Pros and cons of digital portfolios

As I was working on creating a website (google sites) for my professional portfolio I realized how much work and effort I put into it. I'll tell you it was a lot of work! I wasn't sure exactly how it was supposed to look so I took a lot of time with it. The other types of portfolios from Plaxo and LinkeIn were somewhat easier to handle as they resembled something like Facebook. However, with your own website you can design it however you like because it's YOURS. Creating your own website takes some informal training, but you can make it public to the whole world wide web. The other sites are only visible to those who have an account, but they seem to be a lot easier to create. Of the three I really like Plaxo because it directed me through all the steps and is very user-friendly. The biggest advantage of using any digital portfolio is that it is accessbile to more people at any time because it's on the web. Creating this portfolio was something new and overall I enjoyed the experience! If you want to check out my website click the link below.
https://sites.google.com/site/dianasdigitalportfolio/home

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/D_Ortega

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/D_Ortega

What a cool idea this was. LibraryThing helped me search for memorable books from elementary and high school (To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies). This online library is especially helpful for those booklovers and you can even look at other people's catalogs to see if you like anything that they have. I could see a lot of similarities with this and Facebook except for the fact that it's for books. Instead of connecting with friends of the past you get to connect with old novels. :)

Generator Blog: Personalized Money - US $100 (2003)

Personalized Money - US $100 (2003)

Everyone's always wanted their face on some money so try it out! This generator was so easy and you can upload any image. There are other currencies to choose from so have fun with it. I picked this generator because the other ones sounded lame and not very tasteful (if you know what I mean). I would definitely use the Generator Blog in the future to make some gag gifts or send funy messages to friends. Enjoy!

NIKE JOGA BONITO - TALENTO

These guys are sick with the ball. I can get down with the ball just not like them! Check it out...

You probably can tell why I chose this video. They move so natural with the ball it's amazing.

Podcasting

I just added some new feeds from the podcast search site that I thought I could use: Highland Training Power Yoga and Fit4LifCenter. These feeds were easy to find with podcast.com and there are many other useful podcasts, just depends on what you are looking for. The power yoga offers some mini yoga lessons that can be used as a daily practice session. The Fit4LifeCenter is a radio show that offers health tips and information. If I used podcasts on a daily basis I could see myself using these feeds and looking into others that interested me. There were lots of radio shows and I was able to find some WorldCup news and dessert recipes (yum). But as I mentioned before I am new to podcasts and will have to play around with them first before getting hooked.

YouTube

YouTube is fun to use because there are so many random videos to find. You can learn new dance steps, find dinner recipes, learn how to make paper mache, or just laugh at all the fools who posted their videos. The content of the videos is open so people need to take caution because anything will come up. Using this site for classroom purposes would be a great tool to help explain or demonstrate an activity/lesson. YouTube is easy and convenient and kids are very familiar with it so it can be highly useful for any classroom. For learning how to create arts and crafts projects or class activities there is TeacherTube which is teacher version of YouTube. I have used this tool and it is great because real teachers post their videos of different activities.

Technorati

Some of the directories that we've been using in class lately seem all the same to me. The latest was Technorati which is a huge directory for tags from blogs and posts. There is so much information out there that I think it's helpful to have a management tool to organize it all. I'm not sure if I would use tool again in the future but it I can say that it was fun to explore. There wasn't a lot of information related to kinesiology--unless I didnt't search correctly. On the other hand I did find a lot of tags related to celebrities and the Android. The popular tags and searches were mostly about new technology (iPad, Android), celebrities, sports, and politics. There is endless information to find with Technorati and those who are interested in this stuff would definitely have fun with it.

Del.icio.us

As I browsed through delicious I didn't really understand the whole idea of tagging and bookmarking things. I have been so used to just 'Googling' everything and used that to narrow down my search for different things. Now that I went through delicious I can see how it makes this process a little easier for searching. Even more important is that you can set your own tags and bookmarks on anything you want and add it to the never ending lists of other content.
I would say that this is an easy and convenient way to tag items at your own risk. This idea of tagging is essential for the web to work and your input may be the missing link for someone else on the other side of the globe. Since research from the web is one of my main resources I would say that delicious is a valuable tool in this process. It's easy to use and I can find almost anything with it. The ability to research with this tool seems more practical and you are given a broader variety of results for whatever you're looking for.

RSS feeds and bloglines

Just updated my bloglines account and realized how easy it was. You just copy and paste the address and hit subscribe and you're done! This makes following all my blogs a whole lot easier. I was already frustrated with having to search for everyone's blog then going back and forth, but with subscribing to feeds all that hassle is eliminated. And I like the feature of being able to add almost anything because then you are always notified of updates at the click of a button. Thanks bloglines and RSS feeds...
http://www.bloglines.com/public/DianaO

technology uses

I would say that pretty much all of the technology that we've used so far in this class can be used in my future career. The social networking sites would (Facebook and twitter) probably have the most benefits because they are utilized by so many people already. I can easily communicate with colleagues, students, athletes, and the public without having to make multiple phone calls. I could also advertise events and games that would definitely reach more people through blogs, Facebook, and twitter. And when you think of the more academic type stuff Google docs and podcasts will come in handy. Students will be able to access class documents and lectures without having to waste paper. We have all this technology that it is going to take some practice to understand it and figure out all the things that we can do with it. Now that I have some new knowledge I'll do my best to incorporate it into my career and life.

cool: web 2.0

Web 2.0 had some excellent sites that all looked very professional. I checked out the ImCooked site and it was pretty cool. It was like a YouTube for cooking--people would post videos of their recipes and cooking demonstrations. I would definitely look to this one in the future. And then the other sites I checked out were Revolution Health and Standout Jobs but they seemed like any other site I've viewed before. Using Web 2.0 can be useful especially when you want to see what everyone is talking about.

Google docs

So I was checking out google docs and really didn't know what it was until I went through the tour and demonstration. This tool has multiple uses and I can tell that it has been successful for many others. I think in my future career I would use it to upload documents (spreadsheets, presentations) so that my colleagues could easily view them at any time. This would definitely work for group collaboration type of projects as well. I wouldn't have to worry about looking through my flash drives to see where I saved my work because it would be accessible from any computer. I just have to get more familiar with it to make the most of it!

interesting stuff...

As I read through the articles I began to realize how almost everything we do now is going to be computer-based at some point. All communication will derive from a cell phone, laptop, or ipod and will be transmitted at greater speeds. The article titled "Social Networking" described many of the sites that people use to communicate, which have many benefits. If you had family in other states or even countries, communication would be at the click of your keyboard. You wouldn't have to worry about costly long-distance phone calls anymore. Also, the social networking movement has allowed organizations (not just individuals) to stay updated. "Emerging Technologies Changing Public Library Service Delivery Models" discussed some other uses for this arising technology used in libraries. Blogs provide inexpensive ways to post upcoming events and they can be viewed by anyone. "Web, Library, an Teen Services 2.0" described the idea of working toward connecting with teens. Instead of just advertising to them, organizations are becoming their friends and finding out their interests to keep teens included. Reading through these articles opened my eyes to a larger picture of what I was missing and what I could expect to see everywhere I go...

all this blogging...

I've heard about using twitter and facebook for awhile now, but I was never into all that stuff. I only used the internet for homework and research so now it's something I have to use. It seems to take time away from all the face-to-face interactions that I love, but since our world is constantly changing I'll just have to get used to it.

roses

roses
Originally uploaded by it's me...D

It's my first pic and it looks pretty good right? I took this right outside my front door while it was sprinkling wth the sun barely shining.

check out flickr too!

I just made a flickr account so now you can check out some of my pics...

hello there

so hopefully I set this up right but this is my very first blog...hope all you out there check it out!