My PLN - What Tools I've Used This Semester

MY PLN



Since we last talked about our PLN’s, here are some things I’ve done so far this semester:

I joined Pinterest and continue checking it regularly to see what others are liking, reading or learning about, or what they’re watching on YouTube. I’ve made some of my own boards to keep things organized. For starters, I’ve created a “technology” board, a “pets” board, and a “great sayings” board with a collection of things to inspire me.

Using Twitter, I started following Microsoft at Work, Office 365, and VMWare Knowledgebase to help me out at work, and LifeHacker, TechCrunch, and CNET News to keep up with what’s trending in technology.  To keep better track of things on Twitter, I downloaded and started using TweetDeck to keep everything organized into different sections.  In the last three weeks, Twitter has has helped me keep up with the latest news about the HeartBleed bug.

LinkedIn has become something I check frequently to connect with coworkers from past and present companies, as well as being maybe useful for future employment endeavors after graduation.

Using YouTube to search for ideas on technology in the classroom, I started following videos on EdModo, which basically takes social networking concepts, and makes them appropriate for the classroom.  It’s been around for a few years, but I thought it would be something I could present to my colleagues and/or teachers where I work.  The following video was interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz0hNJjFy-M

I’ve been adding my own bookmarks to two social bookmarking sites, Delicious and Digo, and I am continuing to learn more about both of these sites. I read about Digo on TechCrunch, and I originally heard about TechCrunch on Twitter – one thing lead to another.  I also found a content sharing/social insights web site called addthis.com, created an account for myself and added it to my Symbaloo. Using Delicious, I bookmarked a few sites including the two below:

http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/personal-learning-network/.

http://techcrunch.com/2006/08/02/diigo-is-a-research-tool-that-rocks/

When searching for personal learning networks that had to do with technology, I found a gentleman named Rob Mancabelli, who has his own web site about PLN’s that have a lot of good info about technology in education, and after reading about the interesting things he had to say, started following him on Twitter and Linked IN. http://www.mancabelli.com/

Chapter 7 – Understanding E-Business

 

 

E-business means not only conducting business transactions over the Internet, but also includes servicing customers, and collaborating with other businesses. Some types of electronic business transactions have been around for over 40 years and started with the EFT system and the Automated Clearing House.

The network effect, also known as Metcalfe’s law is named for Robert Metcalfe, the founder of 3Com, and an early pioneer in the development of Ethernet networking technologies.  It is an important e-business success factor and refers to the increasing value of a network as it grows.  One of the most popular examples of the network effect that is well-known today is Hotmail.

Disintermediation is the process of redefining a market by removing its traditional intermediaries and allowing consumers to purchase products or services directly from the e-business’s web site.  One of the more famous examples of disintermediation is Dell Computer Corporation.

Customization and personalization are processes that allow web site visitors to manage Web page content by selecting their viewing preferences or creating a personal profile on a company’s web site, such as LL Bean or Land’s End.

There are a few different types of common e-business models:

• Business-to-Consumer (B2C) which is retail sales directly to consumers – Amazon is one of the most well-known examples of this type of business
• Consumer-to-Business (C2B), which allows a buyer to name their own price for specific goods or services, such as plane tickets or hotel accommodations
• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) which brings individual buyers and sellers together in an online marketplace such as eBay, PaperBackSwap.com, or SwapaDVD.com
• Business-to-Business (B2B) – companies such as CATEX, which are exchanges for insurance industries, or Automotix Car Exchange for the auto industry
• Business-to-Government (B2G), which includes online businesses that sell directly to government agencies

Chapter 6 – Understanding Internet Technologies and Security

LANS or local area networks connect users in small geographical areas, while WANS or wide area networks connect users across a very wide geographical area or multiple LANs.  With these networks are different types of network topologies or configurations.  The most common are ring, star, and bus.

There are different types of transmission media for networks.  Infrared light-wave signals as short-range transmission medium between computers.  Radio frequency broadcasts radio waves to transmit data over short distances. Bluetooth is short-range RF technology that sends and receives wireless transmissions between devices such as PCs PDAs and headsets.  A WLAN or wireless LAN, uses a wireless medium such as radio frequency transmissions to connect computers, printers and other devices.

There are different types of cabling used in networks.  The most common is twisted pair cable, which is insulated copper wires twisted around each other in pairs and enclosed in plastic.  The more expensive option is fiber optic cable, which consists of glass fibers surrounded by a layer of glass cabling.

To connect items on a network, both connectivity hardware and software are needed.  A variety of hubs, bridges, routers, and switches can be used.  Switches are intelligent devices that interpret MAC addresses and then filter and forward those MAC address packets to other network segments. Routers are intelligent device with multiple ports, which can run something called a tracert utlity that traces hops on a network from a command prompt.

A network gateway is a hardware device or software that runs on a mainframe or server and connects two or more networks that use different packet formatting, different protocols, and different access methods.

There are many types of internal network security threats that have to be planned for when developing a disaster recovery plan for a network.  This type of plan will identify the procedures that may help prevent an attack, should include both hardware and software, and should determine how to respond if such an event does occur.  Case in point - take what happened recently with the Heartbleed bug - it's not over yet.  Read more below:

http://mashable.com/2014/04/17/heartbleed-digital-certificates/

Chapter 5 Getting More Out of the Internet

You can do just about anything online these days.  For years, I’ve been paying all my bills and doing my banking online. I’ve been shopping online for years also, especially during the holidays to avoid crowds.  If I can find a site like Kohl’s or Target that offers free shipping, even though there’s a local store that’s within driving distance to my house, I’ll choose the online shopping option because I can browse in the comfort of my own home, on my own time.

News and traffic web sites are great sources of info that we now have instantaneous access to even on our cell phones.  It’s nice to able to call up the Washington Post or St. Petersburg Times, and find out what breaking news is going on all over the world, at any time.  In addition, being able to get directions to just about anywhere has become easy and convenient with Internet access. Now we don’t have to drive to a library or a AAA office to look up information in a book anymore.

Being able to download music from an FTP or P2P site, or even having access to Pandora Internet radio gives us so many different choices that we never would have had without online access.  Entertainment, including music and movies, is much more accessible through the Internet.

In my opinion, one of the most important and helpful tools that we all have easy access to is health information, including sites related to diet and exercise.  Although some of us rely on it too much sometimes - we’ve all heard that saying – "don’t believe everything you read on the Internet"- it is a good way to look up information about medical conditions, and how to lead a healthier lifestyle.

SoundCloud Post #2

SoundCloud - A Really Cool Little Program

SoundCloud was familiar to me before this class only because I work in an educational environment, but I had never done much with it or thought that much about it. I made an initial post earlier in the week to test it out that had a link to a few audio files that I liked.  Then I started thinking about what else SoundCloud could be used for, besides sharing music that I like with friends or coworkers on Twitter.

One use that I thought of was for teachers that are out on leave, whether it’s for one day or an extended period of time. SoundCloud gives them the ability to record lessons or podcasts for the person taking their place. I know that there are other applications that allow you to do this but one interesting thing I learned about SoundCloud after reading about it is that it lets students comment at a specific location below the audio file that the instructor creates. http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/presentation-multimedia/podcasting

SoundCloud could also be used to assist people that are not comfortable with public speaking – it gives people the ability to record their own voice and play it back for themselves or others to critique the quality and provide feedback, so that they can improve on their speaking skills.  While searching for more information about SoundCloud, I came across this direct link titled Help 101s, which has all the different uses for SoundCloud divided up into several areas – very helpful if you’re looking for different ways it can be used.

http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/portal/topics/43094-101s/articles

Chapter 4 Communicating Online - 2nd Post

After re-reading Chapter 4 again, I started looking into more social bookmarking web sites and came across the Joomla extension directory.  It’s actually a content management system that lets you create and manage your own web site.  Although I may not use it for that purpose, they listed several different links for social media sites and content sharing, which could be very helpful. http://extensions.joomla.org/component/mtree/social-web/social-share/social-multi-share

The “whatis” site below was also helpful.  It talks more in depth about how social bookmarking got started, mentions Flickr and Delicious, and explains that these types of sites ”provide users with a place to store, categorize, annotate and share favorite Web pages and files.”  It explains exactly how to use social bookmarking and goes into step by step instructions of how to use these sites, and states “the results include information about how many members have saved each item and any tags that they included for it.”

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-bookmarking

In addition, after researching more options and way to communicate online, I found an interesting web site called Beyond Email:   All About Online Communication.   It’s hosted by a site called GCF Learnfree.org.  Make sure to go to the bottom of the page and click on #1.  That brings up another page with 9 boxes that all describe different ways of communicating online. It was interesting reading, with pros and cons about each type of communication.

 http://www.gcflearnfree.org/beyondemail/1

Chapter 4 Communicating Online

There are many different ways of communicating online.  Most of us think of email first and foremost when talking about communicating online, especially in the workplace. Even though email has been around for a long time, there were some new things I learned about email rules and signature files.

This chapter discussed many other ways of communicating with others that have become more popular in recent years.  Text messaging, instant messaging, and chat rooms seem to have become “old hat” at this point in time.  Twitter is one of the more popular ways of communicating online these days.  I had never heard of Vlingo, which allows you to speak into your phone and have what you say get instantly posted to Twitter.  To me, that was something worth checking out, so I downloaded it to my phone to try it out.  http://www.vlingo.com/apps/android

 

Social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Digg have been around for a while, but I hadn’t used either one of them until I took this class.  I plan on using both from here on out so that I can share my bookmarks with others, and use other people’s bookmarks to help me develop my PLN.  While reading further about social bookmarking, I came across this site below, which is awesome – it lists all these other sites you can add to your bookmarks, and they’re all in one place.  http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php

How I Might Use Google Forms

There are a few different ways I can think of to use Google Forms.  If you were a teacher, you could create a test questionnaire for students on just about any subject and store their answers in a spreadsheet.

In the business world, you could use Google Forms to create an anonymous survey to send out to all your employees polling them about certain subjects.  For example, Empire State uses something similar which I think it’s called Survey Monkey.  They send out a poll to students at the end of a term to see what they thought about the class they just took, the instructor, the textbook, what could be improved, etc.

If you were in charge of a club or online company, and you were selling candy bars, cookies, coffee mugs, t-shirts, or other types of items, you could use Google Forms and link the form back to a spreadsheet to keep track of orders for your business. 

Google Forms is a very easy and convenient tool, and makes it very easy to collaborate and share with others in a class or team environment.  I used Google Forms to create a survey about dogs - the link is below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1q4NeXDVtfxyQRGmKrLTlEnaaNBdRRdOKvNeE3uelpJw/viewform?edit_requested=true#