Productivity Tools

Productivity tools can be very useful not only in relation to businesses but also when it comes to university and student life. A productivity tool is a type of software which can help an individual increase his/her productivity,whether that be in time management, or even in a project. There are many different productivity tools which are easily accessed on the Internet, examples of such tools would include online calendars such as Google calender, startpages like netvibes which we have previously come across in this class and online RSS Readers such as Bloglines. The productivity tool which I would mainly use on a day to day bases is an online calender. This tool is really useful as you can enter in events (which you can then send invites to your friend about via email) and reminders for exams or essay/assignment deadlines. You can choose to be notified by email or get a text message sent directly to your mobile phone. It is also very straight forward to use and easily accessed by use of a computer or even your phone. From my own experiences so far there is no risks in relation to this tool. Each account is guarded by your own personal password so it is not possible for anyone else to view your information. The following is a link to the online calender which I use on a daily bases http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/about.html

Online Video

Before this lecture I had not heard of any online video websites such as Dailymotion or Veoh other then YouTube. The two sites which I am going to compare are YouTube and Dailymotion. I firstly ran a search on the video site which I was most familiar with, YouTube. I put in the name of a band and the particular song I was looking for, this was Sugababes: About a Girl. I then clicked on the search button and immediately I got 775 results for this particular search. These search results could then be sorted by their relevance for example, newest,oldest, rating or when they were uploaded, today, this week, this month. I then went to Dailmotion to do the same search. Like before I entered the name of the band and the song I was looking for into the search bar and clicked on search. I was presented with 36 results for this search. Like with YouTube my search results could be sorted by relevance, most viewed, most rated, but I could not group then in relation to how recently each video was uploaded. A brief description of what each video was about was given on both sites as well as a rating and the time length of each video. I found both sites very similar and straight forward to use. After "sampling" both sites I preferred YouTube for two main reason, (1) I was provided with a greater number of search results which ment more variety and (2) I was given more options of how I could narrow down my search results so as to make it easier to find the specific video.

Virtual Worlds

Q:"Are virtual worlds like Second Life a fad or a technology that will endure?"

Virtual reality "is not a fly-by-night technology. It's not a passing fad," (Morrison,s (2009) A Second Chance for Second Life. The Wall Street Journal. Available from:http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB125064110693841789-lMyQjAxMDI5NTEwOTYxNDkxWj.html [Accessed 9 November 09]) I fully agree with this statement. I believe virtual worlds such as Second Life to be that of ground breaking technology. At first virtual worlds were only used for "gaming" and were compared to computer games such as The Sims. Second Life has become much more superior to any other game out there today. Many people are investing money in Second Life and have set up their own businesses and services here. University lecturers can deliver classes and seminars to their students using this technology, this is very useful when it comes to "hard to reach" students . There is an increasingly growing market for these virtual worlds in today's society. This growing market is due to the notion of a "new economy" and access to it. It is estimated that there is already over 100 million active users (avatars) of virtual worlds and I believe this number will continue to increase as more and more people become familiar with the concept. I cant see this idea of "virtual worlds" disappearing anytime in the near future, it has only begun to grow and has not yet reached anywhere near its full potential.

Wiki

A wiki can be a very useful web 2.0 tool in relation to education and support learning. A wiki can be defined in the category of "social software". This software is web based and enables users to freely create and edit a specific web page using any Internet web browser. In many cases students do not feel comfortable addressing a class with his/her opinions or questions. This is where I believe the use of a wiki in a class environment can be very effective. For example if a main theme or topic was chosen for this particular web 2.0 module, where each week we as a class had to discuss different aspects there may be a number of students who would be reluctant to contribute to the class out of insecurity and embarrassment. On the other hand if a wiki was used to hold these discussions more and more students would take part as the fear of "asking a stupid question" or "giving the wrong information" is diminished. Students can be completely anonymous if they wish and so can freely express their own personal views or queries with confidence. "Individuals come together and develop a repertoire of shared practices, bringing new experiences to the group and learning from the group's existing practices" (Choy,s.Ng,k. (2007) "Implementing wiki software for supplementing online learning". Australasian Journal of Educational Technology,23(2):209-226.) This quote sums up how effective and substantial this web 2.0 tool can be in a learning environment. Wiki not only support learners in their continual quest to acquire information and knowledge but also aids in the development of their skills which are vital for future learning.

• A relevant website to this topic is : http://www.educause.edu/wiki/Wiki-based+Collaborative+Learning (Educause.(2009)Available from:<> [Accessed 9 November 09]
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1-8OOrBi0o ~ this link is regarding a lecturer call Richard Buckland who has been using Wikis in his large class (100-500 students) teaching in Engineering and Computer Science since 2000.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

RSS feeds

Q: How using RSS feeds can assist students here at UCD.

RSS feeds can be very useful to students at UCD who are researching information on a certain topic or trying to follow developments regarding a specific event or issue. RSS feeds are basically simple text files that, once submitted to feed directories, will allow subscribers to see content within a very short time after it's updated. This removes the time consuming process of checking up on various websites relating to the students topic of interest and instead enables the students to receive notification when the site or page has been update (saves on web surfing time) .RSS feed comes in the form of headlines and a brief description so students can easily scan the headlines and click only those issues/topics that interest them. Students can choose which feeds they wish to subscribe to and if at any point they are unhappy with the content contained in the RSS feed they can simply unsubscribe and no longer receive feed updates. RSS feeds are very helpful to students and assists them in making their research process that bit easier.

Social Networks

Q:What do you like/don't like about your experience with using these tools?

In my own personal opinion I think that social network sites, such as Facebook and Bebo, can be very useful in a lot of different ways. I find sites like Facebook, which I am a member of, to be very useful in normal everyday life. It is a way of keeping in contact with friends and family, whether they life far way or next door. I'm able to stay in touch with my school friends, which now since I'm in college I don't get to see as much, but with facebook I can have instant messaging conversations with them or simply receive or sent comments. Also on these social networking sites you can post pictures of events or even just nights, an example of a networking sight which is dedicated to the posting of pictures is known as Flicker.
On the other hand there is also a negative side to social networking sites. This negative side includes issues such as invasion of privacy, bulling and also not knowing who can see or use the information or pictures which you post~user rights. I think with any Internet sight you have to be careful with what you post or upload to your profile and always adjust the privacy settings to suit you.

Setting up a blog

To begin with I didnt really no what to expect when I was told we were going to set up our own blogs. But I found creating my blog to be alot easier then I initially thought it would be. I firstly had to set up my own personal account by entering my email address and a password. After doing this I was then able to personalise my blog. I chose the particular template I wanted and also entered in personal information such as my name, gender, age etc. I then was able to rearrange the layout of my blog and organise it in a way that suited me. After completeing the "house-keeping" on my blog I then turned my focuse on actually posting to my blog. To do this I clicked on "new post" and a text box appeared on the screen. I then began to write and the once I had finished I clicked on the "Publish Post" option. To make sure that I had posted to my blog correctly I then went to "View Blog" and my new post appeared. To my suprise I found the process of creating and posting to my blog to be very straight forward as there is very easy to follow step by step instructions.