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