Social Bookmarking - Digg.com

Hello all! I think I know what you mean by a social bookmarking sight, so I went to digg.com, which I have heard about many times before, so its about time a became a member of it. I love what you can do on digg.com, I have already played around with it for about an hour and half now. I lost track of time till I realized I needed to come onto my blog and actually post what I had been up to!
Anyways, I hope I did the assignment right with the adding of the bookmarks, but I’m not totally sure if I did. I am going to add my digg profile link to this post and you guys can view my profile and let me know what you think! I definitely like this site and what you can do a lot better than say, an aggregator. I know they aren’t the same thing, but in terms of gathering information and sharing it, digg.com is very easy to use, more customizable, and fun!
Just now playing with it, I gathered just over 10 bookmarks (I think) just about various topics that interest me. I am planning on going back to Digg throughout the week and trying to find a few things that deal with social networking, e-learning, and softwares that may help with those sort of things, cause they are certainly becoming more and more popular, and soon possibly necessary. Anyways, take a look at my Digg profile and let me know what you think!
http://digg.com/users/keeai

e-Learning WK 2 RSS and Aggregators

My experience with RSS feeds and aggregators has not been as great as I was hoping, although, i have been using them throughout several quarters now and i must say that my knowledge and understand on how they work is growing a good deal. So i have decided to keep up with them and see how it goes. I do like how you can literally gather any kind of information from the entire web, and place it all in one place. The things that i am still struggling to understand fully are the way RSS feeds work and update. Its just kind of confusing to log onto my aggregator, and all of the sudden see all thsi information that is new, and im not quite sure where its coming from, like which category are the new RSS feeds coming from. Im not really sure if this is making sense, but to me its really confusing sometimes when i see RSS feeds, and dont know which one they belong to on my aggregator. But i am willing to keep it going. Because i like how organized blogs are and having access to all the ones that i find on my aggregator is a really nice thing to have.

For this class i do see how it will help in the long run. I found 10 on all sorts of different interests that i personally have. A few that had a lot of good information are the following:

For my personal interests:

http://www.massively.com/

More for my future:

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/07/baristas-unite-social-networking-at-street-level.html

e-Learning WK1

I found this cool site that is actually all about e-learning and where you can find it, how its used, and what it consists of.
http://www.elearning.b2bmediaco.com/ is a site that really allows you to throw yourself into what e-Learning is. It has articles all over the place and updated news, a magazine, events, and a lot more. After I found the site just browsing the net for examples of what social networking and e-Learning is, I found the article called, “Today’s Water Cooler” on the site: http://www.elearning.b2bmediaco.com/issues/jun-july/junjuly08_todayswatercooler.html

It’s odd how i had never heard the term “informal learning” before our first day in class with Wayne, and then when I read this article, in the first sentence it mentioned it. Anyways, the article talks about how social networking has changed the way employees, and companies as a whole operate. What use to take place in conference rooms with bundles of employees, or in the break room, or the water cooler is now taking place electronically. Although a lot of companies struggle with the thought of social networking, and how much it may cost, and if they can do it with where their company stands. They mainly just want quick, easy, profit. And sometimes they are subtle, but they are still there. But, there are many good things other than profit that come with social networking in the company. You have a better chance at recruiting the best of the best, you are more likely to find that rare employee that throws down more effort than normal. There are many many things that can benefit a workplace with social networking.

This article has tons of examples, and really does a good job of explaining what e-Learning, and social networking is. Take a look at it for yourself. I hope this site allows all of you guys to find something interesting about this topic.

My Process for Design Comps

I seem to always start with big to small. I always place the biggest thing on the page first, and then work outward, by placing the boxes where they need to go for links, images, etc. And then i fill them in one by one. Color is usually one of the last things that i do, my icing on the cake. In terms of where i place my pieces on the page, i usually make a few of my sketches exactly how i drew them, then take a look and make a few more by having the same material, but rearranging them. The last thing that always do seems to be the typography. I play around a lot with that because different type fonts can create a totally different feel for the whole site, in which case sometimes that could make the site feel totally wrong, but there are many fonts that can work, which is why i play with it so much. There are specific examples though that make it easy to play with the type, like for example the title of a particular movie, or the age in which the material is supposed to be set.

So, just the basic order i follow is placing the shapes on the page first, then arranging them to fit the page, then i fill in the shapes with the correct content, then i play with what colors make the site feel closest to what it is meant to be about. And lastly, i play with the typography elements to bring the site together.

My Initial Ideas

Sooooo, hmm, just some initial thoughts of mine were to do a site that deals with movies, or games, just cause i love em! Now I know that there is a LOT more to it that just saying that heh, but you work with what you love, so that is indeed an “initial” idea. Possibly something like a a site with a database about information on upcoming games, since someone is doing a site about movies already. Yet i would use CSS to draw the attention towards that various categories and really try and make the user feel in the mood of what kind of game they are reading about.

My 3 Topics that I would like to learn most

TOPICS:

1. Create a web site using Cascading Style Sheets for all presentation, and XHTML for structure.

2. Create a forms-based web page for the collection of information.

3. Develop a strategic plan for you final project that includes a purpose statement, specific goals and objectives for accomplishing the purpose, a target audience, navigation flowchart, and storyboards for each page of a fifteen (15) page web site.

A Design Process Revealed

http://www.stopdesign.com/articles/design_process/index.html

I never really thought of my design process in terms of applying into catergories and thinking of names for those categories, but the way that Douglas Bowmen presented them and organized them seems fairly similar to the way I feel I would approach a project. I love the way in the article how easy it is to read and follow, although some of that may relate because I love bing organized and it is a lot more effective when connecting with others that are the same way, and the author of this article is definately organized. When i was reading this article, he did have a lot of “steps”, or sections that he thinks about when going about a project, which is a good thing, but when i was reading it, and thining about using the steps, just by the number of them, it may seem a little overwhelming at first, even though they are all very necessary and will help you in the long run. Just as an added thing, once you do all of the research and thinking, and sketching, I would say that my favorite step is what he implied to be “Composition”, because you get the sense of bringing everything together, and to me, that is what is the most rewarding.

ISL

INTERMEDIATE SCRIPTING HAS BEGUN!

My History With HTML

Prior to coming to the Art Institute of Dallas i had absolutely no education on HTML or anything of that sort. Since i have been here at this school i have taken 3 classes so far that work with HTML, CSS, and now Javascript. It was kind of hard to grasp at first, but honestly the main thing that will help you is doing exactly what Wayne said, is to just practice. Just play with HTML and learn on your own. You will eventually create a familiarity with HTML and you will start coding in your own personal way. I have heard from a lot of my teachers that everyone has their own coding style, and that is how they work the most efficiently. It is also a really good idea to write out everything that you wish to accomplish before you actually go into the coding part of it. I love actually seeing how whatever I’m working on gets pulled together so quickly with smalls adjustments in the code. You will learn little tricks and secrets that can help you work quicker and better. Speaking of that, it could be used as part of your PLE! the classes that i have taken are Information Architecture, Intro To Scripting, and now I am finishing up Programming Logic. I have learned a lot more than i thought i would and i am finally getting to the point to where i comfortable with coding and i feel like i can do it efficiently.

Podcasting and Vodcasting

So this article really seems to be a basic introduction adn definition on the whole podcasting and vodcasting environment just like what the other classmates said in thier blogs. I myself would probably be more interested in using podcasting if the time ever came to use either one because it seems less complex, and like in the article it stated it require a little bit lower investment than a vodcast. Atleast if i do intend to use either of them i would start off using a podc ast and see how i do with it, then if i like the way they operate i would make a larger investment and try vodcasting. But for now, and my education on the topic, i think ill stick with podcasting. They seem like intresting things to try, and fairly simple, so why not give it a shot. I read in someone elses blog how podcasting could very easily be incorporated into our ple’s which i think is an excellent idea. And hey, like it said in the article all you really need to be able to do both podcasting and vodcasting is basic computer skills, I got those! So im ready to try it!