Day 5

The term Web 2.0 describes today’s online applications, interactions and devices, how is this technology changing my professional career?

Think beyond the basic web tool we use for social networking such as e-mail, DoubleClick, they were just about publishing, not sharing in other words not participation. However, I think web 2.0 practices and facilitates creating, sharing and interacting with information. It has been seen as the market for conversation. Back to mid-February, I was invited to do a Lady Gaga design for a photographer’s photo-shoot, both for hair and make-up. It was a fun to working with different people and I value each experience as the opportunity to build up my portfolio.  After the shooting was done, everyone was waiting for the photos while the editing was in process. Normally, from my past experiences, photographers used to send us discs or printed photos via post but now there is a quicker, more convenient way for sharing work. Most popular website is Flickr, photographers give out the ID and we (the make-up & hair artist, stylist and models) log in and access to all the photos and download them to our computers. Before having my own business website, Flickr was chosen as my online portfolio for potential employers to view and secondly, it has been used as my own display room for people to view and leave feedbacks. I think the web 2.0 technology has made changes in terms of improving the work efficiency. As the same as Dropbox, which is an online free service that let people to bring, upload and download photos, also for documents and videos anywhere and share them easily. So there is no need to email yourself a file again! I find this web tool is helpful, efficient and is becoming essential in my career life. Moreover, I even use this website for my diaries which I am writing now because you never know what will happen to your computer or your diary book might get lost. Every time when I finish writing the next step I do is uploading the documents to Dropbox and it only takes seconds to complete. In comparison to similar services, Dropbox offers a relatively large number of user clients across a variety of desktop and mobile operating systems. For example, when I am at a friend’s home and use her laptop to upload work and it is a Microsoft Windows version and mine which I normally use is Mac, I can still use Dropbox on her computer because this tool is specially designed to all different versions. As well as versions for mobile devices, I can access this tool on my boyfriend’s Android and it functions exactly the same as on my iPhone. As a student, a professional and a social networking participant, there is no doubt that web 2.0 is transforming my or our society, such as mentioned Flickr and Dropbox, they have supported collaborative communications, improved work efficiency and lowered the interaction costs. They are part of my life now because they simplify my life! 

Day 4

Ok, continuing with yesterday’s question but I’d like to expand more into communication, so ‘why web 2.0 is not only well suited for learning but also for communication’?

Having mentioned in my previous diary, Blogs have been transformed from simple text form to participatory platform for people to use as sources for viewing ideas, updating news and exchanging comments etc. In many ways, I feel it is similarly to other forms of media like YouTube or Facebook, all of these have the similar functions and most importantly, they provide me the opportunity to become either a creator or reader while interacting with others. The first thing I like is when creating my own blog, I can freely organize and decorate the profile or front page, so for my BAPP blog I chose the template in pink with patterns and added one of my favorite prosthetics make-up image as the background. All the designs in the template indicate my specialism and I think viewers can firstly get a sense of what the world I belong to. It is very interesting to see other people’s blogs, probably not view the words first and just have a look of the profile designs; you will notice the similarities and differences. In the BAPP group, most of people I know are from the dancing background and they have quite similarly tastes and organizations for their profiles, without looking the words you will have a rough idea to guess which background they come from. There is one more thing I like blogs is that people can control what they write and generally there is no one editing, judging and deciding on your content which provides spaces and freedom on thoughts and there is no right or wrong for publishing. It is more like another world for me, both private and worldwide.

Talking so far, back to the question why web 2.0 is not only well suited for learning but also for communication. Generally speaking, web 2.0 allows users to interact with each other, make formal and informal connections and share. Actually, people use this tool as a network to make communications with a big variety of people, where thousands of people may read and interact with each other over a single blog or one specific YouTube video. We have choices in what to follow, what to look, what to comment and what to download. When I do group projects at university, Facebook has been always the most popular place where we can create communications, have discussions and upload information. We create our own group for updates and images, videos, links and all kinds of researches which we think is relevant to the project. Everyone in the group has the opportunity to participate in the discussion room and make any comments. As well as my make-up side, people who I used to study together and work with, they use this network frequently, upload their new work regularly for people to view, comment and feedback, sometimes they put relevant shows on to link people to participate eg. IMATS (International Make-up Artist Trade Show). As the same as said in the reader, “it is a social system, where we interact, improve the user experience for others by sharing content and then link other people to events, experiences and content.” I think using web 2.0 to communicate can make our lives much easier, they lower the costs of travel, costs of materials and other sources, most importantly is encouraging and supporting collaboration and facilitating debate and discussion.  Gruber (2007) suggests that there are three components of an online system that support collective intelligence and the benefits that might be gained from web 2.0 platform like Facebook. Here I’d like to reveal them again in ways of reviewing the technology I use today and the change it has made to our day-to-day life:

• A social system, supported by computing and communication technology, which

generates self‐service problem solving discussions on the Internet.

   A search engine that is good at finding questions and answers in this body of content.

Google, for example, is very good at finding a message in a public forum in which

someone has asked a question similar to one's query.
  • Intelligent users, who know how to formulate their problems in queries that the

search engine can match to online question/answer pairs. In addition, users help the system learn when they provide intelligent feedback about which query/document

pairs were effective at addressing their problems’ 

 Day 3    
                                         

After talking the typical learning management system ‘Blackboard’ yesterday, I notice the significance, in-depth analyses of the relationship between Web 2.0 technology and learning. The web as platform which provides access to information and today we view the internet as the online library, instantly accessible.

Category 2: Web 2.0 is not only well suited for learning but also for research on learning and communication

As an artist, research is an important part involved in work and often regarded as a skill. Internet, the information universe and is the first place I frequently turn to for information before considering the library. According to the article web 2.0 and learning, these new, Web 2.0, applications take full advantage of the network nature of the web: they encourage participation and create communications. Statistically, these applications are very attractive for teachers and learners. Wikis, blogs, and social bookmarking are now commonly used in learning. Studying O’Reilly’s developed ‘meme’ of web 2.0, the diagram shows concepts, ideas and process and particularly identify the communication and interactive process. As mentioned in my last diary, Blackboard has been used as platform for learning and research at educational institutions.  After reading the essential readings in the reader, I’ve realized that these technologies, web 2.0, we use today is not only constructed for learning but also for research on learning.

Blogs: This participatory network is very new for me and I am not familiar with its usage. I’ve never had the habit of writing blogs until I joined the BAPP programme. I then started to push myself on diaries, in other words to get used to blog. As a fresh blogger, I think this web technology has been used as a social network for people who seek for information, who need to share ideas, exchange views and communicate various topics. When I do researches for my make-up and styling projects at university, most of the time I choose to go and look at some well-known make-up artists or stylists’ blogs or some fashion week live blogs for inspiration purposes (eg http://www.jaymanuel.com/blog/ a well know American make-up artist and he works as the art director in the American’s next top model show) Seeing those blogs, from words to work, I can see the updates, the ideas, the designs and the trends widely and internationally. It is interesting to view the comments from different participants, some of them are from the same field and some are just amateurs. Those comments, views can guide me into a process of analyzing what / where my research is going to start with and what my work theme, title and design etc are going to be….. there are so many questions come to my mind afterwards. Personally, I found being a participant in this network is to find what you look for and to know what you have learnt from. In comparison to the conventional ways eg. books, magazines and other sources, I rather prefer doing it online and exchange ideas with others. (I am not going to explain the reasons right now; I will leave them in my later diaries with more specific topics.) According to one of O’Reilly’s core competencies ‘Architecture of participation’, ‘Web 2.0 as a tool of networking and communication encourages and enables participation’. I accept, being a student, a practitioner, I realize communicating with tutors, colleagues and clients are important and this can give you ideas and confidence for improvement. Being able to participate in the social network such as mentioned earlier, ‘blogging’, “it is taking part in something as well as creating it”, said from O’Reilly. Every time when I go and look at other’s blogs, there has always been an interacting culture there and this atmosphere can bring me to another world with different new information, some you are already familiar with and some you are the first time to know, so you are not only a reader you are also a creator.

How technology can enhance teaching & learning

Day 2                                               10.04.2011 Sunday Sunny J

Today, after 3 hours chatting on Skype with an old friend of mine in China, I started to wonder what did we use to communicate in the last 10 years? how these technologies have been developed dramatically fast? Now, there seems no distance between us of whatever we do and wherever we are. Obviously, in someway, I accept that the network communities have achieved to change, adapt and alter the way in which we communicate, share and collaborate with others; also they have achieved to bring us convenience and efficiency in our life and work.

Web 2.0, I find this tool is essential in my everyday life, in other words ‘I can’t live without the internet.’ Having read through the concepts, principles and different opinions of the reader web 2.0 and additional readings, I realize there is so much to discuss and explore on this topic. Therefore, I have decided to divide this topic into categories/sections.

Category 1:  “How technology can enhance teaching & learning”

At universities, Blackboard is a tool that allows faculty to add resources for students to access online (things such as notices and term timetables/unit handouts). Powerpoint, video, audio, animation, and other applications are created outside of Blackboard and added into Blackboard courses for students to enhance teaching and learning efforts. Whenever is in term time or not, I check blackboard regularly and there two main reasons for me to do this. As a student, I think blackboard provides many great features that allow me to access grades, content and communication tools. Also, it is a resource for me to be able to view class handouts, tests, and discussions that are provided by my tutor. Moreover, Blackboard allows me to view handouts, review tests, see the progress of my tasks, and more in order to enhance my learning experience. It enables me to contact my tutor at anytime and other students outside of class time. Very often, it allows me to assist and collaborate with others to enhance my course experience, share ideas and collaborate projects with different groups of people. With the outside artists or fashion agents, paid job or unpaid job offers are always put on the blackboard notice board. It is a great place to receive job offers, building up portfolios with others and it is a useful resource for students to keep records. The same with BAPP website, it has similarly functionality with Blackboard to provide us the quickest and convenient access to all course documents.

(This is a clearer and more detailed video to get an image in mind of how this technology works and being managed to deliver information.)

http://blackboardsupport.calpoly.edu/content/faculty/Video/Faculty_Videos/WhyTechnology.html

                                                                                                 To be continued……

Starting my journey with diaries…

  Day 1                                                                                                   08.04.2011 Friday Sunny J

  After meeting Adesola and discussing all the tasks of the module this morning, all my initial thoughts seem to have disappeared because I was lost, confused and afraid of bloging before we met, but now there is a clearer picture in my mind and the direction of where I am heading to is much straightforward. Writing diaries then has been decided as my method to complete the tasks instead of doing them in the conventional way. It is although a little late to start doing the tasks now and I think it is important and better to begin with what to know than what to do.   

  Writing, it is always the topic that I am afraid of, never have had the habit, even in my first language (ChinesL). However, after the tutorial with Adesola, diaries seemed to be the effective and valued way for me to record my life without missing the whole journey. I know it is a big challenge for a person who never writes diaries and now this becomes my first goal that I need to achieve while completing the tasks. I admit that practice is the key to success and I have to use this opportunity to build up the habit in ways to know myself more and find out what the other important things surround me. I would say this is my first day of my journey, like Adesola said, you never know what you have experienced until you start to write and once you start doing it the answers will gradually appear.