[Running Late] Task 2 Wrap up!

I revisited the unit guide (page 14) for EDN113 and realised that what I have produced is still not quite what is required for me to pass the unit. That is, I have created: webpage with a page that links instructions on how to get to my social media website (forum, here)*, and a how to contribute instructions, but I forgot to show some examples of what I mean.

and here's what I mean.

CC by Cheng Keong, Instructions for Volleyballtips Proboards, 2014

 the image here above on the left, shows a example of what I would like to see in the forum.

and below. shows an example of how to achieve what I would like to see in the forum. It is like a form of 'meta-instructions'.

CC by Cheng Keong, Instructions for Volleyballtips Proboards, 2014

After the big realisation, I decided to start producing some examples and this only came to me when I was doing a review for another student's work. I decided what have I got to lose? If I included more information... (nothing). Hence, started adding examples.

CC by Cheng Keong, Instructions for Volleyballtips Proboards, 2014

Above, there are some threads (above) with videos inside about: digging, setting and spiking.

Despite not getting any feedback from anyone, I'm not too phased about what to work on because I am confident that what I have done will be good.

Some tools and websites that I found very useful was Internet Explorer (I.E.), Youtube, Google and Snipping Tool (Windows). Reasons why I found these useful are: without I.E. Youtube and Google would be inaccessible, Snipping Tool helped me get pictures to show you what I mean (see above). Youtube and Google allowed me to get images and videos for examples to display in task 2.

Of course there were alternative tools and websites that I could have used like: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Vimeo, Yahoo or Jing, but I did not want to use the 'common' technologies - to build more knowledge about a variety of different technologies.

The new technologies can be used in almost any situation that has a computer, phone or electronic device. By this I mean, browsing searching or researching can be done if your electronic device has a browser: Chrome, I.E. or Firefox. However Jing and Snipping Tool is primarily used on computers, because most smartphones nowadays come with an in-built screenshot function. 

Until next time (Task 3) :)

P.S. " * " means that you may have to log-in to see what it inside!

Task 2 Instructions (Done Correctly)

I realised that the instructions that I have prepared for Task 2, in the forums weren't exactly up to standard, and by that I mean it was more of a plan, so I decided to revisit the instructions and to spruce it up a bit. I deliberated over whether or not I should have redone my instructions because I wasn't sure if I really needed to. Over the weekend I gathered some information from friends via Facebook, which led me to feel like what I've done was not good enough. Hence, the remake that is available on my website at the bottom of the page.

Today, I learnt that the formatting for the powerpoint slides weren't anything special. As in I didn't have to select a particular theme to make it look good, I just had to start a new powerpoint and include information and some images, playing around with the text boxes to make everything fit nicely.

CC by Cheng Keong, Instructions for Volleyballtips Proboards, 2014

Recently a couple of members in our tutorial group (Friday, 10:30-11:30am class) set up a group on Facebook, where we could discuss our ideas and help each other with any questions or problems. In this chat I got to see how they went about task 2; the social web page and the social learning page. From the chat and Jenni's example social learning page, I got the idea about what to write about on the social learning page - context, social situation, why I chose the particular social space and how to get to my social space.

Implications of new knowledge include:

• becoming a more proactive forum user, especially for health pursuits
• using powerpoint to create slides for a simplistic transmission of information.
• setting up communications (online chat, maximal contact-time) can improve discussions and stimulate the generation of new ideas.

Its not much, but that's all for now~

Developing the Framework of the Social Media Webpage

Living and Learning with Technology (EDN113) has been a very difficult unit to wrap my head around. It is unique it its own way, because its not as formally structured as other units like EDN111, BED100 and EXS124. In those units we are instructed on what to do and usually how to do it, whereas in EDN113 we are instructed on what is required to be done and how to do it is up to you. We're required to research the things we don't know how to do and apply it to our tasks.

Today was basically about setting up the framework of task 2, not necessarily doing it to perfection, but getting something up there to work with. Today I came across the stump of, how to create a thread in my own forum. As it was new to me and many forums often have 'how to' sections. The how to section on Proboards.com helped me to overcome my minor problem. I simply glanced over the instructions picking up key points of information and merging it with my existing knowledge on social media forums, namely Facebook and other gaming forums.

Another complication that I hit today was uploading my own image to the forum, unfortunately for me it didn't support uploading direct from the computer like Weebly. So I decided that I needed a place to be able to upload my images and I googled "where can I push my images" but that came up with funny results, so I decided that push wasn't the correct word and backtracked a bit to "where can I" and google suggested "host my images." So I went with that and found Flickr and Hostmypicture. I decided to use hostmypicture instead of Flickr, because hostmypicture didn't require me to create an account before uploading any images.

Hostmypicture.com
CC by Cheng Keong, 2014

Being confused is one of the many thoughts that will always be on my mind in this subject. I was feeling anxious in the beginning, having completed a bit more of the task, I feel slightly more on top of it. The most terrifying part of the task 2 assignment was the beginning because I, and probably the rest of our EDN113 tutorial group, had no idea about what was going on! As time progressed and lectures went by more information was obtained about what a social situation was and what we had to do to complete the task, the task became easier.

To get started, I asked Stuart and Val for clarification to get some what of an idea about task 2. Considering that my friends had little idea about what task 2 was about, I didn't bother to asking them. I relied more on verbal information direct from a person rather than online discussion forums because I find it harder to understand written texts and elaboration from the person online may take some time.


I could use the skills of posting on forums, linking URLs for images, videos and hyperlinks on social media websites including: Facebook, Proboards and Blogger. I would use these skills, to make learning easier for other people, especially people who hate plain old traditional reading like me.

Posting a thread
CC by Cheng Keong 2014

Uploading a picture URL
CC by Cheng Keong 2014

Uploading a video URL
CC by Cheng Keong 2014

That's all for now.

Week 1, Introduction to the Social Learner (Task 2)

Well I am back again, clueless as to what is expected to be produced. Honestly, week 1 for me was completely mind-boggling, juggling other assignments and tasks from other units, leaving little time focus on the requirements of EDN113 (Living and Learning with Technology).

On Friday, the 28th of March 2014, Val Patton and Stuart Duvall lightly touched on task 2 - Social Learner. The main pieces of valuable information for me what was required for the assignment at hand. Which was the: 

• Social Situation
• Social Space
• Instructions
• Review

Above are 4 crucial factors in creating a successful task. Initially, I was going to pick an educational situation, however I decided to pick something I would really be passionate about, and for me that was Volleyball. I felt that if I chose something like how to improve students learning capabilities, I would have died of boredom.

I started by looking for a list of social networking sites via google:
"social media sites"

I basically chose the first hyperlink, because they usually have the most relevance to your search results which happened to be Wikipedia. I found quite a lot links there, however I wasn't able to find exactly what I wanted, because I didn't even know what I wanted exactly.

Then I started looking for a more common 'social space', which wasn't as easy as I thought, because I thought a social space could be anything like Blogspot, Flickr, Instagram, Twitter (due to the fact Facebook was NOT allowed). I knew that we had to use images or multimedia in our instructions, so I decided to go with something like Instagram or Flickr, but I thought it was too mainstream and that videos that were uploaded onto Instagram or Flickr would have to be only a few seconds long. Instagram doesn't really have an easy to navigate directory for instructions, so I preferred Flickr over Instagram, but I thought maybe Twitter would be a good idea because it was similar to Facebook, however there was the character limit (maximum amount of letters allowed in a post/comment) which is very undesirable when looking for a discussion. But... all of this was still in the planning phase. 

Which meant nothing was set in stone just yet..

Digital Citizenship and Poster

Today, I feel like Superman, having finished my poster on 'Online Presence and Awareness'. I was procrastinating too much about how to start the poster, about what to write about, what to put in, what images to select and where to start etc. Luckily I remembered that some phrases that were once said, "Just Do It" is exactly what you need to hear when you're in a moment of doubt..." and "Less thinking and more doing." These phrases gave me some motivation, along with some rewards in mind if I completed the task.

Online presence and awareness is all about being conscious of one's digital footprint. Like the carbon footprint with the effects of CO2 atmosphere, our digital footprint is about the effects of our virtual interactions on others; all in hopes to reduce our negative impact. My poster will assist teenagers in developing an awareness about some possible consequences of some actions, and some ways to reduce the effects. 

When I first thought I about the poster, I was baffled and clueless about how to start. However, it was a good thing I attended the lecture where Jenni Parker suggested that some topics that we could do our poster on: 

• online presence
• social networking
• cyber-bullying
• self-harassment
• sexting
• trolling
• grooming
• netiquette
• flaming
• exclusion, etc.

Once I had some ideas and motivation, application became easier. I also decided to use Piktochart simply because it sounds easy to use, from the advice my friends gave me and from the website caption, "Piktochart: Infographic and Graphic Design for Non-Designers". How could anyone resist using something that is dummy-proof. 

When using Piktochart, I found it hard to wrap my head around it, due to the fact I had no prior experience or idea about creating posters electronically. However it all came together after a couple hours of sitting at the computer and just playing with the tools. 

Once I knew what some more of the tools did, I just fiddled around completing a single section at a time: the header, some subsections, facebook, instagram, tips and images. Did a final touch up and then published.

Thats all for today.

Day Two of Website Creation: hyperlinking, image use and copyright attribute

A couple of nights ago, I started working on my website again. After a break from the first day, I started thinking about how to go about completing Task 1: Digital Citizenship. I figured out some components that required some extra work by: talking to friends, reading the unit guide (page 13), looking at the rubric and looking at completed blogs.

When I first heard about the first assignment for EDN113, I was totally freaking out, because I never thought I would ever design my own webpage. I always thought designing a webpage, meant you had to be able to use JavaScript and develop a magical code. It turns out that I was over-thinking it because the online app - weebly, made my life easier. After I discovered how to devise some pages, I procrastinated because I wasn't really sure what to do. Luckily for me, my friends informed me that we had to complete a webpage with: a homepage, about me and a blog. However, at the time I still felt confused and by reading the unit guide and examining the rubric, I have consolidated the idea that a website is comprised of a home page, about me section, a blog for discussions and specific pages that have been made specifically made for the website, e.g. Digital Citizenship and Social Learner etc. 

Some complications that I hit when spicing up my home page was trying to find a suitable image, which was creative commons approved or copyright friendly and technology related. I tried using Google to search for technology and information I found an image which I wanted to use at, Understanding the different aspects of technology and automated solutions, however I could not find the creative commons license. Later I found out in the lecture that if a website is: "Copyright © (year) All Rights Reserved," it actually meant that I was unable to use the image. I also found out that if it does not state it is copyright protected, is automatically is - meaning its better to look for another image.

I also discovered that attribution means to give credit to the owner of the artwork. I came across this information from Jenni Parker's lecture and from on a creative commons extension from Flickr when I was searching for some images for my webpage.

Lastly hyper-linking was something that I just knew about. Hyper-linking is usually represented by a 'chain' icon in Microsoft Word.

Likewise in Weebly it is still represented as a chain. When I wanted to hyperlink my blog to my website for example. I highlighted the text, 'blog' and clicked the 'chain' and went to my blog and copied the link and pasted into the pop-up from Weebly.com. 

Hope this will assist someone in the future, and that I can look back and remember I will remember what it was like to a student again. Ciao

Day One of Website Creation

I am completely confused out of my mind. I have read some instructions that are provided on the LMS (Learning Management System), but I still feel bewildered and terrified of this assessment and unit. Its my very first time creating a website and blog. So all of the content is new to me. I am creating this blog to complete this assessment and to assist in my learning process with technology in the unit EDN113 - Living and Learning with Technology.

Interestingly enough, coming from a (computer) gamer background to creating a professional teaching website. Its not as easy as it seems. There are so many things to learn: Copyright issues, the specific types information to include in blogs

• Content
• Attitudes and feelings
• Learning strategies
• Network and communication
• Connections and extensions
• Visuals and links

To develop my understanding of these classifications and overcome my problems - not knowing a single thing about constructing a webpage. I browsed around the LMS and the Technology Toolbox for Educators for any videos and information about how to make a professional website. The Technology Toolbox for Educators appeared to be very useful in teaching me about why Copyright is important - Ideas (which eventually become products) can be worth a millions of dollars and having those ideas copyright protected means that they would be safe from others.

Hopefully in a couple weeks time, I would have settled in more comfortably into the EDN113 and become more familiarized with what 'meaningful learning with technology' truly is. 

To be continued... another day :)