Google Yourself

After googling myself at the conclusion of this semester i was surprised to find that very little has changed about me. The only new thing that comes up on google web search in my name is the twitter i associated with this account. I thought that there would be more about me on google. I am happy this isnt the case, i do not want all my digital life out there easy to access.

As a digital citizen i believe i can teach others about the online world and how to properly use it to communicate to others. Theres a difference between a positive digital footprint, and a negative one. I believe the best way to do this is by educating them on digital responsibilities first. Once you are aware of your responsibilities online it is easy to navigate the web for educational purposes with ease.

Digital privacy was another main issue this course. Digital privacy is rare when you put your information out there for the whole world to have access to however if you know how to use privacy settings, you can set it up so others see only what you want. I believe this is important because everyone wants some privacy in their lives.

My privacy settings reflect what i want, and that is to almost remain anonymous online. Sure my name will pop up, however with the proper knowledge it is difficult for others to get any other information from you without permission online.

Weekly Report & Reflection # 11

This week we were introduced to an amazing set of tools for screen-casting. Screen-casting is when you record your computer screen so others can see exactly what it is your doing on it. This is very useful when it comes to contributing to building my knowledge because it is an educational tool. Screencast such as Jing allows me to record step by step on my laptop screen and verbally communicate in the background. This tool contributes to my work in building knowledge because it is easy to use and has endless possibilities. The online world can be a scary place, and often times theres so much out there that it is difficult to take it all in. Screencast allows users to create how-to videos by actually showing others how it's done visually. This is a great feature that everyone has used once in their digital lifetime.

This week my Feedly reader introduced me to a controversial piece pf legislation that was just changed. Police 'Carding' as it is called has come under fire and a new legislation makes it mandatory for police to have good reason to request ID. This new piece of legislation also makes police officers inform members of the public that they do not have to produce their ID, they have the right to walk-away and not co-operate.This is seen as a victory to some and a nightmare to others. Judgement is a key concept of the job, and now that it has come under scrutiny, legislation has been passed to limit the powers of a police officer. This legislation could be good for citizens, but it can also be very bad for society. What are your thoughts on this?

Screencast

The closer the semester is to coming to an end the better quality of tools we are introduced to that can be used as part of our digital learning portfolio. This week we were introduced to podcasts and screencasts. I preferred screencast because it was a very unique way to get information passed on from one party to another. My Screencast is a simple view of a bill passed in Canada called bill S-4 which was introduced because of the digital world. 

The reason I chose screencast instead of podcast is because although I had the option to use my microphone and speak during the video, I preferred to get the audience involved in actively reading instead of just listening to me talk. This is a learning technique that I find helps people engage themselves. The digital world has made people lazy, screen casting without sound is a way to help people get involved.

Using Screencast contributes to my digital citizenship because it is a tool that I will now use that can be accessed online anytime, anywhere. The reason this fits a digital citizenship profile is because it is a common tool that is used. Anytime I watch a tutorial video it is a screencast. Today for this assignment I had to YouTube how to embed from screencast. The digital world is taking over and screencast is contributing to this in a positive way. Without tools such as screencast our digital involvement would be minor compared to what it is now. Everyone uses some form of screencast for help when stuck in the digital world trying to figure out how to work something. Screencast is a very helpful tool in the online world!

In the following screencast about digital privacy law i used another tool we were introduced to earlier on in the course, diigo which was very useful in highlighting parts of the screencast that attention needed to be brought to. All these tools we are introduced to throughout the year are extremely helpful and all contribute to a better digital learning experience.

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

Weekly Report and Reflection Blog # 10

Slideshow tools are a great way to make learning fun. Incorporating learning materials with pictures and sounds into one presentation that can be played and viewed is a great tool teachers can use to teach topics to students while keeping them interested. These tools are useful for educational activities because you can put a lot of information into a slide show all while making it appealing to the selected audience. There are many ways to make the slide show stand out on powerpoint and other slide show tools, it all depends on what the end goal of the slide show is. Slideshows also keep information in a single document such as google docs. Everything that needs to be included can be on one presentation through many slides.

My Feedly reader had a good article about hockey this week. Dennis Wideman was in the news for receiving a 20 game suspension for hitting a referee
. Wideman claimed that he was dazed when it happened however the NHL handed him the lengthy suspension. The part of this article that amazes me is that after serving 19 of his 20 game suspension an NHL arbitrator reduced the suspension to 10 games. Although Wideman cannot make up those 9 games he missed with the reduced suspension he does get to retain some of his salary. The NHL does not agree with this decision claiming it tells kids that it is okay to attack officials because the consequences wont be upheld. It was a pretty interesting read and definitely a potential case precedence for future actions involving referees.

Creative Commons

Today my digital citizenship has expanded once again. This week we were tasked with creating a slide show to raise awareness to Copywriting laws and Creative Commons. The unique part of blogging about this is the fact that I had to embed my presentation into this blog post which allowed me to use other tools as well. The power point i have does not allow me to directly embed therefore i had to expand my digital environment and use an outside source to upload my presentation to in order to get an embedding code.This application, known as Scribd uploads the entire presentation, however does not keep track of the time for slides. Expanding my personal learning environment is a good way to improve my digital literacy all while keeping with my digital responsibilities. This presentation allowed us to explore the many aspects involved in creative commons, which essentially is the lock on certain digital pieces of information made public. Creative Commons are used for the creator to tell the general digital public to what extent their information is made available and how it can be reproduced.  

Creative Commons is an online privacy barrier for publishers to protect their content. Users who ignore these creative commons are ignoring digital responsibilities and breaking copywriting laws that were created to protect information shared by publishers. Without creative commons protecting peoples work it could be reproduced and someone could take credit for someone else’s work. Creative commons are an extremely important digital aspect especially for students who wish to use information for their own research.

Presentation 1

Weekly Report and Reflection #9

This week we were introduced to an amazing digital tool called VoiceThread. VoiceThread allows users to post within a group in text or over microphone. The cool feature of voice thread is that it is not like all other online posting forums. Although you can digitally type what you want to communicate for others to see text, you can speak into a voicebox and the clip will be saved for all to hear so they dont have to read. This is an important feature because
in the digital society today we are forgetting how to communicate without text. It is more personal when someone says something that can be heard instead of someone just reading text. This tool can build my knowledge of online communication in the digital context because it brings us back to our roots. There was a time when all communication was verbal and there was no writing and reading text. This feature helps us remember where we came from which is the most important part of learning.

This week my Feedly reader introduced me to a new program by the OPP for amber alerts. This program pops up on TV screens when an amber alert is issued, making those watching tv aware. In our digital society today the reaction the OPP got from this was disgusting. People were annoyed that their shows were interrupted because of the amber alert. It just goes to show how the digital age has taken over life. People miss 30 seconds of their show and are annoyed because theres a missing child that was possible taken from the parents. People need to take a step back and think about the important things in life, missing parts of a TV show, or a child missing and a grieving and scared family trying everything they can do to help get the child back. People are so caught up in the digital age that they forget the important things in life.

Technology Use Scenario

Scenario 6 - John and his friend Mike both have access to messaging systems that allow for camera uploads. Mike sits in the back of the class and uses his phone to photograph the test for John, who is taking the test that afternoon. Mike then shares the photograph of the test for John. What issues might occur because of Mike's actions?

Digital responsibility is the key concept in this scenario. Mike not only violated school policy and helped John cheat on a test, but he also was digitally irresponsible. Just because there are applications and features that allow easy sharing for information doesn't mean that individuals are entitled to share certain kinds of information. The big issue here for John is he now has access to material he shouldn't have access to. This violates school code. Although Mike sent the images John has access to them. Digital responsibility is a big issue in this scenario.

Having the tools to cheat does not give one the right to cheat. Mike should not have taken the image and sent it to John. If John really wanted to cheat he could have asked Mike how the test was and what was on it. Mike should never have taken a picture of the test and given John an advantage that no other students have.

Who do you think is more digitally irresponsible in this scenario Mike for taking the picture and sending it to John, or John for having access to this picture when he shouldn't?

Voicethread

Voicethread is a very unique digital tool that does not make the user feel like they are in a digital context. Digital society has changed the way users communicate from verbal face to face to non-verbal text communication. Voicethread has turned back time to somewhat go back to that verbal communication. Voicethread allows the users to speak into a microphone to say what they have to say so others can hear their voice instead of read the text. This fits into academic learning in many ways. People with learning disabilities such as dyslexia can use this tool with ease. It makes communication a lot easier for individuals. Another way this fits into academia is because communication is a tool that is essential for learning. In order to be successful in a group setting students must be able to communicate. Voicethread offers users an online environment they can go to learn and communicate with others at their own time. There is no certain meeting time, once a voice clip is uploaded it will stay there and others can listen and respond when they are on. This fits a personal learning plan because it is somewhat like group discussion forums offered on sakai except you can speak instead of typing. This is a tool that can be used for meetings and group assignments. It allows users to feel more personable online when interacting with others and makes digital learning an environment that doesn’t feel like you’re alone. Voicethreads can be used for many things outside the classroom as well such as business meetings and trip planning. The uses for voicethreads are unlimited which makes this tool an amazing one.

Weekly Report & Reflection #8

This week we expanded our knowledge of how the digital world operates by learning about wiki tools. The short clip shown on k12 learning about the camping group was an easy visual way to learn how wiki works. Wiki is a great tool to stay organized with a group of people, and all the information there can be edited by all and not just sent by 1 in an email which can get confusing at points. The only issue with wiki tools for research is that anyone can edit this meaning the information may not be accurate. Although one must be careful when using wiki for research it is definitely a great tool to stay organized and access information fast.

I can see myself using wiki just like a google docs page. The only difference is that wiki can be edited by my friends, whereas i have to pay google docs for it to be edited. Wiki can be accessed by all at once which is a cool feature. If i have another online group assignment i think it can stay organized through wiki and will be easy for all group members to include input.

My Feedly reader this week brought to my attention a very interesting issue. A court battle between a news outlet and the RCMP. The news outlet interviewed a suspected terrorist that made threats against Canada. When the RCMP went to that news media for information about how they got in touch with the individual the media refused to provide this information. A court later sided with the RCMP which made the news outlet mad it had to give up information. The news media argued it cannot get stories without offering confidentiality to its interviewed people, and should be allowed to offer confidentiality just as the RCMP does for people it investigates.

A news media in my opinion should not be allowed to withhold information on suspects wanted for terrorist activities. The argument of confidentiality is ridiculous seeing as how it is a major charge against the accused who the media is withholding information from the police on. This whole article just was very interesting as it relates to the American case similar. Apple is in litigations with the FBI currently about handing over passwords to phones. I believe that privacy information with companies should only be backed if there is no major criminal charge against the accused.

this is my digital rights and responsibilities chart that sakai would not allow me to upload. 

Weekly Report & Reflection #7

Throughout this course i am learning alt about becoming a digital citizen. Before this course started i had no idea what a digital citizen was, i simply went online, used social media and browsed websites then didn't think anything more of it. After completing half of this course, being exposed to all the great PLE tools and signing up for something new every week that is helpful in the educational process, i am gaining knowledge on what exactly it is to be a digital citizen. My digital footprint expanded a lot after joining this class. I never really thought much of being online and what tracks i leave behind until this class. My digital footprint is expanding everyday and my PLE is expanding with it in a positive way. Without this course i wouldn't be as knowledgeable about the internet for educational purposes as i am today!

My Feedly reader this week introduced me to a practice that is happening in India still today that is extremely ridiculous. Witch hunting to be specific. The US has had its share of witch accusationsin the past, however associate grew, this stopped. India has killed over 2000 people in the past 15 years who were accused of being a witch. I find this extremely pathetic in todays time that countries still believe in out-dated and ridiculous accusations. It just goes to show how much more advanced Developed countries are than the developing or poor countries. Hopefully these countries can realize there are bigger issues to worry about for the betterment of the people than killing 'witches'. The sad part is, this just goes to show how equality is still an issue for women. The majority of those killed or accused of being witches are poor women. If these countries don't stop i feel that developed countries should step in and stop the madness for them all while educating them to improve the overall country. 

Weekly Report & Reflection #6

This week we were introduced to an amazing tool called Evernote. Evernote is an online notebook organizer with many functions. While exploring the internet for useful websites, videos, and articles it is easy to get flustered with the amount of open links you have on your computer at once. Evernote saves the entire webpage for you and puts it in a notebook so you can easily click it and view the webpage all through one program. Evernote also allows the user to easily take screenshots of important text, and highlight, add notes, and even organize these screenshots into categories by tagging their relevance. Evernote will be useful in my educational activities because everything i need for papers is all there for me to easily access. I wish i had heard about Evernote in first year because every paper i wrote i would absolutely be using this tool. The great part about Evernote is that once my paper is done, Evernote still stores all the webpages and things i saved in a notebook for me to go back on in case i have a similar assignment. This is truly an amazing research buddy that i will be telling all my friends who are still in school about.

Switching from Evernote, my Feedly reader is still a very active part of my every day life. This week i found a somewhat political article very interesting, mainly because it involves hockey. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supported his country and "chipped" back at United States President Obama over a comment he made this week at the white house. The Chicago Blackhawks were honoured at the White House for their Stanley Cup win  last year and President Obama made fun at the fact that it is again an American Team winning the trophy. Obama said that he would bring the cup to Canada next week when he shares a Dinner with Trudeau. Well Trudeau was quick to support his country by Tweeting, yes tweeting to Obama and reminding him that although American teams win the Stanley cup, Canada's Olympic teams have dominated the American teams in the past, most recently 2010. I enjoyed this support from Trudeau on many level. Yes the Stanley cup is a hard troops to win but it is not a representation of the country as players who win it for the team are from all over the world. The olympics on the other hand, are competed and won as a country. I guess the americans can have their Stanley cup bragging rights, I'd much rather have olympic gold anyways. I am glad our Prime Minister can have fun while showing support for his country all at the same time, especially when it comes at the expense of the US hockey program.

Weekly Report & Reflection # 5

Although I told myself since it came out that I would never sign up for the Twitter world this session has given me a new perspective on twitter. I once thought that twitter was only used by people as a way to tell others whats going on in their daily lives, mainly celebrities. I had absolutely no interest in this as I could care less what other people that I don't even know are up to. This week signing up for twitter for educational purposes has helped me understand a different side of twitter. It is a shame that the majority of people use it to follow people they don't know and live for their updates. Twitter has a unique way of connecting people and educators from all over the world. You can connect very easily using hashtags that can narrow your search results, for example the course code can be searched by entering #ADED1P32. By exploring what others publish using this hashtag we can easily follow others in this course.

My Feedly reader this week had a lot of great articles attached to it. Being the monday after Super Bowl sunday it it only fitting that this article is about Super Bowl 50 that just passed. NFL.com  paid tribute to the Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos in a great post-superbowl article filled with the usual controversy and major storylines of any championship game. The major take from his article would be the QB Manning. Manning won his 200th game yesterday, an NFL record. The Previous record was 199, so it is fitting that the NFL record comes off a Super Bowl win. Manning was supposed to retire after this game, it was supposed to be his final GoodBye to football game, however he put that decision up in the air when he didn't comment on it. This leads to undoubtedly a lot of future articles to be published by the NFL on this issue in the coming weeks and up until he makes his decision.

The game itself was a low scoring game offensively, and like all other superbowls, the major talk was the National anthem, the commercials and the halftime show. At the end of the day, i watched the game for the game itself and I with more Hype was made about the game itself than the above mentioned.

Weekly Report & Reflection #4

This week we were introduced to cloud and online curation tools. During this session a lot of useful information was brought up in the Internet Detective webpage that I wish was available to me during first year. This webpage was an advisory webpage that helps students in higher education learn more than just the basics about gathering information off the internet the proper way. Although this information was helpful, it was not the only thing introduced this session.

Diigo is a cloud tool used for storing bookmarks on multiple devices. Diigo will be used by myself in the future to save a lot of time when switching from computer to computer finding sources I had saved on another computer. Signing into Diigo allows me to simply access all the bookmarks i saved on other devices, but more importantly I can highlight useful sections and add notes to articles, making it easier for me to come back to later. This cloud tool will save myself a lot of time in the future when I am doing a paper.

Although Diigo is a great tool, I still enjoy my Feedly reader, as all the top stories from websites I added are in one place. Whatever interests me goes onto my Feedly page. This week, my favourite article from Feedly comes from NESN a Boston Based Sports Broadcasting Channel.

I love watching hockey, and with the NHL All Star game on, watching hockey just seems more interesting. I'm a huge Bruins fan and my favourite Feedly article this week was one that praised one of my favourite hockey players. Patrice Bergeron is, as described in the article, one of the closest things to a perfect hockey player. This short article was highlighted around comments made by top NHL players this week at the All Star game when asked about Patrice Bergeron. This high praise doesn't come to any player, and because it came from more than one player I feel the praise is deserved.

Although Feedly displayed many articles this week revolving around world issues and major entertainment news, I had to pick this article because it just seemed fitting with the All Star break to talk about hockey.
 

Week 2 Blog PLE

Wordle Digital Footprint

So I skipped week 2 last week and went straight to week 3, so for week 3 I will be posting the week 2 work about the PLE...

In the next 5-10 years I would like to be at a career job, settled in a nice house of my own. I do not want to be looking for a job, i want to be set. In order to be at that point in my life i will need to learn skills. Most important skill i think is patients because things don't happen quickly. I still need to finish school in order to move onto the next step in my life. My environment can help me with patients if i get a job in the field i want to be in. This will help because at least i will be making progress towards my future career.

Lustri, B (CC) 2016.

What i have learned from my current PLE is that my learning environment currently revolves around online interactions. All the tools used to learn are online except Microsoft documents, however these documents are usually downloaded from online sources. My cellphone contributes to my learning environment because i have access to it at all times and it is what most of my tools can be accessed on.

Weekly Report & Reflection # 3

SpaceX Rocket Failed Landing

Independent space travel leader SpaceX was in the news again today January 18, 2016 after a failed attempt to land a rocket on a barge in the middle of the ocean. Although the rocket, which was in orbit, landed vertically on the barge (as planned) a malfunction occurred in the one landing arm which did not allow it to fully extend, ultimately resulting in the rocket to crash from loss of balance. Although this mission was not successful it did show that this can be done in the future. The purpose of this article was to introduce cost saving measures to NASA showing that rockets that come back from space can be reused once they land instead of just being crashed in the ocean.

This article is important to learning because the rocket that was sent into space was sent for a very important geographical reason. The rocket was sent to space is measuring current sea levels. This is important in determining the current El Nino effect and can alternately measure the La Nina effect. The satellite the rocket carried is not only measuring sea levels but temperature changes in the ocean as well.

Todays RRS posts contributed to my knowledge in digital literacy because it was right there in front of me when I opened Feedly. Instead of normally going on Yahoo and searching through the numerous news stories they have, with the possibility of skipping it, the article was recently posted to Feedly where I could access it with the click of a button. This saved me time because I would have checked multiple sites first before going to yahoo news.

The tool utilized here was the tool of convenience. Feedly does all the hard work of searching for top stories and updates the list frequently while I just log in and scroll down a single page. This contributes to digital citizenship because I am now being exposed to more articles at my convenience. I can get through more articles on one site by scrolling down then I could by going through multiple sites and having to scroll through all them.

My Personal Learning Experience this week was set around Feedly and the convenience it offers. This tool will be helpful when researching a specific topic because I can categorise blogs based on many things. Once these are categorized, they will update and articles will be presented to me without me having to search for them. This is making digital learning a lot easier.

Brett