Tuesday, June 10, 2008

IT IS FINISHED

And Melissa looked at the blog that she had created, and she saw that it was good, and then she rested.

How to embed a Flickr badge onto your blog

  1. Sign in to your Flickr account
  2. At the bottom of the page click Tools (in the Help tag)
  3. On the right hand side look for "Display Flickr photos or video on your website" click the build a badge link.
  4. It will automatically select the HTML format, don't change it, just click the blue box at the bottom that says NEXT: CHOOSE CONTENT.
  5. Choose which photos you want to include on your badge, then click NEXT: CHOOSE LAYOUT.
  6. Click the options you want to choose your layout, then click NEXT: COLORS.
  7. Choose colours for your background, border, links and text, then click NEXT: PREVIEW & GET CODE.
  8. If you are happy with the badge, click in the text box, this will automatically select all the text, push Ctrl C, to copy the code.
  9. Now sign in to your Blogger account.
  10. Click View Blog.
  11. Click Customise in the top right hand corner of the page.
  12. On the right hand side click Add a Page Element.
  13. Find "HTML/JavaScript" half way down left column, and click ADD TO BLOG.
  14. Click in the content text box and puch Ctrl V to paste the code.
  15. Give your badge a title if you wish, then click SAVE.
  16. Your badge will now appear on your blog
  17. Give yourself a pat on the back.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Assistive technology

Provide a definition of Assistive technology .

The Technology Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act, 1988 defines assistive technology as “any item, piece of equipment, or product system… that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.”

Describe one piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial. Provide information on size, cost and functions.

Sunny Sunshine Switch

Size: 14" X 14" X 8''

$US 82.95

Requires 6AA Batteries

This is a switching device, which means that when it is plugged into any electrical appliance, eg. a radio, you can turn it on and off by pushing the button/switch.

The centre button is large and has bendable arms that come out from it, touching either with activate the switch so accurate motor control is not necessary.
The device also produces coloured lights, vibration and music, when the switch is activated, this feature can be switched off.

How does your chosen piece of equipment increased functional capacity for the user? Provide examples here from the tutorial and lecture.

The switch gives the user some control over their environment and allows them to become active participants, rather than passive observers. The switch can be placed to take advantage of any purposeful movement that the user is capable of eg. side flexion of the neck to hit the switch with their head or abduction at the hip to hit the switch with their knee. It allows otherwise meaningless movement to produce meaningful results.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

The internet and online communities

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating.

Tree Hugger
www.treehugger.com


What is the brief or focus of this community?

Tree Hugger is focussed on environmental issues, they are dedicated to promoting sustainability.


What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?

The Tree Hugger site contains:
Video/radio pod casts
Weekly or daily newsletter
Relevant articles
“How to” guides for making your life more environmentally friendly

Ways you can interact/contribute to the site:
Forums
Comment wall
Quizzes
“Hugg” where you can post your own environmental news stories.


Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?

Some people are sharing their opinion on certain environmental issues, but by the most common thing is sharing information to help each other in their quest to be “green.” For example, a good place to buy organic produce, how to start a compost heap or whether urine is a good fertiliser.


Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed.


Urine is a great acticator in the compost. I have a friend who never uses our tiolet when he comes to vistit. It's always straight down the garden to the compost bin. Urine has other uses too. In the near future, you might be an alternative fuel source. Scientists in Singapore have created a battery powered by urine Handy for powering all of those Christmas toys that are running out of power! Most insect bites are acid, so if you are being driven mad by itching you could use an old country remedy- a dab or two of your own urine.


Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.

Features such as forums may be misused, and because of anonymity of users there is little accountability.
As posts can be added by anyone there is the question of how reliable the information is.
This then leads to the question of who monitors and regulates the content of the site.


Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity.

People from all around the world can interact with each other and share information, this gives us access to such a vast range of knowledge and ideas that we would not otherwise have. It is great for people who live in isolated communities or who have a rare interest that may not be shared by anyone within reasonable geographic proximity.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

There is no human contact and you cannot interact with others in real time so conversation would be very difficult. It would therefore be hard to form relationships with others, this may mean you don’t have a great sense of belonging to the community. Having a sense of belonging is one of the major benefits of traditional communities.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Posting You Tube videos on your blog

  • Find the video you want to share by entering keywords in the search bar and click search.


  • The results will be displayed here, scroll through the videos until you find the one you were looking for, and click on the picture.



  • Use the cursor to highlight the text in this box, then right click and choose copy.


  • On your blog dashboard page click new post.

  • Right click in large white box and choose paste.

Optional(shown in green): add a title, comment and label.

Click publish to finish.

  • The video will now be displayed as a post on your blog.

Video Production

Provide a brief summary of the services offered by U Tube.

YouTube is a website that allows people to share video clips. Anyone can view videos (though some are R18) or you can create an account to upload and share your videos. This also allows you to rate videos or write a comment about them. If you think one of your friends would enjoy a video you have watched you can email them the link

You can search for videos of interest by entering keywords into the search bar or you can watch a channel which is videos posted by the same person. There are also groups which contain videos of similar topics.
There are many more features in the YouTube world, but that's the basics.

Provide a brief account on how the use of planning (storyboarding and scripting) aided your group’s short film.

Our group used a storyboard to plan our short film. A storyboard is a series of drawings; each with a short description, that shows the basic progression of the film. These drawings were then used as a guide when filming. It made the filming process easier and a lot quicker because we knew exactly what we needed to film before we started.
The storyboard was also helpful in the editing process. It gave us a clear picture of how all the separate clips needed to fit together to create the finished product.



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