Journal 6

In this module I learned a lot about web pages and how they are created. I also learned about the elements of good and bad design when it comes to creating a web page. When designing a page it is important to think of the user. You want to choose colors that are easy on the eyes and make words clearly visable. It is very important that the page is easy to navigate through so users do not get frusterated and leave. Lastly is the site accessible by all different types of users, like people with hearing, learning, or seeing disabilities. It is important to make sure your site is user friendly for everyone. Next I created an animoto video which I thought was cool. I was able to create a slide show of my favorite pictures with music and neat transitions in between each photo. Lastly I created a site using google sites. The site is about web accessibility. I really liked using google sites because it was fast, easy, and free. Im thinking of creating my own site using google sites and posting all different information about hockey.

4 New Words

1. Web accessiblity- creating a web site that is usable by people of all abilities or disabilities.
2. Static web page- or flat page are delivered to the user exactly as they are stored.
3. Dynamic web page- web page that is continually updated as it is displayed to the user.
4. XHTML- Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, used to create web pages and content.

Animoto

Avatar

Photobucket

Journal 5

Learning module 5 focused on web sites and how to upload content to a site in the right format. An example of this is uploading a picture. If you take a picture with a camera it is usually around 1,400 KB (kilobytes) which is too large for the site to handle. Also the picture will load very slow because it is taking up too much memory. A solution to this is a using a site called web resizer. On this site you can upload an image and it automatically resizes the image so it is small enough to fit on a web page. I took photos that were over 1,400 KB and it resized them by 96% to less than 50KB. And I used Photobucket to create a slide show of the images that I resized. That to was user friendly and free for anyone to use. I also learned about different web 2.0 sites and how they work. Like youtube a web 2.0 site. It allows users to post videos and comment on them. I also created an Avatar using voki. I thought thought was really fun and easy to do. You can pick an Avatar and their voice and either type what you want them to say or you can record your own voice and use that. Lastly the most important thing I learned was about downloading "free" music. Until I saw the two videos I didn't think about how severe stealing music can be. We tend to think a song that is only a dollar wont hurt the company but if everyone does it that adds up to a lot of money lost for the artist and the record company.

4 new words

1. Web 2.0: Sites such as youtube or blogger that allow users to upload content to be shared. (Sharing content on the web.)

2. Shareware: Software that you can download and try for free but you must pay if you want the full version.

3. FTP: An Internet standard that allows you to download or up load files to and from other computers connected to the Internet.

4. Kilobytes: Measurement used to show the size of an image, how many pixels.

Journal 4

In this module I learned about Blogs, Microblogs, Wiki's, Social network's, Virtual worlds, Virtual meetings and Content sharing. For our group project we researched Blogs and Microblog's. The two major one's I uses were Facebook and Blogger. These can be used for personal use such as keeping in touch with friends, educational use for class projects, or for business use to share documents or photo's. These are two very common blogs/ microblog's, there are many more like Twitter, Tumblr, and Live journal. I also learned that Wiki's are similar to blogs in the sense that they can be shared and edited by anyone. Social network's like Facebook are used everyday by millions of people from all over the world and are uses to talk to friends and co-workers or post what you are doing at any given time. Virtual worlds are life simulators that put you in this created world where you can use an avatar to communicate with different people similar to real life. A commonly used virtual world is called Second life. Virtual meetings are when you and other people can communicate live for any purpose but they are mainly used for business, this is available on sites like Fuze, and Webex. Content sharing sum's up all of these site's. By using these site's you are sharing content with other people. Lastly I understood this information because I use most of it everyday for personal and educational use. Most of these topics were easy because they were pretty self-explanatory as to what they are used for.
4 New Words

1. Asynchronous communication- does not require users to be online at the same time. (email)
2. Synchronous communication- two or more users online at the same time. (skype)
3. Wiki- web page where anyone can edit it at anytime.
4. Content Sharing- allows users to recommend their favorite story or content to friends.

Journal 3

Chapter 3 covered a lot of information on the search process. It talked about which search engines to use for different kinds of searches. Google is a commonly used search engine used everyday by millions of people from all around the world, along with search engines like Ask, Bing, Yahoo, and Dogpile. I like using google because it is fast and easy for simple searches like sports news and scores or navigating to store web sites. I was also introduced to Delicious which is a social bookmarking site. I found this to be very helpful because you can bookmark your favorite sites and share them with other people. By doing this you can also see sites that other people have bookmarked that may be to your interest. However basic search engines such as Google may be good for shopping and news but not the best if you want educated research information. With the everyday Internet anyone can post anything, which is a problem if you need specific factual information. For that you would turn to The Deep Web. The everyday Internet only covers a fraction of the information the Deep Web contains. When using the deep Web there are special search engines, one that I found helpful was Academic One. When conducting a search it is also important to use the Boolean logic. This is the method of using "and", "or", "not" to limit your search results. Lastly I learned about Information Fluency, or IF. IF is the ability to gather information and use it in legal ways. This includes information literacy, technology literacy, and critical thinking. These skills are known as 21st century skills. Lastly these skills include, adapt to change, think creatively, access and evaluate information, and core subjects like math science history etc.

I also feel I have done better in this module compaired to the other ones. My quiz grade was much better and I felt the over all module was much easier to comprehend.

4 New Words

1. Information Fluency: The ability to gather information and use it in legal ways.

2. Web Crawler: Software used by the search engine to browse the Internet for the desired information.

3. Meta-search Engine: Search engines like Dogpile, KartOO, Mamma, and Ixquick.

4. Boolean Logic: Using "and", "or", "not" to limit search results.