Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Finished Product

Now, mostly the whole project is finished. My page and the ning is mostly done. The only things we have left are to fix the annotated bib with all 12 sources. We need to add all of our sources and put them all together for the final product . We still have to decide on one picture, video and song for the save sea turtles homepage. We are going to figure that out soon, but it will also be realy easy to figure out. My page has a pink layout and color scheme and it looks awesome! I atually really liked this project because I found it easy once I understood it and fun at the same time. I also think the timing for having things due were a good amount of time and we had a lot of class time to do the project and talk to our group mates which really helped and I really liked.

Splitting up the work

I was absent the class split up the work. When I got back, my assignment was to play around with our homepage on ning about saving the sea turtles. Over these past few weeks I ave played around with the save sea turtles ning page in a few different ways. I picked out the layout which is called fresh. I figured this would be the best choice for colors because it has blue and green and white and it looks clean but simple at the same time. The color scheme goes perfectly for sea turtles so we decided as a group it was perfect. I changed the places of the blog, text boxes and discussion forum. I changed the things around to make the layout more organized and easier on the eyes. I added a text box above the photos because I figured that would be a good idea for a place to put the welcome note.

Social Cause

So the final project we worked on was the Social Cause assignment. As usual, when we first got our assignment assigned to us-you know what I am going to say-I was confused. Surprise surprise! I am always confused when an assignment first comes out because we hear about all of the requirements and instead of just realizing they will be done piece by piece , I freak out and think that they are overwhelming. But now, having the assignment mostly finished, I am once again calm and happy with the project turnout.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Potential Discussion....

1.When did this become a serious problem?

2. How people can help Sea Turtles from becoming less endangered

3. How are they becoming endangered

Monday, November 16, 2009

Blog Post

3 topics I could write a blog post on would be:

-The history of sea turtle endangerment
- Where sea turtles are now in RI dealing with endangerment
-How to help save them!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Compare and Contrast

The political action article discusses using social networks like facebook and myspace to the politics advantage by saying they would be able to speak the truth on these sites. It sheds a negative light on on them about how they show how status obsessed and narcissitic we are as a society today. It says its a social platform for attention hogs to do their thing. It brings up the idea that there is infinite scaling on the web and that these SNSes are used today mostly for people and the friends they already know. It ends with there is a huge lack of motivation to share or spread the information across the SNSes and they will know they are succesful once it is brought up on myspace of facebook for expample.
The digital natives article discusses the view of a "crisis in citizenship and and civic engagement". Both articles discuss the audiences for SNSes and how they use them. The second article almost enforces or suggests the use of digital media in school because it will introduce goals for actualized citizens. I think both articles discuss their personal view of these sites and how they affect us now and what they actually should be used for. Both writers attack the topic in a different tone and at a different angle.

NING

I have never heard of Ning before this class. When I first went onto the website, I felt a little overwhelmed. I'm still a little confused about how to use the website. I'm a little worried that I am going to have trouble working Ning. I know it is for our causes, but that's all I know really so far. It is obviously an effective social network that allows you to speak about your causes. I think once I work with my group, I will be able to work the website easily. This has happened with the other projects before. I seem intimidated by the new site but then towards the end of the project I know how to work the website very well.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Social Networks Response

i used to have a myspace, but now I only have a facebook, and I really don't use it that much. Social Network Site (SNS) allow you to do many things, one being able to meet or come in contact with strangers. It is funny we allow these sites to let you friend or befriend anyone because safety is definitely a concern that can run hand in hand with these sites such as myspace. Each social network has it's own layout for a profile, which is why some attract more or less members than the other sites. You choose what SNS you want to be part of based on who you know that has it, and how much you like it. The article even discusses that most sites have something called friends, which are other users who agreed to be friends with you, when in all reality you may have never met or heard of them before in your life.
I still think SNS are useful as well as scary. I do not accept friend requests from people that I don't know. It's crazy to think that the first SNS was launched in 1997, which was six degrees which I have never even heard of. I feel like that is kind of late in blooming. Privacy and threats were actually an issue that they brought up in the article. They actually gave some examples with cases. The end of the article says how this is only the beginning, and there is still much exploring to do.

5 ISSUES

5 Potential Issues:

1.Drunk Driving
2.Animal Abuse
3.Starvation
4.Pollution in the area
5.Gay Rights -Marriage

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

final website

Once I started to get interested in making the homepage template, I enjoyed making it. The website is pretty much finished right now but I know there are some changes I can make to it. I think after the workshop, I will be able to change a few things. The reason I am excited for the workshop is because there will be a fresh pair of eyes , or even a few pairs, to see changes that could be made to better the website. Since the group has seen my website already done so far, they are used to it and I have already changed my website according to their feedback, so it will be good to see new feedback that I can possibly change my website for the better.

Website project

During the class we decided what we were going to finish for the next class, I was extremely stressed during the beginning of it. I picked the homepage template but originally wanted the proposal memo, but someone else in the group had called it. After realizing I was going to have to do the website, it was like starting from scratch. I had looked at google sites before but didn't know how to do everything that we needed. I didn't even know simple things like the navigation bars. Once my WRT teacher helped me in the beginning stages of the website, it seemed to fly from there.

beginning of redesign

In the beginning of this project, I was actually really worried. I thought that it was going to be extremely hard for me to understand this project. I am sure I was extremely annoying for the teacher the first day we really discussed this in depth. I kept asking questions, over and over, because I just didn't understand the concept of making a webpage. Once I played around with google sites, and we figured out what website we were doing , it all made more sense.