PS22 Chorus

One morning this week, as I listened to the morning news on TV, I heard them mention the PS22 school chorus from Statin Island, NY. I made a mental note to google them later. I ended up searching for them on You Tube and found their channel. These kids are awesome!

They have since performed for the Academy Awards ceremony and was able to go to Disneyland. I saw one of their interviews where one of the kids said, “We are living the dream.” I’m so happy for these children and am amazed at their talent and I appreciate Mr. Breinberg (chorus director) for all he has done for this group of children.

This article tells about how Mr. Breinberg, their blog, and You Tube has contributed to the success of the PS22 chorus. Because of all the things mentioned here, they have been view by millions of people around the world. If you have not heard them perform, please check them out.

Review and Reflection

This has been a very interesting class. It’s hard to believe we are almost halfway through the semester. This class has really opened my eyes to the huge amount of Web 2.0 tools that are available. Some of them, like Wordle and Second Life, I had heard of before but never use. Since I work in an IT department, I thought I was pretty techno savvy, but quickly learned how little I knew.

The first couple of weeks of this class was like a whirl-wind. All those emails coming in so quickly was very hard to track. Learning where to post a comment and when was so confusing. Learning to manage all those new accounts has been challenging. I think I have it under control now. But, we’ll see.

One of my favorite assignments was learning Second Life. I can’t believe I feel this way, because my first experience with it was horrible. Being so naive about the program, somehow I teleported to an unknown area and was pushed around and cursed. I think I jumped in too fast. After going through the tutorials and actually having a meeting with my instructor and fellow classmates, I found that I liked it so much better. I’ve since learned that the North Carolina Community College System uses Second Life for professional development. I may get involved with this in the near future. Second Life has also helped me to feel more connected to my classmates. The meeting we had was great in allowing us to talk and “see” everyone.

Although I hate blogging, it is beneficial in getting to know everyone. By reading everyone’s blog and viewing their weekly vlogs, getting to know everyone is so much easier than if we were only using Moodle. I really hate the vlogs too. Blogging reminds me of writing in a diary. I did that when I was a young girl and viewed them as a very personal and private journal. When mine was read by someone else (no, not my parents), I decided that I would never keep up another one. Never say "never". The vlogs are a struggle for me because it’s hard talking to the camera and not knowing who will see your video. I think it’s hard to come up with a topic that will be interesting enough to capture someone’s attention. Maybe it will get easier as the semester progresses, as others have said, we’ll see.  I can’t believe that I’m actually uploading videos to You Tube!

There are several tools I really like and feel like I will use again. Wordle was fun and so was learning about editing information on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikiversity. I found it exciting to learn that I can edit the information contained within these Wiki sites and help update information for others. The delicious toolbar that allows you to bookmark your favorites sites is also something I will use. It will be great to be able to access my favorites from different computers.

Learning about Michael Wesch has been wonderful. I love all of his YouTube videos. I may be one of his biggest fans. The information he presents about Media Ecology and Cultural Anthropology is fascinating.

Through all the frustrations of this fast-paced class and keeping up with the many websites, login names, passwords, and the confusion I’ve had about where to post what, this has been a great class. I look forward to all the new things I will learn and will be able to take with me when the class ends.

Living with Technology

Today has been one of those days I've needed to catch up on a few things. Seems like everything is moving way to fast and I don't have time for anything. I took a day off work and thought I would be glued to my computer all day. Well I have been, but it hasn't been so bad after all.

I love living in this day and age when everything you need is right at your fingertips. I've been able to log into my computer at my office to get some work done. I've checked my checking account balance and paid a bill online. I've spent most of my day doing homework assignments for an online graduate degree program through Appalachian State University. My husband has called two times to check on me via a cell phone. I've had a conversation with my daughter via texting and she even sent me a new picture of my grandson. I've caught up on my three email accounts as they are all delivered to my Droid. I was able to talk to a few friends on Facebook and even check my church's calendar events through their website.

Sounds like a lot doesn't it? Well it has been a very productive day and I have to count my blessings. I've done most of this while sitting on my front porch enjoying this beautiful 74 degree weather.  With a wireless Internet connection and my laptop, I'm no longer trapped inside the house sitting at a desk.

Life is good!

Delicious!

I'm really excited about using the Delicious website. I like the idea of all my links being in one place.

During any given day, I work on at least five different computers. There's three in my office, a laptop and desktop PC at home. So it has been a challenge to find all of my favorite websites and finding the ones I need to get my job done. This will make my life so much easier.

This is just one more of the Web 2.0 tools that I didn't know existed before taking this class. I'm looking forward to see what else lies in store for us.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of those websites that I have visited before, but never really explored. I never thought I would be adding content to any Wikipedia articles. I set up my profile and updated an article about the college where I am employed. The most complicated part about updating my profile was trying to insert a picture.  I thought it would be nice to use a picture of one of my plants, but discovered I couldn't do that until I had edited at least 10 articles. That may take a while, or never happen, so I found one on the Wikipedia site that was free to use. I finally found a "how to" video that showed how to insert an image. That was really helpful. I've enjoyed the experience of editing articles on this site, but was so nervous about messing up someone elses content that was already there.

Desktop Virtualization

We are always updating computers in our labs at school. Recently, we decided to test cloud computing and knew that we wanted to use the Pano Logic system. We have already virtualized some of our servers and wanted to test desktop virtualization as well. I found a great article on the Pano Logic systems in eWeek magazine. Check out the article if you’re interested.

In planning for the installation, we had to upgrade all of the network switches in each building on campus. New Cisco switches were needed so that each Pano units could connect to a virtual Pano Manager server located in our server room. Each of these servers can run up to 25 Pano Units. This number works great for all of our labs. We normally have 20 to 25 computers in each room.

There are so many good reasons for moving to this technology. First of all, we have one central place for all updates and troubleshooting. No longer do we have to run across campus to work on an individual computer. The units are very small in size, and they require a fraction of electricity to run as compared to a conventional desktop computer. I’m amazed at how little electricity they use. A normal desktop computer (this does not include the monitor and other peripherals) requires approximately 400 watts of electricity to run. The Pano units only needs 9 watts to run. This in itself is a great cost savings to our already taxed budget.

All of the software needed for a particular class only has to be installed one time, on a server. Then when students log on to a computer (the Pano Unit), the software they need is there. This cuts down on the time it takes for our PC technicians to set up a lab.

We have had wonderful results with this system in the three of our labs so far. We do plan on expanding to all our labs as soon as possible.

Michael Wesch Video

Watching any of the videos by Michael Wesch is exciting. I love them! They are very interesting to me because of the classes I’m currently taking, and because I work in an IT department at a school. By being in an education environment, I can see the way students prefer to learn and how instructors teach have changed over the years. In conversations I hear across campus, no longer are students talking about certain textbook or encyclopedias. Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia is now their sources of information.
In An anthropological introduction of YouTube ,Wesch’s says that “when media change, human relationships change”. I see that students no longer sit in the cafeteria reading a book, or just hanging out with friends, most are online with a laptop, netbook, or iPhone. All seeming to be disengaged from their current surroundings. I do realize they are not alone, but are in their virtual world, with their friends, whether it’s someone across the room or around the world. And, maybe it’s the person sitting right beside them. Who knows?
I could really relate to his term “contact collapse”. In doing my weekly videos, I just want to be invisible. I hope that my friends and family never find my videos. I know I don’t have to worry, but I’ve wondered what I would do if one of my went “viral”. I would be so embarrassed.
One of the main things that stood out in this video for me was the comment about Carl Sagan calling our planet Earth “The Pale Blue Dot…the only home we’ve ever known”. And I loved Wesch’s follow up poem, …that dot, that’s there, that’s somewhere else, that’s everybody, on the other side of that dot, is everyone you know, everyone you love, everyone you’ve ever heard of….billions of potential viewers…it’s a little glass dot, the eyes of the world” Wow! No wonder it’s so hard to make those weekly videos.