't meet up on a regular basis, but they do send out emails about things coming up. One of the email threads talked about a group called Hidden Voices. They were working on a staged reading and needed a stage manager. I thought this is something I could do.

So I responded to the email and got in touch with the founder of the group. Hidden Voices does all sorts of things here in the community. The project they are currently working on is Home is Not One Story. It tells stories of people who have been homeless or lived in various forms of non-traditional homes. Once I had all the information, I did meet with Lynden to basically have an interview, I did not bring my camera as I thought it was inappropriate to do at an interview.

Since meeting with her I have come to see how the theatre world is getting even smaller. The director for the project is a local actor that I worked with a few years ago. So, yes, I know one person on the project, I didn't know that going into it.

Rehearsals have started and I have made it to a few already. I was asked not to take pictures of the group right now as there are quite a few emotions being explored as we rehearse. The cast has a few high school students and other people from the area. The protagonist of the story is an 18 year old male who suffers from PTSD and is manic bipolar. He has had some really traumatic things happen in his life. He began suffering from terrible visions and nightmares at the age of 6. At 9 years old, his father remarried and his stepmother didn't want to have anything to do with him, so his father checked him into a motel and left him there on his own for around 6 months. He tries very hard to get through rehearsals, but I don't think he will stay with the project. I think it is too emotional for him, things are too fresh.

There is also a muslim woman who has divorced her husband. He currently has their 11 children in another country and tells her if she comes back and asks for forgiveness he will take her back and she can see the children again. She talks about how once they were married and she became muslim, things completely changed. He practiced polygamy and became extremely abusive, all in the name of being muslim.

It is a really intense project, but I am very excited to be a part of it. I will do my best to continue to blog about rehearsals and the project. I might not be able to get photos for a bit as I want to make sure everyone feels safe with me. I know I could get photos with the director, but since I already knew her I figured that shouldn't count.

Have couch will travel - maybe:)

So this week's new adventure was Couchsurfing. I had never heard of this site before, although I have heard of the concept. Several years ago I had looked into possibly house sitting/swapping to explore somewhere new, but the few sites out there seemed really sketchy.

At first I really wasn't sure what to expect. But I found making my profile was pretty easy. I like that you can share your couch or just offer to meet up with someone for drinks. You can also keep your identity fairly hidden but still give good information so as not to seem sketchy to others.

One thing I like about Couchsurfing over some sites like Facebook, is while you can become friends or contacts with anyone, you have to give some information about how you know the person and how well. It makes you think seriously about the contacts you make and how to present them as well as yourself to others. They appear to hold safety and security in high regards which is really nice. On many of the other sites, I don't always feel like they care about it.

While I now have several references from my classmates, I am finding myself wanting someone who really knows me write a great reference so people know they can trust me. I guess I need to get some of my friends to join or break out of my shell some to make some new contacts.

I did join three groups, one for North Carolina, one for the Raleigh/Durham area, and another called Theatre Wilderness. The first two seemed logical since it is where I live. The last one is because I think it would be cool to talk to theatre people outside of the US, or who have at least maybe explored theatre outside the US.

I have read several posts on random pages about people's experiences. I really think it is exciting that you can plan an entire vacation around people who could show you around. Yes, you can go through travel agencies and book tours, but you don't get all the little places that a local would know.

I like to travel, and in looking at several past vacations, I always seem to find someone I know who wants to show me around or tell me the cool places to check out. I am getting more internet savvy and feel pretty good about finding places to eat and such while visiting somewhere new. But Couchsurfing puts both of these worlds together. You get the options of asking people who have lived there or currently live there to not only suggest places, but meet up with you to show you around, or allow you to stay at there place.

While I am not sure I will take people up on staying with them right away, I am really excited to hopefully meet up with some new people. As my fiance and I start planning our honeymoon, I look forward to seeing if we can find people who would show us around wherever we go.

What color is the sky in your universe?

My nephew is 4 years old. He recently started pre-school. About two weeks prior to him beginning school, he told his mother he did not want to go to school because the bigger kids would beat him up and throw him out. We have no idea where this thought process came from. He watches a lot of cartoons, but nothing seemed to show anything like that. When asked why he thought that, he said he just knew it.

I know this isn't an example about an educational topic, but it does go to show that people, especially children, collect data and refer to it in the most interesting ways. It is our jobs as educators and even just as adults to help them know what to do with all the information they are presented with.

The first project I had this semester for my multimedia class was to read 5 different research articles and write about them. One article I found, Using Popular Films to Enhance Classroom Learning talked about a study using various historical facts and historical movies in learning. Of course, many of you know that Hollywood does tend to elaborate historical facts to make them more dramatic to the viewers. They get away with this by saying "this is based on a true story/incident" and it is left to the viewer to decipher truth from fiction. Disney is very good at elaborating, I won't even go into my opinion of Pocahontas and their version of Jamestown and the events surrounding.

Anyway, it is a hard road for educators these days. Not to say it was always easier 50 years ago, but I do think that many students come into the classrooms with so much other information from various sources, it is hard to realize you need to almost retrain them to learn the facts.

Watching this video made me see how easy it is to get facts and preconceived notions mixed up. Towards then end even I was a little confused about explaining the phases of the moon. It was obvious that when the teacher brought in the models to class that the students understood better. But some of the students had difficulty seeing the models and it was obvious that even after the demonstration Heather still didn't quite get all of the information. This is where I could see bringing in different tools, something that wasn't just presentational but more interactive. This might mean more initial research on the teacher's part to find the right tools, but hopefully it would create a better dialogue between the students, helping them to explain to one another under the instructor's guidance.

As the internet grows and so does media and other information sources, outside the classroom learning will also grow. As educators we cannot control what information students recieve when they are not in our "classroom" (real or virtual). We can do our best to make sure they have the most up to date information, continue to create dialogue with them and keep them interactive with the correct information. This means teachers cannot just look at the information in a text book and repeat it to their class. We need to be actively involved with our students and get them actively involved in the learning process by any and all means available.

You will notice I am doing my little part by adding a modle of the moon phases to my blog. Found it online and it doesn't explain much, but at least fun to check out.

SLED event

Last night I joined Morgan and Zaneta in SL to look around and then attend the SLED event Island Educator Social.

The first part of our evening was a bit of an adventure as we decided to explore some new places that we had never been too. Our first stop was a nice island doing some studies on bunnies. We next adventured to a place that seemed like an alley with some rather interesting advertising and a lot of cats roaming around. There were no other people there, and I surmised that it was a place that might get busier later in the evening, I couldn't come up with an explination for all of the cats (and probably don't want to). Next we went to Chilbo. A rather nice community with a learning center. I definitely plan to return and do some more exploring.

Next stop was Alice in Wonderland. This was set up like an amusement park. We looked around at several of the rides, I was followed by what I could guess was a high school student who suddenly disappeared when his mom entered his room. I learned some dance moves, and Morgan and I wished we could figure out how to video capture things in SL.

At 6pm SLT time we went over the the ISTE island to check out the social. I think we arrived after the larger group event had finished. We went down to the "newbie" area to find a camp fire set up with people sitting around chatting. It was really kind of neat, although really very quiet. We had been using audio to communicate, so it was a striking difference to move to chat via text.

We were welcomed right away. I found it a little difficult to follow all of the conversations since several people were chatting at once. It was hard to read what had been said before it left the screen. I met some very nice people who gave me names of places to explore.

It was fun to talk to other people who were more familiar with how to get around and share some ideas. I heard a lot of people talking about doing presentations for their students in SL and someone mentioned showing power point in SL. I didn't get a chance to ask how you do that, but plan to see what I can find out.

I did some wondering around the island and found a lot more things to explore and will definitely continue to visit. I do see that there are more ways to try to incorporate something like SL into a learning environment, but depending on the students you would need to make sure you created the right environment. After randomly visiting a few places, I could easily see how some students/parents could wonder what the value of SL could be without guidance.

At the moment, SL is not something I would use for our organization. I don't think the hospital is quite ready for something like this. They have only started seeing the value add of doing e-learning assessments for re-certifications and annual training that has to be done to keep us in good legal standing. We are slowly trying to show how blended learning is a good idea, but currently I am only part time assisting the LMS administrator, who is a department of one for an organization who has over 10,000 employees to train each year.

Embedding re-do

This week as I have been catching up on my homework as well as on everyone else's things, I have come see that I don't always follow directions well. I do seem to get the majority of assignments correct but at times, I either gloss over the details, or just plain forget what the assignment is really telling me to do.

In the process of embedding things, I did get everything into my CMS site, and I did blog on all of the tools I used, but I did not embed thing into my blog. So I am dedicating this blog to hopefully correcting this oversight. (by the way, thank you Maureen for pointing this out)

Youtube makes it very easy to link or embed videos. Each video has the codes for either options right next to them. I understand why so many people use Youtube as it is very user friendly, even those of us brand new to posting can upload a video and find favorites.

Here is a funny little video that has really got a following.

My sister directed this to me as something my fiance and I could do to let people know to save the date for our wedding. Needless to say we won't be doing something quite as dramatic.

I did create a really short slide show using flickr. Flickr makes it very easy to take any of your uploaded images and put them into slideshows. Once you have your pictures ready, in the upper right of your screen you have the option of "slideshow" or "share". When you click slide show the window changes and your slideshow begins. Again in the upper right you will see some options, one of which is share. Click this and you get two options, one is the code to link to your page, the other is the code to embed. Just copy and paste.

Now for audio, I started out using Chirbit, but found that you couldn't actually embed it into anything. You can create a link to it, but anyone who clicks the link must also join Chirbit to hear what you have linked to. I didn't think this was the most user friendly option. So after reading other people's blogs and posts, I checked out Woices. Woices says it is "location based audioguides". There are a lot of things posted here.

The above seems to be a school project. I don't know the urban

legend it is supposed to be based on, but I thought it was fun to see

how people are using this site.

When I first started trying to embed things, I was just copying and pasting

code right in the text area. I kept wondering why nothing was actually

showing up other than the actual text of the code. Well, then I realized I

should be going into the HTML and pasting the code in there. Low and

behold it worked. I found it was then best to preview what I had done to

make sure it worked because the object didn't always show up immediately.

So while I didn't quite do the assignment correctly in one step, I hope that I

have now included everything and it was fun looking things up to include.

Totally free images

So, I realize after posting about what type of license I would use, I was also supposed to find an image with no restrictions and post that in my blog. Boy, that is a challenge. It was kind of fun though. Now that I know a little bit more about copyright, creative commons, etc, I knew what to look for. Most times I have just looked at images and if I didn't see the copyright symbol I assumed I was ok. But that isn't always the case. Just because it isn't visible doesn't mean it doesn't apply.

Like Neil, I typed in lots of things hoping to find something relatively easily. I did check out the sight he suggested, deviantart.com. Pretty cool sight. I found plenty of things under creative commons, but had a tough time finding something completely free with no restrictions. So, I went to google and typed in "copyright free images". Of course a lot of things pop up, but I started looking and reading and found the above image. It came from a blog page that says"all images are of a high resolution and copyright free, so feel free to use them as you wish." It also refers you to biologybigbrother.com to see more images.

So, I have learned, while it might take a bit more effort to find things that are truly for the public by the public, it isn't as impossible as I thought, and I can still give someone credit for at least posting it.

What license would I use?

I have been editing my blog about this throughout the week. I am not sure why I don't really know what I want to say about this, but after reading Kelly's blog I think I have a clearer voice.

For the most part I really like the creative commons/share alike concept. I don't think that I will every really create something that I wouldn't want someone to be able to use or expand upon to make better or just different.

But there is a side of me that then says, it might depend on what I was creating. I love being able to use things under the guise of educational, but I do want to make sure that whoever originally created gets recognized, but that is sometimes very difficult to do. People do not always post things using their real identities or give much information and it really can take a lot of effort to trace the information, at least I have found that with some images.

Now, if I spent years writing the next great American novel, I don't think I would put that out there under a creative commons license or anything similar. I would be expecting to actually make money off of that, assuming I could actually write well. But with things that I am creating in class, I really have not worried about if someone would use it or alter it. If my ideas inspire someone to take it to another level or in another direction, great.

But like Kelly, I do occasionally feel strange just putting all this information out there into the public domain. For me, it isn't that I don't want anyone to use something I create, I really don't want to share my personal things with the world. So far, I don't think my musings have gone into a personal realm I am uncomfortable with so there are no worries. I don't mind blogging about specific subjects, but I don't see myself using this as my personal diary and making that public.


In reading some of the information on Wikipedia about intellectual property, I do see there is a fine line to walk there. If we start saying that everything falls within intellectual property, how do we continue to grow and expand ideas? I don't know if anyone else saw the information about a letter Bill gates wrote chastising other code creators for taking the information he created and modifying it without giving him credit or monetary offers. I kind of found it a little funny, but do understand how after so many hours of hard work, you do deserve recognition for your efforts. If the information has been copyrighted or patented, then yes according to law there are steps you need to take to use that "item". But in the case of technology, there should be expectations that someone will take that information and expand upon it to hopefully help improve it and continue the growth.

Chirbit

In searching for audio sharing sites, I came across Chirbit. It is free to join and pretty easy to use. You can record, upload, and share sound bites, music, jokes, whatever. You can even link these to Twitter and Facebook.

When you create an account, you get your own page that looks similar to blog pages. You have a menu of anything you have uploaded or created yourself as the main part of the page. Along the side you can have things your are following or your favorites, and you can browse sound files by category. So for the random movie quotes is my favorite area.

You can upload mp3s, m4as, and wav files up to 120mb. You can also record something directly from your webcam or mic up to 2 minutes in length. There are a few things still in beta, such as uploading voice memos from iphone or google voice.

I don't know if I will use this as my primary audio sharing tool, I am still checking out other things. For music I often use Pandora, although I can no longer use it at work - uses too much bandwidth they say. If I find anything else useful and fun I will post it for everyone to check out.

Wikisource

The next Wikimedia project I checked out was Wikisource. This again had to do with books.

"Wikisource is an online library of free content textual sources, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to harbour all forms of free text, in many languages. It also provides translation efforts to this end."

Most of the books on Wikisource are free of copyright, meaning the work was published before January 1, 1923 and the author has been deceased for over 100 years, or have been released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

In looking around I found what is said to be Shakespeare's last will and testament. I have to say I am not sure how correct I believe it is since there is nothing citing its source or how they came across the article. When you look at the history of the page, you can see where people have made edits and changes, and for the most part they appear to be grammar or spelling corrections, but how do we know those edits are correct?

It seems that many of Shakespeare's works cited on Wikisource say doubts have been raised about its source. People are consistently editing the works of Shakespeare, but most likely from several different sources which they are not always citing, so whose to say which one might be a complete and true example?

I know that the works of Shakespeare have been altered by many people outside of Wikisource, so this is not anything new or disturbing. If you go to see an actual production, I am sure it isn't pulled just from one version. But this is where I question how authentic and accurate is the information that is being put out there?

I guess it does go to say that you should always double check the source of information and not take everything you read as absolute. That being said, it is a pretty nifty sight to explore. There are all sorts of books that I would never explore on this site and I look forward to reading some of them - for free!

Wikibooks

In looking at some of the various Wikimedia projects I decided to check out Wikibooks. I chose it because I love to read and thought it would be interesting to see what they actually did.

Wikibooks launched in 2003 as project to host and build free textbooks. I was grateful I had already read DI's suggested article on "copyleft" and "creative commons" licensing so I had a little more of an idea of what they were talking about.

Basically Wikibooks hosts some original books as well as free content books found on the internet. They work on the same concept as all the other wiki projects in that anyone can come in and alter or add information.

I checked out the humanities section and was a bit disappointed that there wasn't much there. They have a small section dedicated to technical theatre, but at least the information is pretty accurate. I have a lot of friends that I will now direct to this project to help add better content. I think that if people continue to update and information this would be a very useful tool.

Flickr

I have used Flickr to find pictures that I can use for my multimedia class, so I decided I would join. It was easy since I have a Yahoo account. Uploading images is very easy. All you have to do is choose the image and click upload.

I am not sure I like Flickr yet. The profile settings are very general and I cannot seem to add links to anything that they don't offer a blank space for. So I haven't been able to link to anything other than my CMS site. I do like like Picnik, their sister sight for editing. It is very easy to use and actually gives you quite a few options for being free.

I have used Picasa before, I liked it well enough, but I didn't want to download it on my computer again. I already have Iphoto and with Picasa I then had two copies of everything floating around and it got rather messy to figure out things were saved.

YouTube? MeTube!

Ok, the title of this blog is probably really lame, but it made me giggle when I typed it.

Anyway, to my topic...

I had created a Youtube account last semester when working on my final project for web design. I used it for only posting the one video and didn't really expect to need it again. But I have now gone in a couple of times this semester to add new videos. So when I saw that we needed to go in and create accounts, this was pretty easy.

As I was updating my profile I had to actually laugh at the section that says "describe yourself". I really wanted to put petite female wearing sweats and fuzzy socks (as that is what I am currently wearing in case you cared:)). But I thought putting this out there would definitely attract some audience members I may not want. So I have left it blank for now.

I was quite surprised how easy it was to set up and account and ad video. I think I was expecting the upload process to be a lot more complicated. I also like the privacy settings options. Currently they are set to public since I wasn't sure how else my classmates would be able to view things unless I add you all as friends/family, which I might try to see how that process works.

Once I create the other accounts I will add them to my profile page as well.

Wiki wiki wiki

So who knew there were so many things under the title of "wiki"? Obviously not me. I know about Wikipedia, but I didn't realize there was a Wiktionary, Wikiversity, there are even more than that, but I don't think I can list them all.

I do like that fact that you can use the same user name for all of the wiki-sites. It made it easy to move around between them. When I first started trying to edit information, I didn't know where to begin. I felt like I didn't have anything valid to contribute to any of the information shown. So far I have only made small contributions, but really did have fun with adding information on the CI 1516 page. There was no information on the page. There wasn't much to find and then Lucy pointed out that most people spell Pices as Pisces. So I could see how there could be confusion and multiple postings with different spellings.

In creating my profile page, I have started out small. I haven't used 10 different formatting types yet, but I am still trying to figure out what to add. Here is my beginning.

A penny for my thoughts....

I have been thinking about this for a while. I am a little more used to the set up of this class. I still find it a bit frustrating to not know what really lies ahead. Most weeks I feel rushed trying to get the "assignments" done and that I don't really know if I am doing them well, but I am pretty sure I would get some input if I was really doing that poorly.

I think I am still trying to find my purpose in this class. I now seem to have knowledge new tools and applications, but I still don't really know what to do with them. I have learned more about Youtube and why it is more than just a site to look up funny videos. I have used Wikipedia often, even before this class, but I tend to go to it for information, not feel that I have something to add to it. I like using Google Image Labler, but mostly because it is fun more than because I am helping make the web a little more organized, although that is a nice side effect. So far Google Wave seems like a combination of AIM and Google Docs, but without the some of the good parts. I understand it it is still being developed, but have to admit it so far has been a bit of a bummer.

I have decided that while Moodle's layout is very easy and overall user friendly, I have problems locating the newest posts so I can respond to them in a timely fashion. I spend so much time looking at each topic and trying to locate the newest additions that by the time I find the post I wanted to respond to I have kind of lost my train of thought, or at least my energy.

I like Google groups because it sends you emails and you can respond from your email. Each email also has the correct name of the thread in the subject so you could find it should you go to the group page and want to respond. Moodle sends out an e-mail, but it isn't easy to know what heading the subject was under to find it and respond (see previous paragraph).

I know more people have been responsive than I have. I love reading everyone's posts and blogs, but right now I feel like a sponge. I am just absorbing the information, analyzing it and what to do with it. I don't always feel like I have something valid to say, and I am pretty sure it isn't good netiquette to just write "cool" or something like that as a response. I often find articles while at work that I find interesting, but I cannot access the Google groups page from work to post it, so I have started using Google buzz, but but not sure how many of our class is using that regularly.

I do feel that I am not sure where I am supposed to be posting regularly. I don't mind using all the different sites, I just get worried that I might miss something important. So far it seems there is no real activity on our Ning page. I know we are going to add even more places that we are supposed to post and network on at some point, I just hope I can keep up with it.

I wonder if it would be worth taking turns using the sites. Perhaps saying that for a few days or a week we are only posting to Google groups, or Ning, whichever DI or the class chooses so that we are in a sense forced to try to use the tool and all its capabilities. I think I might actually like that instead of just getting a sampling of a lot of things; learn to actually use a few things really well.

I think that is what I am looking for. I would like to be familiar with as many tools that are out there, but I want know how to use them really well. For me that might really be choosing a select few and really setting my mind to finding out what they can do. I have begun with some of the suggestions DI made about utilizing my Gmail account to help filter all my email accounts. It has become a blessing and I am starting to find more ways to keep things where I would like to find them as references.

Another tool I have really liked using is Wordle. I think I mostly like it because it is fun to use; but I have found that it may be a really useful tool in some of the team and one on one coaching and consulting my department does.

So maybe I have just found my purpose for this class. Hmm, perhaps blogging has a purpose after all:) I think my MBTI personality is at a slight disadvantage with this type of class; it moves a bit faster than my processing skills are use to. So while I might be a little behind or slow to respond, I will get to the finish line and enjoy the scenery along the way.

Delicious

I set up a Delicious account at the beginning of the semester. I think it was Krysti who might have mentioned it and so I went out to see what it was.

I love that I can tag, sort, and group things however I see fit for me. I can have things tagged to be in more than one group. I started with various links to things for this class, but then included all of my bookmarks from my work PC and from my own laptop. It's great, I can now go anywhere and access the websites I use most without having to remember the URL for each one.

I know it can do so much more than I am currently using it for. I just haven't had the time to really explore. Each time I go in I try to read about things you can do, and it is pretty amazing how something that seems so simple can really help keep me organized - and for free!

I haven't figured out how to share my bookmarks or add people to my network, but should anyone be interested let me know and I will figure it out. I had forgotten that I had a yahoo account, but that is the email Delicious recognized when I was registering. I agree with Rick, I think I have too many email accounts. Although I am slowly learning how to manage those too.

Second life thoughts

The other night we all met in Second Life to learn more about how to maneuver our way around. I really liked actually getting to meet my classmates, since this will probably be the closest we get to truly meeting.

I now have a better sense of what SL can be used for. When I first entered, I really had no idea what to do with my avatar. I knew I really wanted to change clothes, which took a while to figure out. I had more fun the second time I visited because I met up with Kelly and it was more fun to explore with a buddy.

So it was really great when DI gave us his list to help us find ways of moving around. I really like his explanation of ignore and explore. I think that was my biggest take away. I don't have to decide to give up reality for a virtual world, but I can use it to explores things that I would never get to do in my real life, well at least not easily.

I was pretty fascinated by meeting Von Fosse. I never expected to meet someone 72 years old who was obviously really involved with SL. She had even gotten married to someone through SL. I have to say I wondered if she had met this person in reality or they really just chatted online. I am not sure what that says though if you are willing to share so much with someone that you would marry them in another world, but not in reality. I am trying not to judge, but it does make me curious about the though process.

I am not sure I see the use of this as a learning tool other than to break out and learn to explore. It is somewhat useful for meeting as a class, but there are other tools out there that could possibly do that without as much spacial limitations. We did seem rather crowded in DI's world. I am looking forward to exploring other countries and hopefully learning things that I didn't before.

So while I am not sure that I will continue living a double life after this class, it will be fun exploring and getting to know my classmates in a way that email just doesn't quite afford.

Oh my Wordle!

Wordle is really pretty cool. I had never seen or played with it before, but I have seen "word clouds" on things before.

I was having trouble writing something about where I am now, so I went in and actually wrote up things in my current job description. When I put it all into world, I loved the first result. The biggest word was training. That is what my department does, not totally what I do. I am primarily the support to the trainers. But the image was still what I wanted. It was very linear and straight forward.

When I started thinking about where I wanted to go, or what I wanted to be, I began deleting words and re-writing things. I played around and think I came up with something I liked. I can't say it is completely based on Web 2.0 or that type of position, but hopefully being able to incorporate Web 2.0 tools into what I currently do. I entered the words and clicked create. At first there were a few words i realized weren't quite right, so i did some editing. Then I really played with colors and layout. I found I really felt the words shouldn't be in a set pattern. I wanted them to be more free form and expressive.

I guess that is how I see the Internet and its capabilities. As something not linear, but sometime jumbled up yet still sort of cohesive.

I think I was also saying something about myself. Overall I am someone who is rather structured and follows the instructions. I like guidance and information. In this class I am learning to let loose a little, to explore on my own to see what it is I want to learn. It is still a challenge for me and I know I will never quite move into the free form extrovert, but I am trying to tell my introverted tendencies to calm down and see where this all leads.

This type of word cloud could be used in so many ways. Just from what I have said, I could see this in training purposes, personal explorations, and brainstorming. I actually think it would be fun to take a research paper or someones thesis and see what it pulled out. I think I might have to try that.

Thanks for the experience DI.

Making work fun

I loved the video. I liked how even though he was talking about things that were new to me, he made them fun and interesting. I liked how he talked about making the work fun. No one likes just being told to sit at their desk and type in random data that they have no vested interest in. But when you make into an interesting game, it is amazing how many people want to play.

I have never played any of these games before. After reading some of the other posts I have to check out the rice game and found that addicting. I love learning new words. I found that my vocabulary was pretty good, but there were plenty I had no real idea what they meant.

So while all of these games are fun and addicting, I think it is really interesting that someone has found a way to make them mean something. While the image labeler is not feeding the world, it is truly helping to make things more easily found on the Internet. There have been plenty of times I have searched for images on the web only to find some of the most random things pop up.

I am not really sure what other types of things you could use these for, but I am sure there are plenty of applications out there. Labeling images is only a beginning.

Communication

Is there such a thing as too much communication?

When I first started this class, I thought perhaps maybe there was.

I was overwhelmed by the amount of postings. Most of which I did not understand their purpose. I felt lost for the first few days, but as we all started settling in, the discussion started to take direction and information was being passed along quickly and easily.

So, this morning when I checked my emails, I was shocked to find there were no new posts. I began to wonder is there such a thing as communication overload withdrawal? I didn't seem to know what to think as I stared at my empty mail box - well perhaps not empty but nothing new and shiny.

What I find so interesting this semester is the major difference in communication between my Web 2.0 class and my Multimedia 5200 class. This class communicates so much more, about everything. Yes, most every post has something to do with web 2.0, but not always something specific to a class related task, just a good sharing of information.

In my other class, it seems people don't want to post or something. There seem to only be a few of us who try to post things, mostly questions hoping that others will respond, but no one really does.

For a class that has a very detailed syllabus and timeline, there is very little communication going on, especially about class expectations or projects. Whereas this class began with no set goals or syllabus much less a timeline, and there is far more sharing and collaborating happening. I don't know if it is because due to the free form format we all just felt we needed to share and have kept doing so, or if it is just a different class dynamic.

I haven't decided if I prefer one "method" over the other as of yet. I can say I like the written timeline of things to do so I can plan and prepare for the other class, but I truly miss class interaction. In this class, I miss the lack of more structure and knowing what is to come, but I absolutely love the collaboration that is happening and it does seem to help make up for the moments I feel a little lost. Someone always helps me find the breadcrumbs.

Exhausted

This week has been challenging. It is only Wednesday and I feel behind in everything, not just this class. You would have thought that having the snow and a forced day inside would have helped me feel like I was catching up or getting ahead, but no. Instead it caused me to not be able to go look at wedding venues, which made my mother very cranky.

Ok, a personal venting moment: it's my wedding right? I am the one planning it and putting it all together. Why do other think they can tell me what I should be doing? Argh!

Ok, back to other things....

I really like a lot of things about this class. I am kind of glad we might be moving things over to google groups, but I think I have gotten used to the messiness of our current site. But I also like google groups, I used it for another class and while it did occasionally become challenging to make sure I had gotten to read everything, it did consistently tell me of new posts, unlike moodle.

There are times I feel like if I don't check the site 2 or 3 times a day I might miss something, but pretty sure that's just me. I tend to over think many things and not always listen to my instincts. Trying to get better with that.

I really liked looking up Web 2.0 tools and terms. I really don't seem to know a lot of them or what they do. At some point I think I will be able to tell my grandparents what it is about. Although for the first half of my working life they didn't understand what I did for a living as a stage manager, not sure this would go over any easier.

Web 2.0 week 2

So it appears that life in this class is slowing down a bit. I have been introduced to a lot of new terminology that I have had to look up. I have found I don't know have the acronyms people use in their posting, but I am catching up.

So far this class is much more social than the other class I am taking. I like that. It is great to share ideas and ask questions, everyone is pretty quick to add a suggestion or guide me in the right direction.

Outside of class this week has been a little crazy. It seems most of my co-workers have taken a cranky pill or something. It made the week very long. It also didn't help that none of them seemed to know what to do about the impending weather that was going to happen this week. Which did of course happen, causing opening night of my fiance's show to get cancelled.

Hope everyone else is surviving their second week of classes.

Thanks for stopping by.

First Impressions

So, I have never blogged before and hopefully I won't say anything embarrassing or stupid throughout this process.

This first posting is to be about my impression of the class during the first week. I can start by saying that in the first three days I was so overwhelmed I thought about dropping the class. Everyone was posting so much stuff and I felt I had nothing to contribute other than asking questions about what were they talking about. People were using terms and talking about programs I have never heard of and the few programs I had heard of I didn't know enough about to chime in.

So, I actually posted something on my other class's site saying I was a bit unsure of this class and another classmate sent me an email to share her experience when she took this class. She didn't give anything away, but gave me enough information to realize there was some method to the madness and that if I stick with it, I will get a lot out of this class.

I just have to remind myself that one of the reasons I am in this program is to learn something new and break out of my little world. So bear with me, I may seem dazed and confused, but I will be along for the ride.