It's been a while since I've blogged, mostly due to the intense effort I've been putting towards finishing my 894 culminating experience work. The semester has flown by, especially the past month.
Our focus in 830 has been on developing and designing our group project, which I feel will be a great resource for future 830ers and anyone who is interested in learning more about Web 2.0 and some of its specific technologies. Our group has worked well together, dividing work between us based on individual interests and expertise.
Our final product is in the form of a Wiki, so that future students can continue to edit and add to the ever-growing world that is Web 2.0. Each of us took on the challenge of researching and detailing the most relevant information on a given technology, and created a learning scenario for users to participate in.
I've enjoyed this class, although it wasn't exactly what I had expected it to be when I signed up. I feel confident and very knowledgeable about Web 2.0, and enjoy the fact that I am comfortable with such prevalent technology.
To each of my classmates, thank you for contributing to my knowledge through your presentations, and for keeping the class light and fun. To my final project team, I enjoyed working with each of you and feel proud of the product we've generated. And to Dr. Foreman, I enjoy your enthusiasm and feel like this class has given me a strong foundation for Web 2.0 technologies.
So now I graduate...I'm excited and a bit sad all at once. Being back in school over the past two years has been an incredible experience, and I will be a bit sad to end this experience. At the same time, I am excited to be back into the work force, and to put my knowledge into action...
Keep in touch, my friends...
Ben
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Week 11 (?) - And spring break.
The week off was a good break...my mind feels refreshed. My body renewed. My blog revitalized....
The week before break, we had some good presentations in class. I hope that I was able to enlighten a good number of you about digg.com, and that you have found it to be a useful Web 2.0 technology. Peter's presentation on Social Networking was fun, too. I've used a number of those sites before, but it was a good opportunity to learn more about them.
I've begun doing a lot of work towards our group projects, and creating an informational bit and a "how-to" on Wikis. It has made me consider how many practical uses there are for Wikis and I've even though of a few that I'd like to create.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Web 2.0 conference. I'm looking forward to hearing from people about their experiences there.
See y'all in class!!
The week before break, we had some good presentations in class. I hope that I was able to enlighten a good number of you about digg.com, and that you have found it to be a useful Web 2.0 technology. Peter's presentation on Social Networking was fun, too. I've used a number of those sites before, but it was a good opportunity to learn more about them.
I've begun doing a lot of work towards our group projects, and creating an informational bit and a "how-to" on Wikis. It has made me consider how many practical uses there are for Wikis and I've even though of a few that I'd like to create.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Web 2.0 conference. I'm looking forward to hearing from people about their experiences there.
See y'all in class!!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Week 9/10 - our crazy globe
week 9 - WEEK OFF
week 10 - had a couple presentations on Global Information Systems and also Google Earth, both very cool technologies.
I've been using Google Earth since it was first widely released and I'm a big fan...of course the first thing people want to do is to find their house, their school, their favorite park, etc. I'm fascinated with the ability to check out satelite imagery from my home....
Our group divided up tasks for our group project and came up with action steps for each person to complete over the spring break.
In the past week I've been spending a lot of time researching for my presentation on digg.com. Cool site...lots of great digital media to check out.
week 10 - had a couple presentations on Global Information Systems and also Google Earth, both very cool technologies.
I've been using Google Earth since it was first widely released and I'm a big fan...of course the first thing people want to do is to find their house, their school, their favorite park, etc. I'm fascinated with the ability to check out satelite imagery from my home....
Our group divided up tasks for our group project and came up with action steps for each person to complete over the spring break.
In the past week I've been spending a lot of time researching for my presentation on digg.com. Cool site...lots of great digital media to check out.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
week 8: vlogging
What kind of world do we live in where "vlog" becomes a common word?
I'll answer that. We live in a world complete with accessible communication technology, so abundant, that just about anyone with a computer and a video camera can easily produce a video blog. And we live in a world that is so adaptive to new technology, that we are constantly coming up with new words, like "vlog", to accomodate these developments.
I enjoyed seeing the video blogs produced by the class on the various chapters of Pink's book which were covered in week 8. Everyone seemed to uniquely interpret both the chapters and their ideas of how they should be represented on video. The results were a lot of fun.
I enjoyed learning from Erika's presentation on Google Docs, and feel that it is a service I will now be using more regularly. I enjoy being able to access certain documents from wherever I am, and thought that Erika showed some good examples of how it can be used purposefully.
It was also my groups first opportunity to meet with Dr. Foreman to discuss our project. I am excited about the opportunity to take a number of Web 2.0 technologies and synthesize them into a group learning activity for future 830 classes, as well as Dr. Foreman's students and teachers in Africa to learn from.
I'll answer that. We live in a world complete with accessible communication technology, so abundant, that just about anyone with a computer and a video camera can easily produce a video blog. And we live in a world that is so adaptive to new technology, that we are constantly coming up with new words, like "vlog", to accomodate these developments.
I enjoyed seeing the video blogs produced by the class on the various chapters of Pink's book which were covered in week 8. Everyone seemed to uniquely interpret both the chapters and their ideas of how they should be represented on video. The results were a lot of fun.
I enjoyed learning from Erika's presentation on Google Docs, and feel that it is a service I will now be using more regularly. I enjoy being able to access certain documents from wherever I am, and thought that Erika showed some good examples of how it can be used purposefully.
It was also my groups first opportunity to meet with Dr. Foreman to discuss our project. I am excited about the opportunity to take a number of Web 2.0 technologies and synthesize them into a group learning activity for future 830 classes, as well as Dr. Foreman's students and teachers in Africa to learn from.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Week 7 - Recap and Video Blog
On we move into week 7 of the semester, and further and further we move into Web 2.0 technologies. This past week in class we got some great demonstrations from John, Kate, and Leo on some really helpful and fun tools.
Kate got us started with an overview of Second Life. Now for years we've been talking about virtual reality (or virtual insanity as Jamiroquai would say.) But I truly have never seen anything that approached virtual reality until I got my first taste of Second Life. It truly does present an alternative reality that provides incredible capabilitites.
Leo's presentation on Tagging was really well done. Not only did he provide an excellent overview of what tagging is, but showed a great range of examples of how it can be applied both on your local machine and on the great wide web. I certainly learned a lot of new organizational techniques, and will continue to apply tagging to many of my technical endeavors.
John presented video blogging, and in addition to describing what it is and how it's done, he also revealed a lot of information on different blogging sites, and specifically the positives and negatives of various formats, including 3rd party hosting, streaming, or downloading. It gave me the confidence to create my own video blog this week on Daniel Pink's chapter on Empathy, from his book "A Whole New Mind."
Enjoy my video blog below...
Kate got us started with an overview of Second Life. Now for years we've been talking about virtual reality (or virtual insanity as Jamiroquai would say.) But I truly have never seen anything that approached virtual reality until I got my first taste of Second Life. It truly does present an alternative reality that provides incredible capabilitites.
Leo's presentation on Tagging was really well done. Not only did he provide an excellent overview of what tagging is, but showed a great range of examples of how it can be applied both on your local machine and on the great wide web. I certainly learned a lot of new organizational techniques, and will continue to apply tagging to many of my technical endeavors.
John presented video blogging, and in addition to describing what it is and how it's done, he also revealed a lot of information on different blogging sites, and specifically the positives and negatives of various formats, including 3rd party hosting, streaming, or downloading. It gave me the confidence to create my own video blog this week on Daniel Pink's chapter on Empathy, from his book "A Whole New Mind."
Enjoy my video blog below...
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Week 6 Thoughts - Visual Stories
Week six's class focused on a theme of story. Each student created a story using just 5 pictures, and each story gave slack to multiple interpretations. Nowhere was this more evident that when Dr. Foreman asked each student to write the story that came to mind when viewing John's photos. It was interesting to hear how different students interpreted the pictures' meaning, and all of the photo stories were amusing and emotive.
As a class, we also spent some time navigating through the flickr site to user-test the interface and design. Everyone seemed to agree that there were a number of aspects to the design that weren't very intuitive. Personally, I felt that the site was adequately designed, and I didn't seem to have very much difficulty figuring out how to tag a photo to a map, but I did agree that many of the steps could have been simplified.
Carmen and Areej presented Eluminate, a software available for group presentations and conferencing. It seems to have a good interface for both users and presenters, and hopefully more and more of this type of software will become available at affordable prices. It's too bad that the trial period had expired before their presentation, but I think the class got a good chance to understand the basics of the program.
Finally, Darren, Peter, and I decided to work together on our final group project. We hope to come to some understanding of what type of project we will be doing in the next week or two...
As a class, we also spent some time navigating through the flickr site to user-test the interface and design. Everyone seemed to agree that there were a number of aspects to the design that weren't very intuitive. Personally, I felt that the site was adequately designed, and I didn't seem to have very much difficulty figuring out how to tag a photo to a map, but I did agree that many of the steps could have been simplified.
Carmen and Areej presented Eluminate, a software available for group presentations and conferencing. It seems to have a good interface for both users and presenters, and hopefully more and more of this type of software will become available at affordable prices. It's too bad that the trial period had expired before their presentation, but I think the class got a good chance to understand the basics of the program.
Finally, Darren, Peter, and I decided to work together on our final group project. We hope to come to some understanding of what type of project we will be doing in the next week or two...
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Man, it burns...
A five frame story of my adventure at Burning Man 2006
The Man Lives
Desert Art
Cocktail Hours
Caveman need dinner
The Man Lives
Desert Art
Cocktail Hours
Caveman need dinner
The ultimate bonfire
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