KamanKaman

Hi Hi~~~

I want to let you guys preview my online shop. Please tell me what you guys think! Any suggestions to how I can improve it? The stuff on the site are made by my sister and me.

Click here to enter KamanKaman

Weebly and Online Shop

During break, I've decided to do what I've wanted to do for a long time - to start an online shop selling accessories that I make. I remember at the last class we had, we learned about Weebly. I thought it looked really cool and seemed like you can customize your blog a lot more than blogger allows. So I went on the site and started playing around with it. I'm still learning about it, but from what I have played with, it seems like there are advantages and disadvantages to both. For one, weebly allows you to create a website AND a blog. The designs are more professional looking as well. The only thing is, you can't really choose any other fonts. With Google page creator, you have a lot more font options and what not. Weebly offers a lot of options that are very convenient if you are technology savy and like to set a lot of media on your site/blog. They have a YouTube link, a custom html button, right there on your palette. So, as I was playing with the site, I thought that I could easily build an online shop on my own using weebly and the best part is that it's entirely free. BUT it wasn't as easy as I thought, I had to learn how to set a shopping cart, how to add a "Add to Cart" button, etc. But I googled it and went to various bookstores and read "Online Business for Dummies". I learned that paypal allows me to do all of that. Long story short, creating this online shop made me learn a lot more about site building and whatnot. It is A LOT of work, but I am starting to get the hang of it. I will post it for you guys to see once I have it ready for people to browse (if you guys still use blogger that is!).

My First Stab at Sketchcast!

Collaborative Technologies

We learned about some great collaborative technologies in class last Tuesday, such as online conference sites (e.g. Yugma, Vyew, etc.) and collaborative note taking tools such as Google Docs and NoteMesh.

I think the online conferencing sites are extremely convenient, but it seems to be limited to older students. I think it would be a great tool for college students to use for group projects. College students are known to be very busy and group projects are often really difficult to do, because it's hard to meet up at a certain place. With Yugma or Vyew, students can do so in the comfort of their home. It makes life so much more convenient and it's a lot better than everyone hovering over one computer screen.

Notemesh and Google Docs are great tools for teachers that support collaborative learning. Students can write notes together. It can be edited why any member of the group. I like this idea, but I see an issue that may happen with this. A student might accidentally delete another person's note or edit it without permission, but since it rarely happens, I think that these collaborative note taking technologies are worth trying.

Online Portfolio presentation audio

You can listen to my online portfolio presentation last Tuesday. It's quite embarrassing to listen to.

Copyright

I learned so much in class on Tuesday. It was very exciting to know that there are so much free material I can use in my future classrooms and even now for personal or academic purposes.

The most important thing I learned regarding the use of images, copyright, mashing, etc. is that there are many creative people out there that is willing to share their work for others to use. I've always used just images online without knowing the copyright laws, etc. Although I am not using any of the resources I find on the internet as commercial use, it is still against the law. Like Fei described in class, most people just ignore it and I was one of those people. Now that I know that there are so many great material out there from site like FlickrCC, Creative Commons, Animoto, etc., I do not have to use the mediocre copyrighted material from search engines. Another thing I learned that I think will be very helpful for teachers is that they can have access to material that they can modify for their own classroom. For me to be able to use my own images is very important. Teachers can make their own video or slideshow with their own photos, alter pictures they find on sites like FlickrCC or Creative Commons, etc. The possibilities are endless. I also think that being able to my own images or the images my students create in a class to make something new using one of the programs we have learned about in class can create more personal projects.

I think with so many options these days, it would be a challenge to help the students learn all the programs. They may be overwhelmed with how to approach all the material they are finding. I also think that teaching the different types of copyrights there are could also be a challenge. For example, which images they can alter, which ones they have to cite, etc. If I were a teacher trying to teach my students how to use images more critically, I would teach each program and copyright type at a time so that they wouldn't be overwhelmed.

Animoto

This is my first attempt at animoto. The photos are from my digital photography creative process class from my sophomore year.

Google Desktop

As I was skimming through my Google Reader, I came across an interesting update from Geeksugar. It was about adding desktop gadgets to your Google page. To my understanding, this is only for mac users. Basically, you need Google Desktop. Then you can add desktop gadgets on your iGoogle homepage from the iGoogle Content Directory.

This is sort of like all the new applications you can find on facebook (eg. horoscopes, quote of the day, etc). Is it all useful? Not really. But it is fun to personalize your google desktop. I have yet to try it.

How I would use Bookmarks and Calendars

As I learn more about bookmarks and calendars in this class, I begin to see the great value and potential it has more my future teaching career. There is a lot of opportunities where I can think of that bookmarks and calendars could considerably benefit me as a teacher or personal use, for students, and for parents. I know I will definitely use these technologies as a teacher, because it has made my life a lot easier as a college student and frequent internet user. Below, I listed how I would use bookmarking and calendars for my own personal or professional use, for students, and for parents.

Personal/Professional Use:

• Social bookmarking can allow me to give students valid resources that I think would help them for my projects/assignments.
• Social bookmarking can allow to me to see what other teachers' ideas are and I could modify their lessons for my class.
• Calendars can let me check my schedule anywhere I have internet access. It would allow me to see important dates (school meetings, holidays, events, due dates, etc.).
  
• I can create a calendar that reflects my students' schedule so I know where and what they are doing.
  
• Personally, I can add other calendars to notify me when an event that provides something I am interested in is coming up such as, concerts, art fairs, etc.
• If I was planning a personal event, I can see my friends and families' schedule on public calendars to decide on the best date/time.
  

Students' Use:

• Students can check their schedule on online calendars.
• Calendars can help students organize their priorities.
• Students can check to see what upcoming events are at their school (sports, shows, etc).
• Students can use social bookmarking to see what the teacher suggests as valid resources for research projects.
• If the students want to learn more about a certain topic being discussed in class, they can see if the teacher has anything for them to read online. If they find some themselves, they can share it with the class.

Parents' Use:

• Parents can use Calendar to check on when upcoming Parent-teacher conferences are.
• They can also see what their child is learning in class through bookmarking.
  
• Parents could also see the students' schedule and volunteer on special events.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

For those that do not know what the Mid-Autumn Festival is, it is a Chinese holiday where we celebrate the 15th of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Why? Because it's always full moon on this day!

On Mid-Autumn Festival (usually I just call is August 15th), we usually play with Chinese lanterns, eat mooncake, and admire the full moon. Too bad it was too cloudy today to see anything!

Above are pictures of the box of mooncake my mom gave me. (^V^)

Organic Foods

The topic I chose to do my search on was Organic Foods. Recently, I've been more interested in the benefits of organic foods and basically, what is qualified as "organic" by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). According to an article on How Stuff Works, foods labeled as organic, defined by how it cannot be made rather than how it can be made, must be produced without the use of sewer-sludge fertilizers, most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetic engineering (biotechnology), growth hormones, irradiation and antibiotics.
Help Guide lists four ways in which organic foods are healthier for our bodies and the environment:

1. Have more nutritional value. Organic foods contain higher levels of vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, iron.
2. Contain more antioxidants. Food scientists at the University of California, Davis, found that organically grown fruits and vegetables show significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods. Pesticides and herbicides reduce the production of phenolics—chemicals that act as a plant's natural defense and are also good for human health. Organic fertilizers, however, appear to boost the levels of these anti-cancer compounds.
3. Promote biodiversity. According to a study called The Biodiversity Benefits of Organic Farming, "organic farms had five times as many wild plants and 57% more species." The organic farms also had more birds, spiders, and non-pest butterflies than non-organic farms.
4. Protect the next generation. As explained above, the effects of pesticides and other harmful additives to children are especially acute. Most children today are born with pesticide build-up in their bodies. Feeding your children organic foods and teaching them about the health benefits of organics will promote their good health and well being as well as that of generations to come.

How to read the labels:

• If it is labeled 100% organic, then it must only be made with organic ingredients.
• Foods labeled simply as "organic" must be made with at least 95% organic ingredients.
• Foods grown and processed by the federal standards usually have the label, "USDA Organic" on it. (This label is voluntary)

One thing I was always curious about was why healthy or organic foods cost way more than the conventionally farmed or processed foods. The things the contribute to the higher cost of organic foods are:

• The organic food supply is limited as compared to demand.
• Production costs for organic foods are typically higher because of greater labor input and because farmers don't produce enough of a single product to lower the overall cost.
• Post-harvest handling of relatively small quantities of organic foods results in higher costs because organic and conventional produce must be separated for processing and transportation.
• Marketing and the distribution chain for organic products are relatively inefficient, and costs are higher because of relatively small volumes.

Overall, I think that consuming organic products are worth it. If you think about how preservatives can extend the shelf life of a certain food, think about what it will be doing sitting in your body.

What I've learned about search
I have learned a lot about the search operators. Although it may take some getting use to, I think the operators will help a great deal in future research or in the classroom. What I found most helpful was the + operator, the ~ operator, and the fact that Google will ignore single digit numbers. To prevent google from ignoring single digit numbers, I can use the + operator because that allows me to search the exact word or phrase I am looking for. The ~ operator allows me to to search for synonyms. That would be helpful when I'm searching for something that can be referenced with different names or wording.

Comments fixed

Hello, for those of you that tried to post a comment before and failed, now it's fine. Sorry about that. I forgot to set back the settings to allow anyone to post. So if you still want to or feel like posting a comment (or two), click on "inspire me" below the posts. (Thanks Maya for letting me know!)

RSS Readers: Affordances and Constraints

I think that the advantages of RSS heavily outweighs the constraints. It really depends on how the user chooses to utilize RSS.

First off, RSS can provide you with all the new info posted on the sites you often frequent. That saves you a lot of time if you have a lot of sites that you browse on a daily basis. Instead of going to each site separately, you can read the latest updates all in one place. Secondly, if you are subscribing to a certain topic for research purposes, RSS does the searching for you. You do not have to google it and click through each site only to find a majority of them is irrelevant to the topic you are interested in. If some of the RSS feeds are, in fact, irrelevant, you would be able to skim through all of them quicker than clicking them one by one on any search engines such as google or yahoo. Instead of permanently storing them in your bookmarks or favorites, you can put a little star by it so you don't have a bunch of bookmarks in your favorites list.

A disadvantage of RSS may be that some sites do not have the latest updates right away. So there might be a glitch in the system right now, but I have confidence that this problem would soon be solved. This may cause some problems if students were depending on the RSS feed to tell them the latest assignments and announcements from their class, school, or teacher. Another disadvantage is that RSS may be a little more time consuming when it comes to organizing, but I think once you get the hang of it, it'll become a lot easier and maybe even hard to live without!

Blogging: Advantages and Disadvantages

According to Blogger:

"A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world"

I really like their description of what a blog or weblog is, because a blog is essentially whatever you want it to be and the possibilities are endless. On the other hand, with something so limitless and growing rapidly, there can also be disadvantages. Below, I have provided a list of my personal opinion on what the advantages and disadvantages of blogging are.

Advantages:

• Can update your ideas anywhere you have access to the Internet.
  
• Can get ideas from other people's blogs that can help you get what you need (cooking recipes, beauty tutorials, classroom activities, etc...)
• Easy for parents to see what their kids have for homework, whats going on in school, special events, etc.
  
• More efficient than emailing, because it allows other parents/students with the same questions to see if the answer has already been posted rather than the teacher replying to multiple parents/students with the same Q.
• Save paper.
• Easy to reference back to an entry (archive/tags).
• Good and easy way to keep connected to your community, whether it is a group of friends, a classroom, a district, a school, etc.
• Can be more personalized than a website.
• Very easy to set one up. No need to know codes for websites, etc.
• Blogs offer different types of media for teachers to help their students in any way (audio, video, images, etc).
  
• It's free!
  

Disadvantages

• Maintaining a blog may be difficult as it is time consuming and requires a lot of dedication.
• Must have internet access.
• If a blog site goes down or is under construction, it is impossible or very difficult to get back all of your posts and links.
• Needs to be well administered in case of inappropriate comments/posts.
  

A Girl Like Me

I decided to post this video, because I think this is a very interesting clip on diversity. More importantly, I think this is something that we as future teachers can use and take in consideration when designing a classroom that embraces diversity. I actually saw this clip a while ago on TV and found it on YouTube. In this clip, there is a survey done with African American children. They were given two dolls, a white one and a black one. The researchers asked some questions regarding the dolls and the children's opinion is quite shocking.

Restaurant Recommendation: Korea House

When I first moved to East Lansing, I had no idea where I could find great authentic ethnic foods or if it even exists. Coming from Sterling Heights, a very diverse city filled with many great local ethnic restaurants, I couldn't bare to live without the taste of some truly authentic cuisine. So, my mission began. I started searching the internet on sites such as Restaurant Db. Over the last 3 years at MSU, I've had the chance to try many of these wonderful and not so wonderful restaurants.

One resturant that really stood out is Korea House. I've tried Sushi-Q located on Grand River and Charlie Kang, also located on Grand River next to Urban Outfitters, but they do not compare to Korea House (map). If you are new to Korean cuisine, I would recommend the Soon Dubu Chigae (a spicy tofu seafood soup with silken tofu), Bulgogi (a sweet marinated thin sliced beef served on a sizzling plate), or Stone Bowl Bibimbap (rice with assorted veggies and minced beef served in a sizzling hot stone bowl). Here are pictures of each for your viewing pleasure. (^v^)