Allowing its users the ability to categorize and strategically organize personal bookmarks from any computer, Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site for discovering, sharing, and storing websites.
Here is a link to my series of "tags"...
http://delicious.com/jcarnold
Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Experimenting with Smilebox
Smilebox is an online service that offers clients the capability of producing greeting cards, slideshows, animated scrapbooks, photo albums, and postcards for nearly every occasion. This form of emerging technology allows its users to organize, edit, and share photos in a creative fashion while choosing from hundreds of multimedia designs. In its most basic terms, you choose a design, personalize it by downloading your own photographs or images, and then share it by emailing it or posting it to a blog. Smilebox offers most of its services for free, but other upgraded packages are available if users would like access to unlimited premium designs, accessibility to print their projects, or more music options.
The good news is that digital scrapbooking is not a terribly complicated process--even for a novice like me. To begin, you need to visit their website and download their software to run from your computer. Then, you only need to enter an email address and password so you may store and save your creations. It is honestly that easy! After establishing an account, you are free to browse their design options and upload your images or videos stored on your computer, or even integrate actual text into your creation. Once you have completed your project, you have the option to post it to a personal blog or email it to friends and family. Don't fear because Smilebox prompts you with all of these options and walks you through step by step. Overall, this is a wonderful service for friends, parents, and teachers to share memories as an online yearbook of sorts!
My design aesthetic is quite minimal, so I chose to play around with postcards and pictures I'd taken in recent travels. Because I gravitate toward a more streamlined format, my photographs and memories are more basic than the options Smilebox offers. You are entirely free to let creativity reign (and my advice is that you do just that until you find something that suits your style!) and can take advantage of their ideas by just browsing through the various projects in their design catalog. I incorporated my pictures into a slideshow format and hope you'll enjoy.
The good news is that digital scrapbooking is not a terribly complicated process--even for a novice like me. To begin, you need to visit their website and download their software to run from your computer. Then, you only need to enter an email address and password so you may store and save your creations. It is honestly that easy! After establishing an account, you are free to browse their design options and upload your images or videos stored on your computer, or even integrate actual text into your creation. Once you have completed your project, you have the option to post it to a personal blog or email it to friends and family. Don't fear because Smilebox prompts you with all of these options and walks you through step by step. Overall, this is a wonderful service for friends, parents, and teachers to share memories as an online yearbook of sorts!
My design aesthetic is quite minimal, so I chose to play around with postcards and pictures I'd taken in recent travels. Because I gravitate toward a more streamlined format, my photographs and memories are more basic than the options Smilebox offers. You are entirely free to let creativity reign (and my advice is that you do just that until you find something that suits your style!) and can take advantage of their ideas by just browsing through the various projects in their design catalog. I incorporated my pictures into a slideshow format and hope you'll enjoy.
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| Make a Smilebox slideshow |
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| Make a Smilebox slideshow |
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Exploring Gabcast as a Form of Emerging Technology
In simplistic terms, podcasts are audio or video files delivered to your computer over the internet. Since they are pre-recorded, the distribution is efficient and may be viewed anytime. With free subscription, podcasts are available to anyone with an internet connection. You don't even need to have an Ipod or handheld device because you can listen right from your web browser. Because they are a news feed, they can be cataloged in various podcasting directories for users to search at their convenience. If you're curious, you can listen to a number of episodes online; I personally frequent iTunes to catch up on The Economist, The Onion Radio News, NPR, and This American Life (Chicago Public Radio). I like to sync them to me personal iPod device so I can find time to listen to programming while in the car, working out, or running errands.
I took a look at Gabcast, a specific podcasting and audioblogging platform that allows you to use your touch-tone phone to create and distribute content. I heard about Gabcast from a classmate who insisted it was user-friendly. So, I visited their website, registered as a user, verified my personal account information and followed the prompts to record an episode. I needed to create an account and find a channel to gain broadcasting access. I titled my podcast 'The Travel Diaries' and my personal channel assigned was #23526. Next, I dialed the United States access number and recorded my inaugural episode. It is now available to those who'd like to subscribe to my channel as well as a variety of their other podcasts through their listening station at: http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=fp
Overall the process of setting up Gabcast seemed surprisingly easy, but I struggled when trying to embed those audio files into my personal blog. I became a bit frustrated because I had no way of knowing if I was doing it correctly. But, after glancing through the blogs of others, I got an idea that it could be done and I was at least heading in the right direction. So until I can figure out how to customize my blog to include my gabcast, you can find an episode of 'The Travel Diaries' here for your listening pleasure: http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&id=23526 or here from Gabcast! The Travel Diaries #1
I took a look at Gabcast, a specific podcasting and audioblogging platform that allows you to use your touch-tone phone to create and distribute content. I heard about Gabcast from a classmate who insisted it was user-friendly. So, I visited their website, registered as a user, verified my personal account information and followed the prompts to record an episode. I needed to create an account and find a channel to gain broadcasting access. I titled my podcast 'The Travel Diaries' and my personal channel assigned was #23526. Next, I dialed the United States access number and recorded my inaugural episode. It is now available to those who'd like to subscribe to my channel as well as a variety of their other podcasts through their listening station at: http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=fp
Overall the process of setting up Gabcast seemed surprisingly easy, but I struggled when trying to embed those audio files into my personal blog. I became a bit frustrated because I had no way of knowing if I was doing it correctly. But, after glancing through the blogs of others, I got an idea that it could be done and I was at least heading in the right direction. So until I can figure out how to customize my blog to include my gabcast, you can find an episode of 'The Travel Diaries' here for your listening pleasure: http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&id=23526 or here from Gabcast! The Travel Diaries #1
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Assistive Technology
With the push toward inclusion, teachers have a variety of students in their classroom with a wide spectrum of needs. Learning about assistive technology available will help teachers to best design their classroom to satisfy the requirements of all children.
The online language translators don't completely eliminate the language barrier, but they do help to alleviate some of the difficulty in communication. With the increased number of students who do not speak English as a first language, the opportunity to use technology to translate becomes far more valuable. Services such as Babelfish and World Lingo can help to translate classroom newsletters home to non-English speaking parents, or to place instructions both in English and another language when giving specific directions on worksheets or assignments. This can help to lessen any initial confusion. The benefits to this free service are great, but it is also necessary to be aware of their inconsistency and inaccuracy. The translators give a general overview but can't always translate word for word, so it's important to note that slang may not be interpreted correctly and sometimes words in different languages have multiple meanings.
I am utterly amazed at how far the grasp of technology seems to extend. The digital, audio, visual and software enhancements Microsoft provide allow for nearly all people to have access to the benefits of computers. Alternative input devices such as joysticks, wands, touch screens, and sip-and-puff systems make sure that individuals can control the computer by means other than a standard keyboard. I had an Art History professor who had limited physical ability but utilized a device strapped to his chin to control lectures and slides. I witnessed the general ease of its usability, and am impressed with its overall outcome.
According to the Epilepsy Foundation and an article by Dr. Giuseppe Erba, photosensitive epilepsy affects patients with a particular sensitivity to "flashing lights or contrasting visual patterns, such as stripes, grids and checkerboards." The condition causes their brain to produce seizures when exposed to the visual stimulation. As teachers, we need to be aware of the environmental threats and can do small things such as watching television or videos in a well-lit room to reduce the contrast between the room and the screen, dim the brightness on the control panel, use smaller screens, and make certain students are viewing images from a safe distance.
Overall, with such extensive technology available, teachers should be able to support diverse learning. Whether through language translation assistance or accessibility technology to help with physically impaired students, teachers must first be aware of the needs of their students in order to be able to guide them to the technology available to them. For teachers, knowing your students, their abilities, difficulties, and needs will make certain you can send them in the right direction.
The online language translators don't completely eliminate the language barrier, but they do help to alleviate some of the difficulty in communication. With the increased number of students who do not speak English as a first language, the opportunity to use technology to translate becomes far more valuable. Services such as Babelfish and World Lingo can help to translate classroom newsletters home to non-English speaking parents, or to place instructions both in English and another language when giving specific directions on worksheets or assignments. This can help to lessen any initial confusion. The benefits to this free service are great, but it is also necessary to be aware of their inconsistency and inaccuracy. The translators give a general overview but can't always translate word for word, so it's important to note that slang may not be interpreted correctly and sometimes words in different languages have multiple meanings.
I am utterly amazed at how far the grasp of technology seems to extend. The digital, audio, visual and software enhancements Microsoft provide allow for nearly all people to have access to the benefits of computers. Alternative input devices such as joysticks, wands, touch screens, and sip-and-puff systems make sure that individuals can control the computer by means other than a standard keyboard. I had an Art History professor who had limited physical ability but utilized a device strapped to his chin to control lectures and slides. I witnessed the general ease of its usability, and am impressed with its overall outcome.
According to the Epilepsy Foundation and an article by Dr. Giuseppe Erba, photosensitive epilepsy affects patients with a particular sensitivity to "flashing lights or contrasting visual patterns, such as stripes, grids and checkerboards." The condition causes their brain to produce seizures when exposed to the visual stimulation. As teachers, we need to be aware of the environmental threats and can do small things such as watching television or videos in a well-lit room to reduce the contrast between the room and the screen, dim the brightness on the control panel, use smaller screens, and make certain students are viewing images from a safe distance.
Overall, with such extensive technology available, teachers should be able to support diverse learning. Whether through language translation assistance or accessibility technology to help with physically impaired students, teachers must first be aware of the needs of their students in order to be able to guide them to the technology available to them. For teachers, knowing your students, their abilities, difficulties, and needs will make certain you can send them in the right direction.
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