This class has been a great and rewarding experience for me. Keeping the blog going was something that really got me into figuring out what all the Web 2.0 talk was about. I entered the summer with very little knowledge of what the term meant and why I should care about it. During a class with Dr. Robin last semester, I remember hearing him gloss over Web 2.0 momentarily and did not think my need for information would go much beyond there. Heck, even at that point, I did not realize that I was already using a couple of tools from the genre – Google Calendar and YouTube.
Now, these handy little applications have executed a full frontal assault on my daily life. Over the summer, I have begun using Cozi Calendar to organize my family better. I currently have plans to help my father-in-law take all of the pictures he captured on his Rolling Thunder trip in D.C. and putting together a movie. This movie will be shared with the entire family using YouTube. I’ve also been able to help colleagues in Pensacola with some standardization presentations by working with Google Docs. The really interesting part is that these are merely the tip of the iceberg. It seems as though you could spend an entire year dedicated to working through all of the available tools and not get to all of them. Even if you did, they are multiplying at the cyclic rate.
What does that mean for my future? Well, when I graduate next semester, I will be heading to Headquarters Marine Corps in Quantico, VA for a tour in the Education Command. I fully plan to integrate many of these tools into the daily operation of the shop that I will be running. My hope is that I will be able to provide team results that prove the worth of Web 2.0 to the Marine Corps. From there, I would like to help implement the use of several collaboration tools throughout the Marine Corps’ daily processes.
I will be keeping this blog up – although the updates will be less frequent. I hope that my classmates will be doing the same, as I have learned as much or more from their reviews and suggestions as I have from conducting my own reviews. Thanks to all of you for your efforts and your inputs. Finally, thanks to Drs. Robin and McNeil for their guidance throughout the summer session.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Web 2.0 Presentation for Marine Corps Distance Education
The following is a presentation created for the purpose of adding Web 2.0 tools to the Marine Corps Education Command's arsenal.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Cozi Calendar and More
I created a presentation with this week's review using Slide Rocket. Here it is:
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Presentations with VoiceThread
This week, I worked with Angela Byrd and Abdullah Zorba to create a presentation on the rewards and challenges in distance education. We started communications over email then, followed that up with collaboration on a PowerPoint presentation using Google Docs. Google Docs was easy to work, though it did have its limitations. From my experience, the application does not have anywhere near the functionality of the full program. I understand why those limits are there, but a group would have to do some working around the application in order to truly use the power of PowerPoint. For example, on a more long-term project, I would do the collaboration using Google Docs and then, have one member of the group recreate the presentation in the stand alone application.
Next, we uploaded the presentation into VoiceThread. VoiceThread certainly made collaboration easy. We were able to upload two versions of the presentation, edit them both, and then, finalize the presentation by making choices as a group. Adding audio was very simple. My only complaint is the limited editing for audio. I much prefer using an audio editor and uploading the audio. Instead, you must start over with recording any audio that you do not like. For example, on one of the slides, I had to do six takes of the audio before being happy with it. Using an audio editor, I could have made one recording and edited out any mistakes in one attempt.
Going forward, I believe that VoiceThread could be a very useful tool in my professional life. Quite frequently, we have projects that require Marines from across the country to work together. This application would make that work much more concise and effective. By setting a work schedule and sticking to a timeline, this would eliminate the multitude of back and forth emails that must be sent and read during a planning session. Instead, we could upload the shell of our project into the application, add individual comments based on the timeline, and then get together again (virtually) to discuss modifications. While email would not be completed eliminated from the process, the reliance on it would be significantly reduced.
Next, we uploaded the presentation into VoiceThread. VoiceThread certainly made collaboration easy. We were able to upload two versions of the presentation, edit them both, and then, finalize the presentation by making choices as a group. Adding audio was very simple. My only complaint is the limited editing for audio. I much prefer using an audio editor and uploading the audio. Instead, you must start over with recording any audio that you do not like. For example, on one of the slides, I had to do six takes of the audio before being happy with it. Using an audio editor, I could have made one recording and edited out any mistakes in one attempt.
Going forward, I believe that VoiceThread could be a very useful tool in my professional life. Quite frequently, we have projects that require Marines from across the country to work together. This application would make that work much more concise and effective. By setting a work schedule and sticking to a timeline, this would eliminate the multitude of back and forth emails that must be sent and read during a planning session. Instead, we could upload the shell of our project into the application, add individual comments based on the timeline, and then get together again (virtually) to discuss modifications. While email would not be completed eliminated from the process, the reliance on it would be significantly reduced.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Dipity Timeline Review
Today, I will be reviewing the Dipity Web 2.0 timeline tool. This tool could really fall into many categories such as Productivity tool or Presentation tool, but can be used as a Critical Thinking/Problem Solving tool as well.
The tool can be found at https://www.dipity.com.
Using Dipity, it is very easy to create timelines that can be used in many different arenas. It is really just that simple. One of the nice things about Dipity is that you do not have to download anything and you can add video, audio, photos, links, and an array of other text based data – features that just aren’t available in the standard Office suite for timeline production. Dipity can be used to track progress towards a goal or deadline, brainstorm an outline for a project, recreate a historical timeline, or to show a mission timeline in digital format. The truth is, anything that can be tracked by time can be shown in a clean, easy to read product using Dipity.
The skills required are very basic. If you know how to use basic software applications and can navigate the internet and your own file library, you can create a timeline.
As for resources, you will need a computer, internet access, and an email account – for registration purposes.
To see how to use Dipity.com, please view the following videos:
Logging in and creating an account.
Adding events and completing the timeline.
Working with the timeline and adding links.
Embedding into a blog.
There are many ways in which this tool could be used in a teaching environment. The most obvious example would be in a history class. A simple, yet effective assignment would be to have students create a timeline for a specific period, era, or even a single battle. You could start with a broad assignment for the first few weeks where students would create a timeline of all of the battles of the Civil War. After that, they could spend one to two weeks creating individual timelines for each battle in the Civil War. At the end of the semester, each student would have a digital study guide that could help them organize their thoughts and knowledge on the subject prior to final tests or presentations.
This would also make for a great way to teach flight students mission planning. In the Marine Corps, we teach backward planning. Using Dipity, I would show students how to start with the end state of the mission and plan backwards by adding each significant event in the mission to the timeline. The final product could then be used to give the mission brief with a nice, visual, step-by-step sequence of events.
Advantages for using Dipity are that it creates a visual tool to use in many ways. Adding video, images, and links creates a multimedia product that can explore subjects with depth. The interface is rather simple and would be easier to manipulate than an Office suite product.
The main disadvantage of Dipity is that you must have internet access to create your timeline. Also, with the free version, you are limited to 3 timelines, 150 events, 5,000 embed page views and 50MB upload space. While I do not see the embed and upload limits being an issue, the number of timelines could quickly exceed 3. On the other hand, there is a 20% discount for students.
Here is the timeline we created in the video. Feel free to manipulate the timeline in order to get a feel for the final product.
The tool can be found at https://www.dipity.com.
Using Dipity, it is very easy to create timelines that can be used in many different arenas. It is really just that simple. One of the nice things about Dipity is that you do not have to download anything and you can add video, audio, photos, links, and an array of other text based data – features that just aren’t available in the standard Office suite for timeline production. Dipity can be used to track progress towards a goal or deadline, brainstorm an outline for a project, recreate a historical timeline, or to show a mission timeline in digital format. The truth is, anything that can be tracked by time can be shown in a clean, easy to read product using Dipity.
The skills required are very basic. If you know how to use basic software applications and can navigate the internet and your own file library, you can create a timeline.
As for resources, you will need a computer, internet access, and an email account – for registration purposes.
To see how to use Dipity.com, please view the following videos:
Logging in and creating an account.
Adding events and completing the timeline.
Working with the timeline and adding links.
Embedding into a blog.
There are many ways in which this tool could be used in a teaching environment. The most obvious example would be in a history class. A simple, yet effective assignment would be to have students create a timeline for a specific period, era, or even a single battle. You could start with a broad assignment for the first few weeks where students would create a timeline of all of the battles of the Civil War. After that, they could spend one to two weeks creating individual timelines for each battle in the Civil War. At the end of the semester, each student would have a digital study guide that could help them organize their thoughts and knowledge on the subject prior to final tests or presentations.
This would also make for a great way to teach flight students mission planning. In the Marine Corps, we teach backward planning. Using Dipity, I would show students how to start with the end state of the mission and plan backwards by adding each significant event in the mission to the timeline. The final product could then be used to give the mission brief with a nice, visual, step-by-step sequence of events.
Advantages for using Dipity are that it creates a visual tool to use in many ways. Adding video, images, and links creates a multimedia product that can explore subjects with depth. The interface is rather simple and would be easier to manipulate than an Office suite product.
The main disadvantage of Dipity is that you must have internet access to create your timeline. Also, with the free version, you are limited to 3 timelines, 150 events, 5,000 embed page views and 50MB upload space. While I do not see the embed and upload limits being an issue, the number of timelines could quickly exceed 3. On the other hand, there is a 20% discount for students.
Here is the timeline we created in the video. Feel free to manipulate the timeline in order to get a feel for the final product.
Monday, June 11, 2012
This week's review is on the creativity tool, Xtranormal. This is a fun little tool that can be used to make animated movies. Additionally, I have included some screen shots to go along with the video. Please let me know what you think.
Enjoy.
The video upload on Blogger was struggling, so here is the link to the YouTube video.
Xtranormal Review by Seth Goldstein
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