Other Final Projects

I have had the opportunity to review a few classmate's final projects and everyone has done a great job! Marty has posted her Wiki on her blog. This Wiki is a great tool for her to use as an educator and appears to be a great way for her and her coworkers to collaborate! Elisia has created a wonderful website for her church which inlcudes pictures, members, mission and many other great tools for their congregation! She has posted the link on her blog as well for anyone to learn more about the Living Truth Church. Nicki created a wiki and posted the link on her blog as well. Her wiki is for her Black Tie Society group to collaborate on charity work, events, members etc. This should be really great to help them all reduce emails and stay on top of tasks for the group! I think that everyone is class put together some great projects using the technology we learned this semester. Nice Job!

Final Project

Well as basic as it is...I have my final project done. There is a lot that I want to add to it (and I will), but I need to get the link out there and available for all of you to use. I have created a website through freewebs.com (thanks Elisia) that covers the technology we have used throughout this course. All of you have played a role in what has been added to this site as well as what is yet to be added. All of your hard work and great ideas that have been posted on your blogs should eventually make their way to this site. Please let me know what you think and feel free to post in the forum on the site or here on my blog to let me know what you feel should be added. It has been great working with you all and I look forward to collaborating again sometime! http://technologybasic.webs.com/

Overview:

Lauren-
ALOP 298
Final ProjectTechnology Website Overview
http://technologybasic.webs.com/

With Elisia’s wonderful idea of using freewebs.com as a free website tool, I organized the main ideas from our class this semester into a website. I created different pages for a new user of technology to get the basics on some of the fascinating tools we have recently learned about. I included information and definitions of blogs, wikis, social networking, online communication, second life, etc. I wanted this site to be a general overview of what I have learned during this class as well as a tool for any technological beginner looking for some new information. I created a forum for anyone to add what they think as well as links to all of our blogs. I did have some technical difficulties and some of the page titles will just not publish accurately, but I will continue to work on that. As I continue to add to this site, I hope to incorporate links and information from the blogs of other students as well for a more well rounded website. Lauren

Dangers of Technology?

Nicki was speaking about the ill effects of technology on her blog. She mentioned how our youth are getting themselves into bad situations through the use of technology and inappropriate pictures circulating through email or lost phones. We all have been aware of online predators for awhile now (thanks Dateline), but lately there have been issues with teens and young adults having inappropriate pictures and information loose on the web or email. Oprah has done shows on how some young adults have been disgraced, lost job opportunities, etc. because of their pictures and statements on Myspace/Facebook type social networking. We have also heard in the news about the mother who teased and bullied a friend of her child over the internet to the point of suicide and now a similar situation has occurred. The Early Show this morning shared the story about the 19 year old boy committing suicide in his bedroom with the Web Cam on. This young man who had been diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder took pills and died as onlookers thought his actions were a joke or something for the benefit of the internet site. Some of them even posted comments on his website to that effect and called him names. It is such a shame that things like this are happening at all, let alone in full view of the world. I believe this is another technological aspect that will require adjusting to. We need to educate our youth on the dangers of not only online predators and posting PII (Personally Identifying Information) , but what they post/upload as far as pictures, accounts of partying, etc. because they could hurt their future careers or reputations if something goes wrong. We also need to teach all people to be 'better safe than sorry' and if they see something online (such as a suicide) please alert the authorities and let them decide if it is a prank or not. There are downfalls to every new advancement, even technology. News articles are stating not to blame the internet which is fine, but how can we use the internet to prevent some of these things? This young man may not have died if someone had noticed and spoken up. Not only did he have people near him, but he was there online for the whole world to have a chance to save him....it did not happen. Only the disease is to blame but this situation had the opportunity of ending differently.

Google's version of Skype

Well it appears that there is a Skype style program available through Google's gmail. Check it out here! I am really wanting to do something like this with my family, some of whom are 8 hours away and some are just 1 hour away (still we only see each other every few weeks). It looks like the cost can be less than $50 to get the audio headset and webcam for each home (see http://www.amazon.com/ or click here). It is great that the programs (gmail or Skype) are free and easily accessable. I also wanted to add that I have been accessing some of my blogs, not only through google reader but also on my personalized igoogle page as well (just add the reader as a gadget).

Audio File

Today we have learned a lot about audio files and I have added my first audio file in this post as well as over to the left in 'LINKS' the navigation bar.  Please listen and enjoy! I have also added the direct audio clip here:  

Nov. 7th Class

In class tonight we learned about Skype. I think we all had some fun with this.  Here is the Skype website  to download it at home.  This evening was very informative.   I enjoyed tonight a lot and the technology was fascinating.  I think we collaborated very well this evening as well.  **I have also fallen in love with Google all over again.  That document 'cloud' is great!

Power Positions

I know that both parties of this election have their stories and there are always some people (dingbats) that ruin it for others, but my concern with this video is not just the political view, but the 'power' this teacher used over her students.  It is my belief that teachers, managers, etc in 'power positions' over others should not push their views onto their subordinates-Especially in elementary schools!  This reminds me of the teacher in CA that took her first grade class to the courthouse to witness her marriage to her girlfriend for a class trip.