Weekly Report and Reflection Post #12

We have finally reached the end of this course and I believe this is the correct moment to reflect what I have learnt from this course. In terms of what I have learned about building a positive digital footprint, I learned that having a positive digital footprint is important for both the workforce and how you want to be perceived on the internet.  When using the internet, it’s important to note that it is very transparent. Due to this transparency, it is important to know that whatever you put onto the web may be seen by others, so you must make sure that you are only sharing information you want people to see. All of this falls in line with having a positive digital footprint. To have a positive digital footprint, understanding and being able to control what you share to the web is important.

In terms of what I have learned about digital citizenship and how it could be used to promote quality online interactions with others, I believe that everyone should know their digital rights and responsibilities. When making interactions with others, one should treat that person with respect, not provide falsified information, and not perpetrate their privacy. Knowing and understanding this will help a digital citizen make better online interactions.

As a digital citizen I will take the effort to promote appropriate behavior to others. I will do this by informing them about their digital rights and responsibilities. Often many negative behaviors are seen on the web due to the fact that people are uncertain what are their rights or responsibilities. Letting others know about their right to privacy and ownership is just one of many rights and responsibilities I would inform these individuals. An individual who has a strong grasp of their digital right and responsibility is taking the correct steps to becoming a positive digital citizen.  I found various websites that explain our rights and responsibilities very clearly. Understanding these rights will allow appropriate use of the internet.

As a digital citizen I will give it my best effort to help others develop knowledge to work and live in a digital society appropriately by informing them about tools and sites. I believe guiding them to sites on the internet about how to live appropriately is key. In addition I will try my best to be there to help them enforce the lifestyle. I believe following online communities are important. These communities will help individuals enforce an appropriate lifestyle and educate them about the topic.

Well guys, that was my final post. Thank you following along with me on this adventure and all the best. 

Weekly Report and Reflection Post #11

This week in class, we were given the opportunity to investigate various webcasting tools available via the internet.  After going through the various tools I found them extremely useful as you are able to create podcasts or screencasts. I believe these tools will be beneficial for educational purposes as you can look on the internet for various audio recordings of educational items at any time. An example would be when you missed a lecture at school. Often students may prefer hearing concepts being explained rather than reading about it. In instances where you miss a lecture you can go to the internet and find podcasts or screencasts available and hear similar content as you would if you went to the lecture. Knowing that tools such as these are available in the internet is great to know. In terms of creative tools such as Soundcloud or Jing, knowing about these tools and how to use them is important and can help me in building my knowledge. Often people are looking for ways to communicate their ideas onto the internet, and tools such as Soundcloud allow these users to do so.  You are able to record yourself and share your recording to the worldwide web.

In terms of adding webcasting tools into my PLE, I will defiantly do so. Webcasting tools would most likely be added to my creativity side. This is because webcasting tools allow you communicate information in a different format. Knowing various ways of communicating your ideas to the worldwide web is a great asset and webcasting tools provides just that. I can also argue adding webcasting tools as learning tool. As iterated above, I believe that knowing that podcasts or screencasts are available can be a great asset as you can reinforce your knowledge through these tools. Overall, webcasting tools are a great tool to know and I will most likely add these to my PLE.

In addition to webcasting tools, we were given the opportunity to CC license our blogs. One major thing that I learnt from our course is the right of ownership. Knowing and enforcing your right of ownership is important in today’s society as often many of your own content can be stolen without your consent. In addition, many people may use your content without proper credits given to you, the originator of the content. Having the ability of both copyrighting your material is important in protecting your content.

For this week in my Feedly, I found a really interesting article called “Yahoo’s ad revenue to drop 14 percent”.  I found this article really interesting because I was surprised that Yahoo is receiving less traction from advertisement companies. Growing up, Yahoo was always a giant in the internet where you can find anything from sports to your very own email. It’s amazing how such a giant is so much slower in innovating as its competitor Google was. Google has completely dominated the search engine and email parts of the internet. They even have added tools such as Google Drive which only further entices people to use the site.  Yahoo really needs to step up its game in order to come back to being a giant they once more.

Thanks for reading, see you next week.

CC License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #10

This week in class we were given the opportunity to investigate different slideshow tools. The slideshow tool that I found particularly useful was Animoto. One part of the tool that I really liked about was its interface. Often times I find that many online tools’ interface to be challenging to use and often a deterrent from me using the tool again. This was not the case for Animoto. Animoto was simple to use. You can add photos, change slide timings, and best of all; it had a nice array of slideshow designs. The designs looked great and had different animations built in the design which is not something you can ordinarily find on Microsoft PowerPoint. Adding music was really easy and overall I found that creating a slideshow presentation was easy. In terms of using this tool for educational purposes, I am a bit hesitant to do so. I find that in most of my projects having text accompanied with an image is a good way to present a slide and with Animoto you are both restricted in text amount and I was not able to add an image to my text on the same slide. Due to this I would not use this tool for educational purposes. However, for personal use, such as making a nice video for photos I took during vacation, this is a great tool. In terms of slideshow tools, I believe that they are essential for educational purposes. For many of my courses, we are required to create slideshows for our presentations and having greater knowledge of more sophisticated slideshow tools such as Prezi will help my creativity. Most slideshow presentations are done through Microsoft Powerpoint, so by using other slideshow tools, it would help me both differentiate my slideshow from others, but also provide a more sophisticated slideshow. 

In terms of adding slideshow tools such as Animoto or Prezi to my PLE, they would defiantly go under my creativity side. As iterated above, these tools provide an opportunity for creating a more creative slideshow for my presentations. Tools such as Animoto and Prezi are what I have been looking for as I feel that you can only do so much in Microsoft PowerPoint to differentiate yourself from all the other slideshow presentations. I feel these tools both give me an edge in terms of showing the instructor my creativity and I look forward in using these tools in my future presentations.

This week in Feedly, I found a really cool article called “Whybig brands are getting into the subscription-box model”. I found this article particularly cool as it is amazing on how far subscription box model has gotten. When I was younger, I always thought that purchasing a subscription based product was always a waste of money as you are literally buying something that a company thinks you will like. You have no idea what you are getting and I found that a real deterrent from buying. Finding out that this model is actually gaining traction is surprising, but I do look forward on what major brands can create from this model.

Thanks for reading and let’s see what next week has in store.

Photo 1: https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/animoto.png?w=400

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #9

This week in class, we got the opportunity to explore the tool VoiceThread. At first glance, the tool took some time to understand, but after going through it, I realized how great of a tool it is.  One functionality that I really appreciated from VoiceThread is the fact that you can add a verbal comment to your slideshows. I found this function really useful as I am always a believer that being told something is always better than reading something. For example, many of us read our textbooks before class and then go to class where the lecturer overviews the material and further clarifies it. I find going to class always makes things make more sense and I feel that VoiceThread gives users the similar experience.  I believe VoiceThread is a great tool for academic purposes. As iterated above it can help you reinforce your knowledge by providing a verbal component in your readings.  I also like the fact that you can add your own verbal comments, so if you revisit the material you can remember your train of thought more easily by rehearing your comment.

In terms of adding VoiceThread into my PLE, I would add it as a learning tool. As mentioned above, I believe that it helps you learn the material in a way that may help some users. I am a bit hesitant to add VoiceThread as I am more of a visual learner. I do believe that hearing something is better than reading, but for me visually drawing out the concept helps me a lot. This functionality of visual representing concepts is not a part of VoiceThread, hence the reason why I am a bit hesitant of adding it into my PLE. Overall, I do believe that VoiceThread does provide some benefits for me hence the reason why I will be adding it into my PLE.

This week in Feedly, I found am awesome article called “YouTube Stars will soon be able to win Emmy Awards”. I found this article really great as I am happy that YouTube Stars are finally getting more mainstream attention. YouTube has become such a huge source of entertainment for everyone, and why not give the recognition for those who create content within it? For me I really appreciate this website and I just can’t imagine without it.  It has provided me entertainment that I feel no other websites can provide and I am happy that YouTube stars will now have even more incentive to create better content.

I feel that every week in class I am becoming a greater digital citizen. Prior to starting this course, I was really uncertain about what it meant to be a digital citizen or even what were my digital rights and responsibilities. Tools such as VoiceThreads, Twitter, Feedly, etc., have not just made me more digitally aware, but also have provided me tools that I will defiantly use going forward. I am grateful for this course and I look forward to what the remaining weeks have in store.

Photo 1: http://www.educationalappstore.com/images/upload/mzl.luwfxucu.png

Technology Use Scenario

Technology Use Scenario 4: During word-processing class, Mr. McIntosh notices that Mary has both of her hands under the computer desk. As Mr. McIntosh comes around to her station Mary puts her hands back on the keyboard, but he notices that her cell phone is on her lap with a text on the screen. Mr. McIntosh asks Mary to stay after class, where she says that she was sending a text to her mother about picking her up after school. What does the teacher do? (Ribble, 2015).

In terms of the appropriateness of using technology in this scenario, I would say that the answer to this question is very dependent if Mr.McIntosh has stated that use of cell phones in class is allowed. Although this scenario does not explicitly state this, based on rules that I have faced during my tenure in school, I believe that the use of cellphone in this context was restricted by Mr.McIntosh. This can be further corroborated with the fact that Mary is hiding her cellphone from the teacher. In terms of the use of technology of this scenario being appropriate, I would defiantly say that it is not. During my tenure in school, I learnt that we should always focus on the work we are learning in class. This is an act of showing respect for what is being taught and respect towards the teacher. Using a cellphone during class both disrespects and acts as a deterrent from what is being taught. In today’s society more than 50% of students text during class even though they know it is ban. Many students use texting as a way to pass time. In this particular scenario, Mary is texting her mother in regards on what time she should be picked up. Although this is important, I believe that other alternatives that Mary could have taken to make the use of technology appropriate. For example, I believe Mary could have asked for a washroom break and called or text her mother then. I also believe Mary could have communicated with her mother before class about when to be picked up. I believe that unless it is a medical or family issue the use of cellphones should be prohibited in class. In conclusion the use of technology in this scenario is inappropriate. Above are my thoughts on scenario 4. I welcome others opinions on the manner. Please comment below and let the debate begin.

VoiceThread

This week in class we were given the opportunity to investigate the tool Voicethread. At first glance, this tool was a bit confusing to use as the interface was not as user friendly as I hoped. However, after taking the time of learning and using the tool, I do see its merits and how it could be a beneficial academically and a tool to be added to my PLE. In terms of adding this tool to my PLE, I would add it as a learning tool. This tool is great to reinforce something you are learning. I am a little hesitant on adding this tool because I am more of a visual learner. I do see people loving this tool as sometimes hearing something being told rather than reading can be easier for someone, but for the case of me, I find visually seeing something better. In terms of using this tool for my academic work, as iterated above I do prefer visually seeing over hearing, however I do believe this tool would be great in terms of reinforcing information. I do believe hearing something is a lot better than reading about it and Voicethread does that. You can hear comments that others made, which can help you further enhance your knowledge. Overall, Voicethread is a great tool to use and although I did express some hesitation on adding it into my PLE, I do feel that using this tool as an reinforcement to your study material, will reward great benefits. 

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #8

In this week of class, we were asked to explore the tool of wiki. In the past, I have used wikis, more exclusively Wikipedia. I found Wikipedia a great tool to use for preliminary research and just a quick way to get to know something. I am aware that the information may not always be accurate as anyone can edit the information. Due to this I would not recommend Wikipedia or any wiki tool as trustworthy site for reliable information. Compared to other tools I have learnt such as Google docs or Evernote, I do like wikis, but due to the unreliability of information I would most likely not add this tool to my PLE.  I believe that the best use of certain wikis is for just general information. For example if you wanted to know some quick facts about something like who created the computer, you can search Wikipedia and get a general sense of the people involved and the time period. With that in mind, you should also be careful on the information you are reading as some of it may not be factual as anyone around the world can edit it.

In addition, this week in class we got to learn about becoming a digital citizen and the rights and responsibilities of living in a digital society. 3 rights that I found particular interesting were the right to privacy, the right to content ownership, and the right of free speech. See below for my mind map.

Bola, A. (CC) 2016.

 I found the right of privacy to be particularly important as everyone should have the fundamental right of privacy. We should be able to share information that we want to share to the worldwide web. In addition to this, people should respect that some individuals do not want particular information to be shared. The next right that I thought was important was the right to content ownership. We should have the right of ownership for work we created. Also, if anyone wants to use our work, we should also receive credits for it. The last right that I thought was important was the freedom of speech. We should have the right to say what we want on the web and to not be restricted.  For example if we wanted to talk about a controversial issue, we should be allowed to do so without anyone restricting. The ability to talk about our beliefs or anything that we wish to inform the web about is a right that should not be broken.

In this week on my Feedly Reader I found a really interesting article called “FAKE VOMIT SCANDALS ARE HAPPENING IN UBER RIDESACROSS AMERICA”. After reading this article, I just found it crazy on what people would do just to make extra cash. Like framing someone for an act they did not do is completely wrong and I hope Uber will terminate the driver. I know Uber does have an extensive hiring process such as background checks, phone interviews, etc., but I believe more needs to be done in the hiring process such as face to face interviews. I feel that Uber crimes are in the news every day and the fact that doing well in a phone interview and answering some questions gets you an Uber job is just not suffice. Tougher hiring process might mitigate crimes such as these from occurring.

That’s all for this week, see you guys next week. 

Weekly Report & Reflection #7

This week in class we got the chance to learn about the tool Google Docs. I have already used this tool in the past and I have both enjoyed it and recommend it for anyone to use.  It is a great tool and I see the many educational benefits it provides. One idea that Google Docs can be used for is collaborative work. For example if your group needs to write an important paper, upload it to Google docs, then you can all go to Google Docs and instantly update your paper at the same time. Another idea that Google Docs can be used for is sharing your notes for a study group. In instances where you can’t meet up with your group mates in person, instead of emailing each other your study notes you can all share it on Google Docs and even edit it instantaneously.  Lastly, Google Doc is a great tool to avoid cluttering up your email or purchasing a flash drive to share information. Often in a professional environment, large amounts of information are exchange. Transferring of information is usually done by email or using a USB, however Google Docs does the same thing with more features attached. Now you can have the information available online and edit it. Google Docs provides so many great features and it was great learning about it in this week’s class.

In terms of my PLE, Google Docs will be for surely added. Google Docs defiantly lands on my organizing side of PLE. As iterated above, Google Docs allows all your documents to be placed in one location. In addition to that you can put place your documents online and allow others to edit it. Due to this editing feature, I can also see Google Dos as a socializing tool to some extent. With Google Docs, you can share your documents to other people. For our group project we are able to share our PowerPoint so that each person would have access to it and be able to edit it. Due to this I believe Google Docs can be socializing tool to some extent.

On this week in Feedly, I found an interesting article called “WE'VE SEEN THE LIGHT! LI-FI IS THE FUTURE OF WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY”. After reading this article I find it amazing the direction technology is going. It’s crazy to believe on how far technology has grown through the years and soon Li-Fi will be our means for wireless connectivity. We have taken light which was used as the means to brighten our rooms to now a medium of transmitting commands wireless. I am excited to see the next steps that technology will take.

In becoming a digital citizen and gaining digital literacy, I am improving every week while taking this course. I am learning several great organizing and socializing tools. I have used Google Docs in the past, but it’s great to refresh my memory on it and to be able to apply it this week for our collaborative project. Having a strong grip of Google Docs is just one step closer for me becoming a stronger digital citizen and improving my digital literacy.  

That's all this week. See you all later.

Photo1: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/50b88908e4b012760ada1011/t/516767c2e4b00ee22f21cbac/1394482160732/googledocs+for+education

Weekly Report & Reflection #6

This week in class we got to learn the wonderful tool of Evernote. To be honest, I had actually never heard of this tool until today and I wish I knew this tool back in high school. This tool is absolutely amazing! It’s the perfect tool to use when you are doing research.  It allows you to organize you material all in one location and it looks great. You can organize anything from your notes, websites, to even videos you found on YouTube. Going forward I will probably use Evernote in all my research assignments. What I usually do for research projects is bookmark whatever important websites I found, but often when I need to start writing the research paper I would find myself lost, wondering why I even bookmarked this  page. I would spend a lot of time re-hunting for information. This is all solved by Evernote. You can snapshot whatever information you need from the website and also highlight it or put your own annotations. Another functionality of Evernote is that you can further organize your Evernote by tags. By using tags you can organize Evernote by particular category such as one could be for all the articles you already took information from and maybe another tag could be articles that you want to look at later. Evernote is a great tool and I defiantly see it being a great tool for my educational development.

In terms of my PLE, Evernote will be for surely added. Evernote defiantly lands on my organizing side of PLE. As iterated above, Evernote allows all your research notes to be placed in one aggregate location. It is a great way to organize your research notes in a really user friendly interface. I can also see Evernote as a socializing tool to some extent. With Evernote, you can share your notebook to other people. For our group project we are able to share our notebooks with our classmates so that all my group members have access to information I have researched. Due to this I believe Evernote can be socializing tool.

This week on my Feedly, I found a really cool article called “This tiny new radio module can wirelessly broadcast data from inside the human body". After reading this article, I just find it amazing on where technology is going. We often find articles complaining on how computers are taking our jobs and how one day robots are going to take over the world, but imagine us becoming the robot. Like it’s already happening, from both mechanical body parts to internal pacemakers. I feel that this radio module is another step in that direction. Although, I don’t believe that robots are going to replicate human intuition or that we are all going to be run electronically, I do find this article fascinating and look forward to what the future has in store.

In becoming a digital citizen and gaining digital literacy, I feel that I am improving every week. I am learning several great organizing and socializing tools. Evernote for example is a great tool and I regret not learning about this tool earlier. Its functionality of both organizing and sharing your information with others is just a great reason why I will be adding it to my PLE. I feel that adding Evernote is one of many more tools I need in order to become a great digital citizen.

Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Picture 1: https://lh5.ggpht.com/u_ZwBnOs3s7nHA2v4XDCrJknAAVVHQIzK4mVF8tbx1n62-_LrDSopwHviqeNuDIFigc=w300

Weekly Report & Reflection #5

This week in class, we got to learn a new social media tool called Twitter.  I found this tool really interesting as you are able to follow celebrities or your favourite news stations all in one convenient location. In addition to that, you can also express your thoughts or share some interesting articles you found to the whole twitter universe. I also found the hashtag function really interesting to the extent that if I wanted to Hashtag “#NbaAllstarWeekend2015”, I can see who else around me used that same hashtag in their tweets. I can defiantly see twitter as a really helpful education tool as I can follow people or networks for educational information that I have interest in.

In terms of adding twitter in my PLE, I would add it to my socializing section. I really like the way it both organizes and presents my interests in a really user friendly interface. All I have to do is follow people that I like and their most recent tweets are available via my homepage. I can see their tweets with just a slide down. In addition I can show them that I am interested in what they said by both retweeting it or I can favourite it, sort of similar to liking on Facebook. I feel that twitter has all the elements of various social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pin interest have, but all in one convenient location. Another nifty feature I found on Twitter was the fact that you can actually direct message someone. I do like that twitter has all these functionalities in addition to its own authentic feel. Being able to message your favourite celebrity is amazing and I would defiantly consider twitter one of my more favored social media tool.

For this week, I found a really interesting article called “Self-driving cars face challenges beyond Technology”on my Feedly. This article really opened my eyes to how far technology has advanced. A car driving on its own does sound preposterous, but per this article it is the inevitable future. I am excited to see this but I do worry about the decision making the car may make. Like what if your car is driving and there is someone in front of you and you have no time to stop. What would the car do? Would it hit the person? Would it endanger your life and turn into incoming traffic? This is one of the many challenges that automated cars are facing and I am looking forward to see how car makers would solve this dilemma. Automated cars do sounds interesting, but have a long way to go.

In becoming a digital citizen and gaining digital literacy, I feel that I have come a long way from where I have started back in the beginning of January. I am learning several great organizing and socializing tools. I often hear Twitter a lot in the news and it’s great to finally be a part of the twitter universe. Twitter has taken on such a huge influence in society and having it under my belt is both helping me become a stronger digital citizen and improving my digital literacy.  

That’s all for this week folks. See you next week.

Photo 1: http://socialmediaimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/twitter.jpg

Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #4

This week we got the opportunity to explore Diigo. I found this tool particularly useful as it helped me bookmark websites of interest in a more sophisticated manner. Prior to using Diigo, I would simply use the bookmark function on Firefox to organize websites that I found important. This functionality can also be seen by the use of Diigo. Not just that, Diigo also allows users to highlight important text, snapshot, and a lot of other cool stuff that Firefox bookmarking just cannot compare to. Overall, I found online bookmarking tools like Diigo as really beneficial for my academic development. Often times when I am researching for a project, I spend the first couple of days bookmarking random websites which sometimes have the information I need in, but in extremely large amount of text surrounding it. After a while when I need to use that bookmarked website, I often have to look everywhere and remind myself why I even bookmarked this page. Through Diigo, I can leave myself a note and also highlight that text without having to hunt down for it again.  Overall, online bookmarking is a great tool and allows for better organization.

The next tool we investigated this week was different curation tools. They were really interesting. The one that I found really interesting was Paper.li. I feel that this day and age people want their information in one location and Paper.li does that. I liked its functionality, as it combined all the things I am interested, from my twitter feed to my favourite news sites, in one really convenient location.

As far as setting this up in my PLE, I believe both would be organizing tools. Diigo is a tool used to organize all your bookmarks into one location. This is similar to curation tools such as Paper.li. Also I can argue that it could be a creativity tool. I feel that both these tools allow you to create and organize your information in a way that you find appealing. You are able to express yourself through the use of these tools, hence I do see it landing in the creativity side of my PLE, but organizing is defiantly where it fits the best.

When looking through my Feedly today, I noticed one really intriguing article called "Uber Driver in San Francisco are threatening to strike over Super Bowl". The article goes in details in regards to how Uber drivers feel under compensated for driving guests to the Super bowl and demand more money. The article also explains how these drivers believe they are living below livable wage and will strike in one of America’s most notable sports event. It’s incredible to see how far Uber has gotten. From a small startup, Uber has completely dominated the taxi industry and is also the center of so much controversy. This article is an example of one of many ordeals Uber is facing and honestly I do find this strike some what excessive. Like you are being guaranteed a minimum of $35, which I can’t say other taxi companies can even compete with. The concept of Uber is great and I hope in the near future they will find a balance and shift the taxi industry into the right direction. 
Well thats a wrap for this week. I look forward to what next week has in store. 
Photo 1:https://www.bask.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/computer-organizing2.jpg

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #3

As mentioned in my last post, I found Feedly Reader as a great tool to aggregate all my favourite blogs and websites into one convenient location. I found it very user friendly and it also helped me find articles/blogs of interest that I may have not found just skimming through the sites. One article that I thought was fascinating was Robots Taking Over The Workforce. I found this article particularly cool as I am graduating at the end of 2016 and will be soon hitting the workforce. As mentioned in this article, technology is slowly integrating into the workforce and jobs may become slowly automated. Even though this may be scary I do find it interesting on how far humanity has gotten. I remember when the Gameboy Colour came out and everyone was going crazy for it.  It was new, it was innovative, and incredibly it cost $100, which today probably worth $1. It is crazy to believe that one day robots will be doing the same work as we are doing, but if we look around aren’t they doing that already. You no longer need to go to a teller for money. Now you can go to the atm outside to withdraw money. Believe it or not, there was a point where people use to communicate by sending letters, but now texting seems to be the most dominant form of communication. Technology has grown so much and I do believe soon everything will be automated. This article was a great read and has opened my eyes to whether the career that I have chosen will be a necessity for human work in the coming years. This article is an example of one of many articles/ blogs I have found through Feedly Reader.

Bola, A. (CC) 2016.

In terms of a tool, RSS feeds are defiantly a digital tool. RSS feeds have helped me improve my digital literacy. From this week of class, I have learned how to use Feedly Reader and it has helped me to become more organized and informed. I feel that in this day in age, more emphasis is being put in bundling things together for convenience. Example of this would be Facebook combining both photo sharing and social messaging. Due to this ability to aggregate all these tools in one location, Facebook was able to dominate MSN messenger. People want their information in one location and Feedly Reader does just that.

As far as setting this up in my PLE, this would defiantly be an organizing tool.  It is an organizing tool since it allows users to place their information into one convenient location.  Also I can argue that it could be a creativity tool. I feel that Feedly Reader is similar to PinInterest in some sense. Both tools allows users to find and search items of interest and organize them in a manner they find appealing. I feel that people can express themselves through their Feedly Reader, hence I do see it landing in the creativity side of my PLE, but organizing is defiantly where it fits the best. 

This week has been very informative and I look forward to what next week has in store. 

Photo 1: http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/robot-tease-4x3.grid-4x2.jpg

My Experience with RSS Feeds

I found this week particularly challenging as I have never dealt with RSS feeds before. I have always seen that orange icon around web pages, but never knew its true purpose until today. Overall, it was a challenge at first setting up; however I found the end result very pleasurable. I will most likely continue to use this tool as I found it very nifty to bundle all my sports, business, and world news in one convenient location.

One article that I found particularly interesting using Feedly Reader was Smartphone Apps unreliable for fitness tracking . This article discusses how the most popular fitness apps are providing non-factual information to users. I found this article really interesting as I use a fitness tracking app. The current app I use is called S Health which at the end of the day gives me alerts of my total steps I walked. It also keeps track of my heart rate and how much calories I have lost. After reading this article I found it concerning that I could being deceived by this app similar to the apps in the article. As I am trying to lose weight, accurate information is a must and knowing apps such as the ones mentioned in the article may be deceiving others is wrong and would not recommend to anyone to download. I hope that in the near future these fitness apps will improve and provide more accurate information. 

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #2: My Personal Learning Environment

Looking 5-10 years down the road, I envision a better me. I envision a person who is done school, who is working a job that he is both happy and successful in. Additionally, I see an individual with family and good friends. As of right now I am working my best to achieve this vision. I am currently in my last year in school and I am confident I will graduate. In order to get to this vision I must improve my communication skills. Having great communication skills is key to be successful in the workforce. I will try to improve these skills by both not shying away from talking to people and by researching resources available in the internet to be an effective communicator. In order to achieve these goals I must create an environment that allows me to succeed, an environment where I can stay focus towards my vision. This can be done by first removing visible distractions in my everyday life. One thing that I believe I can do better is playing less videos games. By reducing the amount of time I spend on video games, I can focus on more productive items such as improving my communication skills.  I can also improve my environment by being more organized. Often I procrastinate on important things such as assignments. This leads me to both rushing and not outputting the best quality that I want. By implementing a more scheduled life, I feel that I would be able to both not feel rushed and to improve the quality of my work. I believe that best way to improve my environment is to creating positive habits through 30 day trials. Going forward I will create a schedule for myself and remove the TV in my room for the next 30 days. My hope is to be able to develop these as habits and to create an environment to support my goals.

My PLE is straight forward. In terms of socializing I use various mediums of social networks. I find that these apps both help me communicate with people and also keep me up to date on what is going on around me. Another aspect is organizing. As iterated above, I am striving to be more organized. My attempt to do so is by using Microsoft One Note, backing up old documents to Google drive, and using Google calendar to organize my day to day activities. An additional aspect of my PLE is creativity, from creating my ideas into visual imagery, through Microsoft Paint and Photoshop, to using websites like Pin Interest to express my creativity. The last category of my PLE is learning. I achieve the following through research from search engines like Google. Additionally, I found videos in YouTube as great tools to improve my knowledge. See below for my PLE. 

                                              Bola, A. (CC) 2016.

Using Wordle, I was able to create this wonderful piece of artwork. It gave a great visual representation of the first week reflection. I have seen many of these visual representations before, but never knew how to create them until now. Through the wordcloud tool I learned that I enjoy creating artistic works such as this. This would be a great tool to add to my creativity category for my PLE map. I am excited to use this tool for any of my future artistic endeavors. 

Bola, A. (CC) 2016.

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #1: The Importance of Your Digital Footprint

In today’s day and age, technology has taken a more predominant role in society, most notably the internet. As the internet is becoming more widely used, knowledge of your digital footprint and what information you want to put out in the internet is important. For this week in ADED 1P32, we were asked to pick one question or two in regards to digital foot printing, citizenship, and learning. The one question that I would like to address in this post is if I want a digital footprint. I believe that having a digital footprint is important, but more important than that is having control of it. The internet has made information more readily available and information you didn’t believe was out in the internet are becoming more easily accessible. From personal experience, I have seen the power of information leaked onto the internet. One time during work, one of my coworkers asked me how my lunch at Costco was. I thought that was awfully weird question to ask as I didn’t tell him about my lunch plans. I asked him how he knew and he told me that one of my coworkers that I went to lunch with shared a photo of us eating there. This is just one of many examples of the power of social media and digital foot printing. Knowledge of your digital footprint is important, not just in regards to your lunch plans, but also to employers. Employers are now searching information online during the hiring process before they pick out candidates. Having control of your digital footprint is key in order to get the job you desire. Additionally, I believe having control of your digital footprint, helps maintain a reputation you want society to see you as. If you want to seem more professional, creating a LinkedIn account or changing your social media to a professional picture is one of many ways you can control your digital footprint. Having a digital footprint can be beneficial if you control what information you put out to society.

Report

After completing the Digital Driver’s License exam, I will put greater focus on my digital security from the next few weeks of this course. I believe digital security is very important and is something I really want to improve on since I feel that a lot of my personal information is available on the web that I may not want to share. I believe increasing my digital security will allow me to put control of what information is available and present my information in a manner that I find suitable.

One connection that I made with the readings/resources and the Building Background section of the week one module is the following video “Youth and Media: Digital Dossier”. Digital Dossier refers to the idea of how information can accumulate from all of the way from birth and be available via the web. After watching this video it made me cringe because of how true it is. Information that we might believe to be lost or forgotten may be uncovered. Even though this may be scary to some extent, as mentioned above I believe that both digital security and control is important. Having both great security and control will help create a digital dossier that you want, but also present the information you want available to the web.

         
I found this week’s information informative and look forward to what next week has in store.

Amardeep Bola 

Photo 1: https://kurtishewson.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/digital-footprint.png
Photo 2: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6TUMHplBveo/maxresdefault.jpg

All About Me

     Hello everyone, my name is Amardeep Bola and welcome to my blog.  Currently I am a student at Brock University, pursuing a degree in Accounting. Under this degree I am also in the Co-op program, currently working for a large accounting firm. In terms of my interests, the biggest one hands down has to be sports. I love watching and playing sports. My favourite amongst these sports is basketball. Basketball has always been my passion, from watching Reggie Miller nailing threes from the arc to throwing basketballs towards vents, pretending they were basketball nets (elementary school didn’t have any nets). My favourite team is the Toronto Raptors, not only because they are my hometown team, but also because my favourite player in my childhood, Tracy McGrady, also started his career from that team. Basketball was both a gateway to pass time, but also a passion that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Other than basketball, soccer is another sport that I have also enjoyed. I love both the strategy aspect and the elegance of the game, how each pass serves a purpose to forward the play and the patience one must have. My passion for soccer started from the Adidas store when I was 11. When I went inside they had FIFA world cup 2006 for the XBOX available to play. I played that game against the other children around in the store and I really enjoyed it till the point that my parents bought it for me. From playing that game, I have always both enjoyed and appreciated the sport. Other than sports, another passion of my mine is music. Music has always served as a gateway to zone me out of my problems and put me into a calm state. My favourite genre of music is rap, most notably my favourite artist being the Notorious B.I.G. The reason why I enjoy his music is because of his ability to evoke emotions through his lyrics. I feel that today’s rap artists are aiming towards providing listeners catchy lines rather than providing meaning and evoking emotions  that old school artists such as Notorious B.I.G, 2Pac, or Nas were successful of doing.  Other than sports and music, not really much about to me other then I love trying new foods and I hope one day to travel different parts around the world.

     Now that you know a bit about me, I can explain a bit about what purpose this blog serves. The goal for this blog is to use it as an avenue to express myself. From this blog, hope you guys enjoy some of the pieces I write.

     Now that you know why I am making this blog, I would like to tell you the reason that I am taking ADED 1P32. The main reason I am taking this course is to both learn new mediums of social media and also be able to create a positive digital footprint. I believe having a positive digital footprint is key to strive in today’s professional work environment.