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Matrix Homework Assignment for ITEC 740

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Week 12: Assignment: Interface Design Critique on VoiceThread

On Information Design

• Who are the users

Anyone who wants to share their presentation online can use Voicethread. Educational institutions and businesses used them in the classroom or the boardroom.

• Information chunk

Voicethread is easy to use and easy to embed to your blog or websites.

• Relevance

Voicethread is easy to use. To create a Voicethread presentation you would need to first upload your file then, comment and then share your file.

• Labeling

There are 3 tabs in your account:

Browse: to browse different Voicethread that is posted as public

Create: to create your own Voicethread

MyVoice: Voicethread that are saved as your favorite

• Consistency

Consistent with over all interface and usage

 

• Detail

Voicethread is a powerful new way to talk about and share your images, documents, presentation, videos and etc. Good interaction all in one suite.

On Interactivity

• Orientation

Voicethread is a user-friendly tool. Once you get the hang of using this tool you will see how powerful this tool can be a use with your presentation.

 

• Navigation

 The navigation is straight forward by click on the play icon. You can move forward or backward by clicking on the left or right arrow. Leaving comments are allowed by voice, text or video, and doodle.

• Functionality

 It works very well but It will not embedded links on Voicethread and the doodle tool sometimes is hard to use

• Information access

 There are a lot of Voicethread slides on how to use Voicethread. On the help menu it has FAQ, Tutorials and Forum if you need assistant.

On Screen Design

•  Attractive  

 

User-friendly and easy to use

• Resolution

 

Resolution is very good and there is a zoom-in and zoom-out feature that will not make the presentation pixilated.

 

• Color

 

      Good contrast. Background is black with solid color so that the presentation on Voicethread stands out.

 

• Lay out

 

Simply organize and visible to use.

 

• Readability

 

It's readable, as long as your original presentation is clear and readable.

Week 11: Design of Everyday Things

Carbaby

The car baby is a car kit that universal transforms a cell phone into a speakerphone everywhere, directly through any FM radio. You just have to clip the car baby onto your cell phone, tune in the correct station and you're ready for hands free conversation on your cell phone.

From the DMV website, effected July 1, 2008, California law prohibits all drivers from using a handheld wireless telephone while operating a motor vehicle. Motorists 18 and over may use a “hands-free device.” The second law prohibits drivers under the age of 18 from using a wireless telephone or hands-free device while operating a motor vehicle.  

The car baby device’s affordance is a device that enables speakerphone to our cell phone. Some cell phones have the capability of a speakerphone but sometimes it's not as loud, especially when you are driving. The Car baby device have a small light that is visible indicating it’s on. So if it lights up, it means its working or it’s on.

The constraint about the car baby device is that you would have to be near a FM radio to get frequency to hear the other person speaking. This was very hard to do because you would still hear fuzzy noises or sometimes hear a radio frequency.  Ths is the starting point when you know this device is going to be worthless device.

The mapping between the car baby devices with the cell phone and FM radio controls how well the speakerphone will work. Normad said that “the relationship between control and actions should be apparent to the user which states the principle of natural mappings”.  It’s obvious that the relationship between the car baby device with the cell phone and FM radio is to be able to hear the other person you are talking to on the speakerphone to work from the FM radio. The speakerphone through FM radio, you could  hear echo and not a clear voice. My cell phone's speakerphone feature is better than the car baby device even though it's not loud enough. 

The car baby is fairly cheap but buyers beware, it does not work so do not buy it. There are several hands-free devices out there that are workable even though there might be some be flaw but I hope it's not as bad as the Car baby device.

Week 10: Let's Play

In Joyfulness, Pink talks about Dr. Madan Kataria’s Laughter club.

 

Dr Madan Kataria, the guru giggles and is the founder of Laughter Yoga Clubs believes that:

• Joyfulness differs from happiness. Happiness is conditional; joyfulness is unconditional.
• When you depend on something else to make you laugh, the laughter doesn’t belong to you. That’s a conditional laugh.
• But in laughter clubs, the source of laughter is not outside the body; it’s within us.
• Laughter in a group can help people go from the conditional happiness of adults to the unconditional joyfulness of children.
• Laughter can play a major role in reducing stress in the workplace.
• People who laugh together can work together

 

Laughter Yoga Club with Dr Madan Kataria

 

Laughter Yoga Clubs is a unique exercise routine that combines group laughter exercises with yoga breathing which allows anyone to laugh without using jokes, humor or comedies.

This is a good Ice Breaker exercise. It can be an effective way of starting a training session, group collaboration, team-building event, and etc.

 

Here is an example of Dr. Kataria laughter training Conference in Korea where he trained the delegates from different part of Korea.

 

2008 Laughter Training Conference in Korea

(Note:  Please watch until the 1:00 mark (you can watch the rest after class) and then I will resume the presentation)

  

Laugh Conference

 

World Laughter Day

 

Steve Wilson, president and co founder of World Laughter Tour says that” Laughter is a free and natural expression of the joyful human spirit and promotes Health, improves morale and increases productivity at work, facilitates the healing of illness, melts away stress, works wonders in the classroom, is the hallmark of healthy family life, and promotes international harmony…”

 

The purpose of World Laughter:

Steve believes that the world is so out of balance that it needs to lighten up and laugh more in order to maintain perspective. We set aside this day to send a message to get more people laughing, urging the world to lighten up! "Systematic exposure to true mirthful laughter in a supportive environment can contribute to world peace by fostering attitudinal healing.

If you like more information about Workd Laughter, I've provided the link under resources.

 

" According to Wilson, "Laughing is the birthright of humanity, and humane living requires daily bouts of good-hearted laughing."

 

 So repeat after me: Ho-ho Ha-ha-ha

 

Resources:

 

Information on Dr. Madan Kataria:

http://www.laughteryoga.org

 

Youtube 2008 Laughter Training Conference in Korea:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjIouhtT1Ps

 

World Laughter Foundation:

http://www.laughterfoundation.org/pdfs/WLT-WLD-Proclamation-2008.pdf

 

World Laughter Day:

http://www.worldlaughtertour.com/

 

Thank you Gordon and Judy for the great job on our presentation online. For more on the complete presentation on Play, go to :http://itec830.pbwiki.com/Play 

 

Week 9: SocialText and Mash-Ups

CEO Eugene Lee of SocialText was our guest speaker who presented information about his company, the use of new techniques that made his company a great success and many interest stories. Socialtext is focus to collaborate such as projects collaboration with your colleague. Currently, I have no use for it but if I have group projects then this tool would be great way to communicate with my team. I think SocialText tool would be a great tool for students who are doing collaboration projects. For example, School of Social Work have a journal booklet project called Social Prospective that consist of 2-5 students. This project is an option for their cumulative projects. The project consists of stories, poems; biography, information, researchers and etc. which later on are compile into a journal booklet. Given the fact that students and the School department have a low budget, the use of SocialText might not be an option for them due to funding. Also, some students would require training on how to use this tools.So it might not work for all school department, but I think it will be a good add on tool for the private company that can use SocialText instead of emails, wikis, etc. to collaborate their projects.

Also, Eugene talked about using Twitter and how it helped him land a sale. This is a great way for companies to market their company. My only concern is not all CEO uses twitter and would actually log-in and twitter about what they are doing so this marketing is not for every companies.

I have used Facebook to indicate my status of "what I am doing" but I do not do it on an everyday base.Maybe, I will try using twitter as an application in facebook.

 

Thank you Eugene for your time and your presentation to our class.

 

Craig presented Mash-Ups, which is a web application hybrid that combines information from different sources and integrates web 2.0 tools. He gave several examples one of which the combo of Ning and ilearn together as an interface. How cool would that be? Thank you Craig for the great presentation about Mash-Ups.

Week 8: 5 frames Story using VoiceThread

Francisca's Fashion

Week 8: 5 Frames Story using Flickr

Can you guess what my 5 frame foto from flickr is all about?

 

This 5 frame shots was taken during a scavenger hunt for  Mervyn's 33th Birthday. One part of the scavenger hunt was to to act about Mervyn's 2nd major which is Criminal Justice. We had 2 groups and my group did a story to portrait criminals and justice was serve. So the story goes, Randy and Ramon attempt to rob the girls purse. Meanwhile, OJ,Chris and Sonny was hidding andready to catch the bad guys. They catched them and  the real cops came. Believe it or not the Police officers were nice enough to pose for the camera. So guess which group won the Scavenger Hunt?    

Week 8: A Whole New Mind Chapter 1-3

Ourbrain

The beginning chapter of Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink talks about our Left Brain and Right Brain. It’s fascinating how he explained it and how it can relates to my life in the past, present and future. When I was younger I lived in different countries. First grade until half of 5th grade I was in the US. I write with my left hand (lefty). My US teachers accepted it but not in Indonesia. When I went back to Indonesia, my teachers would force me to write with my right hand. They told me that a lefty was appalling in the Indonesian culture. My Teachers would force me to write with my right hand. I would struggled and cheated by hold the pen with my right hand but use my left hand to move the pen. They would get irritated and would be annoyed. They told me that I was not like the rest of the kids. Well sure enough it was hard to cope the idea of being different.  I never knew why my teachers were so harsh about me being a lefty. I was only a kid why was it wrong to be a lefty? Luckily, I was not traumatized and did not let the teacher’s harsh comments bring me down. I thought I was unique and different than the other children. I am different, I got to travel and lived in different countries with my family.

In the whole new mind, Pink explained that the right brain control the left side of the body. Since I am a lefty that means I am more a right brain thinker. I guess my Indonesia teachers believed that it was bad for me to be a lefty and that being a right brain thinker instead of a left brain thinker was not acceptable.

My college experience was very difficult especially when my parents expected me to be an Accountant. I got a BS degree in Business Administrative - Info Technology System. I did not like accounting but I've been working as a Finance Office Manager for 13 years now. I've started working as an Accountant Assistant prior to studying Accounting. Does that make me a right brain thinker? Well, not exactly, I was force primary to use my left brain. I've also considered myself as a creativity person and have great imagination. I think that was one reason why I doubled major and earned a BA degree in graphic design. In class, we discussed how society believes that the left brain was used more. Nowadays, we need our right brain to go beyond our creativity and synthesize the bigger picture. The left and right brain processing together can lead a healthy, happy and smarter life for me.

Brain

Podcast, Second Life and PDA Presentations

I would like to thank Erica and Brian for the fabulous presentation of Podcast. Gordon, thank you for the insight of Second life. Thank you Eric for sharing some great tools for PDAs and smartphones. I think I need to buy me one of these gadgets.

Week 7: Mobil Learning and Location-based Learning

This week we had a guest speaker Leslie Rule from KQED. She talked about wonderful things about mobile technology and digital storytelling. She showed us a website called Locative Media where people can work on projects that use Google earth to collaborate mapping narrative information. It seems like a cool way to get to know your city or even a place you never dream you would go. In class, we discuss about cool ways we can use this type of project. I was so excited with this mobile technology and digital storytelling that I mentioned it a friend of mine. He said that there is a site call geocaching . This site is a high-tech treasure hunting game for people who like to explore and are equipped with a GPS devices. The idea is to locate hidden containers, also known as geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online and hope they will do the same. I have not done this yet but it sounds very interesting to explore and go treasure hunting. My friend tired it out and he went to a building’s deck level and found a scroll where you can write your name indicating that you were there. It’s a good way to explore different places and a great way to do team building exercise.

In our reading assignment Mobile, wireless, connected information clouds and learning, I agree with what Hooft said that we are “expect to have communication and information at our fingertips and customized to our needs”. We are so lucky to have the internet that we want it right away without the need of  a computer, Nowadays, people have a blackberry or high-tech cell phone that enable them to do all those things.

   

Like Leslie says she never goes without her cell phone. It’s funny how we are so depends on them now. What do you think will be the next technology evolution that we simple can not live without?

Thank you so much Leslie for the great insight of different mobile technology gadget

  Our Google Chrome presentation by Yana was very exciting. Thank you for the great information Yana. Google seems to have taken over the 21 century of technology internet interface. Wouldn’t we love to work there?

Week 6: Dr. Curtis Bonk's class Blog

Therese Chen’s blog talks about the 4^th myths on online gaming. Online game can be addicting but it can also be a teaching method.  How can we teach them to interact with an appropriate way and avoiding addictive?  Online gaming can be a positive thing because sometimes children can escape their problem into the virtual world and are able to communicate much more than in real life.

She believes that online game could be a fun and effective tool for learning. However, as instructors and parents, we need to have a positive attitude and carefully instruct our students’ or children how to use this tool properly. Read more on Therese’s Blog

My comment to Therese’s blog: I have a younger brother (age 25) who is into World of WarCraft. He plays this game pretty much every day. I've always thought that he is wasting his time. What is he really learning from this game?  Maybe someone can explain to me to what is this game is all about. By reading Therese’s blog, make me realize that I’ve should have not judge online unless I know anything about it.

 

Apple (Nantanoot) Suwannawut’s  blog talks about the era of neo Millennium and how many new technological devices have been developed and integrated in our life. Apple talks about the views and perspective of old and young generation in terms of digital literacy. Read more on Apple’s Blog.

My comment to Apple’s Blog:  Neo Millennial and web 2.0 Learners interested me. It seems that the older generation feels so behind. I've taught my mother how to use email. She is so overwhelm with so much information especially when they’ve changed the interface to her email. I’ve considered myself as the “net gen” but yet I’ve felt as if I am still behind. To me, we are constantly learning new things and I hope that I manage to keep up with some of the new technology tools that might be beneficial in my daily life.