I visited the audio books site Librivox and iTunes and found them to have a large selection of audio books. These websites provide people with diverse choices which is very accomodating to the customer. On a personal level I am one who still enjoys reading. I like the quiet time reading provides me as it allows me to get into the story and create visuals in my mind relating to the story. I do see the benefits of audio books as I enjoy motivational short stories, bible readings, sermons and autobiographies. Listening to these types of books while driving or on lunch at work gives me a chance to get away from the rest of the world and enjoy some quiet time with my thoughts. Audio books is can also be a beneficial instructional tool as the 'new age' student is always on the go and very computer literate. Technology is a part of their world in almost every facet so audio books provides a way to learn in a different way and it can be very accomodating to those who struggle with reading.
I spent the majority of my time looking at the website Statistics in Sports. Often times when I'm watching games on tv the announcer's provide statistical information from games and seasons of the past. But you never really stop to think about all the time and work that goes into compiling those statistics or who for that matter is compiling those stats. This website provides information and links on just about whatever sports category you interested in. Since I'm a sports junkie I liked the Sports Data Resources page that give links to sites such as MLB History, Current NBA Stats, NCAA FInal Four, NFL Statistics Golf.com PGA Tour Statistics. This site also has a Career in Sports Statistics which says, "sports statisticians for teams do not require the academic training of most professional statisticians in statistical history, models and applications. Their primary goal is as collector/validator of data. Their secondary role is identifying newsworthy items of statistical interest at the level of exploratory data analysis".
The Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports is one of the premier reserach statistical journals. This journal publishes current research which is peer-reviewed on the quantitative aspects of professional and collegiate sports. It measures player performance, tournament structure, frequency and occurence of records. The site also gives information about yearly conferences and meetings from New England to Northern California. This site is a very good resource tool for professionals in teh sports world who conduct statistical research and raise issuesans ask questions that relate to quantitative sports analysis. Personal Website
Pro's -You can design it how you want (creative side of you) -Share with the world as much or as little as you want about yourself -Many tools that you use to design the site are free -Can make changes/ easy access to your information about who you are Con's -The site can be viewed by anyone -Must update on a regular basis -Employers can miss understand your message -should either be professional or social Professional Portfolio Pro's -Increases your marketability -Gives employer's a visual as to who they think you are -All work experience and education in a concise and professional manner -Easy access to information Con's -If not well done can misrepresent who you are -Must be creative to stand out -Only gives a glimpse of who you are Pro's -Networking exposure increased dramatically -Interact and establish professional and business contacts for future gain -Re-establish connections with old friends and business contacts -Provide a clear account of your experience to future employers and business partners Con's -Takes time to set up and maintain -Can be costly to upgrade -Field of competition can be strong (employers have more options for future job candidates) When an opportunity to accomplish a goal or achieve a dream presents itself it is important to be ready. My high school coach always said the key to success was preparation. Professional networking is crucial to having doors open that might not otherwise be opened. As a result we have to be ready when the 'time to shine' occurs. Networking becomes a critcal ally because you have prepared yourself professionally and your making the contacs socially to give yourself the best chance to achieve your goal. Websites such as LinkedIn assist in painting a picture of who you are. Conventions, job conferences, and other job related events help give you exposure
I believe the most important element to presenting yourself is to be yourself. There are a few things that employers, parents, and stakeholders look at when they are deciding if you are the right person for the job. People are looking at how you carry yourself, what are your values and beliefs, do you have the ability to make good decisions in adverse situations, can you work within the team concept, are you professional. Professional networking sites provide an insight to the answers of some of these questions. Networking allows you to meet people within your industry increasing your marketability and ultimately that is the goal. After reading the articles on wiki's I have a better understanding of their purpose. The primary purpose of the wiki's it seems to me is to increase online collabortaion and information sharing among people. I didn't realize that information and research articles on web-based sites, such as Wikipedia, could be added to, deleted and manipulated in a way that could be beneficial or harmful to the readers of the accessed information.
There is so much I don't understand about how the web works and what many of the terminologies (jargon) mean and I was unaware that wiki's existed. Chawner and Lewis describe wiki's as, "a place for people to collaborate in a Web environment by creating, organizing, and maintaining a Web site of automatically linked pages". I thought Dr.Sailor's article gave a simpler view of what wiki's is all about as he gave examples of how students might use a wiki in a learning environment. Students and professionals can work on, "collaborative projects, educators can post class projects or design group projects and post spreadsheets and perform simple mathmatical calculations". I now see wiki's being very beneficial to the educational process. One of the components I like about the wiki is it can also be set to private and semi-private which prohibits unauthorized users. Wiki gets its name from the Hawaiian word for quick. This allows user to access information quickly and easy. Nothing worse than a slow and confusing website, but wiki's is easy to access, easy to understand and the editing features are not difficult . For a novice like me that's music to my ears. The primary purpose of LinkedIn is to connect with the business community. This site allows a person to make connections with colleagues, clients and partners. LinkedIn provides a great opportunity to expand your business connections because of the 'networking' that takes place. On LinkedIn your profile can be seen by possible future business clients or employers. This and excellent site to expand and grow professionally.
Facebook's primary use is to connect with family and friends socially and to enlighten the world as to what is going on in your life on a personal level. This site is a social-networking site to simply connect with people through the use of photos, videos, and instant messaging. Facebook also allows you to connect with people who have similiar interests as you. 'Making friends' is one of the highlights of social-networking. I spent some time searching physical education apps online and I found sparkle.org a good place to find apps that addrsss many needs in physical education. Apps range from dealing with fitness: iFitness and Pocketbody....to evaluating the heart: Pocketheart...to dealing with student actions, behaviors, infractions, achievement: Teacher's Assistant-assessing student performance: Easy Assessment-training with music: Musicworkout.
I liked the educational site Dr.Sailor recommended as they had some really good apps such asFast Food Calories to watch your calorie intake, MyPyramid USA which helps in preparation of balanced meals, ITrain download MP3 workouts for cardio-yoga-strentgh-pilates,JEFIT-strength training routines, iTreadmill-count steps,calories burned, distance. Mobile technology allows you to use technoogy on the go. Whether your in your classroom, out on the field, at the gym or wherever you are you have immediate access to information. You don't always have time to sit down at a computer to research information, enter grades or dowload information. Mobile etchnology give you so many options. I like the diversity and availability of accessing information through the use of apps... You don't realize how many different technological tools you use on a daily basis until you really take a look at what you do. As I looked at the top 100 tools for learning I was surprised to see what I use. Tools such as word and outlook I use at work. I enjoy surfing the net so I use google search, and bing. When I need to look up certain kinds of information I use wikipedia. This class has introuduced me to social media sites such as twitter, facebook and shutterfly. I also like the youtube videos which is a site that although quite popular I never visited. I look forward to using the many resources that I am aware of now and introducing my studenst to these valuable educational tools. I have only begun to scrtach the surface!
I really thought the podcast recording using the mp3 file was cool and fun. I didnt know there was a website available where the technology allowed you to speak into a microphone built into the computer and record what you say. Then be able to save it as a file and play whenever you want..That was awesome! Made me feel like I should have been a radio disc jockey :) My kids will have fun doing that on our home computer.
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