Create Photo, Video, & Audio Sharing Accounts

Here is my Youtube profile , Flickr profile and SoundCloud profile

There is no doubt that YouTube and flicker can be great instructional and motivational tools as they offer learners the opportunity to learn while doing. YouTube and Flickr would also enhance the ability of instructors to implement contextual based instruction by creating videos and graphics that can explain the subject matter in the context of learner’s culture and social environment. Further, as learners create video and observe themselves, there is a chance that their metacognitive and communication skills could be improved as learners would be afforded the opportunity to take an objective and critical look at their performances. While  teaching , I never used YouTube or Flickr and, today, I probably would  never allow students to post video or graphics of themselves or their classmates.  There are also identity thieves and others criminals  who are working just as hard as instructors to update their online crafts.  

Although I think the emphasis today is on visual learning with the creation of videos and PowerPoint presentations, there are just as many audio learners who would benefit from programs like soundcloud . I have observed students who struggled in the traditional classrooms where there were no real attempt to create interesting and engaging audio learning stimulus. Yet, many of these same students could be overheard discussing the lyrics of popular songs, analyzing and articulating the authors’ open and hidden social, economic and political massages. If I knew that soundcloud or any audio sharing websites existed,  I would have ,certainly, asked my high school world history and US history students to use soundcloud  to research sounds from the Vietnam war or other historical  period to create sound collages and use theses collages to analyze the mood of the nation. I do not think history can completely be understood without addressing the affective domain. The roaring 20ty cannot be fully understood without listening to the upbeat jazz music and sounds of that period, Nor, can the great depression, that followed ,be fully understood without listening to the downbeat music and sounds of that era.

 

 

Social Bookmarking

Here is my delicious profile.

 

Until now, I never knew social bookmarking was available. I can see why it would be useful to have a place to store links that can be accessed from any computer with internet service. Learners at work or always from regular used computers could easily located websites previously booked marked. Usually I just email myself links to websites of interest. Although I might be behind the time and there might be a better way to accomplish this task, I still think this is a valuable tool.    

Understanding Wikipedia and Wikimedia

Here is my profile

 

 

I would encourage any learner to use Wikipedia as a starting point and I think that it is alright if the information has some flaws. Investigating, discovering and correcting flaws can be a great learning method and can be motivating as learners gain a sense of self worth correcting others. I never used Wikipedia or any wiki before this class. However, as this class continues and afterward, I will revisit the help menus to learn more about editing, linking and adding content. If I ever find myself teaching high school to adult students again, I definite will use this as an instructional tool for I believe adults learn better when they are allowed to construct their own knowledge in a flexible collaborative environment.

  

wiktionary

Profile:     http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/User:Stafford3

1. Class definition:

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

:

A format for encoding a picture pixel by pixel, designed for transferring images on the Internet, not for professional-quality print graphics.

Updated definition:

PNG is a raster graphic file format. A raster graphic file format is a dot matrix data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color (bitmap) that supports lossless data compression (class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data) PNG was created as an improved, non-patented replacement for Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) -- a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987

2. Class definition:

Web Mashup : This is when websites are “opened up” to allow access the information in them. This then enables information from several different sites to be combined for creative effect. Updated definition: A mashup, in web development, is a web page, or web application, that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services. The term implies easy, fast integration, frequently using open application programming interfaces (API) and data sources to produce enriched results that were not necessarily the original reason for producing the raw source data. The main characteristics of a mashup are combination, visualization, and aggregation. It is important to make existing data more useful, for personal and professional use. To be able to permanently access the data of other services, mashups are generally client applications or hosted online. In the past years, more and more Web applications have published APIs that enable software developers to easily integrate data and functions instead of building them by themselves. Mashups can be considered to have an active role in the evolution of social software and Web 2.0. Mashup composition tools are usually simple enough to be used by end-users. They generally do not require programming skills and rather support visual wiring of GUI widgets, services and components together. Therefore, these tools contribute to a new vision of the Web, where users are able to contribute.

3. Class definition:

e-book : A book published in digital form.

Updated definition:



An electronic book (variously, e-book, ebook, digital book, or even e-edition) is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an electronic version of a printed book, but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent. E-books are usually read on dedicated e-book readers or tablets using e-reader applications. Personal computers, many mobile phones, and nearly all smart phones can also be used to read e-books.

Web 2.0 and Social Media --Wordle

WHO I AM

To Fedsys:

Dear Sir:

I am attaching a resume for your preview for the instructional technology position in Afghanistan. As you can see by my resume, I am a graduate of the federal law enforcement training center, Georgia with advanced firearms training at the federal facility in New Mexico.  I have additional firearms and self-defense training with the state of New Jersey and  the state of North Carolina. Also notice that I have several years of teaching experience in Baltimore City Public School System as well as Baltimore Community College. I earned a Master’s of Science degree in instructional and curriculum development.

Currently, I am working on completing a graduate certificate in web-based distance learning. I have completed several graduate courses in which the focus was on working with web 2.0 tools and learning how to use them as instructional tools. Web 2.0 tools can be used to construct a virtual community where your employees can interact, share their ideas and experiences. This interaction will allow your law enforcemt advisors to learn from each others experiences in their efforts to develop more efficient and effective methods of training Afghan police and police forces around the world.

 

WHO I'll Be 

Web 2.0 Logo

I used flaming text to create this logo because it is completely free for personal and academic use. Logos can be animated and the code is provided so the users can embedded logos into their personal websites. There are plenty of options are provided and the site is easy to use.

Explain web 2.0 to your grandmother

Web 2.0 is an internet dynamic platform that that allows users to be consumers of information and well as creators of information. Web 2.0 is the futile landscape where virtual communities can form and strive. We travel around this landscape on keyboards to construct knowledge by interacting with others near and far. Collaborating using web 2.0 tools, such as blog or video sharing tools, is revolutionizing the field of education and training. Perhaps, Web 2.0 is the engine of social changes as knowledge can no longer confined or blocked by national borders.

Grandmother

Web 2.0 is like when you and your sister Betty get together and gossip. You tell a story, Betty adds to the story and your nosy neighbor comes over and disagrees with you both.  Finally, you all put your stories together and come up with an official truth. Web 2.0 is like that but it includes millions of people like your sister and nosy neighbor talking on the computer.  They share stories, tell lies, argue over who is right and somewhere in all this is the truth.  Grandmother think of web 2.0 as a T.V that you can talk too and you are talking junk about the Red Socks but remember other people with T.Vs can  hear you screaming and they also have the ability to call the Yankees out.

Web 2.0 is just a people all across the world gossiping.

Impromp2.0

Web 2.0 is an interactive format that allows learners to contribute as well as consume information. Web 2.0 is dynamic and offers a wider prospective than traditional methods in that users can hyperlink to many different points of view.  In essence, web 2.0 is a community of minds around the world .