It's hard to say goodbye...

Well, Who would have thought that we would become more involved than we were? I enjoyed the presentations and had a great time in this class. Guys... you did a great job on your web 2.0 project. It was fun and exciting to see what everyone has come up with. I will miss not having to go to school in the fall. I am done with the program after the completion of 797 in the summer. I do wish all of you luck in your careers and please, keep in touch. I had a great time in ITEC 830 and it was wonderful to work with so many wonderful people.

Mary

update 4/17/07

Well spring break has come and gone and I am no further today than yesterday... if that makes sense tell me so I understand too. Okay now for the updates. The 826 national project is coming along fine. Kate, Deb, Erica and I are all excited to be working on this project. We have met with Joel and talked about the needs for 826. We showed him our mock-up front page and he gave us some feed back as to what he would like to see. Oh yeah, we are designing a website for young writers who belong to the 826 foundation. I can't believe the semester is almost over with. It seems as if we just started. Does anyone else feel like that? Too much to do, so little time. 4 weeks and counting.

mary

Happy Birthday... No hot dog story here

Happy Birthday To Me
Happy Birthday To Me
Happy Birthday Dear Mary
Happy Birthday To Me....

new thought on pgs. 89-128

I found these pages to be rewarding in the fact that they show ways to incorporate daily situations into the design process. I have to agree with the statement mentioned in the story section of "I learn more from listening to stories than reading technical material." ( I might have left out a few words)

The one thing I thought about with this section is, a story is a symphony; it is constructed to bring empathy or play while everyone takes with them their own meaning(s) from the story.

Pink has made me think about what it means to design.

I need to design so that learners can take with them a piece of instruction that has meaning and purpose in their life. I think that this also reflects why school is so boring for students today. It seems to me that technology and life is so fast paced that children get bored too quickly, and to the right brain child, who wants to learn about math or science when they can think about creating?

Well that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Mary

week 7 reflection

I have to say that I agree with Erica's statement "The handout with the Visual Language hierarchy kept me more engaged than the other handout." The combination of the two handouts gave me a way to compare and contrast the way we layout our information. It brings to mind for me as to how much text and imagery should we supply to get our point across? Also, the presentations in class were great. I liked the tagging presentation.

ITEC Social Hour(s)

If you didn't go, you missed a great time. It was still going strong at 9:30pm when I left. (Erica I want that cake!) It was so much fun to sit around and talk about whatever popped up. If you missed this one, you should go to the next one. Who needs peachy puffs when you have BEER, COHORTS, FOOD, and FUN? See you next time.

5 photo story telling

http://mlowery.blogspot.com/2007/02/who-am-i.html

My link for my story since it was not shown in class. I didn't upload it to iLearn. I just put it in my blog.

NEW... Group Project Tab in ITEC830 netvibes

Hey fellow classmates and Dr. Foreman,
I set up a new tab on our netvibes that is for group projects. You don't have to set one up. I did for my group so we all have just one place to go and look for information, instead of emailing each other and deleting emails by mistake and spam box input. Also, it is a way for all of you to check out what we are all doing and lend some advice / input. Like I said, you don't have to do it.

Mary

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

week 6 reflection

This weeks discussions were interesting. The 5 frame story telling was a comprising way to not only tell a story but it to hear a story as well. The idea that from the same 5 pictures, 15 people can tell a different story. This not only illustrates how each individual interprets things differently, but the way we each told it. The approach to the story made each one unique. Everything from serious to comical to invoking memories. However, we were all engaged in listening to each story. Story telling has been around forever and just like our ancestors before us, pictures are worth a thousand words, if not more. We all add our piece to the story as well.

The flickr mapping was an observation for me since I already knew how to do it. The only thing I can comment on this is watching my fellow classmates struggle with the process of uploading a photo to the map. I don't know why it is not automatic? Maybe there is a design flaw in the web page, but isn't this based on each person's experience with this tool or similar tools? I don't know if I would consider changing/ improving anything. Yet, based on what I've observed of my fellow classmates, I would have to say that the usability is not what is expected when it comes to the maps and putting photos on the map. What is a 3-5 minute task ended up taking folks over 20 minutes to find the maps page. I would have incorporated a tool that asks if you want to add this photo to a map when you upload the photo to flickr. After the upload, it should automatically take you to a world map and allow you to locate the spot on the map and drop it there.

The elluminate presentation was great. I have used elluminate before as moderator and student. I am familiar with all the formailites of this program, but I just wanted to comment on the presentation. The girls (don't know their names) did a great job at researching the project and setting up a powerpoint presentation.

Week 5 reflection

Today's conversation led to some interesting point of views, especially about the way Pink describes the new "conceptual age". I could relate to what the class was saying about the left brain vs the right brain. But what fascinated me most was the web 2.0 video that Dr. Foreman showed us. I went to the sight myself as the mini-movie was playing so I could get a closer look at what was really being said. This allowed me to really see what was going on. It was the idea behind web2.0, which brought up the debate of concept before context and vice-versa. It is like the old question 'what came first; the chicken or the egg?' The film was developed on a linear approach. It started with the old paper and pencil way to communicate in which we humans were the machine; we did the thinking and calculations and spitting out the answers with paper and pencil. Then the eraser added to the next step in technology which was the ability to use a computer program to write with. If you made a mistake a simple key stroke and you could re-write anything at a moments notice. You could even add stuff to the current page. All of this allowed us to be one with the machine. It did what we told it to do via programming. However, is it the event of all this redundent editing on paper the cause of the development of these word programs, or is it the creativity to design new ways of doing things that has allowed us to work smarter?

Like the film showed in text, web2.0 is a portal that has become a social tool that allows us to be a part of a system that is universal and forever changing. It is not static. Therefore it forces us to re-think how we think and look at things. I believe that web2.0 is an icon for diversity since it is a communal port that allows us to share our experiences and reach out to others regardless of our backgrounds, where we come from, what we believe in etc.

All I can add to this is, when it comes to technology and web2.0 there is an unprecedented amount of opportunity for growth. The sky's the limit (not really...)

A Whole New Mind...

A Whole New MInd sure does put things into perspective, while explaining the current economy of our country right now. More people are unemployed or have been placed in different socio-economic classes based on the end of the L-Directed Thinking. It opened my eyes as to why I have been replaced with overseas employees. Why pay me $50 hr to layout PC boards when someone in India can do it for a fraction of the cost. As far as Pink's comment on spirituality coming forth in this new generation, I believe it has to do more with the effects of 9/11; more Americans got a wake up call and all of a sudden we are making meaning of our lives. Maybe this is why he also why his six senses concept is relavent to the 6th sense and that is supposed to be connected with spirituality. (just my 2c)

Who am I?

My Wiki

my everyday thing

“My Everyday Thing”
By: Mary Lowery

The item I have chosen as my “everyday thing” is my house phone. I chose this device due to the features that it shows on the phone but does not give you any clue how to operate those features. For instance, one of the buttons shows LOUD/SEARCH with four arrows in the NSEW directions; you would think that by pressing the arrows it would change the volume and / or some kind of search capability. It does not, no matter which arrow direction or button you push, so I would have to say that the mapping sucks, because the buttons fail to operate as expected.

The ‘hold’ button does not put a call on hold, instead when pressed, it reads ‘press extension to call.’ When pressing the ‘conf’ button instead of a conference call as expected, you get ‘save directory.’ So as you can see, although this phone works if you just want to utilize the number buttons or speakerphone. The affordances of this object have constraints. Conceptually, the phone features did not function / work as I expected them to.

Now, what I come to believe is that these functions only work when you are actually on a call. So to see if this is true, I used my cell phone to call the house phone and began to push these feature buttons to see if they did indeed work. The conceptual model of this device had good intentions, however if you wanted to change the ringer volume by hitting the volume button, it does not work. The volume button is actually to turn up or lower the amplification of the earpiece.

In conclusion, this phone does not meet the criteria of Norman’s design of everyday things.

my flickr page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlowery/

week 1 post

Look at me... I am here!
Hey fellow classmates. Wow, I finally made it onto the blog. Wow this was a tough one, I hope the class is easier! LOL! I hope all have enjoyed the winter break. Now we must get serious again. Oh peachy puff, oh peachy puff how I miss my peachy puff!

See you in class!

Mary

Cool Tool for long URL's

Here is a link to a tool that will take a huge url and shrink it to a small one.

http://tinyurl.com/

Reflection week 3

This week's class was not only a refresher for previous information, but it tied ID together through learning theories and instruction theory. It is exciting to finally get to put what we've learned so far to use in a project. This class also enhances what we are learning in 801.

Mary

web 2.0 reflections week 2

I was impressed with the presentations given tonight. I felt that all the presentations had something to offer. However, I agree with Nora in regards to accessibility to the deaf community about podcasts / vcasts (video casts.) There is so much that is out there and so much more that is being developed as I type this. Web 2.0 in itself is a social environment as well as a learning environment. I can't wait to take on our projects. I will reflect more when I read the articles.