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 :)