Embedding

Embedding

Embedding the different types of media were not to terrible. I found it really easy to embed them into my blog. All I had to do was go to the share feature and it had the html code. I don't know if the embedding was simple because all the tools I decided to use. Or if I just got lucky. 

YouTube 

   



Flickr





SoundCloud

What License to Use?

License to Use?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/field_museum_library/3947976595/

I chose this picture because I like flowers. I also really like lily pads. So I thought this picture was a perfect fit. I am really wanting spring weather around here, so I guess you could say that it contributed to me finding a picture with flowers. 

My photo is from British East Africa. It was taken by Carl Akeley. It is a close up of lotus flower beds study in 1906. It is free of restrictions because it is so old. 

This picture is free from restrictions because the Flickr Commons stated so. 

I think the restrictions that I would put on it would depend on what I created. I don't know if I would but any restrictions on personal photography unless I was a professional photography. I would definitely want to fully license any educational work that I would create because I would hate for anyone to take my work and change it. Or even fully license it as themselves. 

Wikimedia

Wikimedia

I am still surprised everyday I learn more information about branches of Wikipedia. Today, I am going to review Wikispecies and Wikivoyage. 

Wikispecies:

I chose this project just because it sounded interesting. There is a science teacher at my school that we share a lot of resources with so I figured this could be one of them. Wikispecies is a place to find a directory for all species. Any one is able to edit the information on the Wikispecies site. It is also linked with Encyclopedia of Life Project.

Wikivoyage:

Wikivoyage is the worlds largest free, update, world travel guide. Wikivoyage was actually published this year in January. I picked this topic because I really want to travel. This website allows you to look up any information pertaining to the different places. I was pretty impressed with the Wikivoyage. 

SoundCloud

SoundCloud

SoundCloud is a place to upload any type of audio. I created a SoundCloud because I saw other people talking about it and decided to give it a try. It was pretty simple to link the other profiles to this page. I am not familiar with only uploading audio tracks. I am not really into singing or anything along that nature. I can see this being a great tool for a audio recording of a teacher for a lesson, especially in college. Professors could easily record the lectures and post them so the students could refer back to them. 

Link to SoundCloud Profile

Flickr

Flickr

I have never really cared to have a Flickr account. I believe at one time I had a PhotoBucket account, which I believe is very similar to Flickr. I just don't really have time to upload different photos to Flickr. I think its a really cool place to post pictures on, but I wouldn't use it everyday. A flickr account was easy to create. I don't believe I was able to link all my profiles together. If anyone has some suggestions please share!

Here is my Flickr Account. 

Youtube

Youtube

Creating a Youtube account was very simple. I just logged in through google and it set me up an account. It was also really easy to link the different profiles to my youtube account. I have not had any interest before now to create a youtube account. I know that there are plenty of different reasons to create a youtube account. I also think its really cool to see what some people post on youtube. Youtube has a way of trapping you. I feel like you could look up on thing and it continues on from there. Before you know it, you have spent an hour watching different types of videos from youtube. 

Here is my Youtube profile. 

Class Thus Far

First Week or Two

At the very beginning of this class, I didn't know how to take it. The class didn't have much structure at all. I completely understand why the Professor chose to start the class off that way. It was a great change to the class. One thing that I really liked about starting the class off like that is seeing who would continue to contribute in the class and to see who would not worry about participating in class.  I personally like the structure a lot more. I am a very busy person, as a am sure a lot of people are, and I find due dates to be important. There are some days that I have set aside for working on grad school assignments so the structure and the due dates help me to plan what I need to get done during the week. 

Beginning and Blogging

At the very beginning of the class, we were told to create a blog. I have never used a blog before so I was looking forward to creating one. The blogging is one of the many things that I like about this class. I like to have a place to express what I think about different assignments and how I feel about them. The blogs are also nice to see how other people in the class feel. 

Defining Terms

It was nice to have everyone collaborating and sharing the terms that they found important. It was also good to have a common definition for everyone to relate too. It also helped to go back and see what certain words meant if I wasn't sure. During this week, we also were able to define social media/web 2.0 tools. It was very useful to go back through and read the different type of tools that were available on the web. It was useful to see what Web 2.0 tools that most people use. 

Second Life

Second Life was a very different world for me to experience. It was not at all what I was expecting it to be. I believe it would be a great tool to use for socializing. Some of the material/content on Second Life definitely needs to be monitored if children got on there. During the week we explored Second Life, we also looked at Wordles. I have used Wordles before in my classroom but I didn't know that we could insert whole paragraphs into the Wordles to be created. 

Wikipedia 

For information about wikipedia (since it was very recent) you can visit my other blog page. 

Overall

Overall, I am really enjoying this class. It does take up a good amount of time to put into the class, but I am really learning so much about Web 2.0 tools. The class is going at a great pace and we are accomplishing and going over a lot of tools to be able to use. I also like how we get to explore the different tools and blog about them. I am enjoying how everyone shares their blogs website so that we are able to go back and read everyones experiences. I am looking forward to see what is coming. 

Social Bookmarking

Delicious

Link to Delicious

I have never used a social bookmarking tool. Any time that I have wanted to save the urls that I have went too, I have just saved them on my bookmarks on google chrome. Google allows you to sync all your accounts where it can remember you bookmarks that you have. I created an account in delicious to see what it was like. I see how it would be helpful to keep up with all the urls that you have to know. 

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Here is a link to my profile. 

All throughout high school and college, I have always been told to not use Wikipedia as a source. Don't look up information on Wikipedia. Don't even access Wikipedia. I learned in high school to never use it. Therefore, I haven't used Wikipedia. I would look at it for information on TV series to see what episode I missed. 

This Module has let me see all the different features that are possible with Wikipedia. I didn't know anything about Wiktionary or Wikiversity. It is very easy to make edits to the different posts. The formatting for the pages isn't to hard to grasp either. The tutorial page is extremely helpful in finding information to get through publishing/editing pages. I am already trying to think of ways to incorporate the use of a Wikipedia page in my classroom. I would like for it to be something that my students work on all year long.

Wikipedia is built on five pillars. I was not aware of what these pillars were until this module. The pillars really explain the purpose of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is meant to be an encyclopedia. It is a place for everyone to access information. Everything is free and is able to be edited. Overall, I think that the teachers that I had put a bad impression of what Wikipedia is and the capabilities that it has. I will be sure to include the truth about wikipedia in my classroom.  

Second Life

Second Life

I had my first interaction to Second Life last Sunday. I think that from a social point of view, Second Life would be great. It allows for people to interact with each other. But I think for me, Second Life is not something that I would get into. I don't really have a lot of time for all the work I have to do, let alone time to socialize over the internet through Second Life. As I can see the perks/benefits to Second Life, I don't really think it is for me.