Virtual Schooling: Gaming

For years students have been stimulated with educational games such as Mavis Beacon Typing and Math Blaster, one of the many products of the educational gaming enterprise: Jumpstart. These games, although effective, are now outdated and have been replaced with more modern versions of educational software. This new world of virtual schooling allows users to learn, practice, and understand various fields of study. This link, click here, provided by a class activity, shows some of the countless fields of study and virtual school activities available for a student to learn with.


As a potential practitioner of law and sports agent, there are an extensive amount of programs available for me to further understand the sports market. Even Second Life, if used properly, can provide a platform for learning about the life of a star.


As a student who grew up in the gaming age, my understanding of gaming is very solid: better than any generation before mine. Since I have grown up in an age where video gaming was a daily activity, learning via virtual schooling seems like a seamless transition. With virtual learning, learning and fun go hand-in-hand. At one time I'm sure some found this concept impossible, but with technology anything is possible. Now that learning has been made fun, next up: curing cancer.


Here is a clip from the original Math Blaster: In Search of Spot. If you, like me, played this game as a child, get ready for some hardcore nostalgia:





The primitive PC game, Math Blaster, served its purpose during its time. But with the advances in technology, virtual schooling has been taken to a whole new level. Here is a Youtube of Math Blaster 2008:





Check out the difference in graphics and sound. Imagine if we had that kind of game to learn on.

Open Source Software

According to Wikipedia, open source software is computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved forcopyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software. Some open source software is available within the public domain. Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner.


We learned in class that open source software is great because . . . well simply put . . . its free and efficient!


As a college student with little to no money, open source software is affordable and dependent. With word processors and other programs available throughout the Web that can rival those of Microsoft Office's, open source software is almost like a gift from the internet gods. With a few secure downloads, a poor college student can save hundreds of dollars and be on his/her way to creating professional documents, presentations, media, etc.


Here is a Youtube of a user who explains the future of open source software and its benefits: 





The World is currently in a digital age and with the availability of open source software, anyone and everyone can stay current with the changes, for free.

Distance Education

In class we defined distance education as  A field of education that focuses on the 

pedagogy and andragogy, technology, and instructional systems design that aim to deliver education to students who are not physically on site.

Distance education has come along way in my life-time. My senior year of High School, 2007, was the first year my school offered distance education credits. The class consisted of various 45 minutes lectures found on an online data base, message board posts, online assignments and test, and teacher-student meetings once a month. This seemed very informal, but three years later, this curriculum is considered formal by today's standards. Now-a-days there is a collection of online lectures and in-class tests. That is it.

For this method of education to be successful it requires a highly motivated group of students who are willing to watch lectures, ask questions via e-mail or office hours, and (in some aspects) create their own class schedule.

As a public relations student, I have take many classes online and find it very advantageous. That is, if you are organized and stay on track watching lectures. If a student slips up and misses a week of lectures, he/she could be in for a long game of "catch-up." Going into law school is a different story, there are no online classes - just assignments and posted readings. Well, traditionally. The first online law school was recently founded (University of Phoenix), this was all made possible by the evolution of distance education.

Here is a Youtube about the 10 guided principles of distance education: 

The video shows the structure of distance education and provides the viewer with a feel for how the field of distance education functions. 

Professional Web Presence: Google Sites

The ever popular search engine, Google, continues to expand. Google not only is the world's number one search engine. Google also has an email service (G-Mail), a server based document section (GoogleDocs), maps (GoogleMaps), customized home pages (iGoogle), and much more. Google Sites is an aspect to Google that may spread life wildfire and take over the Web, at least it has the potential to.

Google Sites allows Google users to create free Web pages and Wikis. In class we discussed the importance of having a professional Web page to provide an online presence for students. The Web site allows users to upload graphics, pictures, various forms of media (video, audio, multimedia), and much more. Here is a link to my professional Web presence project.

As an aspiring attorney, Google Sites enables me to create an online business profile for myself. With the ability to show off my various works created via my internships and classes, I am confident in allowing a potential employer to view my Google Site.

Above is a video that provides us with a fantastic tutorial of how to use Google Sites. The fact that there are a number of sophisticated and modern web creation tools on Google Sites is incredible, and what is even more incredible is that it is free.

Podcast

Podcasts could be used in public relations in many ways. They good thing about using podcasts in public relations is their ability to cover every credential to creating an effective campaign. Podcasts use a combination of audio and visuals to deliver messages. They are also easily accessible once uploaded to the Internet. Once on the Web public relation practitioners can direct their locations to those regularly viewed by specific target publics. The ability to produce audio and visual messages daily make podcasts an effective and in someways essential tool to running an effective public relations campaign.

(My podcast still wont upload, I am going to bring it to class tomorrow)

Cloud Computing

According to the Wikipedia link provided on the EME Web page, Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grind.

Cloud computing is a relatively new tool for document transferring and editing. Here is a conceptional diagram of cloud computing: 

With the implementation of cloud computing computer users will have a much more efficient process of sharing documents with other users. Hard drive space will be freed up, paper will be saved, and time will be saved as well.

The ability to put a document in a central location and allow (and restrict) certain users to edit, view, print, and distribute it is revolutionary and genius. The most popular space for cloud computing is GoogleDocs. The video we were presented in class explained the uses and processes of using GoogleDocs in a simple and effective way.

There are other easy-to-view informational videos about cloud computing available on Youtube. This video is informative and elementary, allowing even the least versed computer user to understand how cloud computing works: 

The field of public relations is filled with press releases, memos, abstracts, client selection sheets, public statements, and many more AP Style documents. These documents go through hundreds of rewrites, hundreds of edits, and dozens of emails. With the implimentation of a cloud computing program, such as GoogleDocs, the editing and revising process could become ten times more efficient. Editors could view and edit documents daily without the waste of work time and paper.

Podcasting: Revolutionary

In the article "Podcasting in the Classroom" by Brian Flanagan, he presents the different uses of podcasting in the realm of academia. He also goes on to explain the new technology that has pushed podcasting to a new level. He even advocates the use of ipods in schools.


One might wonder how ipods can be allowed in schools. The answer is simple. Podcasts. With podcasts, teachers are able to stream media daily, both auditory and visual, to their classes


Flanagan says that at some institutions use podcasting for academic reasons. Their use falls into five categories:

1. Course content dissemination
2. Classroom recording
3. Field recording
4. Study support
5. File storage and transfer

He continues to describe the variety of benefits of podcasting. The one benefit that stood out most to me was the use of podcasting to create soundseeing tours. Soundseeing tours are are combination of sounds and visuals used to disseminate information.

Apple has released "enhanced podcasts" which allow users to create podcasts with audio and visuals. The combination of both auditory and visual resources will be available to audiences on their ipods. Like a complex powerpoint. 

With this revolutionary technology we may soon see a day where online classes are no longer taught and put onto computers, but rather streamed to ipods, ipads, itouches, iphones, or whatever assessable technological devices are created in the near future.

Here is a video on how to create a podcast from various Apple products: