Make-up Blog (Social Text/Eugene Lee)

I forgot to reflect on Eugene Lee's presentation, so here goes:

I'm happy that Eugene allowed us to have free accounts on SocialText - great way for us to see what he was preaching about. I think Social Text is good - a bit difficult to get around in, but design-wise it's clean and to-the-point. As for his presentation, I enjoyed hearing about his background as well as his experiences in the corporate world. What I took from it was that the corporate world is diving deep into web2.0 land and folks are providing solutions for them (such as SocialText). The open-source community really pioneered wikis, blogging, and other tools that are ubiquitous in the corporate and commercial worlds nowadays.

Group Project: Who are ITECers?

Here's our group project kudos to my group mates Brian, Lance, and Jonathan!

INTERFACING JOOMLA

INTERFACING JOOMLA

Firstly, what is Joomla. Their about says it best:

"Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone." from the Joomla website.

In our art-filled and high-touch world, the importance of a well designed website can often make or brake a user's decision to adopt or not adopt something. This overview of Joomla's main site focuses on its top level pages. With so many CMS systems (free and pay) on the market, a first visit can make be crucial.


WHO ARE THE USERS?

Joomla's users run the gamut from expert site designers to novice accidental techies looking to set up a website. No matter who, all users are looking for an easy, fully-controlled way to set up their own web2.0 feature-packed website.



INFORMATION DESIGN

The main banner holds the three most important ideas:

- Get Started With Joomla
- Create and share with Joomla
- Contributing to Joomla

Each is represented by a web2.0-style icon - this is good. It draws the eye, however, the most important one - "Get started with Joomla" is not colorful and does not say "click on me, I'm interesting" like the other two. The text for each button could be a few font sizes larger. The subtitle explanations for each icon are probably not necessary - just having the main ones are enough). "Joomla Announcements" in the body of the text are good to have though the icons are ugly screenshots. It may do better to have icons that are somewhat similar to the banner icons for more consistency. Also, the abundance of blog posts and news, while it shows that the site is fresh and alive, may be too much - it forces the user to scroll down which is not ideal. Lastly, a tradition menu a top mankes for good alternate navigation.



INTERACTIVITY

On this "Getting Started with Joomla", and on the overall navigation of the site is not laid out into a clear navigational hierarchy. The navigation sidebar doesn't allow user-controlled nesting. The main body has links but should really continue with icons. The overall layout evokes that of a newpaper or news site. The navigation is functional enough, but far from ideal. The banner rotates to show testimonial quotes which is good, but rather than show screenshots and laptops, there should be pictures of people or perhaps links to examples.Examples are the first thing that I look for when I go to something like a CRM.


SCREEN DESIGN

My first impression of the site is: somewhat interesting but not "eye-popping". Most elements seem constrained into a grid. If there were more elements of roundness, this would allow the eye something more interesting to look at. There is a weird mist in the background of the main screen of which I'm not sure the function. Color-wise, orange and blue are excellent complements.


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Final Project Idea

Gaginang, the nonprofit I co-founded and run, is applying for a grant to do an e-learning project (guess who thought up the idea?) for an introduction to Teochew culture/language. This project actually builds off the flash project I did back in ITEC 823 which was basically the same thing. If I continue doing this through the 830 final, I think I'd wanna do the following:

Create a super basic intro to what Teochew is (There is a great need for this I think) that covers all the basic aspects of Teochew culture/language. I'm thinking something very lively, colorful, funky, and fun. Also, I'd love to use just web2.0 tools + maybe Captivate. I'm thinking map mashups, bubble-pop-ups, and storytelling.

4/9 Class

Reflection: For me, Rodney's presentation was good in the sense of "wow, so that's what the corporate world is like". I guess I've been in nonprofits and academia all my working life so I was a little perplexed by Rodney's comment about Chevron. He urged us would be PMs to just focus on the people, nevermind the nasty things that the company does. Elsewise, I think there were some good nuggets about the importance of how project management pervades most of the endeavors of our lives nowadays. Also, I wonder how others felt when the hourly rates were mentioned - I was like... hmmm wow money, but also at what cost? Sigh.

- Ty

Rodney Dunican Background
- ITEC grad (1999)
- Wrote a lot of online learning courses, Instructor Led Training (ILT)
- Different roles: Project Manager, Instructional Designer
- Business of learning is very different from learning itself ($, numbers of learners through a course, training = less lawsuits)
- Ex. of what Rodney has done: "Change Management", year-long Management Immersion, soft/hardware, softskills, sales

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- Do the things that turn you on.
- "Temporary endeavor undertaken to produce a unique product or outcome".
- Defined set of tasks, timeframe, milestones. Desired results.
- Almost all jobs are project-based.
- Billing project milestones
- Project Managers are in charge (finances, etc.)
- In the business world, its about the learning bottom line.
- Grease (keep things moving), glue (keep things synched), ring leader (time management).
- Scope, time, cost, resources, quality. Leadership + team building
- Project Management Certifications available
- Desired learning results, client goals, communication, internal business needs, development team needs/goals, cost/time/quality
- Risks are potential problems.
- Kim: AGILE Model (throw all the folks together and brainstorm)
- Applying specific parts of past knowledge to problems OR creating something brand new.
- TEAM: ID, SME, Web Designers, Web Developers, Solution Architects (LMS), Clients, Talent, etc.
- Collaboration, shared vocabularies, using people's expertise (to inform and enhance the project)
- 5 Phases: Initiate, Plan, Execute, Monitor, Close

INITIATE
- Sales, solution planning (key stakeholders, needs assessment. Sometimes its not a training issue, but an incentives issues). SOW (Statement of Work- Contract, $60, 80, 100/hr. Average ID: $90. PM: $100+). Contractors - Professional/General Liability, Insurance, Marketing, etc.) Identify the person to do the final sign-off on the project.

PLAN
- Solution design. MS Project: for mapping out the project.

EXECUTE/MONITOR
- Solution development. Task updates, status mtgs, change requests, issues/risk log, milestone sign-off and documentation, QA testing. Alpha+Beta TEsting. Report project to finance. Early changes easy, later changes difficult. Signing off helps to allow for invoicing and project flow.

CLOSE
- Celebrate success

Resources:
- PMBOK - www.pmi.org (Project Mgt Body of Knowledge), certification
- www.4pm.com (Newsletter w/ articles on best Practices)
- "Making It Happen" fictional account of project mgt. 180pp.

Other
- Each team member does PM on their own.
- How does one brag in a good way?

A Whole New Mind

I'll use this blog post to collect thoughts for Daniel Pink's "A Whole New Mind". I'm about 2/3rds through now, so look for changes/additions:

- STORY-TELLING: Something we learned about back in ITEC800, I love Pink's example of the Hero Story. As a student of Anthropology (that was my BA), I definitely recall talking about how knowledge is passed down through stories. Morality is often taught through folktales, songs, chanting, etc. It only makes sense that that is how our human brains are wired to process when it comes to complex amounts of informaton.

- RESURGENT ART/DESIGN/AESTHETIC: I attended the HS of Art & Design which Pink mentions in the book. It's great that in NYC everyone has the opportunity to apply for High Schools outside of their zone, choosing something they want to focus on (art, music, science, vocations).

4/2 Back from Web 2.0 Expo

Unfortunately I didn't get to catch any of the presenters on the upper levels, mostly because they were mostly over by the time I was able to get out of work early. With that said however, I did enjoy going to the expo. There were a ton of social networking apps, mashups, and other cool things. Here's what I liked the best:

- Yola (They recently changed their name from synthasite), allows you to build your own site online. Very awesome. Nice t-shirts too!
- YouCity.com a 3D Modeling and Mapping service. Not exactly Web 2.0 on its own but one can see how it easily could be very interactive. Actually, they do mention how its used with schools, real estate, games, etc.
- Grou.ps was a free create-your-own social networking site.
- OER Commons - freely available and open source education resources for all. I'll have to look into them more.

The one thing I also noticed was that a lot of the booths were enterprise focused and business focused. Our friend SocialText was there. Also, I was expecting something called JomSocial to be there (for Joomla), but they weren't. Wonder what happened... Overall it was a fun expo to attend. Did anyone have the appetizers? They were yummy! Perhaps I'll catch something tomorrow...

2/19 Class

Link to our (Alex + I) podcast assignment from last week: http://alex.podomatic.com/entry/2009-03-18T01_09_50-07_00

Reflection from last week:

Started off class by attending a lecture on the role of gaming in civic engagement. Over I thought there were some interesting points, but felt like much of the discussion wasn't very constructive in getting at what most of the audience seemed to want: ideas about WHY we should focus on gaming to teach people civic engagement, among other things. The speaker did state that he did not feel that gaming was anymore able to engage us than a really good lecturer (amongst other things), which I would defintely not agree with. I would have probably enjoyed a live demo of a group playing Simcity or something of that nature.

The second part of class the LMS/CMS group did their presentations. I was part of this group and showed everyone my www.gaginang.org website which was built out on Joomla. Unfortunately the keyboard/computer was having trouble with logins (for all presenters).

3/12 Class Reflection

Last week's class was spent breaking up into two groups and recording our thoughts/takeaways from Ellen Wagner's presentation. Our group had technical difficulties multiple times, with the result that the soundbytes of Alex and myself were chopped from the group file. We ended up making our own at home and are working on our shared file at the time of this writing. During, we got to hear from our peers on virtual worlds - which is right along the lines of my holodeck obsession. Viewing learning as a human enterprise, if and when we get to the technologically advanced stage of having a holodeck, the lines between reality and virtuality (I just coined that!) will be blurred ala Matrix. Now, after msging with Alex, I think I've been too negative about the potentiality of all that. Holodecks will lead to a new stage of human existence, virtually(!) unfettered by limits. If you read the writings of popular futurists, you might become overwhelmed. But it can also really be heartening to see what humanity may create.

Ellen Wagner Class

Script:

- What did you learn?

3D learning, haptics, Wii IS going to be the future (see my voicethread from the last post). Web 4.0 - the ubiquitous web.

- What are your takeaways?

Designers should design for today - designing for the needs of now - that is the sweet spot.

- What keeps you up at night?

Feeling like technology and ID will end up the way it will end up, even without my participation/influence in/on it. Feeling overwhelmed with the possibilities of technology and neglecting the natural joys of life.

Reflection:

I really liked Ellen's "Hype Cycle". It's a great way to view trends and how people take to new ideas. Maybe we can get a copy of it? Also, web4.0 idea sounds a little scary. Actually it's like giving a certain level of consciousness to tools and objects. The dark side of this of course is when super villains command armies of robots and tanks to attack from their neural implant blue-brain. =)

Kurt Bonk

I appreciated having the opportunity to hear from Kurt Bonk and getting an overview of his book The World is Flat. Definitely a lot of information crammed into about an hour and half. One thing that stuck out to me was when Kurt showed the picture of the family who took went on a Carribbean boat trip and their three kids were still able to have class. If WE truly ALL LEARN, then these sorts of things should be more possible. Also the example of kids having a little tutoring device was great to see as well. One topic that I'd see to see more discourse on IS exactly that, attitudes of the general public to how learning actually takes place outside of traditional ivory towers. In fact, I sometimes wonder about our very own ITEC program... hmmmm ;) If I've learned anything, its that ITEC has provided me with access of knowledge to tools and contacts. There is a lot of content in the program, that's for sure, but I feel like I'm not fully utilizing the information/skills/tools. I think a lot of this has to do with the constraints of having to work a f/t job and also because I'm not much of a night person. Perhaps I should take advantage more of HyFlex. =)

Oh and here is my 1 minute (It's gotta be at least 2 mins I think) response to Kurt Bonk. More about me having fun with Star Trek I think. =)

Seems like the screen is too thin to show the thing so here is the link as well: http://voicethread.com/share/379697/

2/19 Class

MY TWO LEARNING WIKI EXAMPLES:
- Language Learning Wikis - Knowledge section
http://www.italki.com/knowledge/

- Permaculture
http://permaculture.wikia.com/wiki/Permaculture_Wiki

CLASS NOTES/REFLECTION:

- Blog lurkers (Hai)
- Information doesn't really belong to you, once it gets on the blogosphere (Hai)
- Blogs are very limited forms of communication (Various)
- The communication purpose of blogs depends on how you use them (Kim)
- Be careful what you share (David)
- Proliferation of tools, it's gradually simplifying (Kim)
- "Reduce the chain of pain" (Marc, Steve Jobs)

This class was good. I liked the presentation by the blog/wiki/twitter group. Had some good information that I didn't know. Also, what I realize is that the knowledge gained in this class comes through the unique/shared ideas of individuals who are questioning how ideas come about, processes work, etc. The thing I wonder though is how much of it is retained. Our human minds are so precarious I think. That's why something like wikipedia is great. Sometime in the future, people may still be editing wiks. Nice RSS presentation by Ethan. Love that Data + Lor page!

Blogs/Wiki/Twitter Review
- Uses: Journaling, expression
- How to use Twitter academically: academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/
- Blog/Wiki/Twitter mashups

COMMENTS ON "Emerging Technologies in E-learning":

I thought this was a great overview of Web2.0 and it's application in education and learning. An example of using cell-phones for learning was a game that was showcased at the 2008 NextFest. You would speak into your phone to make an avatar move on a screen, and you would fight/combat with ours. It was exhilirating yelling "walk, walk, walk" and "fire, fire, fire". Okay, that's actually not learning, but it has lots of potential for it. I could imagine people creating a list of brainstorming words, or sharing pictures of an assignment, etc. This is an example of just-in-time learning.

I think a big tool that will be used in the near future (next 2-10 years +) will be voice recogition. Voice to text will get a lot better, and also, computers will be able to recognize more complex voice commands. (Right now, help lines and car gps systems are the most popular utilizations). Ultimately, we'll be able to say something like: "Launch Google" "Search Web 2.0 + learning" and then "Find Instructional Design, and be able to find information quickly. We might even be able to say "Find users who play guitar, etc." I think the future of technnology is in video and audio.

Lastly, I loved the part where they draw from fiction: Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. I'd love to write more on that topic.

2/5 Class

Discussion: Connectivism

Summary/Observations on Siemens article:

Connectivism, as a learning theory, takes into account the radical changes occurring in the modern world: the availability of vast amounts of information, knowledge living outside of humans, a focus on how to access information versus what the information is, increasing multinodal and globalized collaboration, and much more. People are learning in ways that seem difficult to describe in the language of behaviorism and other older learning theories. My take on these changes are that they are part of an evolutionary trend of survival. Humans are constantly finding ways to survive in the world. Now, however, human beings have not only learned how to survive in the external world of nature, but also the human-made world of information. Connectivism belie a human need to adapt to change, to be human. As humans once developed social groupings in the past, so now today have our technologies created new social networks.

One of the most fascinating ideas is that one day, human knowledge and thought will live entirely in a non-human form.

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Interesting things from class:
- George Siemens
- Knowledge residing in an object.
- Danger of sharing personal information with the world. What if GoogleDocs were to go down one day? Honey bee virus?
- Globalizing trend - human race becoming closer? oneness? loss of individual identity? (identity theft)
- Ty: Technology compared to magic. People are learning spells on a mass-scale. It has a normalizing effect on what once was thought of as spectacular. Connectivism is a "force", the "pattern", the "chaos theory", "entropy".
- Interesting Blog: Information Aesthetics
- Ty: Connectivism sounds like Borg collectivism, hive-mentality culture/operation/connections
- Ty: Why do we learn? Progression from Survival to Enjoyment to ???? (Control? Mastery? Godliness?)
- Ty: What happens when: all of learning resides in non-human appliances? The matrix and virtual worlds powered by Dyson Spheres! =D
- Ty/'s Group: Biological analogy: virus is replicated (bee virus), incorrect or malicious information can be replicated. People can create this too: genetically modified. $-making: Biotech, Monsanto "terminator" seed that die after they are planted once so must be bought again.
- Jeff's group: Knowledge validity: Wiki's self-filtering/verifying ability
- Jeff's group: Competency, how do you involve everyone? You don't. It's all about "capacity to know more than what is known".
- Angie's group: Death of experts? Everyone is an expert, no one is an expert.
- Angie's group: Who sets boundaries?
- Blogs as natural extension of human desire to communicate/talk/chat/gossip. Some bloggers have more accurate information than others. Just as certain villagers are more credible than others.
- Ty: Is advanced technology allowing us to become more human across geography/distance?
- Ty: The more collective we become the more individual we feel.
- Ty: Truth VS human imperfection. Are the borg the villified versions of humans... becoming too "truth-obsessed", science is the embodiment of truth, and the Borg are certainly scientific.

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Note: THU 4/2 1-5pm Web 2.0 EXPO Meet up with Class. You are registered.

1/29 Class

First night of ITEC830 class! Lots of familiar faces.

SHARED IN CLASS:


- Commoncraft: Video shares in plain English

WHAT IS WEB 2.0?
- Collaborative, social, communal, cloud-think
- Multidirectional
- Global, far-reaching, distance-conquering
- Customizable
- Open source, creative commons, democratized
- Ease-of-use, economical, efficient
- A/synchronous
- No software, all web-based
- Creating natural learning environments, virtually
* Hidden agendas - capitalist veins, true costs
* Severity of viral infection

SIX C's of Web 2.0, Connectivism
- Content
- Context
- Create
- Communicate
- Collaborate
- Contribute

TOOLS
-A Whole New Mind - Daniel Fink 2005 (Required)
-The Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman (Required)
-Flock - Web 2.0 enhanced web browser

ASSIGNMENTS
- Make Blog (DONE!)
- Sign-up for ITEC 830 Ning Group (DONE!)
- iGoogle (DONE - just rearranged it a bit)

Here's something fun. I think it's an example of how diy media is being created by your "average jo", and being shared around the world (viral?). Web 2.0 has enabled people notoriety, and the ability to influence others.