"Digital Media Grad Class Week 5--Web 2.0 Application Review"

Well this week we had to find a Web 2.0 app that we hadn't looked at in class and write a paper examining the application. Boy-oh-boy! There are a lot of them out there. Little did I know. Well after perusing the net for a bit I settled on Capzles.

I wanted to find a site that I could really use in the classroom rather than just picking one to get the assignment done. I have the kids in my class do several different projects throughout the year (biography report, explorer report, 13 colonies report, to name a few). This application gives me the best way for them to create a visually expressive way to add value to their research. I signed up for an account and created a capzle to get a feel for the process. I love it. I hope others explore it too. Below is the opening paragraph for my paper that explains Capzles.

Capzles (http://www.capzles.com/) is a beta version of a Web 2.0 application for users to express themselves by developing personal photo stories. Conceptually it is about storylines or timelines presented in an interactive, horizontal filmstrip fashion using a Flash-based interface. It is about telling a story. These stories are called capzles: your life, a vacation, a moment in history, or whatever the story is, you can make a capzle about it. A capzle is made up of individual moments (slides) which are composed of photos, video files, blogs, and/or audio files. The capzle is a container with its own title and description and the moments (photos, video files, blogs, and/or audio files) that make up the capzle have their own description and title too.

Try it!

We also met online this week again through a site www.dimdim.com . The use of these online conferencing sites makes sense especially with transportation costs rising everyday. The hardest part of the whole thing was keeping up with the test entries. It would make sense if all participants had cams and mics so we all have a visual and audio experience but since we all don't it provides a worthy alternative. Our group started a conference and each of us took a turn creating a meeting room and all went well. Not too much to say about it right now at not until I have more familiarity with it.

Podcast #1

Please navigate to my Wiki page for this podcast.

http://mrmork.wikispaces.com/

I used Audacity to create an mp3 file. I then uploaded the file to MediaFire http://www.mediafire.com/, a free file hosting site I have used in the past. This is a good site although files need to be less than 2 GB and the link to the file needs activity or else they dump the file for inactivity. I also used Screencast-o-matic and created a screencast for the entire process of uploading to MediaFire but it was very large (100MB) so I sit with a large file. I will have to either export it out as a smaller file or compress it....until then I have a link to my Wiki where I was able to post a link to a Quicktime file (10MB) of the podcast.

Well I just went to play the large Quicktime file (screencast) and found out that I have no video, black screen, and only an audio recording ....a very large audio recording...bummer!!!! Oh well it gives me something to try and conquer.

"Digital Media Grad Class Week 4--Social Bookmarks, Podcasts, and Social Networks"

This week had us examine Social Bookmarks, Podcasts, and Social Networks. Interesting stuff! I really enjoyed the ability to create social bookmarks and see myself instituting that in my class soon. This will be helpful when students are doing class research and come across useful sites on their own. It will save me time scurrying around the room writing down all the URL's they come across. It will also give students a place to save bookmarks they come across outside of class and school. Podcasts sound promising but I need to really examine how I am going to bring them into my class and school. My IT person is already wanting to do work with them so I will have to connect with her so we can bounce ideas off each other. As far as Social networking, the IT person at my school has already established an account with Think.com and we are talking about the usefulness of it and how to apply it in the school. That too sounds promising. I will keep you informed.