Avatar - Coming Soon to a Screen Near You

UNIQUE TOOLS: This learning module has been a lot of fun. I kind of envy the people who thought up some of these Web 2.0 tools we are using. If I had invented Voki or Kizoa, I'd be so thrilled at developing and introducing a new application like this, I would be buying air time on TV and radio - even putting it on a video billboard along the I-190, just to tell everyone how cool it is! Oh, wait a minute, those old media choices like radio and TV have negative Web status (maybe Web minus 4.0)! People who use social network sites will likely find Voki and Kizoa on the Web through other users they know and follow, whether on Facebook, Twitter or other site.

KIZOA and WEBRESIZER:  I have used PowerPoint to make a couple of slideshow presentations with audio, and it was not an easy tool to learn, but it had a lot of bells and whistles. Kizoa, on the other hand, is relatively easy to use, but unless you upgrade to a premium account, it has fewer options than PowerPoint. With Kizoa, you have to use their music (or pay more for an account that lets you upload your own) - and it's one-song-only, for the entire slideshow. I would not have been able to use Kizoa effectively without another of the Web 2.0 tools we learned about in this module - Webresizer. It is a very effective way to reduce the image/file size of photos, which helps your slideshow and Web page or blog load and launch more quickly. Photoshop, once again, has a lot more editing capability and nuances than Webresizer, but the latter seems FAR better at optimizing images for the Web.

RELEVANCE OF WEB 2.0 to JOURNALISM: Now that I have chosen my topic for the final project — advances in technology in the field of journalism — I am beginning to evaluate all the Web 2.0 tools with respect to their applicability to newspapers and their online presence. Some of the tools are relevant and already in use, some may not be — yet! Slideshows are an attractive presentation method for some feature news stories, especially in arts reporting. Video uploads to a newspaper's website are standard in both spot news and feature reporting. I have also used FTP to upload news stories and photos to a website for the daily newspapers I worked for. Voki - that's another story. It's kind of whimsical and more suited to student use. But perhaps when readers add their comments to an online news story, and wish to retain some anonymity, they could record a Voki!

Here's my Voki on choice of final project:



FACEBOOK DISCUSSION: The discussion on P2P network file sharing revealed a real diversity of opinions, based on our experiences, on how we personally obtain our music, and how we view the ethics of free downloading when it involves "piracy" or copyright infringement. This has been a fascinating discussion, with many well-thought-out responses! It's an excellent topic because it involves our lifestyles, our ways of enjoying and expressing ourselves through technology.

My view: (and one I will put into the discussion) is: The best things in life are free, it is said, and music is one of the most joyous things in life. But in our capitalistic economy, musicians, like other wage-earners, are entitled be fairly compensated for their work. What skews the perception of fairness or ethics in free downloading, however, is that successful musicians make scads of money. They also don't necessarily need compensation from song sales to get rich. But we need their music to be happy! There are concerts, licensed merchandise and related sales to bring wealth to the artists. The objective reality is that much of free downloading IS illegal, so we just can't do it yet without risking punishment under the law.

One fellow student kicked off the Facebook discussion with this observation, which I think has validity with regard to our wants, but not yet to society's rules:  "I know that stealing is stealing no matter what the object. I just cannot seem to equate what I consider my free downloads to theft." But our Facebook discussion, and the resources people bring to it, has the power to inform us and even change our opinions. I agree with those students who say change is in the wind on this topic, and I liked how Mark expressed it so succinctly: "Free downloading is the future. The industry can either change and adapt or die. Because that's how it's going to be."

I believe society is evolving toward a new model, and I hope it involves risk-free, legal sharing of music and other media.

DEFINITIONS:
Semantic Web (From Webopedia)
An extension of the current Web that provides an easier way to find, share, reuse and combine information more easily. It's based on machine-readable information and builds on XML technology's capability to define customized tagging schemes and RDF's  flexible approach to representing data.

RDF (From Webopedia)
Short for Resource Description Framework. RDF is a general framework for describing a Web site's metadata, or the information about the information on the site. It provides interoperability between applications that exchange machine-understandable information on the Web.

Folksonomy (From Cyberlesson 8): The practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. Collaborative tagging is the meta data that is used to describe the item and enabling keyword-based classification and search of information. 

Meta data (From Cyberlesson 8): The information about information on a website.

Ontology: A file that defines the relationships among a group of terms.

Karen Keefe's Slideshow

Kaycee Keefe Adirondacks WL11 - slideshows

Social media with an espresso jolt

The learning module on online communication and social media has, appropriately enough, been a way for classmates to get to know each other better online and through the use of Web 2.0 tools. The ongoing Facebook discussions have been a great way to share opinions, knowledge and resources about web technology. I call this entry "Social media with an expresso jolt," because our online communications as a class got a jolt of energy from interaction!

FACEBOOK GROUP: 

Our Facebook group has taken on greater importance in this module, and I really got a kick out of others' posts. We had a very interesting discussion  to kick off the module, on whether we, as a society, have put digital communication on a par with face-to-face communication. Overwhelmingly, our class felt that face-to-face communication is alive and well and essential, despite a growing use of digital communication, which, in my opinion, definitely is a good thing as well. An interesting post by one of our classmates showed groups of teens in various social situations looking down and texting on their mobile devices instead of interacting with each other. Very apropos! We're in good company to be wary of too much of a good thing, as David noted in his post. No less an intellect than Albert Einstein feared overuse of technology would spawn a generation of idiots! (I wouldn't go so far as to call the kids idiots - there's still hope they will actually look at each other and talk!)

COLLABORATIVE WORK:

In this module we did two projects together as a class.

1. Brainstorming: The first was a brainstorming activity to come up with ways we can incorporate the use of social media or other web tools into this course. The suggestions were eye-opening, wide-ranging and reflected unique interests. Suggestions ranged from creating a DIG110 channel in Youtube to creating a bulletin board in Pinterest to starting tumblr accounts for each other to follow, so we could share pictures, music, links and weekly blogs. Twitter, LinkedIn, dropbox and GoToMeeting.com were suggested as Web 2.0 tools to enhance the learning experience. I love some of the neat names these tools have, such as Orkrut, Xanga, RYZE and Techmeme.

2. Glogging: The second project was to create a Glog, or poster that conveys information on how to use one of the above tools. This was a tough assignment, because it involved research and use of a new technology. Several people shared comments about some of the "technical difficulties" encountered in getting this project to "work right." It was good to be able to encourage each other and share suggestions. The "Glogsters" the class produced were very informative. In this one, I got a chance to delve into Google Docs/Drive, something a friend and I had been exploring. We have been working toward incorporating my editing services into her ongoing advertising business. I created a Google Doc that we could both work on, built from our Facebook chats over a two-month period. Then I tried to describe that process in the Glogster that I built. I used pictures of the two of us, linked to our actual Google Document, and embedded links to three video tutorials about Google Docs/Drives. Here's one of the videos (I changed the size of it in HTML mode, but I believe when I publish this, I'll find that the envelope for the video got larger, but the video image, itself, may stay small):

And here's a screen capture of the Glogster, with a link to it, below. 

http://karenkeefe.edu.glogster.com/document-sharing-kkeefe/

For my new terminology in this blog, the first two are from my classmates' Web 2.0 use suggestions in the Google Doc we shared:

1. Use Digg, as a way to gather news articles pertaining to relevant course topics.  Digg does not allow comments, but you can digg a story and it will link to your facebook profile, which in turn could be shared with the course group. - Jason Morris

2. Tumblr- This is a good way to upload pictures and videos. You just have to create a free account and you can upload as many pictures as you want. There are so many people using this website that you can follow people and see what they’re uploading as well. - Shannon Crangle

3. Wiki: Web pages whose content can be edited, supplemented or deleted by authorized users with access to the Internet. Of course, we've all heard of Wikipedia and Wiki leaks, but I didn't know about the widespread sharing of knowledge in this way, such as Diplopedia - a wiki specializing in international relations and diplomacy, or another example in our textbook, a Harry Potter wiki.

4. Flaming: Responding online or in email with strong language or insults to a message about which you have very strong negative feelings.