Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Educational Blog Review

As you can see I have a wide range of material within my blog list that I have found interesting to read or beneficial to improving my learning.  One blog that I have found paticularly interesting is http://www.securedgenetworks.com, which is an consistantly updated blog written by Danny Mareco. The blog is based around technology within education, mostly focusing on wifi and networking within education facilities and advice on how to improve technology within schools. Personally I found this blog extremely engaging as the writer uses pictures to provide a visual aid that works well with the articles. The blog also relates well to my course as new blog posts keep me constantly updated with the new technology available within schools, which will be beneficial as I am aspiring to be a primary school teacher and will have to work with these new technologies later on in life, very differently to the way in which I myself was taught in school. The blog is neatly set out into four areas: mobility, security, strategy and insiders. These areas are useful as they help you to easily navigate between topics that range from How To Maximize Your School Wireless Network With Secure Mobility, to 30 Years of Change: How Campus WiFi is Shaping The College Experience. If you have the time I would seriously consider taking a look at what Secure Networks has to offer, the simplicity of this blog will leave you much more well informed and interested to read more as lets be honest, technology will continue to grow and develop for many years to come!

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Aspects of a Familiar Web 2.0 Application

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Tumblr

Click the image to access the website.
Tumblr is a free social networking website used for blogging purposes that was founded by David Karp and allows users to effortlessly share anything, such as post text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos from your phone, desktop browser or email, which means it is easy to blog from wherever you may be. This is one of many advantages of using Tumblr, as well as the fact that your blog can be completely customisable, from the colours used or using your own HTML to add your own theme, which means it can be completely personalised to suit your personality best. As far as social networking goes, Tumblr is a great way of finding a wide range of different people that have similar interests as you through using a feature to follow other users’ blogs, although there is also a safety feature that allows your blog to be completely private. One of the best things about Tumblr is that it is really easy to use due to the majority of its features being accessible from the ‘dashboard’ or homepage. Posting blog entries is also extremely easy due to the different range of media available to post, as shown below:
However, besides all the advantages of Tumblr’s simplicity, there are a few disadvantages that need to be considered, such as allowing users to send ‘anonymous’ posts, which allows users to be a little less friendly to others as they do not need to reveal who they really are. There is also the issue that this social networking website is not the most text-friendly blogging platform, being more focused on images rather than text posts. It is also very difficult to engage in conversation with others when commenting on posts, as it does not always notify you if others are trying to carry on a conversation when they have reblogged something you’ve posted. As well as this, there is no instant messaging service besides ‘asking a question’ which also prevents people from contacting each other directly or effectively. Despite the disadvantages of using Tumblr, I personally love using this site to blog and share my mutual love of different television series and books that are currently trending online. - I guess it really depends on what your social networking preference is. 

Saturday, 3 January 2015

When Deadlines Are Due...

So I'm back in Swansea after a lovely Christmas at home to find that, like myself, everyone within my student house has left their deadlines and revision for exams to the last minute once again! So I thought I would create a short fun video that portrays the atmosphere within the house pretty accurately using the TimeLapse application on the iPhone to speed up the process, then editing the videos in Adobe Premiere. Here's to breaking old habits in 2015 guys!