Here's an advertisement set in a classroom that might remind you of a few students you've seen in your classroom over the years. Of course, this instructor is pretty irresponsible for not encouraging his students to set higher standards. Still, it is good for a chuckle.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Pictures Not to Include on a Blog or a MySpace Page
I'm always amazed at the pictures that students will put on blogs or social networking sites. They may be great photos to share with their friends, but if they are identified in the photo, is it worth jeopardizing your chances of being selected for a job? Just in case your students need some guidelines about what not to include on a web site, here are a couple of suggestions...
You may feel passionately about a particular cause...which is fantastic...get involved! However, a prospective employer may not agree with your views. In the majority of cases, you should keep your personal views separate from your work life.
Anything showing you with alcohol, partially clothed or in an embarrassing situation. It might have been a great party, but will it impress an employer?
It is hard to imagine how the ability to do a keg stand would impress any boss! Yet I constantly see these photos on the web.
Discussion Questions for Students:
1. Have you ever posted anything online that you feel that a potential employer should not see? Do you think it would affect your employment opportunities?
2. Should employers check the Internet for information before hiring potential employees? Why or why not?
3. Do you think that you should have a right to privacy regarding information you place on a MySpace or Facebook page? How would you ensure that your privacy was protected?
You may feel passionately about a particular cause...which is fantastic...get involved! However, a prospective employer may not agree with your views. In the majority of cases, you should keep your personal views separate from your work life.
Anything showing you with alcohol, partially clothed or in an embarrassing situation. It might have been a great party, but will it impress an employer?
It is hard to imagine how the ability to do a keg stand would impress any boss! Yet I constantly see these photos on the web.
Discussion Questions for Students:
1. Have you ever posted anything online that you feel that a potential employer should not see? Do you think it would affect your employment opportunities?
2. Should employers check the Internet for information before hiring potential employees? Why or why not?
3. Do you think that you should have a right to privacy regarding information you place on a MySpace or Facebook page? How would you ensure that your privacy was protected?
Fun With Hard Drives
Hard drives need to remain hermetically sealed otherwise they tend to stop functioning. But have you ever wondered what a hard drive looks like on the inside while it is running? Thanks to someone sacrificing a hard drive (they won't be able to use it again), now you can see what really happens.
And if you've never defragmented a hard drive, this is what it looks like in time lapse mode.
And if you've never defragmented a hard drive, this is what it looks like in time lapse mode.
The Mom Song (William Tell Overture)
This is a good video to play for 8am classes while you are waiting for class to start. The William Tell Overture is very difficult to sleep through, IM through, etc. And Generation Y students can usually relate to this video as the comedienne does remind them of their mom!
How Not To Use PowerPoint
This is a humorous look at things you shouldn't do when you are creating PowerPoint slides to support a presentation. Even though it is funny, the video makes a lot of valid points that are worth pointing out to students.
A Vision of Students Today
This video gem is from the Cultural Anthropology Faculty at Kansas State University who have brought us so many other clever videos over the past couple of years. They asked their students to work on a shared document (sort of a wiki) and to comment on what was going on with each of them when they were in the classroom. They filmed the results and displayed them in a thought-provoking way (students holding up signs). The students' comments probably reflect many of the issues your students are facing.
Even though this video is designed more for faculty than for students, I still find it beneficial to show to my students. It gets them thinking and often sparks a good discussion about what they want to get out of my class. Often showing this video will spark student interest in using wikis. Two free sites where students can set up wikis are Wikispaces and PBworks (formerly PBwiki).
Discussion Questions for Students:
1) Which issues from the video are you facing in your classes? What solutions would you propose to the students in the video to address their concerns?
2) Have you ever used a wiki or Google documents to share information with a group or plan a project? Have you ever used these tools in classes at this institution?
3) Do you think you would find wikis useful in your classwork? What about in your personal life?
Even though this video is designed more for faculty than for students, I still find it beneficial to show to my students. It gets them thinking and often sparks a good discussion about what they want to get out of my class. Often showing this video will spark student interest in using wikis. Two free sites where students can set up wikis are Wikispaces and PBworks (formerly PBwiki).
Discussion Questions for Students:
1) Which issues from the video are you facing in your classes? What solutions would you propose to the students in the video to address their concerns?
2) Have you ever used a wiki or Google documents to share information with a group or plan a project? Have you ever used these tools in classes at this institution?
3) Do you think you would find wikis useful in your classwork? What about in your personal life?
Sources of Videos Other Than YouTube
Can't find what you are looking for on YouTube? There are certainly plenty of other sources of free video on the Internet. Here are a few of my favorite sites:
Google Video - You would think since Google bought YouTube they would have combined the two sites by now (or at least made the functionality the same). But you would be wrong! Google Video, still technically in beta, hosts videos in a similar fashion to YouTube. But the real strength of this site is the search feature. As you can see from the image below, the search box default option is to search the entire web for videos, not just ones hosted on the Google Video site. Therefore, this is a superior search feature to the one offered on YouTube which only searches videos hosted on the YouTube site.
Lab Rats - Two technology journalists, Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers, started making video podcasts in October 2005. Fortunately for us, people loved them and now the Lab Rats website contains over 100 video podcasts on technology. These videos are well written, produced professionally and contain useful information on topics ranging from Web browser security to iPod hacking. There is something here for every level of student.
5 min - 5min is a site that offers short video solutions (all 5 minutes or less) to practical questions. Their idea, as explained on their site, is simple: "...any solution can be visually explained in no more than 5 minutes. Our goal is to create the first communal Life Videopedia allowing users from all over the globe to contribute their knowledge by sharing visual guides in areas such as arts, business, fashion, sports, health, tech, food, and much more." They have a technology section which contains some very informative videos such as Wikis in Plain English and How to Retrieve a Lost Windows Password. While not as extensive a collection as YouTube, the videos at 5min are very high quality and well produced videos.
If you know of any other sites that provide useful technology videos (for free, of course), mention them in a comment to this post and I'll add them to this list.
Google Video - You would think since Google bought YouTube they would have combined the two sites by now (or at least made the functionality the same). But you would be wrong! Google Video, still technically in beta, hosts videos in a similar fashion to YouTube. But the real strength of this site is the search feature. As you can see from the image below, the search box default option is to search the entire web for videos, not just ones hosted on the Google Video site. Therefore, this is a superior search feature to the one offered on YouTube which only searches videos hosted on the YouTube site.
Lab Rats - Two technology journalists, Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers, started making video podcasts in October 2005. Fortunately for us, people loved them and now the Lab Rats website contains over 100 video podcasts on technology. These videos are well written, produced professionally and contain useful information on topics ranging from Web browser security to iPod hacking. There is something here for every level of student.
5 min - 5min is a site that offers short video solutions (all 5 minutes or less) to practical questions. Their idea, as explained on their site, is simple: "...any solution can be visually explained in no more than 5 minutes. Our goal is to create the first communal Life Videopedia allowing users from all over the globe to contribute their knowledge by sharing visual guides in areas such as arts, business, fashion, sports, health, tech, food, and much more." They have a technology section which contains some very informative videos such as Wikis in Plain English and How to Retrieve a Lost Windows Password. While not as extensive a collection as YouTube, the videos at 5min are very high quality and well produced videos.
If you know of any other sites that provide useful technology videos (for free, of course), mention them in a comment to this post and I'll add them to this list.
Increase Your Blog or Web Site Functionality with Mashups
Web 2.0 is all about functionality and user input. There certainly is plenty of data available on the Web, but sometimes it isn't exactly in the format you desire. This is why mashups were born. A mashup draws data (or functionality) from two (or more) different sources and deploys them within a single tool. An example would be drawing location pictures from Google Earth and adding them to house listings from a real estate agency. Lots of mashups are created using Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) methodology.
But for mere mortals, like your computer literacy students, Microsoft has provided a site which allows the easy creation of mashups with drag and drop functionality. Popfly is a cool site which you can access for free using a Microsoft Live ID (also available for free). Once you are there, there is a handy tutorial which will have you making your first mashup, which you can then deploy on a blog, social networking site or Web page, in just minutes. But to make things even easier, just watch the video below which shows you how to make a photo carousel mashup and include it on a blog.
So turn your students loose on Popfly and see what they can create. If you are using blogs in your classes (see the Blogging Across the Curriculum blog) or have students creating their own social network on Ning, require them to make a mashup and include it on their site. You may be surprised at what they design!
Alas...since I originally posted this, Microsoft has killed off Popfly. Well, it was fun while it lasted!
But for mere mortals, like your computer literacy students, Microsoft has provided a site which allows the easy creation of mashups with drag and drop functionality. Popfly is a cool site which you can access for free using a Microsoft Live ID (also available for free). Once you are there, there is a handy tutorial which will have you making your first mashup, which you can then deploy on a blog, social networking site or Web page, in just minutes. But to make things even easier, just watch the video below which shows you how to make a photo carousel mashup and include it on a blog.
So turn your students loose on Popfly and see what they can create. If you are using blogs in your classes (see the Blogging Across the Curriculum blog) or have students creating their own social network on Ning, require them to make a mashup and include it on their site. You may be surprised at what they design!
Alas...since I originally posted this, Microsoft has killed off Popfly. Well, it was fun while it lasted!
Web 2.0 Parody Video
Here's an amusing send up of Web 2.0 called Here Comes Another Bubble. It can be used to start a discussion of Web 2.0 in your classroom. WARNING: The darn song might run through your head all day!
Discussion Questions for Students:
1) What is Web 2.0? What are the key attributes of Web 2.0 applications?
2) Which of these Web applications do you use on a regular basis? Social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) wikis (wikispaces, pbwiki, Google Docs), blogs, social bookmarking (digg, del.icio.us). Which sites are most useful to you and why?
3) What types of activities can't you do in the applications you are using now that you would do if the functionality were available? (This usually produces lively discussion as students say, "Hey, you can do this on blahblahblah.com!")
Discussion Questions for Students:
1) What is Web 2.0? What are the key attributes of Web 2.0 applications?
2) Which of these Web applications do you use on a regular basis? Social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) wikis (wikispaces, pbwiki, Google Docs), blogs, social bookmarking (digg, del.icio.us). Which sites are most useful to you and why?
3) What types of activities can't you do in the applications you are using now that you would do if the functionality were available? (This usually produces lively discussion as students say, "Hey, you can do this on blahblahblah.com!")
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