Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Critical Friend (blog)

These are my comments about Anirudh's blog.

Strengths:


  • The required information about himself
  • A lot of detailed explanation/information in all posts
  • Made the blog more 'fun' with pictures and mini add-ons
Weaknesses:

  • No eye-catching background for the whole blog
  • No colors that make the blog interesting
Improvements:

  • Change the background by exploring the designs (pictures like I decorated my blog)
  • Change the colors of your text
  • Make your blog more interesting 

This is the link to his blog:
http://thedigitaljournal.blogspot.com/

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Investigating different Software Options


What is HTML?
HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) is the main language for showing web pages and other information that can be presented in a network browser.
HTML is written in the form of HTML elements consisting of tags enclosed in angle brackets (like <html>) within the web page content. The first tag is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag (also called opening tags and closing tags). Between these two tags web creators can insert text, tags, comments and other types of text-based context.
The purpose of read HTML is to create documents and compose them into visible or clear web pages. The browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses the tags to understand the content of the page.
HTML allows images and objects to be embedded and to be used to create collaborating forms. It can embed scripts in languages such as JavaScript which affect the performance of HTML webpages.

Pros:
  •        HTML websites are more secure; there is less of a chance you will get hacked.
  •         You can design your website exactly how you want it.
  •         Other coding languages can be easily combined into your website.


Cons:
  • It can take longer to design a website using HTML. 
  • With HTML, one character out of place can mean your entire website doesn’t load properly.
  •   Simple changes to your website can take much longer to instrument than you are willing to spend since you may have to make those changes one page at a time. 



Microsoft FrontPage
Microsoft FrontPage is a dropped WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor and Web site management tool (from Microsoft) for the Microsoft Windows line of working systems. Microsoft FrontPage has been replaced by Microsoft Expression Web and SharePoint Designer, which were released in December 2006 together with Microsoft Office 2007.

Pros:
  •  Has been built on top of the highly successful Microsoft Office suite.
  •  It benefits from having a similar appearance to Microsoft Word. An easy-to-use menu system. 
  • FrontPage also has a plenty of ready to use templates, particularly useful for the beginner users.


Cons:
  • Simplicity and ease of use often generates lots of unwanted code which can be difficult to manage. 
  • It has been designed specifically for Internet Explorer. This means the web pages look perfect in I.E. but often slightly out of sync in other leading browsers.
  • You need a web server that supports FrontPage extensions to get some features to work.




 Dreamweaver
Adobe Dreamweaver (previously Macromedia Dreamweaver) is a branded web development application initially created by Macromedia. Now it is developed by Adobe Systems.                                                                                                                            Adobe Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems.  Recent versions have improved support for web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, etc.

Pros:
  • Has a nice blend of advanced tools mixed in with a refined graphical user interface.
  • Enables you to build your own custom templates, allowing alterations to hundreds of pages to be made with one single change.
  • Is part of the Macromedia Studio suite and enables easy website maintenance.


Cons:
  •  Is not as easy to use and may look a little foreign and intimidating to the novice user.
  • Has a wide – ranging collection of advanced tools and may be a little too complex for those who wish to simply edit pages.
  • Dreamweaver is a little more expensive than FrontPage.





In my opinion I’d rather want to spend less time on implementing changes to my website then having to spend much more time changing one thing for every page at a time. My conclusion is that I would not choose to use HTML. 
I believe that Microsoft Office FrontPage is a well-developed we editor for novice users (beginners). Although, once I’d want to start using more professionally developed web editors such as Dreamweaver.

Once I have learned how to used Microsoft Office FrontPage and still enjoy editing and creating web pages, I would personally start using Dreamweaver when I’m old enough to pay with my own money.

Conclusion over all :
Out of all of the software editors (not reminding me about the money) I would assume using Microsoft Office as a novice user, learn the basics and when I feel confident I will instigate using Dreamweaver.


Thursday, 25 October 2012

Using Animoto for Learning



The reason for there being two videos is I could not choose which song fit the best. The song of the first video is quiet and peaceful and is very 'nice' but the song for the second video has way more energy which gives a happy affect.



These Animoto videos includes the things that describe me, my life, in any way. 

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Digital Portfolios



  • What is a blog? What is a wiki? What is the difference between them? 
A blog is website on which individuals or a group of users insert information, opinions, etc. on an approved basis. The users of a blog add new material to or regularly update a/their blog. Compared to a wiki which is a website developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content. The difference between a blog and a wiki is that a blog is some sort of digital journal which is updated on a daily/weekly basis or when desired by the author whereas a wiki a platform meant for anyone to access around the world, anytime.

  • What is an online digital portfolio? 

Digital portfolios (sometimes discussed as software portfolios, electronic portfolios, e-folios or web folios) contain most of the context of traditional portfolios include but present these materials in a digital format.
Materials, also known as artifacts, are presented using a combination of multimedia technologies such as audio recordings, database, spreadsheet, video and others.
Digital portfolios are a way of presenting student achievements through class assignments, community service, and occupational experience.
Essentially, a digital portfolio means that students can save their work to a CD, a disk or a web page.
  • Advantages and disadvantages of a digital portfolio 

Advantages

1. Accessibility:



1. Portfolios in digital format can be easily and inexpensively reproduced therefore materials can be made available to a wider audience e.g., burning onto CD-ROM

2. Can be accessible from multiple locations and by many individuals simultaneously e.g., on the WWW

3. Portability: Easier to transport than hard copy versions.

4. Creativity: New non-linear formats and the integration of various media types allow students many ways to creatively express their professional knowledge and skills.

5. Technology:


Digital portfolios are one of the best ways for students to communicate their knowledge and expertise related to their use of technology
Students can demonstrate proof of their technical skills while also displaying their ability to apply technology in the creation of multimedia presentations, software programs and the like
Self-confidence: Building technology skills and fostering self-confidence in their own abilities.
Community: Sharing ideas and resources.



  • Disadvantages 


Creating a digital portfolio requires knowledge and understanding. Viewing a digital portfolio sometimes requires special software as well as additional knowledge and skills on the part of the viewer.
Technology can often obstruct the view of students’ REAL accomplishments by using too many ‘bells and whistles’.
Plagiarism is commonly known and used frequently.

Example:



I choose this digital portfolio as an example because







Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Communication and The Internet Part 2



Communication is so important during an emergency because you maybe people would want to know where there relatives, friends or even the population of a town, are/is. It is also important to tell the victims where they could move to a safer place or get some help/food and shelter. During (for example) hurricane Irene the storm center held the communication alive during the disaster. They updated a map that could be viewed on the laptop (not computer since electricity is needed and no electricity was available during the hurricane) to follow the damage of the hurricane and it's affection on states. Before a disaster usually helpful information would be communicated. For example when and where exactly the hurricane would affect and how much damage. Also what might be helpful is how to prevent serious damage of the hurricane or where food, shelter or help could be found. To be able to view all the help hardware and software is required. A phone, laptop/computer, mouse, television, tabloid, Ipad, etc. Software needed would be internet (connection) explorer(etc.) search engine e.g. google chrome, yahoo!, etc.


Monday, 7 May 2012

Communication and the Internet



      Synchronized forms of communication are direct forms of communication. This means parties are present at the same time.

      Asynchronous forms of communication do not involve both parties to be present at the same time. Some examples of synchronous forms of communication are emailing, blogging, discussion boards and text messaging over phone, telephone conversation, instant messaging e.g. Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo!Messenger.
Through synchronous forms of communication informal information or chats might be conveyed since it is a live chat. By asynchronous forms of communication more often formal language is used.
For synchronous ways of communicating the hardware needed would be; phone, computer/laptop, keyboard(if using computer),etc. The same hardware could be used for asynchronous ways of communication.
Software that might be useful would be; internet explorer/Google chrome, might need to download some of the software. For example; Windows Live Messenger, etc.