Monday, June 26, 2006

Sanitation

Does the salon you work in use the same sanitation procedures that you learned in school? Please explain. Comments must be at least 1 paragraph of 3 sentences long.

Externship Accomplishments

What do you want to get out of your externship experience? Please be specific and go into detail. Write 1 paragraph of at least 3 sentences.

Externship Conclusions

Now that the class is complete, would you say that you accomplished your goals? Why or why not. Comments must be at least 1 paragraph or 3 sentences or more.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Podcast Subscriptions

I chose iTunes to locate podcasts. I subscribed to:


PodCast 411 is a podcast about "Podcasting and Podcasters." The host, Rob interviews various podcasters about their broadcasts. The interviewee's broadcasts are not necessarily about technology or web 2.0. Not only does Rob ask questions about the interviewee's subject matter; but he also asks questions about the technologies that are used to create the broadcasts.

The Web 2.0 Show hosts, Josh and Chris, interview leaders that are in the business-end of web 2.0 technologies. The episode I listened to they interviewed themselves-catching their subscribers up on what was going on with them.

One thing I found interesting about both blogs was their use of what I'll call "audiomercials," my twist on infomercials or commercials. Each broadcast gave information about future broadcasts, technologies used to create the broadcast and plugged their blogs, websites, future appearances, etc. Even on the web, there's no way around getting away from commercials!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Web 2.0 Resource Review: PageFlakes

Organizing all of our web 2.0 tools can be overwhelming and cumbersome. Resources such as PageFlakes (http://pageflakes.com) help organize those tools. At one site users can create a home page that aggregates their RSS feeds, social bookmarks and digital photo storage site. PageFlakes has many other applications called “flakes” that can be added to the page. These flakes are created by community users. Some of the applications are games. a to do list and an address book. It is easy

Students, faculty and administration can benefit by using a resource such as PageFlakes to keep track of and organize their web 2.0 tools. As needed, pages can be added containing more content. As with most of the web 2.0 tools and resources, PageFlake pages can be shared with others or are private.

Web 2.0 Resource Review: Wikispaces

Who would have thought that the new millennium would bring about the practice of people (students, teachers, administrators, etc.) being able to collaborate online to complete a project. No more creating a word processing document, editing the hard copy; or emailing edits to the group of users. With the advent of a Web 2.0 tool called a wiki. Collaboration is more convenient and easy to do.

Wikispaces (http://wikispaces.com) is a web-based tool (a wiki) that is used to help users create and edit documents anywhere, anytime. Wikispaces allows users to have a public wiki for free or a private wiki for a fee. The interface is very easy to follow. Users read content and then click on a button to edit the content.

In an educational setting wikis can be used by students, faculty and administration. Students can use a wiki to create class notes or in a creative writing class to create a class novel. Faculty (and administration) could use a wiki to create or update manuals or administrative procedures.

Web 2.0 Resource Review: GOffice

GOffice (http://goffice.com) is a web based office suite. It has word processing desktop publishing, presentation and spreadsheet applications. User and create documents online and save them as a PDF file. That file can be shared with other people.

This tool would work well in a school setting for students who do not have access to a computer to complete assignments. Also it is a good tool for use in distant learning. Students may be using various platforms to create their documents, particularly word processing. Using the GOffice word processing application would allow students to be able to create the document, save it as a PDF file and email it to the instructor. Since the PDF format is widely used, the instructor will be able to open and view (or print) the document alleviating the need to for having several different word processing programs.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Blog Resources and Other Helpful Resources

I added Flickr as my digital photo resource. I chose Flickr basically because it is the most popular digital photo resource and it is owned by Yahoo whom I have had an email account with for several years.

Flickr is easy to use and I like the various choices you can select to link your photos to your blog. I also like that you can make some photos private and some photos public. Another useful feature is that you can set how a user can use the picture (or not use the picture).

The social bookmarking resource I used is Del.icio.us. As I am reading blogs, Del.icio.us is probably the most popular social bookmarking site. Adding a site to your del.icio.us list is easy. Buttons can be installed that are added to the browser toolbar. Then you simply click on the "post to del.icio.us" button and the site is added to your "my del.icio.us" list. It was also easy to add my del.icio.us list to my blog. One thing I am still trying to figure out is how to have separate folders for sites that I want to be viewed publically and those that I want private.

Other helpful resources I added are Wisc-online (The Wisconsin Online Resource Center)it is a digital library of Web-based learning resources called “learning objects.” The learning objects are Flash presentations created by faculty in the WTCS (Wisconsin Technical College System) on a variety of topics. I use them as part of my face-to-face and blended lectures. They are also useful for online courses.

Another resource is Quia. This website gives instructors the ability to create customized activities online to supplement in-class activities.

Netsmartz was added as a resource because it has a wealth of information for parents, teachers, children and law enforcement on internet safety.

I have been using Greeneclipse's crossword puzzle application for a few years. I added it as a resource because it is easy to use and the crossword puzzles it generates can be used electronically or paper copy.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Macromedia Breeze Class

Yesterday (May 31st) I completed a Macromedia Breeze Presenter class through the Professional Development Department at my school (Milwaukee Area Technical College).

Breeze Presenter is a tool that you use inside of PowerPoint to convent PowerPoint presentations into flash. Audio narration can be added along with the capability to create an interactive quiz as well as incorporating other media such as .avi (movie) files.

I found this software to be very interesting and easy to use. I like the fact that I can create a quiz within the presentation that can be scored (or not scored) and the results will be posted to Blackboard. (Blackboard is the course content system that we use). It was easy to record audio to each slide as will as edit the audio if necessary.

During the class, I compared using Breeze versus podcasting a lecture. Breeze might be less time-consuming to use to produce a presention in the long run. But I like the "live" interactivity that podcasting presents.

Here is a lecture that I produced using Breeze Presenter Wigs: An Introduction.