Post Seven

Learning Module 5 Blog Post

This learning module really got us into learning about some Web 2.0 tools that don't seem as mainstream and included things I never heard of or even knew existed. We began by discussing how images can be so important on the Web. I never really thought about this before. I always appreciated a good picture, and really believed pictures can say so much about practically anything in life. But I never thought about how every single image on the Web is so crucial to the Web's existence. Image the internet without pictures. Every single screen would be plain text- simple, boring, and uninteresting. Pictures help to enhance the web! they make it a much better place for people to share ideas, communicate, and collaborate. For instance, when you go to Yahoo.com or Roadrunner.com (to name a few) the first thing you are hit with is a picture about something that is happening in the news. That picture leads into a headline. People are naturally visual learners. Pictures mean to much so our society, and ever since the first camera was invented, people have been obsessed with taking pictures! We take pictures of everything. We document every part of our lives. These pictures are so important and the fact that we are now able to share all of our pictures on the web, it offers a connection with others that words alone cannot provide.

That is why optimizing images for the web is very important. You want your image to be displayed correctly so that people can not only enjoy, but understand what you are trying to convey with the presentation of your image. Whether in be a news article, blog, social networking site, or a web page for a business, your images have to work properly with the layout you have created. A great tool we learned about in class to edit and optimize photos is called webresizer.com. It allows you to edit, crop, and optimize images so you not only can have the perfect image for your page, but also have it use far less memory data. This can be crucial when using could computing where you are only provided a certain amount of free cloud storage.

Optimizing these images led into the use of another really cool Web 2.0 tool I had no idea existed. It is a website called Kizoa.com and it allows you to create free slide shows to share on your blogs, social-networking pages, and websites. As a class, we took our knowledge of optimizing images, and applied it to a project using Kizoa.com. We created our very own slide shows using a combination of music, effects, and optimized web images. This project was definitely really cool and fun and I love how one thing we learn in this class leads into the next. From day one, everything we have learned is still being applied in new and different ways. In other classes, you learn one chapter at a time and it seems that the next chapter has no associations with the previous ones. Not in the case of this class. Everything we learn falls back on the foundations we learned even from the very first learning module. That is what I would consider true learning, not just memorization.

The third project we did was really fun as well. We made an avatar using Voki.com. I've seen these avatars all over the Web before and I wondered where they came from. It's cool knowing that I can make an avatar myself and have it say whatever I need it to.

This module was really great because in the end, all of the resources we learned could be tied together. To use a hypothetical senario, say you wanted to make a website for your business. People don't want to spend much time sifting through text to find information. Instead, use pictures to showcase different areas of your website combined with small text boxes with short and easy-to-access information. This makes your website more enjoyable for everyone. Now, to get those images exactly how you want them, you need to optimize them. You can do this by using webresizer.com. Next, you can create a slideshow for your website showcasing your business, perhaps including photos of store locations, interior design, and the products you provide. It is much more fun and easy to watch a video showcasing products rather than to read a list of products. You can create this slideshow using Kizoa.com. Finally, want to make the website even easier for people to navigate through? Create an avatar! The avatars we created in class were basic ones, but you can go as far as to create avatars that can answer questions, and even set up a live chat between customers and business professionals. All of these things are a great way to expand a business.

Now, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. I don't know what career I'll have. I'm not even sure what I'm going to major in when I transfer to a new school. One thing I do know though is that learning these tools in this class have helped to prepare me for the future. One day everything will be online, and knowing how to use these tools to my advantage, no matter what field of study I go into, will be a crucial element in my education and success.

P.S. I would also like to touch on the Facebook discussion we had for this module. I was amazed at the wide spread of people who do so many different things when it comes to accessing music. I was almost sure MOST people would illegally download music. I though almost everyone did it. It was interesting to see that it was almost a 50/50 spread between people who use the internet for most of their music and people who still buy CDs and listen to the radio. I was also pretty shocked that less people downloaded music illegally than I expected. Maybe this is because it is becoming harder to access free music online and less people want to take the risk. Maybe the risk is no longer worth the reward. But as long as there will be music, I believe there will be people who want to share it for free. To say what is right or wrong isn't my place, really. All I can do is make my own personal decision and hope it is the best one.