Blog Response Inventory

Date of your response, Blog Author, Blog Entry Title, Date of Blog Entry December 2, 2009, Amy Schuman, blog6, nov 16

October 16, 2009, Amy Schuman, Blog4, Oct 5

September 23, 2009, Amy Schuman, Blog2, sep 13

December 2, 2009, Amy Schuman, blog5, nov 13

December 2, 2009, Amy Schuman, blog3, Sep 25

December2, 2009, Amy Schuman, blog1. Sep 1

December2, 2009, David Harris, blog6, nov 16

I thought I did more than two responses earlier in the semester but I couldn’t track them down.

Blog 8 - Metacognitive Blog

Its been a long strange trip doing these blogs, I covered topics ranging from emotional intelligence to hosting videos on google maps. I've also talked about the loman home which has been a major part in our class and the driving force behind most of our training workshops. Overall I've enjoyed the class and doing these blogs to some degree, the blog portion was never my favorite assignment that's why most of mine come in spurts or groups when I do decided to post one. I don't think I've came away with to much its mostly the same things we went over last semester, I do think I can handle groups better because of the loman home projects and I did learn how to upload a video to YouTube which was a first for me. I think the one lingering question that I have left is how exactly am I going to use this once I graduate, because I have no clue about what I might be doing 6 months from now and If I am working are these skills going to pay off in what I do?

Blog 7 - Training Videos

Today I'm going to talk about an assignment we did last week. Overall I thought It was a pretty neat assignment. We had to choose from a list of topics mostly covering OpenOfice and Google Apps. We were linked to a site that had a list of topics and within each of those topics were a list of deliverables pretty simple over all. For my topic I choose GoogleMaps(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlRf78BB_Uk) and In my videos I went over how to set a default location and then how to navigate to a new location from there It was really simple. The software we used to capture the video and audio was CamStudio its open source which means its free and its pretty simple to use over all. The videos that we created are going into a wiki that was started last semester and covers alot of topics pertaining to e-learning and a bunch of other things. I enjoyed the assignment and wouldn't mind doing another one similar to it.

Blog 6 - Cam Studio Video

Today I’m going to blog about CamStudio and an assignment that we did to go along with it. CamStudio is an open source screen and audio capture software, it can be found at http://camstudio.org/. It’s a pretty need little software package that lets you record whatever you’re doing on screen and converts it to an .avi format and allows play back. You can also record your voice as well if you have a simple headset or regular desktop microphone. The assignment we did ties into an assignment we started last semester which was creating a TSTM wiki. The wiki has entries on all kinds of things ranging from learning methods to tutorials. This new assignment had us pick a topic in Open Office or from one of Google’s many apps and create a short video tutorial on how to use it. I choose to do mine on Google Maps, and the features that I discussed were how to set a default location and then navigate to a new location. I also showed them how to zoom in to get details and to switch to street view to actually get a glimpse of the actually location so they don’t drive past it. One thing that I left out but didn’t mean to was the print feature which gives you a printer friendly version to use. Overall I enjoyed the project and hope it turns out to be a successful despite all the problems some people have been encountering trying to upload and even record the video.

Blog 5 - Loman Home Trip Report

In this installment of Brandon’s TSTM 544 blog I’m going to reflect back upon my most recent trip to the Loman Home. I didn’t feel as nervous as I did this go round because we had signup sheets that lets us know how many folks would be attending and at the time we only had three signed up for and that was great. Smaller groups are easier to handle and you’re also able to help them one on one more. I also felt pretty confident about our presentation; we had a power point set up with arrows and boxes that outlined each step that was necessary to follow along with during our presentation. What I also liked was our power point was easy to follow and there were able to take a copy home in case they needed to go back and check something on their own they would have the steps handy. Our work shop was on Open Office Writer and we showed them how to open the program and start a new document. We provided them with a dummy document to teach them how to use the spell checker and also how to add a word to the computers dictionary. After that we had the type their name’s and showed them how to change the font, size, and the color, most of them got a pretty good kick out of that. Once that was all done we showed them how to save the document and how to make it compatible with all the other word processors out there. Overall I thought the work shop went well and a couple of things caught me by surprise, one was that a few our a trainees were already proficient in open office which I was thoroughly impressed with and the other was that instead of only having three show up we had a full class. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the Loman Home and would do it again in an instant.

Blog 4 - Training Project Reflection

Training project reflection one, This will be a series of entries reflecting on how out Loman Home training is going, kind of like a status report. I’m part of the The Heritage -- Computer Workshops team and my partner is Amy Schumann and we have been tasked with presenting a workshop on Open Office Writer a program that mimics Microsoft word, all open source and all free. So far things have been moving slowly mostly just sending things to project lead Chris who is compiling the information into the CDS reports that are going to provide an overview of our project. On our end of the project we still have about a month until we need to present so we’ve been taking things slowly throwing ideas around, no real planning has begun yet and most likely won’t for another week. Other than those things have been moving smooth no hitches have come up on our end, I know our first group has planned to present very soon, so good luck to them. Our roles aren’t really defined because we both are doing the same thing to keep it simple, but the plan is to use PowerPoint and screenshots from inside of Open Office to construct step by step instructions on how to use the software efficiently. But like I said earlier we haven’t really begun anything yet so there’s not much to reflect on or report at this time, look for more information in future updates.

TSTM544 Blog 3 - Loman Home Edition

I’ll end up posting a few more blogs on this particular topic before it’s over with, the infamous Loman Home. Last semester I ranted and raved about how this was going to be awful and how bad it was going to be to work with a bunch of older people. But in the end it didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it would, granted lecturing about viruses and spam might not be to interesting to people who had very little knowledge about it to begin with but that’s why we were there. This semester my group mate Amy and I are tasked with teaching the kind folks at the Loman Home about Open Office Writer. This task seems more challenging than the others because we have to teach them how to use a piece of software, which I’ve never done before, I’m used to fixing simple problems and sending them on their way. The plan at this time is to teach the basics so they have a good understanding and use the soft ware to construct letters to friends and family. We plan on showing them how to create a new document, Print, manipulate the font, how to use the TAB button and few other basic things needed to compose a letter. I myself have never used Open Office so this is going to be a learning experience in itself, granted the software is made to be as close to Word as it can be without infringing on anything. Overall I think this will be a challenging project but along as I can get the same reward that I got from last semester it will be worth it. Encase you didn’t read my Loman Home Trip report I was able to show a resident how to email her grandson who was currently stationed overseas, and her reaction was the only reward I’d ever need.

Blog 2 - Does Emotional Intelligence Mean Anything?

In class the other day we were required to fill out a survey pertaining to emotional intelligence.(for those that are curious: http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=1121) Basically emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups. You take this test and the end result is it telling you how socially award you are. I might sound a bit bitter when describing this, and that's because I am, I took the tests and didn't like the results it presented to me. The tested told me that I was "below average", now thinking back on my past experiences, I've experienced some low lows and some high highs and I personally think that I can handle anything short of the apocalypse. Now I understand how knowing one self is very important and how you handle social situations is also very important when attempting to train someone in a new technology or teaching them new software. I was given a set of similar questions during a job interview and the difference between the two quizzes was that I was able to explain in my own words the answers during the interview. To me It seemed like a lot of the choices you were given seemed forced and not enough options where given. Now the next question I have is how many companies factor in these quizzes when they are looking to hire someone? Would someone with a high IQ score be chosen for a position over someone with a lower score? I really don't see the point in these quizzes unless my judgement in them has been clouded by the anger produced by my meager results, maybe the quiz was correct about me, seeing as I just let an online quiz cause me to go on this rant.

Blog 1