4.0+Reflection

Reflection


 *  A - Assignment 1 - Your Online Identity - Working with Web 2 Tools **


 * 1. What issues might be involved in having an online presence? **

 Mulitple issues are surrounded around having an online presence, especially in social-networking sites like facebook, twitter and Myspace as many people state their whereabouts, what they are doing, when they are doing it and who they are going to be with. This puts themselves, and others at risk, especially if where they are posting this information, such as facebook has pictures of themselves. It is important not to put up too much personal information like your full name, date of birth and where you live, as this is highly dangerous to paedophiles and other strangers or 'enemies' in the world. By having all this information posted on the internet it can cause controversy between yourself and people you know, and people you don't.


 * 2. What are some strategies that may be helpful to address these issues? **

 There are some strategies that take place to minimise the issues of having an online presence, especially in social networking sites. Facebook, for example do have privacy settings, which the user can customize to suit the information that the user wishes to share, this can include photos, videos, status updates, relationship details, date of birth and other personal information. If the user does not wish to share certain information they can simply not upload it, or if the user chooses to share information, they can nominate to share it only certain people, e.g. their friends.


 * 3. Identify in what way might these tools be useful in teaching/professional life? **

 Web 2.0 tools are very useful in the teaching and professional life, especially those that involve collaborative or interactive learning. For the Web 2.0 tools that allow the user to create online discussions, similar to google groups, wikispaces and others that we have used during this topic it allows an online discussion via a blog or Wiki students/teachers are able to discuss and communicate certain ideas about subjects, topics, students and classrooms. Other Web 2.0 tools that I had not heard of before such as Delicious is something that can be used not only in the teaching/professional life, but also as any user at home, because when going to somebody else house and you wish to show them a website or a video you discovered at home it is simple to log in and click on your bookmark. This prevents the user from having to search for it again, this fast and effective way of bookmarking online resources which you can access via any internet connection on any computer is highly useful.


 * 4. What tools did you find to be most/least valuable? **

 The most valuable web 2.0 tool that I have been exposed to during this topic is Delicious, as it is not only going to be beneficial now, but also during my teaching profession. Other web 2.0 tools, such as Google Groups are also going to be helpful when I'm teaching, however they are not as valuable now as what Delicious is, especially when I can access other websites, from any computer using Delicious. The least valuable tool I found was kidblog, whilst in the future it may be valuable at the moment it is no use to me, therefore making it the least valuable.


 *  B - Assignment 2- Radio Cut **


 * **What were the issues involved in making this file and how did you solve them? **

I conducted my interview with Simon Davis a skimboarder using my iPhone as it was the only available recording device that I could get my hands on that I would not have to pay a fortune for, in theory this seemed like a good idea. After finishing the interview in a very relaxed manner and listening to it back, I was happy with the interview and knew that with some editing it would be perfect. This is where the dilemmas started, having conducted my interview well in advanced I faced the problem of not being able to get the ‘voice memo’ of my iPhone. After researching on the internet how to get my 'voice memo' of my iPhone onto my computer, it still seemed impossible, so I ended up buying a new headset from JB-HIFI, after organising another interview with Simon I was able to record the interview properly using a different program called 'Total Recorder', this then enabled me to open it in Audacity and edit it to my final product.


 * **In what way would the ability to produce an edited sound file be useful? **

The ability to produce a sound file is very helpful, as from an education perspective if the teacher was unable to attend the class they could simply play the voice memo or recording and the students will understand their task and could carry on with it. Another benefit of an edited sound file is if a teacher was at a meeting or a conference the teacher could record the file, edit it and reuse the important information or replay it back to others that could not attend the conference. Even just recording a sound file is useful, especially for lectures etc as you can replay and notice information you may have missed the first time.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">C - Assignment 3 - Making a Digital Story **


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What did you learn from this process? (What was particularly rewarding, challenging or frustrating? What might you do differently next time?) **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">I learnt a lot from this process of making a digital story, starting with using Windows Movie Maker, having never used windows movie maker before I found out that I could determine the duration of the photo, add transitions, music, voice over, effects to the photo, text on/before/after the photo as well as publishing the movie onto the internet. I had never uploaded a video to YouTube before, so that was very rewarding, however not as rewarding as seeing what I had achieved by creating a movie. The most frustrating part of the digital story was also the most challenging which was making sure that my voice over was in time with the photos I had uploaded, as when I was recording my voice over in audacity I had a certain time frame to ensure the photos would line up.The only thing that I would do differently next time would probably put a small video clip in to movie maker, so that I could become familiar with both images and video clips, I also think that it would make it a little more interesting.


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Viewing other class members stories....what elements attracted me to them? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Daniel Caire - I was particularly interested in his digital story, as I live in the area of West Adelaide Football Club and attend there games, as well as following the journey of James Ezard through the AFL I thought it was a good opportunity to get an insight to a footballers life. Like all 'celebrity's' the life that we see on television and our perceptions of them are not entirely correct, after viewing Daniels digital story I found that it was very interesting and knowledgeable.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Anna Gubbin - Anna's personal story about her Dad and a builder attracted me as I heard her in class talking about how she was conducting her interview, when I heard her Dad was a builder it gained my interest more, as if I was not going to become a teacher I wanted to do some sort of trade, having not decided what trade I was going to do and getting into uni this whole idea changed. By viewing her story and seeing the life of a builder I can see that there are many accomplishments in being a 'tradie' such as completing a project - e.g. a house.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Abbey James - I'm not sure what attracted me to this story, as I was just viewing other class mates digital story's I came across Abbey's and found it interesting and rather entertaining, especially with her wonderful editing skills. I find it amazing that at 79 years of age Brian is still working on the vineyards and still doing what he was doing a long time ago.


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">In What way might digital Storytelling be useful in teaching? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Digital Storytelling can be very useful in teaching, it can be used a 'get to know you' activity if students are unfamiliar with other people in their class it can bring them together. Digital Storytelling can also be useful to record a 'process' whilst people are working on a particular project or an assignment photos can be taken and uploaded and made into a digital story to show other people that are interested in the assignment how much hard work went into the assignment, it is also a satisfying achievement to make a digital story and could be good to class moral.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">D - Assignment 4 - Review of the Topic


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What activities did you find to be the most valuable? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The whole topic was valuable, learning how to edit voice over, to making a digital story, to finding out more information about someone (digital story) or something in the radio cut however I think the most valuable activity was the Radio Cut, simply because it was a start to my digital story. By learning how to record something then be able to edit it using a program I had never heard of before and making it sound very professional it was highly satisfying and gave me a step ahead when doing my digital story.


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What activities did you find the least valuable? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The least valuable was definitely the first assignment the web 2.0 tools. I found that although it was interesting exploring web 2.0 and what it was exactly I didn't feel that from the web 2.0 tools I explored many of them were very useful. The tools that were useful will make life a lot easier in the teaching world, however I did not find them to be as rewarding as the other assignments.


 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Summary of what I have learnt **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">From reading the above text, you will have already read this. However, I have learnt a lot, starting with using programs that I would never usually use such as Audacity, Windows Movie Maker and Total Recorder, as well as other web 2.0 tools that are handy (WikiSpaces, Google Groups, Delicious etc) all of these tools and programs that I have learnt to understand will help me in the future with my teaching degree. The ability to edit images and voice over to create a final product is something that i truly value and something that I will use in the future, not just with my teaching degree but also for social and entertainment purposes.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">All in all I have thoroughly enjoyed this topic and learnt a lot, in both a practical and theory approach.