Michelle's Blog

Blog 14

acrossthedark — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:56:31 +0000

Well, this is my last blog for ED 217. Coming into this class, I thought I was really going to dislike it. I’ve taken some computer classes in the past that I felt were poorly instructed. Also, I’m not very good with advanced computer “stuff”. However, I was happy I took this class. I really learned a lot, and was introduced to a lot of useful tools that I can make use of in my professional career. In fact, I’ve already downloaded Open Office for writing papers and doing Power Points on my laptop. I’ve explored Prezi on my own, and even made a short presentation just for fun. Now I just have to finish Module 4. Almost done!

Blog 13

acrossthedark — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:43:37 +0000

This week we are starting our last project for the course. We are creating an ebook in which we describe some of the things we’ve learned over the semester. At first, I thought the ebook layout was sort of bland, but after exploring it further I changed my mind. I think it’s really cool that you can publish your own books. I’ve always loved to write as a hobbie, so this might be a very useful tool for me in the future, should I ever get around to writing a full book. I haven’t added any pictures to my blogs yet, so I’m going to add one to this post. I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can do with this ebook program.

(This image was taken from a free clip art source online.)

Blog 12

acrossthedark — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:39:08 +0000

This week, we continued to work on Module 3. I was pretty impressed with Mixbook. There were a few small things that were annoying, such as trying to click on exactly the right spot to move a text box, or trying to figure out how to lay stickers over images or vice versa. But overall, I thought it was really cool. I’m actually considering making and ordering a Mixbook for a Christmas gift either this year or the following year. The project wasn’t too hard, and I can definitely see all of the programs being useful to me in my future career.

Blog 11

acrossthedark — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:34:44 +0000

I forgot to post a blog from last week, so I’m posting one now. The latest thing we were shown in class was a tool called jaycut. Using this tool, you can upload photos of video clips and arrange them in a stylish way with music in the background if you choose. I thought the basic idea of the tool was really great, but actually using the program was a bit difficult for me. I couldn’t drag the sounds or images to appear right when I wanted them to. I felt like the whole thing was a bit hard to use, and would probably take some practice. Our group was thinking about using jaycut at first, but we decided on Mixbook instead because it was simpler to use. Of all the projects we’ve done, this group project is my least favorite.

Blog 10

acrossthedark — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:39:03 +0000

This week we looked at the collaborative tool, Twitter. I’ve been reluctant to get a Twitter account, and even though we looked at it in class I still haven’t signed up. I don’t really care to know what celebrites are doing all the time. Also, I don’t like the idea of people knowing what I’m up to all the time. In class we were shown how to use Twitter a different way, as a way to subscribe to the posts of people who post things that are useful to our profession. I can’t see a reason to need an account right now. I’m not a professional. Maybe when I get a real job someday I might sign up for an account, but right now I’m just not interested in it. We were also introduced to a program that allows you to add pictures and music, and the program will mix them for you into a “video” presentation. I could see how this would be useful for things like creating a presentation to show at Christmas, or a funeral, or a graduation… but I don’t think this will be a good program to use for module 3. You can’t customize it.

Blog 9

acrossthedark — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:01:02 +0000

Tuesday, we looked at Wikis. Until this class, I had no idea what a Wiki was. I didn’t know that it was even considered a real word. Also, I never made the connection between the word “Wikis” and the popular web site known as Wikipedia. I never knew that anyone could change anything on a Wikipedia page. Now I understand why most instructors don’t allow you to use Wikipedia for sources when writing a paper. Anyone could post false information on a Wikipedia page. Even though it may not be good to use for papers, the idea of Wiki’s is still really cool in my opinion. It is yet another way that you can easily and quickly share information with people from all over the world.

Blog 8

acrossthedark — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:04:00 +0000

This week, I spent a lot of time working on Module 2. I decided to use Prezi, since it was my favorite tool that we learnedd to use. I liked the way that Prezi looked, and the way the transition from idea to idea worked. The only think I didn’t like about Prezi was the fact that you can’t insert video or audio clips into the presentation. Nor can you change fonts or colors on the presentation, you have to pic from a small list of available layouts. Also, I couldn’t figure out how to insert hyperlinks into my Prezi. I don’t think you are able to. Despite these things, I was happy with my finished Prezi. I like the way it looks, and I feel that it captures a viewers attention better than something like Powerpoint.

Blog 7

acrossthedark — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:23:47 +0000

This week, we learned about some cool things that can be done with Powerpoint. Of all the stuff we were taught, I had already known about half of it. I knew the basic, linear layout of Powerpoint. In fact, I had never seen power point used any other way than slide after slide. I was surprised to learn that you can add hyperlinks to your slides that will take you to another slide; whether it be later in the sequence, or leads to a completely different sequence of slides. I also learned that you can add sounds that will play when you “mouse over” a word to picture. You can also add graphics, and make them move across the slide. You can add music clips to slides that will play when the slide is first viewed. Although we learned some cool new things about Powerpoint, I still don’t really like to use it. It’s too linear for me. I like things like Prezi a lot better, because I feel that they are more attention grabbing, and allow you to move through your presentation easier.

Blog 6

acrossthedark — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:49:45 +0000

This week we learned about a really cool online presentation tool called “Prezi”. It is similar to Powerpoint, but also very different. Prezi allows you to create presentations on one single (huge) page. You create a path from place to place instead of having slide after slide in a certain order. Prezi is really cool to use because you can create topics, zoom in, fly across the page to another idea, add pictures, and much more. I think Prezi will be very useful to use because it holds the attention of your audience longer than a Powerpoint presentation does. With all the movement and the ability to zoom in and zoom out, it makes you want to watch. Also, when you move to a new topic, you can focus on the whole thing before you zoom in to the main points. This allows your audience to get a glance of what is going to be coming up. Also, you can easily see your whole presentation just by zooming out. So if someone asks a question, or if you need to go back to a certain part in your presentation to better explain it, you can quickly and easily do this without having to backtrack through dozens of slides like Powerpoint. There are only a few things about Prezi that I don’t like. One is that if you zoom in too far, it takes a long time for the area to load. Also, the fonts and color designs are very limited. However, this really isn’t that big of a deal.

Blog 5

acrossthedark — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:08:33 +0000

This week, we were introduced to a useful program that allows you to make “clusters” of ideas. You start out with a main idea, then draw more ideas coming off of it. This program is really cool because you can actually “see” you project develop. You can move things around if they don’t fit, add new stuff, take stuff away… and much more. What I thought was most useful about this type of organizer is that once you have all your bubbles in the right places, you can switch to a traditional outline view. The program will automatically take all of your main ideas and sub points and put them in an outline form. This is really useful for me, because I am terrible at writing outlines. Another really cool thing about this program is that it can actually be used in place of a powerpoint presentation. You can add pictures, links, and even sounds to your cluster. You can also set it so that by clicking certain things, new clusters will appear. So if you wanted to present information in a certain order without everything being immediately visible to the audience, you can do that. I think I’ll definitely be using this program in the future.