The article I was talking about in the previous blog-post, which I just found we not only have to talk about it but also blog about it (again, point of this is???). The article was about a colonel, Lawrence Sellin, who was fired after he didn't clear his comments through public affairs & failed to clear "written or oral presentations to the media" through a designated public affairs officer.
In his PowerPoint, he talks about how in the two months working as a staff officer to a headquarters in Afghanistan, he has not done anything productive. He mentions how the International Joint Command was most likely founded to provide some general with a three-star command rather than to coordinate operations among all the regional commands. He humiliates the generals by calling them "cognitively challenged", and how the headquarters staff mainly has to make PowerPoint presentations to spoon-feed the generals' information. He makes a sarcastic comment as to how he has to attend series of PowerPoint briefings and meetings with PowerPoint presentations, because, "just like gym class, they take roll."
He also makes fun of the commander, who never actually attends the "commanders update assessment, or CUA," and his immediate subordinates, who sit through the CUA in a "semi-comatose" state. Finally, he talks about how the IJC (International Joint Command) will attempt to embed a new stovepipe into an already existing stovepipe.
This is a blow to the IJC, I believe. I can understand why he was fired. At first, I thought firing someone because of a PowerPoint was a little too harsh. Well, since he obviously didn't like his job in the IJC, he can look on the bright side - since he was fired, he can search for a job he will like to do - maybe one without having to make PowerPoints.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Article
So...this week we had a three day weekend, and it would be an understatement to say that I was completely refreshed. It should be officially established that we had a three-day weekend every week. I'm not going to go into the many, many reasons as to why I believe that so much school is not really very useful, because I suppose it would be considered "offensive" to the district, or whatever. I don't think the district honestly cares what I think, though, so...it shouldn't matter what I say about it. Point is, I hate school, there should be more breaks, no school on Mondays, etc.
Today in Multimedia I will have to work with a partner on some article and present to the class...and I don't see the point of this...but then again, I don't see the point of 90% of the things teachers make us do. Just simple busy work, I guess. Then, we have to work on our Web 2.0 tool power point, which we should be "almost finished with" - I thought this was a full length project...I guess I was mistaken. Also, I was wondering - is too many transitions between slides bad? I had transitions on all my slides (and they were all different) but then I decided to stick with only one transition between the slides, so all my slides' transitions are the same. Is that still bad? When I use transitions on some of the slides but not others, it looks sort of weird.
Today in Multimedia I will have to work with a partner on some article and present to the class...and I don't see the point of this...but then again, I don't see the point of 90% of the things teachers make us do. Just simple busy work, I guess. Then, we have to work on our Web 2.0 tool power point, which we should be "almost finished with" - I thought this was a full length project...I guess I was mistaken. Also, I was wondering - is too many transitions between slides bad? I had transitions on all my slides (and they were all different) but then I decided to stick with only one transition between the slides, so all my slides' transitions are the same. Is that still bad? When I use transitions on some of the slides but not others, it looks sort of weird.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Confused
I really don't understand - why must we use a specific Web 2.0 tool in our presentations? That's not fair, since I wasn't really here and most of the Web 2.0 tools are blogging and social networking and that doesn't really fit in with a presentation - and most of the others have already been taken and I wasn't here when they got to choose. Yes, there may be thousands of Web 2.0 tools, but only specific ones or the best ones are given, and yes, those "best ones" tend to be Wikipedia, Flickr, Youtube, etc. I don't understand also - what presentation? What is it supposed to be about? The Web 2.0 tool?
I wanted to be moved out of this class, and go to something like broadcast journalism or newspaper, because this class is starting to prove to be very difficult for me, but the counselor wouldn't let me change...something about losing a credit? I don't know, but it made me sad. :(
I wanted to be moved out of this class, and go to something like broadcast journalism or newspaper, because this class is starting to prove to be very difficult for me, but the counselor wouldn't let me change...something about losing a credit? I don't know, but it made me sad. :(
Web 2.0 tool?
I'm wondering whether Wikipedia, stock.xchng, Youtube, Flickr or even Photobucket have been used.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Web 2.0 tools (continued)
There are thousands of Web 2.0 tools, but I put the ones I found interesting on the last post.
I'll have to present my Web 2.0 tool to my Multimedia teacher. Afterwards, I will play with Keynote, which is Apple's presentation creator. As I didn't get to present today, I'll work on this some at home and I'll present next class period.
I'm not sure why I would like to use Vimeo or Writeboard on my presentation - I don't even know what the presentation is supposed to be about.....
I have a bad feeling that I'll have to present a lot to the Multimedia teacher...one reason is because it's my first day in this class and I already have to present something....
Bye! :)
I'll have to present my Web 2.0 tool to my Multimedia teacher. Afterwards, I will play with Keynote, which is Apple's presentation creator. As I didn't get to present today, I'll work on this some at home and I'll present next class period.
I'm not sure why I would like to use Vimeo or Writeboard on my presentation - I don't even know what the presentation is supposed to be about.....
I have a bad feeling that I'll have to present a lot to the Multimedia teacher...one reason is because it's my first day in this class and I already have to present something....
Bye! :)
Web 2.0 tools
Happy New Year everyone! I'm back, and I had an extremely relaxing break - right until the very end, when I missed my flight back from Mexico & was stuck there for another week - it's a long story that I really don't feel like going into - point is, I missed my flight and that is why I was not here at school for the last blog post.
What I missed last time was something called "Web 2.0 tools" - I don't understand it very much, but I know that Web 2.0 tools are a new category of Internet tools & technologies created around the idea that people who consume media, access the internet and use the Web shouldn't passively absorb what's available but instead be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own purposes, as well as those of their communities. Web 2.0 tools apply to, but are not limited to, blogs, social networking applications, RSS and wikis.
My instructions were to choose two, and I may choose another one just in case somebody else has chosen the one I want to present.
One of them is Vimeo, which is sort of like the counterpart to Flickr. I would do Flickr, but I know somebody else has probably already done that. One of the cons of Vimeo is that to increase from 500 megabytes to 5 GB you have to pay a yearly annual fee of $60. Unlike Youtube, which only allows videos to be no more than 10 minutes in length, Vimeo allows you to have videos that can be however minutes you want in length, but you have to pay for it. Youtube allows you to upload however many videos you want for free, whereas Vimeo does not. Vimeo is more like a video hosting service rather than a social community. A pro about Vimeo is that the compression in videos is almost unnoticeable, and this is good for, say, a motion graphics piece that has a very specific color palette. The aesthetics of Vimeo are great, and one reason for that is that when you hover your mouse off the player, the controls disappear, allowing you to fully view the video without the controls in the way. When you put your mouse back on the player, the controls reappear. For those who don't like the annotations that are stuck on Youtube videos by the author, Vimeo does not have that option to put annotations on videos, which is somewhat good, because I, for one, find them annoying.
Another one is Writeboard, which is a good collaboration/word processing tool because it is a web-based word processor that allows multiple people to sign in and share ideas. This can be very useful with students who are in a group and are doing an assignment or a project together - with Writeboard, they can all share and see each other's ideas. Another good thing about Writeboard is that you can export "your board" into an email or text file, too. A con with Writeboard is that it's not really possible to make a spreadsheet or a chart on it. You can't change the font color & type, and the basic capabilities such as bold and italic. The formatting is done with a code rather than buttons, which will make it a bit confusing for people without a whole lot of tech experience, like me. Another plus of Writeboard is that it's free.
Of course, Youtube is another, as Youtube allows people from all over the world to post videos and share ideas. Myspace and Twitter are other Web 2.0 tools, and the pros of these are that people of all ages can communicate with friends and family who live in other areas, but a con is that because of social networking sites such as these, less people are going out into the world and actually making new friends, face-face. Another con of social networking is that it becomes easier to write nasty things about others and start rumors. It fuels arguments and lots of drama.
This post is getting sort of long, so I'll continue on a new post.
& here are the links to Writeboard and Vimeo.
1. Writeboard
2. Vimeo
What I missed last time was something called "Web 2.0 tools" - I don't understand it very much, but I know that Web 2.0 tools are a new category of Internet tools & technologies created around the idea that people who consume media, access the internet and use the Web shouldn't passively absorb what's available but instead be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own purposes, as well as those of their communities. Web 2.0 tools apply to, but are not limited to, blogs, social networking applications, RSS and wikis.
My instructions were to choose two, and I may choose another one just in case somebody else has chosen the one I want to present.
One of them is Vimeo, which is sort of like the counterpart to Flickr. I would do Flickr, but I know somebody else has probably already done that. One of the cons of Vimeo is that to increase from 500 megabytes to 5 GB you have to pay a yearly annual fee of $60. Unlike Youtube, which only allows videos to be no more than 10 minutes in length, Vimeo allows you to have videos that can be however minutes you want in length, but you have to pay for it. Youtube allows you to upload however many videos you want for free, whereas Vimeo does not. Vimeo is more like a video hosting service rather than a social community. A pro about Vimeo is that the compression in videos is almost unnoticeable, and this is good for, say, a motion graphics piece that has a very specific color palette. The aesthetics of Vimeo are great, and one reason for that is that when you hover your mouse off the player, the controls disappear, allowing you to fully view the video without the controls in the way. When you put your mouse back on the player, the controls reappear. For those who don't like the annotations that are stuck on Youtube videos by the author, Vimeo does not have that option to put annotations on videos, which is somewhat good, because I, for one, find them annoying.
Another one is Writeboard, which is a good collaboration/word processing tool because it is a web-based word processor that allows multiple people to sign in and share ideas. This can be very useful with students who are in a group and are doing an assignment or a project together - with Writeboard, they can all share and see each other's ideas. Another good thing about Writeboard is that you can export "your board" into an email or text file, too. A con with Writeboard is that it's not really possible to make a spreadsheet or a chart on it. You can't change the font color & type, and the basic capabilities such as bold and italic. The formatting is done with a code rather than buttons, which will make it a bit confusing for people without a whole lot of tech experience, like me. Another plus of Writeboard is that it's free.
Of course, Youtube is another, as Youtube allows people from all over the world to post videos and share ideas. Myspace and Twitter are other Web 2.0 tools, and the pros of these are that people of all ages can communicate with friends and family who live in other areas, but a con is that because of social networking sites such as these, less people are going out into the world and actually making new friends, face-face. Another con of social networking is that it becomes easier to write nasty things about others and start rumors. It fuels arguments and lots of drama.
This post is getting sort of long, so I'll continue on a new post.
& here are the links to Writeboard and Vimeo.
1. Writeboard
2. Vimeo
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