Did you Know 4.0?

Updated version of "Shift Happens."

SLED Meetup

After looking at the SLED calendar, I decided to join the ISTE Island social. After finding Cheryl and Julie, I was told that the event was cancelled--so we had our own social hour! We were joined by Elizabeth, and we had some help by a moderator due to our audio problems--some of us echoed, or we couldn't hear each other. It was fun! We talked about our project, Second Life, and got to know each other better.  I hope to join a "real" SLED event in the future. 

Audio Embed/Embed Thoughts

I finally got my .mp3 example uploaded to Soundboard, and here it is:

Push Play! I created this Podcast in the fall of 2006 when I taught Computer Applications to freshman, and this was my example on making a podcast...I wish I had a theme or concept with all three media files, but due to time constraints, and what I had already, these three will have to do!

I found that embedding the video and photo were the easiest to do--YouTube and Flickr are very embed friendly:) I used Flickrslidr to help generate the photo embed code. My audio problems were that I have many Quicktime files(.mov) that I had to convert to .mp3's by a leapfrogging process--upload the .mov file through Quicktime Pro, convert it to a .wav, import to Audacity(another audio file maker app), and then export it as a .mp3...ugh. A lovely 15 minutes spent. Inserting all three files into Blogger was a piece of cake, and surprisingly, so was to my CMSimple site.

About Me Video

Example of Video embedding...

Flickr Photostream

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

After watching the video below, I am again impressed with Michael Wesch and his students. I can actually remember sitting at my desk at my campus job in college on April 3rd, 2005 and reading on CNN about this new website launch called YouTube--funny the things you remember, yet I can't find my keys daily. I liked hearing his points regarding YouTube-how it creates a new type of platform of creativity and communication(everyone can now join and participate); that the "Numa Numa" video craze wasn't about mocking a guy in his basement, but venerating him, by documenting your own version of the song, copying him, and sending it to your friends, and they join in; and that anyone has a voice, a presence, and an opportunity for new possibilities. He discusses the variety of videos--from home videos(Charlie Bit Me!), to Soulja Boy's user created dance moves that became a Billboard hit and played at every school dance or radio station, to how YouTubers are using the site for their own personal blog or "vlog." It was impressive to hear the stats on his "Machine is Us/ing Us" video, and amount of buzz it generated over that Superbowl weekend-a slim 250 viewers grew to millions by that Sunday.

Yet, YouTube has created a culture of disconnect, and a desire to communicate. We see this in almost every web 2.0 application, especially with Twitter and Facebook. Not to digress from the topic, but people follow others on Twitter that I can guarantee will never meet in real life(unless it truly is a friend or family member), and honestly, I "friend" many folks on Facebook these days just to keep tabs(as opposed to four years ago when I signed up as a way to stay connected...well, I still have those feelings, too. It's a mix!). YouTube, as Michael Wesch said "is an integrated mediascape." It increases the individuality, yet we long for a community. 

For our class, I think this rings true--we all live scattered either across North Carolina, or like me, I live in Tennessee-not close at all. Many of the professors in this grad program live on a completely different continent. I probably will never meet them in real life, unless they journey to Boone for graduation. Yet, we create content to be viewed by classmates, have online chat sessions(either via a chat program, like Skype), use Skype to have verbal conversations, meet in Second Life, post questions and comments in a forum, design a website to be viewed and critiqued, or just email back and forth. We want the communication gap to be smaller, too.  This class is chipping away at this user generated organization/distribution/commentary block just nicely:)

Wikimedia Reviews

I decided to review Wikiquote and WikiSource:

On Wikiquote's homepage, the user can choose a language preference on the homepage(like on Wikipedia and other wiki sites in Wikimedia), and on the front page of Wikiquote states "Wikiquote is a free online compendum of sourced quotations from notable people and creative works in every language, translation of non-English quotes, and links to Wikipedia for further information." One can choose from certain people, literary works, films, television shows, themes, or the miscellaneous on the homepage via already created links. There is the search tool, and there is a section highlighting new pages. For experimenting, I chose a quote from "The Little Prince," a literary work, and a favorite of mine. After clicking on the link, quotes are seen in French and in English-pretty cool. A link to the author Antoine de Saint-Expury is also listed for further reading. Another example was a TV show quote-on the homepage, I clicked on the link for tv shows, and an alphabetical list of shows are listed-I chose "The Office," and discovered the quotes are listed by season, and episodes are listed as subcategories, and the quotes are found in those links. Pretty impressive and lots of work by many users! I chose Wikiquotes because I find strength, humor, and a sense of peace with quotations-many are on my fridge and on my desk at work. I see myself visiting this site often, and contributing!

On Wikisource, it states "the free library that anyone can improve" under the Wikisource icon. Wikisource, as of today, has 128, 484 texts in the English language library. On the homepage, a feature text section is shown with an entry and image, and next to that is a new text area, which has the newest submissions. One can search by authors(subpages are by alpha order or by era), or works(country, genre, subject, type, or by index audio recordings). I decided to choose a work by subject for an example. There are only 13 subcategories so far, and I clicked on Culture. Within that category, 16 further subcategories are listed, and there is a Travel link. Within Travel, an entry by Henry James, "A Little Tour in France" piqued my interest. It has a short backstory on the work and on James, and below it are the chapters for reading.

While browsing other parts of Wikisource, there seems that more is needed on this website. Not many entries or submissions are found, or just a few for each category. Yet, what is already submitted is pretty informative.