What we did today

Today we had a lot of activities to do. First we were supposed to take other people's surveys. Some of them I couldn't do because you had to sign in and it got messed up, but I did get to do some of them. I also wrote about my web 2.0 tool about blogger and tried out cooliris too. It's a really cool program that I would like to use. I also finished my input and output which was pretty easy.

Input or Output?

1. Computer Screen/ Monitor- Output
2. Keyboard- Input
3. Mouse- Input
4. CD/DVD Drive- Input
5. Headphones- Output
6. USB Flash-drive/ Jump-drive: Input/Output
7. Projector- Output
8. Printer- Output
9. Wireless Internet Hub- Input/Output
10. ActiVote- Input
11. ActivBoard Pen- Input

Cooliris

Cooliris is a really cool way for you to be able to search photos. It's a much more different way of viewing photos, and it's also interactive. I would definitely love to use this on different things. I guess it's a search engine because you can look up photos and view them, and it's much easier and faster. It's definitely flashy, and it's fun to mess around with. It's also really visual too. I definitely would use this as my search engine instead of things like flickr or google images.

Web 2.0 Tool

Blogger
     Blogger is a great way for people to be interactive and a way they can write freely about anything they want. A blog is basically a website where you can have different entries or posts, and you can also create how your blog looks, and all sorts of gadgets on your blog to make it more interesting. Other people can also comment on your blog as well. Users can view other people's blogs on blogger, or they can choose to just blog about different things. You can have several different blog posts and different blogs on one account. It's much easier to manage it all.

     

There are several things that are good about blogger. First of all, you get to choose what to write about. It's also all electronic and easy to use. You can access blogger from your phone too, any sign up for blogger mobile where you can post from you phone. You can also design it however you choose, from the layouts they have, and you can change colors of different items to your personal liking. The best part is that you get to apply all sorts of gadgets! There's a wide variety of gadgets that you can find. It's much easier if you just look them up on google. They have gadgets where you can have social networks connected to your blogger, people can IM on your blog, interactive gadgets, animations, photos, videos, and so much more. You can even make money off of blogger by having advertisements on your blog.  

   Blogger isn't perfect though. Since Blogger is owned by Google, they can basically monitor and control your account. If you have things that they don't like, they have the ability to delete your account. They have complete control of your blog, so there's not much freedom with blogger. It also isn't very safe. You need to be extremely careful about what you post on your blog. Everyone will be able to see it, so if you put really personal information onto your blog, it can be dangerous. Another bad thing is that  there aren't that many designs on the website. There are some that you can choose from, but if you really want unique designs, you'll have to download them yourself.

     Blogger is great for students because instead of having to hand in assignments, you can easily just post them onto your blog. It's definitely more efficient and it's a lot easier as well for both the student and the teacher. Teachers are able to monitor the student's progress and daily work from their different blog posts and plus it saves a lot of paper in the end. Students are actually being interactive as well because they use blogger every day, and instead of wasting time writing they can just type it up easily on the computer. It's so much easier for the teacher too because they have access to all the student's blogs and they are able to comment on their work as well.

Here's a link to Blogger

Citations:

• Blogger: Create Your Free Blog. 1999. Web. 14 Jan. 2011. <http://www.blogger.com/>.
• "WordPress vs Blogger? Pros and Cons – Part Two." Modern Street - A Blog on and about the Web. Modern Street. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. <http://www.modernstreet.com/wordpress/wordpress-vs-blogger-part2/>.

Input and Output Devices/ What we did today

Input- When you have a device with information and you put it into a computer. It puts new information into the computer.
Ex: Camera- it brings pictures(information) into the computer

Output- Something that displays information from the computer.
Ex: Printer- takes information from the computer and displays it onto a sheet of printed paper.

What we also did today was we looked at other keynotes made by people. I actually learned a couple new things and it wasn't really boring either. After, we used cards to do a sort. It was a little challenging but we finished.

Keynote

Today I finally finished my keynote and it turned out really good and I really like it. I did the best I could to try to make it less boring. I actually learned some interesting things that I'm sure people had no idea about. Hopefully it'll make my keynote more entertaining. I also made it a bit shorter, just as long as I talk more instead of reading off the slide, I'll do fine. I'm just kind of nervous because I'm not much of a public speaker, but I feel pretty confident after going over it a couple times. I also already posted my survey on to my blog again.

Survey

Presentation

I presented my keynote to one of my friends in class today. He said I needed maybe some more different animations. They did say they were a little bored, so I need to work on making it less boring by adding additional unknown facts. He also said that for some things, I could explain in detail more about. For example, one of the interesting things about blogger is that you can get paid for it, so I can talk a little more about that. Other than that, he said my presentation was good, so next time, I'll want to edit my keynote a little more. I just really hope it won't bore the audience.

What I did today?

Today after reading the article, I worked on my Keynote about Blogger. At this point, I'm basically almost done with mine. The challenging part is that I need to find a lot of neat information that people don't already know about blogger. I did find out things that I had no clue about, so hopefully it'll be enough. I'm also trying to make my Keynote more simple, and less boring. I'll try to add more pictures to make it less boring.

Article

Today I read an article about powerpoint called "We have met the enemy and he is powerpoint". It was mainly about how PowerPoints are affecting the military. It explains how generals have to make PowerPoints and for some, they have to spend most of their time doing so. PowerPoints are only useful when officers need to tell things briefly, but not when they need to tell a lot of information. Worst of all, many of the officers and general have to sit through boring PowerPoints, sometimes even every day. PowerPoint is definitely an issue in the military. "It's dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control."

I don't think PowerPoint is to blame for some of the military issues, but it does make problems worse.

Keynote

Today, I started my project about web 2.0 tools, and I'm using blogger as my tool. I created my presentation on keynote, and things are running pretty smoothly. To get my pictures, all I have to do is take screenshots which is command+shift+3. I got a lot done today and I'm starting with the pros of blogger. I'll try to put less text on my slides so that it won't be as boring, and I'll also use some more of the tips from the powerpoint I watched last time.

Death by Powerpoint

We looked at a powerpoint presentation today, and I learned a lot of interesting information about how to make the powerpoint less boring. For example, I learned that:
-you need to really get to the point
-don't put too much information
-a lot of pictures!
-you need to rehearse what you say
-interesting and significant statements
-make it memorable
-and other great tips

After looking up things about the boring powerpoint issue, I found some other solutions:
-Don't have too many visuals or animations, it causes a distraction
-Large and simple fonts
-In the beginning, list what you will be talking about in the first few slides
-Try using more unique templates, rather than templates given on the program
-Try to add a little humor, to keep audience interested
-Try avoiding full sentences

Keynote:
Luckily, I have already used keynote before, so using it to make a powerpoint won't be very difficult to me.  It's actually a lot like pages, except it has some other different effects. I like how you get to choose from so many cool themes, and some of them look really professional, and others look more like for fun. Hopefully I'll learn more things that will make my powerpoint better.

Web 2.0 Tools

What are Web 2.0 Tools?
Basically it's a way to get the computer user more interactive. They are used so that the user of the computer can customize things how they want it to be on the web. So while the user is viewing a certain website. They could personally customize that website for themselves as well. They can also be used to share different types of media and information like videos.
Examples of these tools would be like Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, and also Blogger.

The web 2.0 tool that I want to do my project on is Blogger. http://www.blogger.com People are able to write things about themselves or whatever they want to put, as well as customize the blog design however they would want it. The pros about this is students are able to be interactive with the web while using it. Also, the teacher can monitor the student's progress throughout a class by checking their blog posts. Although the cons would be that it isn't very safe to use Blogger. If you put any personal information about yourself on a website like Blogger, it could be extremely dangerous, so you have to be cautious while using this tool. Also a disadvantage of Blogger is that some people may not have internet at home, so it's harder for them to use it.

My backup choice is Skype. http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home Skype is used as a way of communication around the world. It's free, so you no longer have to have long distance calling fees. Plus it is also used for education because teachers could have guest speakers over Skype without the hassle of setting up an appointment and everything, so now it's also a much more convenient and affordable way of learning for this generation.

I have an advantage of choosing Blogger as my tool since I'm already familiar with it already. Although, it would be nice to know more information about it later on, like more Pros and Cons and more educational purposes of Blogger. I haven't used Skype before, so that may be more of a challenge. I do know that some of my teachers have used it before to teach us in a lesson.