License

If I were to create something great, and wanted to license it, I would use the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License.  This license allows anyone to use your work in any way (so long as they credit you) for non-commercial purposes. But if a person wants to use your work for profit, they have to request specific permission.  I think this is a fair, justifiable way of sharing, as long as the end-user isn't using it for profit.  If this is the case I want to know what they are doing with it, and how much they are making off it.  The only thing that could change my mind would be if the "creation" profit was being used for charity or a good cause...not to just line someone else's pockets.

I found this image on freedigitalphotos.net, a site where downloaded images can be used in both corporate and personal projects. 
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/about.php
If you want, you can purchase higher resolution photos from the photographers directly.  I think this photo has great meaning to..."on my last string"...for me...my sanity. **Brilliant**

The author is most likely a photographer trying to receive credits and feedback on his/her works.  That's probably why they put their work out there for free, and if you would really like to use it for higher res projects or printing, you have to pay up:)  I like the concept...it's especially good for people just starting out.  This is generally what I would do, give the public rights to share, but if they want to use for profit, I need to know about it.

Wikiquote and Wikibooks

I chose Wikiquotes because I thought it would be interesting to look a little more in detail.  As a student, research is an essential part of writing.  Quotes can bring more relevancy and substance to a project, especially when writing about a particular person.  Wikiquote was originally only in English, but now is available in many languages.  Quotes can be found from people, literary works, films, tv shows, etc.  Just as an example, I chose TV shows, and an alphabetical list of shows came up, and I mean any show you can possibly think of.  I clicked on "Chelsea Lately" just for giggles, and two of her shows famous dialogue quotes were there.  I guess if you are looking for something specific that you want, and it's not there... It won't be available, but with Wiki, you can always add it.

Wikibooks, free content textbooks, was another interesting project I chose.  It was launched in 2003 to host and build free textbooks.  Sounds like a deal to me!  While some books are original, others began as text copied over from other sources of free content textbooks found on the Internet.  All of the site's content is covered by a creative commons license.  I viewed a cookbook on Wikibooks...how to add apple stuffing to broccoli...sounds yummy, right???  JK!  But I was just browsing, and saw some of the most interesting things, and really in a table (table of contents) book form.  This project could prove to come in handy in the future...this was my first experience with both quotes and books.

Intro Video

After days of pondering about this intro video, I decided to go with it.  I did my hair, makeup, etc, and finally sat down to my webcam not working.  I called Dell tech support and was on the phone with them over 4 hours concerning this webcam.  The problem still did not get fixed.  So, frustrated with this, I took a shower, washed my hair, threw on some pj's, and decided I wanted Taco Bell.  While I was sitting in the unusually long drive thru line, I decided to take out my phone and record the video.  It may have been a little shaky because of the nervousness...not really sure.  I could see I was in the video because of the rear view mirror.  Overall, not a great experience or great video...but it was the best I had at the time.

Course Feedback/Self Reflection

So we're 4 modules into the course, and I'm already giving a reflection!  This is a great way to express our feelings about the course thus far, and make changes if needed for everyone to be comfortable and most importantly learning.  I'll start with this blog.  Although I am fairly comfortable with it, I'm still not sure I am as clear as I would like to be in my writing.  I can say what I'm thinking, but it seems like I can't yet get those emotions on paper (or digital text, I'm corrected).  The blog gives me a more personal touch to my thoughts and opinions on the assignments, rather than just a statement.  I am free to make my incomplete sentences...example....I like that.  It means a pause in thinking, by the way. 
CMSimple, a user-friendly website, is still a work in progress.  You can view my site here.  I love my template, and the logo just adds what it needed.  I'm really not sure why CMSimple was included in this course, it really isn't what I think of when I look at our definition of web 2.0.  It's a website meant to be a portfolio, right?  But it's not a tool or something to be collaborative on...hmm, just my two cents...maybe it will be more apparent to me later in the course.  There have been a couple of assignments thus far to rate our peers.  I am going to tell you...I am EXTREMELY uncomfortable rating anyone on anything.  Maybe I'm looking too much into this, but I just feel that peer grading should be outlawed!  Giving a response or helping each other is one thing, but grading is very different. 
I like the perspectives that have been brought into the course so far, especially the work of Wesch and his KU team.  Youtube is a great learning tool, and I'm happy it has been introduced into the class.  I see that collaborating is an essential to the success of the course, but I think that when we have assignments such as the "Defining Web 2.0", it was difficult to do so in Moodle.  Saving and editing from other peoples work was difficult to cut and paste, and the final definition didn't include some of the originals. 
Having a course glossary is brilliant!  There are many words/tools I knew nothing about, and some I have heard before but didn't know what they meant.  The glossary gave me some new tools to check out and cleared up definitions I didn't know.  Now, we are adding to the glossary with Web 2.0 companies and people...something we all need to be familiar with.  It ties in with the history of Web 2.0...we need to know where we've been to move ahead.  I added Darci DiNucci, someone I thought would be interesting to others.
The most challenging assignment so far???  SECOND LIFE.  WOW.  Who knew???  I think I've wrote in a previous blog, I had visited SL 2 times before the tutorial, and both times were a mess.  The very first time was on my own after downloading it.  I was on Welcome Island and I think I heard and saw some of the most vulgar language I've ever come across.  Crazy.  Once I had the navigation tutorial, things were a little more clear as to how to get around, etc.  SL is a very public place, but I prefer to stay as anonymous as possible.  I'm going to add to my profile later this week, and spend some money..which is always exciting for me.  On one of my visits, we had a random visitor on our location.  Before I knew she was a visitor, I thought she was a part of the class...I had no idea no one really knew her.  I guess exploring SL island is part of the culture, but I thought it was kind of weird that she had landed there and stayed there.  Is that the way you meet new people, just go places and invite yourself?  I really don't know...maybe someone should give me the scoop on SL etiquette.  As for an educational tool, SL could be a break from the norm in classroom or presentation-type lectures, but I couldn't see it in corporate training, not at this time anyway.  Could be that we are so behind in technology and alternate learning and must stay on a strict budget.  Aside from a few tech difficulties with the viewer, I think SL is an interesting tool and a mere glimpse into what Web 3.0 may inspire to be.
Wiki etc...what I'll call it, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiversity.  I love the collaboration tool and the learning edge it gives all users.  It was a little confusing at first, but the tutorials and explanations really can help the user get the basics fairly easily.  I was able to log-in with just one profile, Chilover30, where you can see my profile, my contributions, and what I am watching.  The only thing I had trouble with is formatting my profile.  On most social media programs, you can make your page be what you want with different templates, etc.  I found that Wiki wasn' t that way, and it had very few formatting options...from what I saw.  I really wanted to add images of the pages I changed on the "New Jersey Housewives", but couldn't do it.  I tried adding a gallery, and uploading, but I had problems doing both. 
Overall, my feelings of the course are positive.  I do, however, at times feel like we are all over the place.  It's not as organized as some of the other courses I've taken...and I'm meaning in terms of the assignments, not the course outline.  There are several places to post, read, comment, and it can be a little overwhelming.  We had a discussion of where to post/read, but it still hasn't seemed to come together.  Thank goodness there are only 6 people, and thank goodness to Delicious (another tool I was introduced to), so I am able to bookmark most of the pages and view from anywhere.  But, as stated at the beginning of the semester, the internet isn't organized and things will not always be put in a box with a pretty bow.  So this is my reflection for the first 4 modules...I have learned a lot about web 2.0 tools and such...but I have really learned more about myself and how I can attribute to web 2.0.

ChiLover30 Wikipedia

Formatting in Wikipedia was quite challenging for me.  The normal stuff like bold and italic was ok, but I couldn't figure out how to make the profile page more "pretty" for anything.  I tried uploading an image, but couldn't figure it out.  On the help page, it said to upload the content from the edit tool box, but I didn't see that option.  Then to upload to the "free" content section, you had to have a certain level of membership or number of edits.  As for formatting the text with different colors and fonts, I didn't find that either.  I saw where you could change the font size, but nothing else.  I can understand having these restrictions on the encyclopedia pages, but for profiles, you should be able to be creative with that.  I didn't link back to any other personal profiles, because I really would like to be anonymous as possible.  Once things are out there, you can't take them back.

Here is a link to my Wikipedia profile:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Chilover30

Delicious Social Bookmarking

Creating an account on Delicious was easy, I linked it from my Yahoo account.  It's a very interesting site, more useful than I first thought.  I knew the concept, but didn't realize how valuable it would be until I had to reinstall my computers factory settings where I lost all of my previous bookmarks.  Now, with this tool, my bookmarks will always be there, regardless of the computer I'm on or where I am.  I saved my most frequently viewed bookmarks that I didn't mind being shared, and also saved some that I hadn't visited before.  The tags were helpful in that I could just put in a tag description and thousands of sites came up.  I guess a challenge here would be if you were too broad about a topic, you would have more than enough options to pick and choose from, so the more precise a tag, the better off you will be in your site search.  I also viewed someone elses bookmarks by clicking their name.  I can say, this is what deferred me in putting personal bookmarks on the site, I'm not comfortable with someone else looking at my bookmarks yet...How hypocritical!  This is a good tool, and definitely a reflection of Web 2.0.  I like the overall concept and the fact your bookmarks are always available regardless of your individual surroundings.  If you can get on the internet, you can get to your bookmarks.

Second Life/Web 3.0

So, we had our meeting in Second Life last night.  The meeting was an introduction to the navigation of the program, and an overview of the basics.  This was actually my third time in the program, but the first time that it actually made any sense.  This tool wouldn't be a recommendation from me to anyone without an initial guide to help you along the way.  I realize it's something new and I have to learn, but my frustration from the first two times made me want to throw in the towel.  Last night I was able to maneuver around a little more comfortably, and even played around a little with appearance. 
SL gave me an overall feeling of meeting in Skype or similar, just with Avatars taking the screen rather than voice.  I can see this being used as an educational tool and as a "game" as some might say.  Meeting in Second Life might bring a little more interest for educators versus just a normal conference call.  For a professional meeting, this may not be the best tool for staying on task, as people may tend to want to "play" and do other things featured on the program.  The notecard app was cool, I didn't know you were able to share files, and it was easy to just click on the person you were sending it to. 
I'll go in SL over the next few days to explore things I weren't able to last night.  I want to see what else is out there, maybe join a group...go shopping!
I think SL meets and exceeds our definition of a Web 2.0 tool.  It is a part of the second generation web, but it is more of what the norm for Web 3.0 will be.  It encourages collaboration on all levels, and a person is able to show personal expression in every aspect.
I really think that Web 3D is already here...just needs some clarification on what it really is and how different it is from Web 2.0.  SL is a program that brings web 3.0 to every home, making it easier for people to know what it's all about.  I would say in 1 decade, avatars and 3D will be the norm for communicating over the internet.  It will become more advanced, like speech and movement recognition.  Again, these avatars are giving people an opportunity to be something they can't be in real life.  In the virtual world you can have anything you want, there aren't many boundaries, and you can go places you've never been before.
Web 3.0 would connect to these theories in a way because with the avatars, you are the "surrogate".  You would control the avatar, and it would be a reflection of you.  But the avatar couldn't experience human feelings, emotions, the mind etc.  Although the virtual world would be all idealistic thinking, we need to realize that we are here in the real world.  Virtual worlds do not deal with anything that isn't ideal, like death.  Although we are moving into more technological society, we can't expect for our real world to just end.  We will always need to remember that the virtual world is not the real world, and we can't expect it to be.

Community in decline...

When watching Wesch's video, he talked about our "community in decline" and how some have concerns of how the Internet plays an impact on this.  It really got me thinking...Is our community in decline because of the Internet???  The Internet brings so many opportunities, so much information, ways of going places you could never go before.  We use the Internet for everything, from shopping to dating, and yes...I think it may have a little something to do with a decline in our "local community", but look at the virtual community the it has built.  15 years ago, if you hadn't been to Japan, you may not know much about it...besides text books, and some limited media.  Now the Internet supplies everything (and more) you may want to know about Japan, the culture, the people, etc.  In respect to YouTube, the "community" Michael had as examples were exactly opposite of a declining community.  There were several users that used YouTube to connect in a way to people that they hadn't before.  YouTube was shown to bring people together that have common interests, likings, and disliking.  This is just one of the many tools that make up the Internet, a place where we can build community.  I understand the notion that the Internet may distract from physical gathering in our local community, but there is so much more than your local neighborhood to learn and explore.  The Internet makes this all possible.

Wordles

I must say, this is a really cool tool.  I have seen "Wordles" before on the web and in print, but I didn't know this was the tool used to make them.  On my first wordle, I took the "personal background" from my ASU profile.  It wasn't much, but certain words like chihuahua, Charlotte, and children really stuck out of the bunch.  They are all significant words...I love Chihuahua's, live in Charlotte, and have no children.  The link to the wordle, "What I'll be" makes me proud:)!  All the words in that paragraph were significant, and this tool makes them all "special".  I think this would be a great tool for adding some "spice" to a project, or even just getting your point across in a campaign.  In relevance to this Web 2.0 course, this tool shows how we can use different ways to communicate over the web outside of just horizontal, 12 pt, black text.  I can put this wordle image on my blog, and a person can instantly see what I'm trying to say...take a look...


Who I am
What I'll be

See, you know more than if we had a conversation, or reading an intro email!  I really like this tool...for sure I will use this on future projects.  Although I'm not a random type of person, the randomization of it is very interesting, and it puts a different perspective of what you may view "looks correct".

Intro Video

We had an assignment last week to post an intro video.  I pondered and danced around that assignment link all week.  It was like finishing all your food on your plate, and leaving the nasty brussel sprouts for last.  Far more revolting than eating strange textured vegetables, I had put it off long enough.  When I was finally ready (and I mean hair, makeup, etc), my webcam doesn't work.  The software works fine, but the actual cam just had a black screen.  After talking with Dell tech support for seems like 3 hours, there still was no resolution except to replace the cam.  So, frustrated and stressed, I get in the shower, and make my way to a local Taco Bell drive thru.  It was an eternity sitting in the line (I think they had someone new working), I thought...I'll just use my phone and make this video.  Ahhhh, so stressful.  But it's me, Au natural, up close, and maybe too personal.  Why do I let things like "video" of myself put me in such a stressful state?  I think it's the worse...I've got to figure out a solution, because video is becoming the new text...

Google Image Labeler

Very interesting, I must say!  When I first launched the game, my initial thoughts were:  "I wonder what you get for the points?"  Google answered that very quickly on the starter page, there are no prizes or rewards for points.  I can admit, that took the excitement for me out of playing the game. 

So I watched the video of Dr. Luis von Ahn, and I was quite impressed with his talent, and advanced thinking on how we can "make our computers smarter".  In the beginning when he said he encourages people to work for free, I was wondering what he meant by that.  Now the puzzle is put together, and I think it's brilliant. 

So I began to play the game for a second time after the video to reach my goal of 900 points.  I thought, that if this is anything like the first go around, I may be sitting here for a while.  By the way, my first two partners on the initial game hung up on me, I guess I was submitting to slow.  I noticed that on their counts, they were entering probably 5 or 6 words for my every 1, and they knew in order to gain more points, they needed a faster partner.  So, this second time, I didn't even look at the "off limits" words, I just typed whatever came to mind, and found that in doing it this way, I was much faster and my partner actually stayed online with me.  By the time I had had enough, I had 1040 points, plus whatever points I had gotten the day before.  So, competition is definitely a major motivation for the players of this game, I noticed the high scores were in the millions. 

How fascinating is this game??? Also the other two games Dr von Ahn talked about.  Getting people to work for free (although they don't look at it like it's work), and gathering valuable data about images on the web to be a more accurate web.  So, is Google Image Labeler (game) Dr von Ahn's program with their name on it?  I'm sure it is, every concept is the same, but not for sure.  Dr von Ahn answered someones question and said that the intent and purpose of the game was disclosed before the player begins, but I didn't see this with Google Image Labeler.  Did anyone else?  Maybe I just missed it. 

On this type of input, I think it's a great idea for people to do this work.  But as someone said in the forum, are the answers bias?  Absolutely!  There is a certain type that plays games online, that has the time to play games online, etc.  So, the input data will be bias, and you really don't have a global perspective on the image.  But, as said by Dr von Ahn, the images put in the bank are basic like dog or car, they aren't as specific to really change the meaning.  Not sure if Google adopted that portion of his game, but I had some challenging images, many I had to pass on.  In my field of sales training, this mights come in handy when we have objections.  Objection faces, objection words and phrases, and objection body language.  We could put an image of an objection, and have the people agree on what the objection would really mean.  Just a guess....I think this would be a great tool for education, specifically in foreign language.  The game would be fun practice in helping with vocabulary.

Well, these are my thoughts...until next time. 

Crazy week,,,,

It was great having the day off Monday, but always seems like day off = day behind!  Already I feel like the week is off to a crazy start.
So, I think the Web 2.0 class is going ok so far.  It just seems like I'm all over the place, very different from I'm used to.  I just feel like I'm not organized, and my thoughts are all over the place.  I'm hoping I overcome this initial feeling....

Wesch--My view...

Michael's videos are an eye opening, big dose of the reality of technology and it's relation to our education.  Technology in education has changed so much, even from just 5 years ago, and his work shows just how major the impact is.
"The machine is using us", rather better said, the machine is us.  For me, honestly, I hadn't been exposed to technology like this before this program.  I'm not sure I would have ever used a Wiki or RSS feed before making the decision to continue with my education.  I can't stress enough about utilizing technology in education, especially for our youth, whom may not have otherwise been exposed.  I felt the video was definitely meaningful and proved the valuable point...we ARE the machine. 
While watching the video "Vision of students", I could relate to most of the students.  Really...what would the walls say if they could talk???  All of the many technologies we use in the hours of the day, why are we still sitting in a classroom looking at a chalkboard.  Where is the use of technology in our education?  Why aren't we making the effort in every opportunity to incorporate technology in learning?  As a trainer, the reason is ALWAYS $$$...but I think education should be considered an investment, not an added expense. 
Wow, his class sounds amazing.  I love the way they run their platform.  Loosely structured, yet the purpose is strictly defined. Example, the research schedule where student has flexibility to edit the syllabus.  I like the idea of incorporating blogs to track student progress in their own research.  For my future in education, Michael's seminar has definitely made me think...my learning experience should be more about sharing and creating, not just academics or grading.
A group I was a part of in a previous class at App gave had an idea of the future of technology in education...I thought I would share...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcDRORXW9kI