Week 14-Using Games for Teaching and Learning

Educational gaming has been something that has been ingrained in many of our lives since elementary school. Now educational gaming has taken new forms with the release of the Wii gaming system as well as the playstaion game series. What we discussed in class was second life. Second life is a virtual reality where you can create a avatar and explore places like Italy and Shakespearean England. They said programs like this help children visualize the things they learn and bring textbooks to life.

The way things like Second Life could be used in public relations is being able to visualize a distant local for event planning purposes. Also building structures or mapping out an event to get a general gist fo what the set up is going to look like.

Week 13- Distance Education and Virtual Schooling

In class we spoke about distance education and virtual schooling. Online resources are definitely a fundamental portion of my college education. In discussion we spoke about the many online classes that are offered at the University of Florida and programs such as the University of Florida Masters of Business program that is offered totally online. We also discussed the legitimacy of online degrees and what profession would an online degree would be appropriate. We also reviewed what the future of online education would be in primary education as well as secondary education and whether it helps or hurts a child. We agreed that in some situation such a medical injury or may be in early childhood online education could replace the traditional classroom. Although, the class generally ha the consensus children need to experience peer-to-peer interaction in the classroom.

I don't have much use for online education. If I were to pursue a graduate degree I would want to participate in an online program so I could work. Thoguh, as ar as public relations and law an online education isn't very suitable.

Week 12- Professional Web Presence

This week's module focused on creating a professional web presence. When employers search your name it is important you are aware of what comes up and search results and have some form of control. In particular, we used google sites to creat our web presence. Google sites is an easy way of creating of web page previously I have used dreamweaver to create a website and it has proved to be a very tedious process. With google sites everything is done for you, all you have to do is add the context. We learned that sites such as these are an easy to create a professional web presence that allows you to have total control of its content.

A way a professional web presence can be used for my future career plans is for my law school application process. I can leave this website up for the potential professors to use as a resource for my letter of recommendations. It also will give my professors a more well rounded feel for who I am.

Online Social Networking Tools and Public Relations

The above is an example of online social networking tools that are pivotal to public relations professionals. Online social networking tools are a new wave in public relations that young people like myself are being recruited into public relations firms to act as an expert, These tools are ingrained in every young person's life, so it is definitely a career edge that recent college graduates have.

Week 11- Open Source Software

This module focused on open source software. Open source software is FREE software that is available and able to be edited in a forum fashion. Proprietorial software is licensed software that is usually purchased from a manufacturer, such as Microsoft office and adobe software. What open source does is offer free alternative to these often expensive software programs. For example, gimp is the open source alternative to photoshop. Audacity is the open source alternative to apple garage band. What is better about open source software is that upgrades are infinite because people can post software and allow others to improve it. The only draw back are the potential viruses that can result from the software.

For my career open source software can be beneficial currently for my class I have to work a lot with photoshop right now all I can afford is to use the software trials. Software like gimp does the same thing and is totally free. Although,open source might now be satisfactory for my professional work because if everyone has photshop no one else can manipulate or alter my work.

Week 9- Cloud Computing

The module this week focused on cloud computing particularly, google docs and social bookmarkng. As we come into the global age, your partner on a project can live clear across the world. Thus limiting the opportunity to meet and work together on documents and plans. In this module we learned that cloud computing offers a solution by allowing you and others users to work on and share information on tolls such as Google docs. Google docs functions like a wiki it allows you to save edit and view changes on a document that is available for multiple persons to edit. An example that is given is creating a list and each person erasing an item on the list that has been purchased.

Cloud computing could prove to be really essential tool for public relations. Tools such as social bookmarking and google docs could be utilized in the pre-planning aspect of public relations. Task lists, press releases, and event description can all be manipulated by the whole project team. For myself, I am interested in being a political consultant. I feel that I could definitely edit promotional items and work on them with my team across the country if we were promoting a political figure during his campaign.

The Sound of.....Podcasting

This is the audio file and please download

This is a voiceover I did for my sorority's performance. We used this because in a performance element it is more comfortable to focus on actions rrather than words. It gives a more confident execution. So we decided to record our script on a voiceover and we used background music in order to create a mood. I can definitely use garageband for formal presentation that are supposed to be ineractive for a corporate presentation or I can overlay a voiceover for a slide show that I am doing.

Week 8- Podcasting

This week's module concerns podcasting and its uses in the field of education. The articles used two examples to explain the succes sof podcasting in the classroom. One example highlighted Duke University and its use of ipods and podcasting to relay intregalabout the university. The second article listed an example of a student being injured and being able to stay current in school because of the podcast listed by her teachers. Podcasts are "audio files that can be played on the computer or downloaded to MP3 players." The premise is that podcast can be used a accessible informations that students can receive all the time and use that information to further reseach topic using other internet tools.

I can use podcasting in public relations to keep my publics current about the actions of my company. I can post a podcast every week and give the breaking news about my company. Then reporters would be able to access the information and pursue further information by contacting me. I podcast would be an easy way to keep current information accessible to a large group of people.

I cose this video because it shows a way podcasting can be used for an educational purpose. This youtube video is about a podcast that covers different exbithits around the world, and wants to entice people to subscribe so they can learn about the world for their own home. I chose this because I thought it showed another unique way podcasting was being used for education.

Week 7- Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a term to describe the new form of digital narratives used by ordinary people to tell a short story. In class, we covered such forms as iMovie, Powerpoint, and screen capture software. Digital media comes in analog and digital form. Analog information can be electric and is a physical representation of the original source. Digital form consists of information as a conversion of an original source into numeric data. Digital form comes in the form of digital photography, video, and storage.

I can use digital storytelling as a marketing tool for public relations. I feel the websites you have shown us in class can be used to be put on facebook to promote events. I think its creative and eye-catching and it draw an audience. It is a good way to show and not tell your information.

The following video from Youtube explains what digital storytelling is and the transition from the old form of story telling to the transition to digital storytelling. It explains how people can share stories at any time or any place and what forms it comes in. I chose it because it explains digital storytelling in very simple terms. It relates to our class discussion because it goes over the digital storytelling forms we went over in class.

Week 6- Visual Literacy

Visual Literacy is the use of visual elements such as dots, lines, and shapes, values, and hues. These elements combine together to create a visual syntax. This in turn, Visual literacy is the ability, through knowledge of the basic visual elements, to understand the meaning and components of the image.

This relates to public relations because often we have to use visual elements to create layouts for our clients for newsletters, brochures, and websites. Currently, I am in a called public relations visual communications. We learned that the above elements tell a story and can attract different groups of individuals depending on the way you use the elements. We learned we have to use visual elements in contrast and wisely.

This video goes over the individual elements of design and how it works together. It goes over many of the term used in the article. The video used is from youtube. It is really good because it shows example and explains everything in really simple terms.

Week 4- Copyright Law, Plagarism, and Ethical Issues

In this module we covered the different forms of copyright not limited to copyright infringement and what stipulations you can copyright a work under. We also covered under what circumstances you can use a copyrighted work. We also covered how education figures into education as in what forms of media we can use in the classroom without having to receive permission.

I can use this information in my own profession because in public relations we often how to come up with new marketing ideas or slogans that may be copyrighted already. This module kelped me to understand what exactly to means to cross the copyright lines. Also I discovered using copy written materials at events, can be problem some in my field after I read the module articles.

This youtube video is MIT lecture concerning copyright law concerning music and computers. I believe this is relevant because college students are the main violators of copyright law when it comes to music. The just further explains the legal boundaries of music and in what context you can use it.

Copyright Blog

Week 3- Web Technology

This module goes over the difference between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0. Web 2.0 consists of websites like wikis and blogs that can be altered by users and creates a community. Social networking sites are apart of that group too. Web 2.0 makes the internet a lot more interactive and you are more engaged into web browsing. It also creates a community because people are now more easily able to share their ideas.

Web 2.0 tools are very helpful in the realm of public relations. This is because we are able to get feedback from users and are able to respond to them. For example, if I put a promotional video on youtube, users would be able to comment on it and give their opinions. This provides direct feedback without having to actually find participants.

The video I posted was from youtube, the video explains to educators how they can use web 2.0 tools to enhance their classrooms. It gives a detailed description as to the origins of Web 2.0 and what specific tools can be used as education tools. This relates because we are trying to use Web 2.0 tools to enhance our professions.