Week 12: Final Blog!

Hello everyone!

Can you believe it? It's the last post from me. As sad as that is, it is time to be moving on. I had an amazing 12 weeks with all of you and learned a lot about being a digital citizen. I believe all my experiences and knowledge is going to help me throughout life and everything I learned here in this course is going to stick with me. Before I leave, lets reflect on what we learned and how it changed throughout the semester!

 As our task this week, we were asked to search ourselves on Google. When I did that,  I had to scroll down half way because nothing related to me popped up. But I did happen to find my Pineterest and Gmail. I was a little disappointed, but I realized that it's a good thing that I couldn't be searched. This is because I was always taught that safety and security is important. My digital footprint in the beginning of the semester was very small, so to see anything on Google is still a progress. Of course the more I become involved in becoming a digital citizen, the bigger my digital footprint will be. But that isn't what we want- we want our footprints to be positive and I believe right now that's where it's leading too! I think there is a connection between having a positive digital footprint and living and learning online as a digital citizen. The more you learn and live online, the more you understand what's right and wrong, thus helping you become a positive citizen.

As a digital citizen is it important to remember the rights and responsibilities that you have. Not only do you have to watch what you post, you have to make sure you give credit where it's due. As a digital citizen you need to remember that you have the right to an opinion but there is a thin line before it turns into a rude comment. As a positive digital citizen, you need to ensure that your posts are respectful.

This course has been an amazing tool in itself. It has taught me so many things from the basics of online interaction to the amazing tools I have used which you can see throughout my blog. This course has helped me become a better learner and has made me confident.

I would like to thank everyone who kept up with my blogs! I appreciate it and I wish the best of luck to all! It was a great experience witting to you all!

Nisha Nayyar

Weekly Report and Reflection #11

  

Welcome back everyone!

Can you believe it! It's the second last week and that means my second last blog for the semester. It's crazy how time flies when you're having fun and learning!Now that the school year's coming to an end, I have to find a job like many others. Of course when I was on Business Insider I came across something very interesting. If you're confused on a career path like me, look at the jobs that pay well. In this article, it gives you 18 jobs that pay well and are stress driven. So if you think your someone who works well under stress, then one of these 18 jobs might be your future. For me, I think i'm going to hold back and learn more about myself before I decide. Hope this helps some of you because as interesting as it was for me, i'm not quite there yet to choose a job.

Google (CC 2016)

So what did we learn this week? This week was very interesting actually because we got to use and try out some amazing tools for Podcasts. Podcasts are recordings of anything that a person can listen to and it's better than a radio because you can re-listen, pause and do much more with a podcast. Tools like GarageBand, Audacity and SoundCloud are platforms where one can create a Podcast and listen to other podcasts created. Of course I didn't get a chance to try all of the tools but the one I chose to try was SoundCloud. This was because I was already familiar with it and it was the easiest to sign up and work with. Before this week, I had only used SoundCloud to listen to music that others had posted and now I got the chance to create my own podcast talking about being a digital citizen. You can check it out on my podcast's page.

I think this tool is a great tool for becoming a better digital citizen because it allows you to give your opinion but you have to speak and record yourself. Although at first I thought it was awkward and I didn't want to record my voice, I think it was a good way to let my opinion and knowledge about a topic be put out there for everyone. When I was recording, I had to make sure I was loud, clear so everyone could understand. This helped me become more confident posting things about myself, including my voice. It has helped me become a better digital citizen, although it wasn't much I had to do. I would definitely put this in my PLE under create and connect because it's a great way to connect with the world and give your opinions and ideas. As Tyra mentions in her blog, "I feel that the tool helps you become a better digital citizen", I completely agree with her. I do believe it helps us become better citizens of the digital world.  

Thank you so much for reading and enjoy the rest of your week! Until next time, byee :)

Nisha Nayyar

Weekly Report and Reflection #10

Hello everyone!

Welcome back for another great week. Before we get started, I would like to share what I found this week on Feedly. Of course everyone is enjoying the warm winter that we have been having this year, but it is good for the economy? This article on CBC news talks about how the weather has impacted on the sales of pet coats and booties. Yes, people are not buying these items because it’s so nice outside. We are all happy and excited now, but this is not good for the world. This is global warming and it is really a serious issue. But enough of the world...

Google (CC 2016)

Can you believe it! We are in our 10^th week for this course. Soon we will be saying goodbyes. But for now let’s see what we learned this week. We got a chance to learn about some amazing online tools that can help us create slideshows. We got to explore Animoto, Fotobable, and Prezi. Before this week the only tool that I had used was Prezi, and the other two I didn’t even hear about. Slideshows are an amazing way to portray information to others about a topic of interest. These tools allow us to do just that. For example Prezi lets us make a slideshow about a topic of interest and you can add photos, and texts allowing you to follow a path.  Because I have already used Prezi, I decided to experience a new tool.    

The tool I chose to experiment with is called Animoto. Animoto is a tool that allows you to create a slideshow that flows like a story. You can add images to it like a collage and add messages or subheadings clarifying anything that can’t be told with pictures. It has many templates, which include different categories like business, education and more. While reading fellow peers experience with this tool, they seemed to have found it easy and simple to use. Honestly I thought it was a little confusing and if I had to choose between this or Prezi, it would be Prezi. This may be that I didn’t get to spend as much time with it as I should have. I think I might have not enjoyed it as much because it limited my text to a few characteristics. If you look on my slideshow page, you can see what I created with the tool.

Another thing that we learned this week other than slideshow tools was about copyright free images searches. I didn’t even know that we could have accessed Google’s advanced search for them! We got a chance to put it all in a slideshow explaining the difference and importance of copyrights and creative common. Copyrights are the rights to protect your work and creative commons allows the creators to invite certain users to their work, so your work can be controlled.  

Google (CC 2016)

Overall this week was a very educational week! I would use the slideshow tools if I wanted to communicate with someone in a more creative way. I would definitely include this in my PLE under collaborate because I think it’s a great way to get the information across. After this week, I learned the importance of citing. Anything you use from the digital world should be citied to the rightful owner because it is his or her work. It is part of your responsibilities to do so.      

Thank you for reading my blog!

Nisha Nayyar

Weekly Report and Reflection #9

Hello everyone,

Before we talk about all the great stuff we learned this week, I would like to tell you about what I found on my feedly. Of course everyone wants to be successful and rich, but there is a lot more to it than you know. This article that I found on Business Insider is about the major differences between successful and unsuccessful people. So if you want to be successful, then you should definitely have a look at it. They talk about 10 things you should or shouldn’t do.  

Google (2016)

This week we got a chance to work with VoiceThread.  It was the first time I ever heard about this online tool and I’m glad I did. After exploring VoiceThread and trying out its features, I was able to see how it works and what can be done using the tool. This tool has a lot of features and it relates a little to Google Docs I think. It allows you to collaborate with others around the world by sharing your opinions by commenting on topics. Not only that you could call them, voice message them or upload comments. Once you post your comment, then anyone can view it and also comment. You can also comment on individual slides in a power point presentation. I think this is a great tool to use in a classroom setting. For example my fellow classmate mentioned that it’s a great tool for educators to use in presentations.

The second tool we looked at this week was PollDaddy. Before this I had never even heard of it but thanks to this course I get to experience new and interesting tools every week. This tool basically allows people to choose an option and it summarizes letting everyone else know what people thing about a situation. I agree with my fellow blogger that it is a great tool to use for social networks.

Google (2016)

Overall I think both these tools are very useful and I would definitely add VoiceThread to by PLE. It’s a great way to collaborate with others around the world. We got a chance to work with other classmates and add comments. If you go on my pages, I have talked more about my experience and uploaded a video of our work.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope to hear your thoughts on these amazing tools!

Nisha Nayyar

Use of Technology Scenario #11

Sieber (2010)

Mrs. Smith considers herself to be a pretty savvy computer user. She has been working with computers for five years and uses them regularly in class. Mrs. Smith gets an email from someone she does not known but opens the email anyway. When she opens it, the message has some advertisement for a free gift, so she deletes the email. Several days later she is working on her computer and notices that her internet browser is working very slowly. She decides to check the computer with an antivirus program and discovers that she has a virus on her computer. She determines that the virus came from the email she received several days previously. How do we protect ourselves from online dangers?

Source: Ribble, M. (2015) Digital Citizenship in Schools (3^rd Edition) International Society for Technology in Education ISBN 9781564843647

            This scenario that I chose has a situation which is very common when it comes to inappropriate use of technology. In this scenario Mrs. Smith opened an email from whom she wasn’t familiar with and that resulted in a virus. People have been using email as a source of trying to hack people’s computers and they are usually attached with a virus that will ruin your computer. I know this because a few years ago it happened to me. I accidentally opened an email from an unknown user and it gave me a virus on my computer. This is inappropriate use of technology because I had to make sure my information was safe and that resulted in a long process. In this case, that is exactly what happened to Mrs. Smith. This is going against the rights and responsibility that one has towards the digital world. Everyone has the right to their personal information and it is your responsibility as a digital citizen to respect everyone’s space. This scenario was a clear violation of that. The email that was sent from unknown citizen makes the scenario inappropriate, but Mrs. Smith shouldn’t have opened the email if she didn’t know who send it. So Mrs. Smith wasn’t using the technology inappropriately but her opening an unknown email was not right. To avoid this similar situation in the future Mrs. Smith should never open an email she doesn’t know about or who sent it.    

Do you think technology was used inappropriately in this scenario? 

Nisha Nayyar

Weekly Report and Reflection #8

Welcome back for another great post!

While I was going through my Feedly, I found a very interesting video. Of course I know you can already guess where I was. You’re right! Business Insider. So this couple decided to quit their jobs and use their wedding money to sail around the world. I personally love travelling but could never take such a huge step. But hey each one to themselves. This is just something to motivate you to do what you want in life and never give up on your dreams. I know I won’t!

Google (2016)

This week we got the chance to learn about Wiki. Wiki is a site that has made it easier for people to communicate information. One can freely post anything on there and anyone else can edit the information and save it—simple as that. The point of this is so that important information does not get lost and everything stays in one place. From the video you could see that there are two important buttons to keep in mind: edit and save.

Personally before this week, I did encounter with Wiki before. I have used it for as long as I can remember. Of course it is not a viable source as teachers mention it and that is for good reason. The benefits as we know are great—one place with all the important information but there are costs to this. Because anyone can share their knowledge, it becomes very opinionated rather than expert information.  Not saying that it makes it all bad. Leading up to university a lot of my “quick learning” for papers and reports came from Wiki. If I needed to know about a topic, event etc I would Wiki it first to get an understanding before going into details. It provides a summary of information.

Wiki is similar to other tools we have explored like Google Docs because like Google Docs, wiki allows us to collaborate with others and work together for one goal or in this case information. But I like them both for different things. I prefer Google Docs if I was to write something or work on a group project and I would use Wiki for information and knowledge—to get ideas.  I would definitely add Wiki to my PLE because I believe it is a great learning tool for my future goals as well as present.

Other than Wiki, we also talked about the rights and responsibilities of a digital citizen. We created a diagram of what we thought are the most important rights and responsibilities. As you can see in the diagram, I have many rights but the three most important that I believe are the right to privacy, the freedom of speech and legal rights.  There are many things I learned this week; about becoming a digital citizen and rights and responsibilities you have while being online. I learned it is the same as being face-to-face with someone. If you wouldn’t do or say something when you’re in front of the person, you wouldn’t do it behind a screen.  I also learned that as a digital citizen, privacy becomes a bigger concern because it becomes harder to protect but it is very important, in fact I believe it is one of the MOST important rights.  

Nayyar (2016)

Hope you all enjoyed my blog this week!

Nisha Nayyar

Weekly Report and Reflection #7-- Google Docs

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back from reading week! Hope everyone had a good, fun and relaxing week. I can’t say I did, but mine was worth every second! Competing in a competition and placing FIRST PLACE---yes that was the best thing that could have happened! Anyways getting back from reading week I was on my Feedly this week and I came across this video on Business Insider—don’t worry it’s different from the usual. This was about fruits and vegetables and how they looked before we domesticated them. I found it very cool and interesting, maybe because I love food! But I thought it was interesting so I thought why not share it with my fellow readers!

This week we got to work with an online tool that most of you are probably familiar with called Google Docs. I have used this tool before this class but I personally never made my own document or anything. I would just edit and work on my part and that was it. We got a chance to use this tool to work on our collaborative group project with our classmates to enhance our digital learning. I think this is so smart because your group and you could be in different places and it is possible to have a complete project done. The benefits of Google Docs—amazing right! This is so helpful because it not only makes it convenient for people, but it allows more than one mind on the particular work.   

Google 2016

Google Docs is an online tool that allows people to collaborate with others and create documents, power points and much more through their own devices. It has multiple functions and it works as the same as Microsoft Word, making it more appealing and easy to use. Google Docs could be used for many things for example group projects, papers, essays, assignments and they could also be used on a personal level like notes. You could connect with people across the world and share your knowledge with each other. You can get more information and understanding on Google Docs video.

One reason I absolutely love using Google Docs is because I don’t have to worry about carrying my laptop everywhere just to finish up work. I can go to school and sit on any computer. Before this when I just used Google Docs to finish my part of an assignment I never looked at it in much detail so I never gave it much attention. I never pulled it out when I needed a document; my first instinct would be Microsoft Word. Now that I used it on my own and read fellow peers experiences with it, it has made me realized that it’s very similar to Microsoft Word and that I think is essential because it’s functions are helpful when writing an essay or anything for that matter.

I already have Google Docs in my PLE and I would definitely keep it for the future as well because I believe it’s a great tool. I would also recommend it to anyone who has not used it or has but hasn’t created a document on their own. It definitely changes everything! Hope this blog helps understand Google Docs!

Thank you for reading and until next time, BYE!

Nisha Nayyar