Information Architecture.

I know that I have not been up to speed lately with my blogging, it seems that as if time flies through very quickly.

This upcoming tuesday is my third week in Information Architecture class with Ms. Esther Kibby as the instructor. Let me cut to the chase, this class is pretty dry and what I mean by that is that the instructor gives you what you need to know and you are put into groups of at least three the most five people and we were given instruction that we are making a blue print for a website for a company that we are to make. Most people think that this class is boring and that is stupid, but to me, I think its what you make out of it. If you are not interested in learning than most of the time you will think that every class is boring for the most part.

In this class you will need a book by Jesse James Garrett titled ,”The Elements of User Experience.” This book is pretty dry too, but it gets the message done by the amount of information that is given to understand it, even if you have a low user level experience (not much computer knowledge but to use the internet for watching youtube or reading your email and myspace).

Anyway, my group originally consist of four people, but this one girl think that the class is way too boring that she changed her stupid major to something else that doesn’t include or require this class to be taken. So, here I am having three people in my group including me and we had to pick up the slack since I know that it is already in the third week of school and there will be no more students added to the class. Pretty much we are screwed, but like I said its what you make of it. So far my group had been pretty consistent going to the group meeting assisting me in our need to make the steps to make this company happen.

I will be posting some pictures later on as the class progresses and that we are requires to present what we have in our group.

Jansen.

Podcasting/Vodcasting.

To me the word podcasting is nothing new. I usually go to http://www.npr.org/ at times to listen to their programs and usually download stuff on “Cartalk” or “All Things considered” sometimes even other news and music programs that they offered.

One thing about podcasting, though it is not new to me, the process and tools that are involved can be quite expensive and also that when trying on podcasting, I have to think of what issues or thing that I want to use as materials. Vodcasting, that’s another story. I’ve heard about it but never use it. I read that article and it seems that the equipments are quite expensive if you want to have vodcasting to be something to do, let alone the time that you have to spare to do so.

One interesting thing that I read in the article is that vodcasting is very helpful for students and teacher in the classroom. I think that this is a good idea, since sometimes students can’t make it to class because of an illness, they can download vodcasts that had been uploaded to the school’s site and not missed what the professor or the teacher discussed with other students that day. I’ve heard something about Harvard and Yale are starting to do this, aside to them having online classes last year, but I can’t remember as to when they started this.

With the development of technology and mobile computing, I think that more and more people would be able to do podcasting and vodcasting, specially with the prices of technology are getting cheaper and cheaper by the year. I think that as an Art School, the Art Institute should do this, have their classes be vodcasted or podcasted to the school website, that way it will help students and help prospective students in the long run.
Jansen.

HTML & CSS…

At first I thought that HTML was going to be a nightmare for me, since I really don’t know anything about scripting whatsoever, let alone using CSS to do anything. However, I went to the W3 Tutorial Website and started to take the tutorials for html, I found it very easy to work with.

I started to write my tutorials and every once in a while I open it and try to see if it will work. I think that it work pretty well for me as a beginner. The information given on the tutorials are pretty simple and self explanatory, however; I still find my self a little edgy about using it. Like I said, that this is my first time trying on scripting.

Then I went to another tutorial for CSS at the HTML dog website. I try to see how CSS implement HTML so that it work as a whole, html is the content while css is how to present it on the webpage, as it was said in the the tutorial page.

I tried to take on myself with the tutorial and I find it a little harder than trying to write html itself. So far I’m only able to understand on a couple of things that I can do with it. I guess with a little more practice I can learn a little more, as every one would say it, baby steps one at a time.

Jansen

My PLE.

Man!! It has been one hell of a semester and the last couple of weeks had been hell for me. I can’t even get enough sleep with all the stuff that is going on.

Anyway… at first I was introduce to Google reader and I thought that it was an interesting tool to used for aggregating some blogs and other important things that I can use for school. However, I later found out that I’m not only subscribing to that one particular blog, but I was subscribing to the author’s ENTIRE BLOG, which I thought is a nuisance. I mean I can see that the author is blogging about PLE or Communities of Learning, however; I also realised that some of the blog that I was subscribing was also a personal blogs about many other stuff that is not related to what I was looking for. In a short, it was to general and redundant and I was not able to read all of them to update what I need and what I don’t need. Phew…

So, then I go and work on Netvibes and I realized that it was a handy tool and I can work with it. However, I later realized that the only way for me to use netvibes is for me to sign in to the service, which to me is a hassle! I don’t like having to sign in to what I am subscribing to read blogs about something. It is still a cool tool to use and have a very good user interface that people can tinker with, I find that most people in the class likes to use it.

So, here I am and from all those tools that I have mentioned, I found another tool that I found interesting that is Yahoo Pipes. I started reading what it is and what it is all about and I learn a few things here and there. I found out that it is an aggregator service, combined with mash up service, search engine and many many more. As for right now all I can say is that this is an interesting piece of tool to play with.

Syndicated RSS Crime!

No, No, I’m not talking literally about syndicated crime. Just the meaning and use of RSS in today’s webpage and how it has develop in today’s technology.

RSS is a data format used to to provide users with frequently updated content. This data is widely used in providing upadated blog entries, news feed, podcasts and many more, it exist as a document called feed, webfeed, or channel that contains what the blog, news or podcast is about, literally it is a summary of the document. It is designed to help people keeping up with their favorite websites easier.

The history of RSS  started as an attempt to syndicate formats, which didn’t do pretty well with Netscape as a portal, later it was picked up by UserLand  Software where it was used as a publishing tools that could read and write RSS.

Other companies also release newer version of RSS software and that they came out with different icon to represent the RSS icon which was debatable who has the right to do so. In 2005 Microsoft finally adopted the the feed icon that was used in Mozilla Firefox and since then the RSS icon has been the orange box with white radio waves enclosed in it.

Communities of Practice.

This is one lengthy article!

First, I understand that on this assignment that we only need to pick one either Communities of Practice Brief Introduction, Learning as a Social System or Communities of Practice by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. However, when I read the first article, I have to admit that I am so confused about the article. Then I thought, I’ll try to read the other ones, maybe I’ll understand it better. Unfortunately, after I read the second article I became somewhat aware what the article is, but I still sat on a bunch of blank thoughts, so I decided to read the third article and by gosh! I got it. At least to what I think that I got it. I will also put it some questions throughout this posting and I would appreciate the comments and answers.

Ok, going back to the article.

As stated by Jean and Etienne, that Communities of Practice “are everywhere and that many of us generally are involved in it,… and furthermore we often assume learning has a beginning and an end.” When I read the article presented, I realized that it is true that many of us assume that learning has an end. Don’t believe me? Okay, how many of you right now thinking of graduation? You, know you are! Because with graduation, you think that you will not have to worry about studying, tests, midterms, or even final exams. I remember the very first day in this class Mr. Batchelder says this, “You all have been thought about learning something or a subject in school that you all think when you’ve learned it, that is it. However, in this class you have to have an open mind because in this area of learning you have to know where this thing will grow and evolve and take it to the next step, whether you will move forward in this business or stay behind and you need to make a decision if this is the area you want to be in or you need to go with something else.” So spoken minus stuff here and there. Sorry I quoted you Mr. Batchelder.!

Lave and Wenger pointed out that we learn by interacting with each other and those around the world and that our relationship with one another is what brings us together, the community that we learn from are a community of learners where we practice what we learn and teach it to others.

According to Wenger, a “community of practice defines itself along three dimensions:

1. What is it about – a joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members.

2. How it functions – mutual engagement that binds members together into a social entity.

3. What capability it has produced – the shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, styles etc.) that members has develop over time.”

What I learn from this article also, is that a person’s intention on learning is influenced by his or her social and cultural background. Which to me reminds me of how I learn everything. Being a person with multicultural backgrounds and that I have been fortunate being able to visit many places around the world and learn about other culture, I realized that the way I think, act, and my motivation on learning something new had been influenced by my background and the way I was brought up by my community and the people that surrounds me.

People who are involved in community of practice engaged in different activities ranging from discussions, helping each other with solving problems, sharing information, and learning from one another. In this computer era, the interaction between the members of the community that share the same interest to learn from one another is considered as the community of practice itself.

This all comes down to one one question that I kept pondering, it might misconstrued, but there is no wrong answer to this, however; I would really like for all of you to ponder it and give me your opinions too. So here is the question…

Does Community of Practice related to Personal Learning Environment? Or is it the next step of PLE? Or is it both?

How to be heard – Stephen Downes…

First listen than be heard!

Holy Crap, can you believe what this guy is saying? First of all, I think that this is one of the best article that I have read so far that I didn’t have a brain fart! For real! I thought I was gonna have another migraine headaches from reading this article, aside to the length of the blog itself.

In life as much as it is in blogs, we all have to plan for something, have a purpose for and what the plan is for, have a way to support the plan and execute the plan accordingly and make sure that the plan is progressive enough to undergo a change in the future.

As is the same with blogs. According to Downes, writing a blog needs a well thought and well excised plan. It also needs a purpose for that blog to exist, be it may serve personal or social agenda or benefits these. If the blog doesn’t have any purpose nor it benefits anyone, than it is nothing but something that some one wrote to complain or just bitch about something. Usually when you write a blog, aside to talk about an issue, you should address or promote some solutions or a question of something of value. For instance the interests that represents the blogger or the reader and the general community as a whole. Your blog also should have content that can be meaningful to the readers and that it should present future purpose and gives explanation to what is important. This content could be anything to everything, the best way to get a good content is to look at what you are reading, listening, watching or anything that involves you that other people can connects to or have a similar experience that people wants to relate and read about. Collect the info that you have and link all the hobbies and interest to websites that have a similar blogging and write about them too. Focus on something educational or something that can teach some one while the same time emphasize on more important things. That way the content will not be too boring. Hello!!! YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT!!!

First of all… any one who wants to start a blog should know what he or she wants to write about, if not then don’t blog at all, because not only that you are wasting your time, you also wasted my freakin time. Basically that’s what it said for the first couple of paragraphs. But here’s the interesting thing that Downes points out… There are many people out there that have other blogs that are probably the same that you are thinking…so, link these blogs to yours, this way you have a support network of what you are writing, and it guarantees you to readers. However, pick what you link to your blog very well otherwise you are just linking bullcrap to your blog and there for what you write will in turn be nothing but a pile of steaming manure. Look for sources that can support your ideas in your blog, when you find them, give them credits to what they wrote and make sure that you comment on their page and vice versa, this will ensure the readers that you know what you are blogging and that there are a community out there that are interested to what you have to blog about.

Stimulate your sense of knowledge, open your mind to ideas that are different than yours. As a blogger, you should have different ideas that can be related to what you are blogging. Also, you need to know how to design a website that way your blog can be as much as enticing to those who reads it and make them know that you are knowledgeable and make the blog easier to read for your reader whom ever they may be. Make your blog as creative as you can be, show your blog that your ideas in the blog represent who you are, represent what you stand for, be meaningful, understanding and be assertive while being resourceful. Aside to that, the design of your blog is as much as important to your blog as it is to the content of your blog. An eye appealing design to your blog, readable fonts, neutral colors that is easy to the eye for reader to read, different color scheme, inclusion of pictures and videos would make sure that your blog have a cult of followers and readers. Use all the resources that are available to you and most important thing about blogging – set aside a time for you to blog about what you are passionate about.

Jansen

Personal Learning Environment, second servings.

I went through the Internet and read many of other people’s blog about personal learning environment, and I have to be honest that I am a little overwhelmed about these blogs.

However, I have found a couple of blogs that are quite interesting. For example I went to Michelle Martin’s “Bamboo Project,” in her blog; she identifies personal learning environment as a very important tool of understanding our experiences in the world that we live in regarding our education. According to her, 75 to 80% of on-the-job training is being done informally; and because of the growth and widespread of web tools, and the usage of Internet anyone can develop their own personal learning environment. As for Clive Shepherd, to him personal learning environment is not all about the use of the Internet and other Web tools, but it also includes his family, friends, coworkers, books, magazines and newspapers and things that he learn from school and work.

Different people can have different personal meanings of what personal learning environment can be and what they mean to them. One might say that the use of the Internet to have different access to different educational materials, in itself is what personal learning environment means; others might say that personal learning environment involves different people around us that teaches us and educate us.

Scott Wilson’s article mention that with all the technologies that we have in this era, education from the present time to the future will be presented by the use of the technologies that we have now, and that it will in the near future, replaces the function of a teacher. However, I believe that these will not be in our future at anytime soon, especially many of us young or old still like to have interaction with their teachers, mentors or educators. I don’t think that teachers, mentors and educators will be replaced by PLE, however; teachers, mentors and educators will be using PLE side-by-side to teach anyone and everyone and educate them for what they want to be educated for.

In the field of IMD, it is best for us to learn everything from our educators and then learn from PLE, this way we all benefit from both. After all, if we do not have educators, were are we going to get the information that we needed from? Some one has to start something and write about it.

I remember when I was in the military police and working for Navy criminal investigative services, I was taught about rules and regulations regarding military and civilian laws. However, after class is done, I wanted to learn more about rules and laws that I had to start looking for information somewhere else. Because the instructor is not available all the time because of the military duty that he had to perform, I decided that I need to look for information somewhere else. Aside going to do local police department and reading the Uniform Code of Military Justice, I chose to look for information on the internet on other the military website. So as you can see, personal learning environment doesn’t have to be resources that are available to you materially, but it can also be other materials from other resource. The presence of educators, mentors or teachers still is an important matter, because they are as important as other resources that we have or available to us on the Internet.

The Wales Wide Web.

Hey guys, sorry for the late posting, my Vista crashed totally.

First of all, referring to personal learning environment; in regards to a formal learning… in a life long learning process, one must continually organize and improve their education by sharpening their skills. The adoption and implementation of new technologies in the workplace and educational place, and the increasing use of computers and other devices to enhance education and skills that we have, will continually brings us more closer to the future of global thinking.

In informal learning, we are faced to learn throughout our lives different things so that we can make ourselves better and smarter. The process of learning is an ongoing process in which it is as important for us to keep our minds sharp and open-minded as it is important for us to keep our knife sharp at all-time. It is important for us to invest in informal learning be it may in the corporate world or in our personal life; because learning in an informal way will give us a way to manage our world, and if we invest in our children’s education and learning, it will make their future much more brighter.

All of us have different styles of learning and different intelligences. Because of the different ways that we learn, we all have different qualifications, different outcomes from learning and we all have different competencies. It is suggested for everyone to have general education and skills that can branch to different level of understanding in which later can be use to go to any specialized skill.

The growing use of internet connectivity and the development wireless networks as well as the widespread use of broadband connectivity in every country in the world, will result in the ease access of materials to be used in personal learning environment. Previously people acquired education in schools and technical schools with the use of textbook, with the widespread use of broadband connectivity in a global scale and the affordability of computers and handheld device and portable computers, anyone in the future can access any information to be used in educating themselves.

A recipe for learning web design.

I remember when I was younger I learn a couple of computer programming languages. First one I can think of was Turbo Pascal, and then there was Windows 3.X. Though I was not very knowledgeable, I learned quite a bit.

Then came the era of the Dotcom boom, where the internet was widely spread and there was many languages that was used to make a web browser and many things. I knew not many of them but one of the first thing I learn was Visual Basic, which is a programming language developed from Microsoft to be use in their GUI (Graphical User Interface). And sadly enough, when I learned about this there was many other programming languages that had already been developed and competes with Visual Basic, such as C#, C++, Java, and Java Script.

I am ashamed to say that when I learned about Visual Basic, that I was already behind in many programming languages. However, reading from the article “Recipe for Learning Web Design,” I know that I am not too late in trying to educate my self. What I learn form reading this article was that learning about web design is almost the same as learning how to bake a cake. You learn how to read the recipe first, then you learn how to make the the batter and then how to bake the cake itself. Learning how to read the recipe is like learning how to read programming languages, learning how to make the batter is like learning how to make the web pages it self, and then the applications is the step by step of how you decorate your cake or create your web page or design your web.

I know that it is a bad comparison to do so, but that is how I look at it from my point of view. However, just learning something that doesn’t mean that it is going to stay that way. In the world of culinary arts, there will be other people who want to have something more than just a cake, they might wants some donuts, or other pastries. The same with the world in web design and development. Today some one might want just a regular web page some days later some one else want something different in the world of designing web pages and the development of the web. So, in a short I have to say that it is within my best interest or anyone else’s to learn as much as they can and keep on top of the game, since the world is changing and people’s taste for something different occurs on a daily basis.