Week 12!

To start, I googled my name yet again.  Wow, what a difference from the beginning of the semester.  Instead of just a little more than half a page of results actually relating to me, there are now almost three full pages!  My digital footprint sure has grown in the last 12 weeks.  I am very happy to see that all of my search results still lead to a positive digital footprint. It is crazy how experimenting with various tools that I didn't use before can expand my digital footprint so much.  The majority of the search results are my blog posts throughout the term, mixed in with the various social network profiles that I have, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
For me, having a positive digital footprint is very important when I am working in the digital environment.  As my career goals are leading to the economic profession, I don't want anything on the Internet that could lead to a bad image of myself.  No matter what you are doing on the Internet you should always make sure what is being posted, on Facebook or other social networks, isn't something that could hurt your reputation.  These are things that employers look at when they are considering hiring somebody.
As a digital citizen, it is important that you are also promoting a positive digital environment. Using Internet resources as tools for learning and not tools to hurt other people, as it happens often on social networks. It is probably would be very helpful for many people, particularly those that weren't educated in school about it, to read some Nettiquette resources as those are great guidelines on how the Internet should be used.  People should always use the Internet as a place to learn and develop themselves further as digital citizens and building their positive digital footprints.

Lastly i hope anyone reading this enjoys their semester at Brock or at any college/school you may be at!

Podcast/Week 11

A podcast is a digital recording made available over the internet for download to an iPod or other music player.  These pod casts can be subscribed to and are automatically downloaded for you to listen to when you have time.  There are many pod casts available on iTunes and other audio sites, but they are not limited to just that.  You can create your own pod casts! Teacher's can record their voices into pod casts and use them as a different sort of lecture that students can listen to at home.  A great tool that I explored this week was Voki. Voki would be a very great tool to use with younger students in the classroom as it allows you to set up an avatar for yourself that looks like it is speaking what you had recorded earlier.  A very engaging tool that students can have some fun with when they are using it! I don't think that I would use pod casting tools as part of my educational activities since I can't think of anything I could use it for.  To me, this is a tool that would be more effectively used by teachers if they wanted to upload recordings of their lectures for students to listen to, particularly could be useful for online courses.  This isn't something that I would add to my PLE.

The second tool we looked at was screencast's.  Screencasts are great tools to help the visual learners.  A screencast records your voice as well as what is going on on your computer screen.  These are great for instructional video's and showing someone how to do something on the computer.  One of the screencasting tools we looked at was Jing. Jing is free and allows you to create screencasts easily.  Screencasting is something that I can see myself using in the future, since I am usually the one that helps out friends and family with their technical difficulties.  It would allow me to record and show them how to do something without actually physically being there.  This is something that would likely fit in well with the rest of my PLE in the creative section, since it is a tool that allows me to create something to express my ideas.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Animoto

Animoto

Animoto is a very useful creative tool that allows you to create a quick 30-second slide show. It was extremely easy to use and took seconds to learn.  Once I learned how to use it, I was able to create my slideshow easily.  You can create slideshows more than 30-seconds long if you pay a subscription fee.  Animoto can be a very useful tool in my educational activities because it catches your eye and keeps your attention. It is a very flashy and interesting slide show to watch.  A very good way to get your peers or students attention and keep it for the duration of the slide show.  This tool would be a welcome addition to my PLE as a replacement for applications such as power point.

 A very interesting topic that we learnt, copyrights and creative commons.  I really learned a lot when it comes to copyrights relating to on-line content.  I knew that there was laws protecting the ownership of digital items, but I was not properly educated before on how to follow them.  When something is copyrighted on the Internet, or anywhere for that matter, it means that you are not allowed to use it without the owners permission.  This includes photo's and other images.  I was not aware that simply referencing an image was not necessarily enough to protect you from infringing copyrights. When it comes to creative commons, you are allowed to use someone else's work as long as you reference it properly and some items have additional rights reserved. You may not be able to alter their work or use it commercially for example.  The image shows the various tags that are used to determine how the digital media can be used by others.

Google Docs

This week we used a tool I am most familiar with, Google Docs! This is a tool used to create presentations, spreadsheets or word documents with a group of people. This is great because multiple people can be working on the document at the same time and see the process that has already been done as well. I have used Google Docs for some assignments this semester. It saves time, rather than meeting up as a group all the time, its an easy way to communicate what has been done and it is so efficient. Google Docs is my favorite tool. Google Docs can be used in an office to share and work on files between co-workers who are all over the world. Many businesses today have offices internationally and share files and project. Google Docs is an effective way to share documents and also add information collaboratively. It is also great to use even if I am not in a group, if you are working on a file instead of saving it to your computer and only being able to use it on your home computer, it makes it easy to access the file anywhere you have internet access. I do not have to bring a USB plug, email a file back and forth or just be stuck in one location. I have already included Google Docs in my PLE since I find it so useful for my everyday needs.


This week we started working in groups by creating a presentation on Google Docs. Working with others can be a learning experience to learn how well you work with others.  We mostly communicate through Today's Meet. I prefer using Facebook because I get notifications to my phone and so I can keep in touch easily with my partner in case we have any questions or problems with our group work or individual assignments. We can help each other with work from this ADED course.


Still trying to get used to my Feedly Reader as an important resource.

Week 7

This week we used a tool I am most familiar with, Google Docs! This is a tool used to create presentations, spreadsheets or word documents with a group of people. This is great because multiple people can be working on the document at the same time and see the process that has already been done as well. I have used Google Docs for some assignments this semester. It saves time, rather than meeting up as a group all the time, its an easy way to communicate what has been done and it is so efficient. Google Docs is my favorite tool. Google Docs can be used in an office to share and work on files between co-workers who are all over the world. Many businesses today have offices internationally and share files and project. Google Docs is an effective way to share documents and also add information collaboratively. It is also great to use even if I am not in a group, if you are working on a file instead of saving it to your computer and only being able to use it on your home computer, it makes it easy to access the file anywhere you have internet access. I do not have to bring a USB plug, email a file back and forth or just be stuck in one location. I have already included Google Docs in my PLE since I find it so useful for my everyday needs.


This week we started working in groups by creating a presentation on Google Docs. Working with others can be a learning experience to learn how well you work with others.  We mostly communicate through Today's Meet. I prefer using Facebook because I get notifications to my phone and so I can keep in touch easily with my partner in case we have any questions or problems with our group work or individual assignments. We can help each other with work from this ADED course.

Week 6

This week in class we learned about Evernote. Evernote is a tool to write notes and add tags for websites. You can create notebooks for all your classes and share with your classmates. This is useful to share resources for group assignments but also for individual assignments.  Classmates should share study notes and resources to gain the most knowledge about the subjects. I will continue learning about Evernote for this course to learn what else it can do. Other sources I have used for resource sharing is Google Docs. I really like Google Docs because you and group members can edit papers and create power point slideshows at the same time from different computers. You can see as people add information and also chat with the members as you are working on assignments. Considering I have some experience with group sharing digital tools it will be interesting to see what Evernote has to offer.

We are learning about so many different digital tools in this course it is important to determine which ones work best for my work ethic. I do not have the time to use every single resource and some do similar things. I have to recognize which tools are most appropriate for the categories in my PLE. Tools I find efficient, easy to use, helpful and necessary for my lifestyle. I noticed my PLE is rapidly growing from tools in this course and now I need to analyze and test each digital tool and see how it applies to my lifestyle. Filter the tools that do not apply to my learning style and useful to my needs. I do not think I will add Evernote to my PLE because I have other tools that provide similar actions. Google Docs is also more commonly used by other classmates; therefore we are all familiar with what it does and how it works.

Feedly Update: I am still not sure I am using this properly! I don’t think I have a use for Feedly. I do not need to use the links I have attached for school work or my career search. I am wondering is there a way to use my Feedly to find jobs I am interested in? This would make Feedly much more appealing to me and my needs.

Technology Scenario #7

Mrs. Peters enjoys working with technology.  She has been working with computers for several years now and has her own website to allow friends to keep up with what her family is doing.  Every year she posts her family's holiday photo on the website.  A friend who lives overseas contacts her an says that she saw her family's photo being used as an advertisement.  Neither Mrs. Peters nor her husband know anything about it.  How do you protect your identity?

I think Mrs. Peters had a great idea to keep her friends and family updated with what her and her family have been up to, especially since she has family and friends that live far away from her.  There is nothing wrong with what Mrs. Peters did.  What I will say is that I think there are better tools out there that are less public that Mrs. Peters could use to ensure that only people she invites can see what her and her family have been up to.  For example if Mrs. Peters created a family blog that she updated she can set the privacy setting so only people on the list she creates can read it.  This will eliminate people she does not know taking pictures from her website and using them for advertisements.  Although I do not believe Mrs. Peters was using the technology inappropriately she should be aware of ways to protect her identity from those people who take advantage of the many things you can find and perhaps take from the internet.  After researching this topic there were many tips on How to protect your Identity.  For example this Article suggested that you do not make personal information public, you should check privacy settings, strengthen and use multiple passwords.  If Mrs. Peters took the time to learn more about how to protect her and her family online, this issue could have been avoided.  Although she was not doing anything wrong she needs to remember that there are many people out there that do not use technology appropriately.  The person that took her families photo and made it an advertisement is definitely using technology inappropriately because he/she is using Mrs. Peters picture without consent.

Voice Thread

This week in ADED we explored the usage of the tool titled VoiceThread. VoiceThread is a unique online tool that allows the user to create a presentation (similar to Microsoft Powerpoint) and post it online. Viewers can access the presentation via a link or embedded code and view the slideshow. The slideshow can include a multitude of media including text, images as well as voice notes.

https://voicethread.com/myvoice/#thread/4747028/24255274 Viewers then can access the presentation and are immediately engaged by the ability to post comments or voice notes on each individual slide. Viewers can also comment using text as well. These comments become a part of the presentation, allowing other users and viewers to access and consider all of the comments made. I can see VoiceThread being an extremely useful tool in an academic setting, especially to encourage individual classroom participation as well as to facilitate group work. Both of these uses would be engaging because each member actually has to consider each slide and add their own comments. This in turn, makes the collective presentation a compilation of all of the users and group member’s thoughts and opinions. As part of our activities this week we viewed a presentation on digital rights and responsibilities and then commented on slides. Slides can be structured as open forum style questions, or even simply as point and answer questions. This is a great way to encourage students to participate and gives the instructor real time feedback on the progress of their students.

I am unsure as to how I am going to use this tool going forward, however if I am ever in a situation to facilitate group opinions on a slideshow I will definitely use it. It’s a strong collaboration tool that I think I can use again.

Here is the VoiceThread that i used: https://voicethread.com/myvoice/#thread/4747028/24255269/26128373

https://voicethread.com/myvoice/#thread/4747028/24255274

Week 8 Reflection

This week we looked into using a wiki. A wiki is an internet database which people can collectively share, edit, and delete information. Wikipedia is a common example of a wiki. I personally like how information is laid out on Wikipedia and can easily find what I am looking for. However, the reliability of Wikipedia is questionable, who wrote the information? Where did it come from? Is it correct? I generally will check Wikipedia for answers I need and then use one or two other sources to back up the information I found on Wikipedia. Other sources could be considered wikis such as Google Docs if you have the access open to the public to edit and share the work in the document. Most of the tools we have used in class have more privacy settings and do not allow others to edit the information in it. However, most of these tools allow others to comment on them which could be adding and editing information on that database.
I feel I became a digital citizen as soon as I started using the computer or got my first cellphone. I have been a part of the digital community for a long time now. We have learned many different ways to use digital technology through many different accounts. Most of the tools we have learned about have increased digital communication and interaction with other classmates. Our most recent lesson on wikis is about digital literacy and the reliability of information posted on internet databases. Lastly I feel like blogging actually allows people to use their digital rights of freedom of speech, also trusting our responsibility in siting any information used to support our blogs. I also think there may be a setting on who can view your blog which gives you the rights to your security and privacy settings. Signing off for this week, hope everyone has a good week and is not too stressed!

week #5

Week 5 of ADED 1P32 has definitely been a shift in the way we are learning throughout our online journey. Learning from respectable and credible sources such as accredited websites is a really great way to gather facts. However, the interesting and also unique factor is that we sometimes miss out on others opinions. Not only can we learn the factual information that is important to us, we can delve into individual opinions that help us gain a new perspective. The most interesting factor that I noticed in my exploration of Twitter is the use and meanings of hashtags. Although tweets on twitter are limited to 140 characters, hashtags provide a wealth of information and add to the usefulness of Twitter. Onceateacher.com stated “Basically, anyone that you interact with is apart of your PLN, whether they are social contacts, professional peers, or experts in their field.   Most of the ‘learning’ takes place on-line now, because it is simple to find and connect with others with similar interests from around the world.” (Klingensmith, 2009). Twitter, which is now an essential part of my PLN, can contribute significantly in my quest to build knowledge. Twitter can let me see others opinions and build a customized and streamlined network that I can access anywhere such as my laptop or mobile device. I can also use hashtags to see other Tweeters who are talking about similar topics. Gaining digital literacy is a really essential part of developing your PLE and PLN. It is important to consider other digital citizens opinions because this is how we learn. It is extremely important to develop our own opinions, however the only way that we can really shape a complete and educated opinion is to consider all angles. Using curation tools that we have explored in previous weeks, we have been able to gain a thorough understanding of how others interpret and learn information. The greatest advantage that students have in the digital age is the ability to work and collaborate with others all over the globe!

Week #4

This week, we explored various curation tools throughout the Internet.  What a curator is, why curators are just as important as creators, and how not everyone can be a creator or a curator.   We also investigated on-line bookmarking tools and what the limitations of browser bookmarking are, such as limited access. Everyone uses their web browser for bookmarks, saving their most visited webpages for later, as well as important resources that you may need to refer to at a later date.  For the most part, as there are exceptions, when you bookmark something in your browser, that bookmark is saved on the computer you are using and you are unable to access this bookmark anywhere else. Most browsers now seem to be moving towards a cloud based bookmarking system where when you log into another computer or device, your bookmarks are automatically synced. However, there are still limitations to this.  What if you are on a public computer at the library and don't want everyone to access your synced bookmarks? Your not going to log your account into a public computers browser as the browser is going to save your information and always log into it.  This is where on-line bookmarking tools such as Diigo come in handy.

Diigo is an online bookmarking tool that has many more capabilities than your standard browser bookmarks.  With Diigo, you will create an account that will allow you to access your account anywhere, be it your own computer, smartphone, or a public computer. When you create a bookmark with Diigo, it asks you to assign tags to your bookmark.  This can be an extremely useful feature if you have an extensive list of bookmarks and can't quite remember what bookmark you are looking for. Say, for example, you bookmarked your favourite social network, but for some reason you couldn't remember what it was called, you could simply assign it a tag, such as "social", and search that tag. You will then come up with all of the bookmarks that have this tag assigned, making easier to track that item down. This could be extremely useful for a school project or any other educational activity since you could set a specific tag for any project, search that tag and track down all of your saved resources related to that project in seconds, saving valuable time.

With the use of Diigo, as well as the other tools that we have explored, I am beginning to find it a lot easier to access information and sort through what is relevant to me, and what can be discarded, allowing me to become much more digitally literate.  I had considered myself quite proficient with various digital tools, but with the introduction of these new tools, I find myself spending much less time sorting through all the information.  Diigo would fit into the organize category of my PLE, as it is a tool that helps me to organize information for my in an easy to access way.  Any curation tool, such as Scoop.it, would be in the aggregating and connecting categories of my PLE, since it presents information to me and allows me to share it with my friends.

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #3

I used CollegeBender.com as an example to share upon my blog. I chose 5 steps of saving money in university because it relates to me and now i am more informed on how to save money! (If only i knew about this earlier). Anyway i summarized it up and learnt that its very simple to understand little things that accumulate to larger things later on. I guess people rely heavily on the "do it now" concept instead of waiting and seeing the larger picture. (Human nature). I found an article in one of the websites that I subscribed to through my Feedly. It was on the "Driver recklessness". Uber is a company that is basically just a newer form of Taxis. The article presented talked about a driving accident where a family was hurt, by the reckless driving of the Uber driver. It’s interesting to hear about this, because it’s said to be caused by the driver looking at his cellphone, looking for his next customer. I think this just goes to show the power, and the negative effect that these kinds of technology can also have. This website is a good resource to use, as it presents new articles about world news. It informed my learning as this blog post showed me a story which I had not heard or read about at all. The RSS Feed readers contribute to work and building knowledge in the digital context. These feed readers allow individuals to be able to bookmark certain websites, and to have all content of interest put together in one convenient place. Also, this RSS Feed reader enables the reader to not only be limited to one computer, but able to sync all content, so it can be used on different computers, ipads, phones etc. These tools are organizational tools, to be able to organize different resources of websites. These tools allow an individual to subscribe to all blogs, news sites etc. which one may be interested in. In my PLE diagram, this tool would be categorized under the organizational media category. 

"My Experience with RSS Feeds"

I will be briefly writing about the 5 ways a student can save money. Firstly sharing accommodation, this is perfect for saving money as you would be only spending half or even less of the cost of the place. Even if you lack privacy! Secondly taking turns at cooking with your room mates, now this may seem hard to begin with but ultimately it saves alot, eg: you have 5 room mates so thats 1 for each day of the week. (forward thinking). Thirdly ordering online, even though online takes time its more efficient in terms of travel and cost, you order food in bulk and you save on travel and effort! (giving you more time to study). Fourthly, now this might get some debate but instead of going out to clubs and bars, you can just invite freinds over and party at home. (this is very cheap but might not be for everyone). Lastly, the most obvious one is buy used text books, pretty much self explanatory.

Week 2 Reflection.

I have always seen myself as a successful person because i believed i could achieve anything if i put my mind to it. Its the same with anyone, you have to have a certain mindset in order to win. I envision myself 5-10 years from now at the top of a bank eg: CEO or executive and this is because i am a hard worker, i know what i want and i know what i must do to achieve it. It is a very demanding goal but nothing is impossible. In order to achieve this i must change a few things. One of my downfalls have been lack of confidence when i was younger, ofcourse, now it has changed tremendously but as a child confidence is key as it develops as you grow older. In order to get to where i want to be i have to solidify my confidence, social skills and ability to reach demands well in time. Confidence is a key concept that not many people have but the ones who do are the successful ones as the others look up to them. Like a wolf that stands among a herd of sheep for example. That puts things into perspective, as technology develops, humanity decreases and lust for money increases. Its a sad concept but none the less its the society we live in and i must conform in order to survive. I realize you must take every opportunity you get because some don't come twice. As some one who's nearly graduated i've already applied to many banks in Canada and America, people tell me you must be ahead of the game to truly succeed. Its like a game of chess and one must be aware of whats going around him to be ahead. Lastly you must want something badly in order to chase after it with enough intent to achieve it. This was a quote i have seen somewhere and it really does make sense. So my current PLE is designed to show my personal learning expiriences, i have shown several things that sum it up. Such as taking part in courses, managing dates and times which is very important, collecting materials, communicating with peers and note taking. These are different utilities used to make the best of every situation. It is interlinked with my reflection on how to succeed as it shows all the possibilities in each field.  What i have learnt from using PLE is that its very simple to create a spider web and mind map all the different ways to keep in touch or keep up to date. Very efficient because it helps you see your own goals, you can also track your progress quite easily as everything is organized in such a way that you set up. The PLE is very flexible, and provides context. I wish i had known about the PLE earlier as i will make great use of this. Incredible use of this may turn lives around, connecting with people on different levels can ofcourse be a recipe for success.

University Life

Hello my name is Faris and I am a final year student in economics, although a dull subject I find it fascinating in many aspects such as the teachings it provides to have a greater understanding in the world around us. It has taught me many ways in how to understand the concept of money and investments. The purpose of my blog is to simply explore the world of blogging and see how far I can get with all the independent work given. Its an excellent way to reach across to different audiences and portray a message. The great thing is that each blog is different and portrays a different message. I have read a few blogs and found them unique. Before I took up this course I would say I was more of a hands on learner, I learnt through the doing method, which means I prevailed greatly once I actually did the question rather than reading the text book, I find this more useful because it preps you for the actual thing, which in this case was exams. As an individual learner, I relied heavily on textbook questions because the major i'm in revolves vastly around theory and textbook questions. I found myself hashing out 1-2 hours a day of solid, sound work. I found this was enough due to early time management and organization skills that I had learnt prior. The new insights I've gained so to say through this course have not been fully established as this is the first week but I can assure that constant work will force me to learn better time management skills. The earlier one finishes the better they will work through a course. Although this is the first course i'm able to freely express my opinions and insights I must say its very thought provoking in the sense that its a lot different to the courses ive taken previously. Creating a blog and expressing your thoughts is a way to solidify what you believe in or what you think the viewers should read or something that's important to you. For example the week 0 assignment was to simply create your own profile on a website that provides blogs. I found it opened up ideas for different things. The more there is on a bloggers profile the more interesting it seems to be, or it will atleast catch your attention as oppose to a bland profile with the bare minimum. I plan on renovating my page as the course continues, perhaps adding different things at different times. One thing that I have learnt in my life is that time waits for no man, it is a very essential and necessary understanding to fully legitimize this concept into ones everyday life. Success depends on time well used, the more time is misused the delay to success takes longer. This is possibly the best lesson I have learnt while at university. It is essential to implement this from the beginning as this is a very big factor in determining success level.