Post Secret Event

Ok, so this isn't part of an assignment or anything, I just thought that it was relevant to this class so I decided to blog about it! Anyways, last Tuesday I went to an event on campus that featured Frank Warren, the creator of the popular blog Post Secret. After hearing Frank Warren speak, I realized how much of an impact blogs have had on our culture and just how useful they are. I mean here is a man whose sole job is to blog! Not only that, but he came up with an idea that never would have been able to happen if it weren't for technology. Frank Warren collects secrets from strangers and then posts them to his blog. Twenty years ago who would have thought that a job like that could even exist, much less that it would have a fan base that stretched out across the entire world! Anyways, I just thought that it was cool to see how this class really relates to other things and how what we are doing here by simply blogging about our experiences in class has the potential to someday turn into a career if we so choose!

Also, here is a link to an article about the event.

Week Four Copyright Law, Plagiarism, and Ethical Issues

In class this week, we continued learning about Copyright and we were introduced to Creative Common’s Liscensing. Online, I learned how to create web pages and powerpoint presentations so that students can get the most out of them. I learned that design is key and everything matters- font and text size, as well as the size and placement of pictures, backgrounds, you name it and it has an affect on how a student perceives what is being taught. I also learned about web based resources, multimedia, and hypermedia. The presentations on those explained what they are, how to use them, the benefits of using them as well as their limitations.

Once again, what I learned in class and online this week directly related to my elementary education major. The most valuable thing that I learned this week was definitely how to make powerpoint presentations viewer friendly. I actually think that a lot of professors at UF need to watch this presentation!!! I learned that yellow text on a blue background is the most appealing. I also learned that if a picture doesn’t directly relate to your slide or enhance it in any way, then you don’t need it. I think that the presentation about how to make effective powerpoint presentations will help me out a lot as a teacher as well as during my time at the University of Florida.

Here is a link to a video that I found on the Creative Common’s Website that helped me to get a better feel for what exactly Creative Commons is. Before class last Monday, I had never heard of Creative Commons and even after class I was still a little confused about it. However, after watching the video on their site, I was able to better understand what exactly Creative Commons is and why it is needed.

Week Three Web Technology

This week we learned about Web 2.0 and Copyright. We also created a blog using blogger and linked it to our class wiki. I thought that the applications in Web 2.0 were AMAZING and I had never heard of most of them before or for that matter knew that something like them even existed! I loved learning about the different ones and so far my favorite one is print friendly, however I plan to look through more of them to familiarize myself with them.

Learning and reading about the copyright laws is extremely important and relevant to not only my major, but also my life. This is because I before this lesson I was relatively unfamiliar with what I could and couldn’t do. I think that knowing these laws will help me with this class as well as my other classes and eventually when I become a teacher, the class that I am teaching. I had no idea that you couldn’t simply put in a dvd and show it to your class because it violated copyright laws and you could be fined $100,000!

I found this article in the New York Times. The article is about the copyright issues that Disney is facing since purchasing Marvel. This article makes it clear not only how serious copyrights can be, but also how complicated they can be. It just goes to show that we need to be aware of what we can and can’t do so that we don’t get in trouble.

Week Two Educational Technology

This week we learned about mac computers. I was very excited to hear that we would be watching videos on how to use a mac because I just got a mac book pro for my birthday and I am do not know how to do a lot of things on it yet! After watching the videos, I found out how to do a lot of stuff on my mac that I didn’t know before like what the different shortcuts are on the keyboard. I watched several videos that were about computer terminology and what the different terms mean, internets effect on society, and finally a video about the history of emails and the web. I also watched a video series that was from PBS and was called “Growing up Online.” It was about how our generation has been affected by growing up with computers and the internet.

As an elementary education major, I was surprised to learn that macs are used a lot in the education field. This just made me even more happy that I decided to get a mac instead of a PC for my laptop. It also gives now justifies my mac purchase because before my reason for getting a mac was that macs are really cute! But, anyways unlike a lot of other majors taking this course, the material that will be covered will almost always be directly related to my major, which makes it very nice!

Here is a link to an article that I found on the apple website. I found this article interesting because it talks about why you will love a mac! I thought this was relevant because the videos this week for class were about using a mac, which can be frustrating to a pc user at first, but this article lets you know why you will love a mac after you figure them out (which by the way won’t take long at all).

Embedded Video Homework Week 4

Embedded Video Homework Week 4

http://creativecommons.org/videos/get-creative