Learning Style

At the beginning of this course, I had stated that the best way for me to learn is by being challenged and doing research to find answers. In my everyday life I find myself jumping from task to task in order to keep things afloat, such is the nature of I.T. work, and I realize that I best learn from spending an extended period of time on a specific task and focusing much more on the concept and overall procedural aspects of it, than looking at detailed information. I think I am a big picture kind of person, perhaps an instructor's best approach towards me would be a global one, with intuitive oriented lessons.
While I'm still a visual learner, the test we took provided some great revealing insight for me. It was interesting to go through the process of answering the questions, and finding myself engaged and interested in what my responses were. More importantly, I think I was quite surprised by the results and numbers that came in my results, a well spent $9.69 I might add.
The tests revealed to me that I am much more susceptible to learn fro listening, that reading. As a musician, I have always been able to grasp musical concepts by listening more than by reading. This is something I knew applied in my musical background, but I didn't realize how much it crossed over into my everyday life.
Something else that surprised me, is how close, and at times distant, my responses were to other I.T. statistics. Although I have been in this field for a little over five years, I have always had a bit of a disconnect with some of the conventional views of I.T. teachings. Primarily because of my personality and openness to concepts. Though, it was interesting to see how close my responses were, especially with auditory learning, and how distant they were to others like tactile. 

Creative Commons

Photo Attributions:
Original Image: Creative Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/qthomasbower/3640362081/
By: qthomasbower
Released under Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

Copyright laws are both complex and greedy in nature. While the underlying goal of them are to protect the producer's work, it creates ethical obstacles one as a consumer and or end user must overcome to properly use said producer's work. That being said, the Fair Use articles provide some initial protection towards the rights of users, creating some exceptions and precautions that can be taken to use as much, or as little of said copyright content.
As the Tech. Coordinator at my work, I am often asked to acquire digital content, or I am asked by students if I can help them copy their friend's iPod's contents. Though it is a school setting, the question always arises, "Is it ok?". The Fair Use, while a law to protect us, is still misunderstood and sometimes too hard to define the line between what's right and what's wrongfully used. Thankfully, there are resources like the ones shared in this week's lesson, that provide information and clear those lines between conflict and assurance. As one of the videos stated, it is our duty to share information of Fair Use, to not be limited by copyrights.
In my school we have essential questions which prompt students to share how they feel about certain topics and engage in creative ways to produce visual representations of their expressions. The current question is "What is beauty?". While it is not rare for students to use a simple keyword search to find images, Creative Commons offers a good repository of images that could be used without thinking if it is ok to use or not. The simple license explanations attributed to each image makes this quite clear. Here's a picture I could see a student use, and attribute it with the appropriate license.

Photo Attributions:
Original Image: Creative Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22193699@N04/4648907104/
By: Thai Jasmine
Released under Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

I could see the image above used by a student to convey what they believe represents beauty, by either using it in a video as a still image, a slide presentation, or perhaps on a digital poster, with providing the proper attributions that are requested by the producer's Creative Commons license.
Having access to Creative Commons licensing is, I think, an incredible resource students can have. They can have control over their work's licensing and how it may be used. The Creative Commons licensing process is quite simple and is being increasingly added to popular photo sharing services. Here's a picture I uploaded to my Picasa account, with added Creative Commons licensing.

Photo Attributions: Original Image AGonzalezOJedaPicasa  WebProfile http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/RHhmfc-Vr8JHB4FC2QjNXRUgykOd5QNjnpHrq_-cues?feat=embedwebsite By: Agonzaezojeda Released Under Creative Commons License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

From San Diego Rain

PC Maintenance and Security

The health of a computer and its contents, both our private and public content, is determined by our consistent behavior on it. Before I went to college, I knew very little about computers and their inner-workings, what makes them tick. My interest in computers did not grow until I had my first full time job in an office, where there were always issues with various technologies. Usually, at some point during my work week, something didn't work right, or no one really knew how to work it. It was at this point that I thought to myself, "I really wish I knew how these things work, and how I could fix them". Shortly after I enrolled in a technical program and began to understand what it is that makes technology tick. It was during my courses that I began to realize that it's not just zeros and ones that work magic, but how the user employs their skills and knowledge on a system to input information and receive desired output.
A very basic concept of computing is IPO, input, process, and output. This is something that applies to not only the use of a program, but also to our use of information directed both from us and to us between a system. We give it information, it process it and we receive the output. Now, were this ties in with the health and security of a machine is how we handle our personal information and were we input it. We are in control of what information we use and where we input it, the only danger is when we freely disclose information to an unknown system, how it is then processed and where it outputs. Without first analyzing and being safe of where we input our information, we can't control who process it and where, or worse yet, to whom it is outputted to. Our digital citizenship compels us to be responsible how we employ this concept.
This week's lesson was a nice refresher for me and a great reminder of how important it is to practice safe computing, both offline and online. While I used to be a primarily Windows user a few years ago, I have since moved over to the Mac OS X operating system, and accompanying iOS platform devices. There is a misconception that if you run Mac, you don't have to worry about viruses nor spyware, this is certainly not the case. Much of the attacks to our personal information take place online, in the browser of your choice, where operating systems are not always an important factor. The same organizational and safe practices that a Windows user would exercise also apply to a Mac user, just with a few differences.
While browsing through the Atomic Learning tutorials, I found a few of my all time favorite things to do to help maintain a PC in top running shape. MSCONFIG, is on of my go to programs when setting up a machine, and when troubleshooting. This tool allows me to control many aspects of how Windows operates from boot, but what's really important is taking a look at the Startup tab. This section shows all of the programs that run at login. I like to browse through and disable anything that is not system critical. This enables the machine to start up without the extra bulk.

An important component to securing a machine is anti-virus software. In this category my free go to suite is AVG's free AV software. Although their pay for version offer more features, the free version offers just as much virus protection and removal options. My personal pay for suite is Eset. They are a San Diego based company, (total coincidence I swear!), that offers a very effective and streamlined application which does not affect system performance like other suites. The installation process outlined in Atomic Learning is a great tutorial in how to properly get AVG up and running. I usually install this program on computers that don't have any AV software installed, or suggest it to peers that hate how badly other AV suites slow down their system. In my mind, any AV software is better than no AV at all.

Last but definitely not the least, backing up. Backing up is essential in practicing safe computing. If all else fails, you should be able to restore valuable information and return to a state of normality. I like a couple of tools for Windows, SyncToy, and the online service Carbonite. For Mac, I use Time Machine on a daily basis, but for full disk backups I use Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner, a tool that has come in very handy in the past. Atomic Learning introduced me to another tool, Replicator by KarenWare. This tool offers a fairly simple but quite flexible backup procedure. It is similar to SyncToy, by Microsoft, in both the graphical interface, and some of the backup options.

Ultimately the health of both our computers and our privacy consists of a combination of procedures. Ensuring that our systems function properly from boot, are kept safe by using anti-virus software, and keeping a secure backup of our content. From this lesson I think the most important information to share is that commonsense is above all the most important tool we can use in the fight for privacy and security.

RSS Reader Reflection

The ability to filter excess information can be quite a time consuming task. At times, it can even deter the most motivated student from engaging in some research. Research which could develop into an incredible learning experience. While the internet has opened the door for content to be openly accessed, it has also made it harder to filter valid information from that of misguided opinions. Without a doubt our freedom of speech is and should be protected, and the internet is proof of that. Yet in school settings, students need to know how to analyze sources and determine what is valid and what is not. RSS is a way in which students can find reliable sources and stay up to date. While bookmarking is a common and convenient way to store websites, the process of accessing the information on each of these sites can be daunting. My experience with RSS has been both convenient and time saving. As I am adding feeds to my Google Reader account, I find that the more I search and subscribe to, I learn what variables, tags or keywords give me better results.

While I usually use my desktop's mail application to collect RSS feeds, I decided that Google Reader would offer a better way to share. Not only that, but since I use other Google services, I figured it would just be more convenient. Here's a screen capture of it without any feeds.

As per usual Google layout and design, the navigation links on the left hand side make it easy and familiar to navigate through the service. Once I added more feeds it felt a bit more busy, but it wasn't overbearing, and it maintained an easy format to follow.

I liked the ease of use that Google Reader offered in administering each feed, the rating, suggestion, and sharing system all seemed fairly straight forward. Here's a screen capture of the listing of my RSS feeds with the administering options.

One of the blogs that I subscribed to offered an article on a YouTube video of the Nixon and Kennedy debate. I found it to be incredible that there are services available which offer these great historic resources to both teachers and students. The article made a note on how at that time people had different views on the debate depending on whether they watched it or listened to it on radio.

The article reminded me of a feature in Google Maps which displays the midterm elections. This showcases how we can use technology not only look back in time, but also look at current data and make our own predictions. I felt it was relevant, so I made a comment regarding the map tool.

Staying up to date in this fast paced world is never easy, but I have found RSS feeds to be a great way to quickly check out new information on my own schedule. The feeds suggested by the course, along with the additional ones I have subscribed to, have offered me information which I can use to make better suggestions when a teacher comes to me for suggestions.

GTD

GTD is a concept I wish I had learned at a much earlier age, it would have definitely come in handy!
Although some might perceive me as a well organized person, I struggle quite a bit in prioritizing and scheduling or planning ahead. In my workplace I am responsible for many aspects of technology in and out of the classroom setting. While I may be engaged in fixing an issue for a student, I might get an instant message from a staff member about an unrelated issue that might be more pressing. Usually I try to make everything actionable, mostly because I know that whenever anyone brings up an issue it is pressing to them at that exact moment.
My inboxes, while sometimes overflowing, usually don't hold items for too long. I'll definitely be trying to practice GTD a bit more in my everyday life. I just hope I can create an efficient work-flow and not get caught playing catchup.

PLN

My PLN consists of too many people to count for. Some directly and most indirectly. From my encounters with various individuals at work, to new connections with those recently met at school, my PLN is ever-growing.

For my visualization of my PLN I think I spent too much time thinking about which tool I would use to create a visualization. I knew a short clip would take too much time to film, edit, and export. A Glog, although quite flexible in what you can do, has a bit of lag to it whenever I've tried to work on it. Prezi is pretty cool, and that was almost what I was about to use. Then I remembered of a tool I heard about at an EdTech conference, Bubbl.us. Although not quite as fancy as the other ones, what I like about Bubbl.us is that it's a free online mind mapping tool. It allows for quick diagrams to be created, shared, collaborated on, and it even allows to be exported or published via HTML code.So, here's my quick visualization of my PLN.
You can drag it around, zoom in and out.

Social Networking

My first venture into modern social networking was back in 2005, when Myspace was on it's way up to popularity, and Facebook was still in a dorm room at Harvard. At the time I was 19 years old and what attracted me was the ability to have my own website. I could have a site to which I had, to some extent, control over what content was on it, and I could communicate with close friends and theoretically anyone else who had an account. This was such a leap forward from the normal communication through email or instant messaging. At the time I was a freshman in college, and it was right about the time that I was becoming more independent and needed a support system to help me out when I was not at school. This new form of social networking answered my prayers. I was able to find other peers and communicate with them, without needing to know their emails or phone numbers. All I needed was a name.
Fast forward five years and I am still involved in social networking. Only now Myspace plays a lesser role, and it is not all about homework but more so about developing my understanding of various matters. Not only that, but I am subscribed to at least five or six types of social networks. In these days it is almost impossible to stick with one network because there are so many options that not everyone agrees on which one to commit to. One convenience is that some play nice together and allow for plug-ins or APIs to blend some of the services between network platforms. While I use Facebook for personal contacts, I use LinkedIn to maintain a connection with current and previous co-workers. Twitter acts as a quick look at what trends are happening "now", but I still need to become a more avid user of that platform to truly call myself a "twit" :)
These new ways of communicating online have enabled me to keep up to date not only on my personal matters, but also on various changing aspects of my career. I am able to read on updates, conferences, and other available resources online without having to be glued to a news site or my email.
Now more than ever social networking offers the abilities for education to create online environments where students can be engaged in conversations. It is with these platforms that everyone has a voice to speak with and share their thoughts.  While there are issues that come along with social networking, e.g. cyber bullying and privacy, proper instruction may lead to a better understanding of how our actions and words can have tremendous effects online and offline.