Classes come and they goooooo...

This is the end of yet another class, although not the end of many more new experiences. For the longest while I've regarded Web2.0 technologies as silly, whimsical, a passing fad, a waste of time, the list goes on. What I've come to realize is that they are not passing fads, nowhere near as silly as I once thought they were, and serve a greater purpose.

We have entered a new day and age where technology is a part of who we are as an American culture. Many of us wake up to technology, apps, and tools only to fall asleep to them. Many doors have been opened politically and socially that were never available. We can organize and assemble much more efficiently and create movements that in previous years would have take twice or thrice as long to manifest.

I've had the wrong mentality about Web2.0 all along. It is not a means of hindering the populace by allowing the internet to entrap us with its spindly tentacles, but a means of freeing the people and allowing the truest form of freedom of speech to occur, widespread assembly and sharing of common interests. Much beyond the new tools that I now understand and am able to use, the greatest thing that has happened since the start of this class is a change in mindset and energy. For that I am thankful for having taken this class.

Till next class
Cheers!

Performance Support Project: Climb Strong

After a failed attempt on Yahoo Pipes to create a page to host my Performance Support Project, I turned to WikiSpaces and have been loving it! Unfortunately, like most other things this summer, the bulk of the project has been delayed until the last second...and I mean last second. I would like to blame a majority of this on my frustration with Yahoo Pipes, the desolation I felt after my original idea fell through, and the period of procrastination that I took to find a new platform.

Through Wiki Spaces and Twitter I hope to support the continual pursuit of stronger and healthier rock climbing. I encourage you to follow me on twitter @CassieMNewman via #ClimbStrong and on my Wikispace.

I have signed up as a teacher through Wikispaces; so below I have included a link to the wiki and the join code to the class wiki. Again, please feel free to join even if you don't know a thing about climbing! I hope to share all that I can to both new and more advanced climbers.

Wikispace: ClimbStrong
Join Code: MXPXK7X

Tillandsia Madness

Let me share with you my latest obsession, Tillandsia, or more commonly known as Air Plants!
Most everyone has seen them before, tromped on them, used them as fire kindling, claimed that "red bugs" or chiggers live in them; the list goes on. The most common, and in my opinion the most romantic, air plant in the south is Tillandsia usneoides or Spanish Moss. What are growing in popularity as housing decor are exotic Tillandsia that offer a more visible bloom (because believe it or not, Spanish moss has microscopic flowers that bloom each year). I own about 10 different varieties of Tillandsia, some of which are featured here.

Read on to discover how easy taking care of your own air plants can be!

So versatile, you can stick it everywhere...

Care

Florida has great natural humidity to sustain air plant life, which is great for people with brown thumbs (like myself). But they do require just a little more attention than a pet rock, so don't get too excited.

Air plants need water, like all other plants. Most of this water (and other nutrients) is absorbed from the air through their leafs, but while hosting these plants in your home you should try to water them at least once a week. Some Tillandsia instructions suggest misting every couple days while others suggest either running water over the plants 2 to 4 times a week or a once a week soak for an hour. I myself prefer running my plants under water a couple times a week and giving them a good shake afterwards. What all of these methods have in common is the need to be sure your Tillandsia doesn't have sitting water in between the leaves. Be sure to let them sit on a paper towel or shake 'em out after watering, this will prevent plant rot. 

Brachycaulos in shot glasses

Light
Bright light or filtered sun is best. Just be sure to keep the plants from direct sunlight; remember these plants originate from under the gentle shade of the jungles.

Ventilation
Air plants like air and great air flow...duh. So please don't try to plant your air plant in a pot with soil...

Hidden Tillandsia Atroviridipetala

Reproduction

This is my favorite part; air plants reproduce each year by having 1 to 12 pups. They'll tend to sprout off the side of the parent plant. Once these pups reach at least half the size of the parent, you can carefully remove the pup or if you enjoy keeping the family together you may leave them clustered.

Nothing like Vernicosa and Arhiza to liven up bathroom space!

I hope these pictures inspire you to incorporate live Tillandsia into your home and the ease of care seal the deal!

Happy air planting!

Social Media Blocking

According to Mother Jones there are several countries that block Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Each do so for their own reasons and I encourage you to delve further into the subject.

I find myself divided as for whether or not I think this should be allowed. Knowledge should be shared and made available to all people and it should be their right to know. But what if some information harms the greater good of the community or country? Wouldn't sharing that information be a disservice?

What are your thoughts? Should there be social media blocking or general web site blocking?

Tallahassee Rock Gym

If you ever stumble upon this place ---------------->
I would suggest that you venture in!

 When you drive around the square, there are many great places to check out. The Buddhist community is friendly and open to visitors, Proof Brewery newly opened, The Other Side and Wonceuponatime thrift shoppes offer great finds, Yogi-G offers his free daily yoga, and then in the center of it all is this place
<------------------------------

You might also find this guy behind the counter. Watch out for these guys, they'll ask you to do copious amounts of paperwork.

If the guys behind the counter don't scare you off with their paperwork, then explore further to climb on some of these awesome walls and maybe meet some of these awesome ladies (and some pretty cool dudes)!

Photo credit above goes to TheMorningFresh.

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAL to Germany!

If you weren't holed up in an overcrowded bar or restaurant, drinking a glass of wine with friends on the couch, or in the Brasil stadium watching the FIFA World Cup, you missed out! What a victory that Germany won. The game was filled with close calls, lots of action, and two well matched teams.

Mario Goteze was the skilled gentleman who scored the only and the winning goal. Fun fact: Goteze is the only sub in World Cup history to score a goal! Congrats Goteze!

Messi and Hummels after the ball

Although, I have a confession to make. I fell asleep during the second half of the additional 30 minutes. Yes, that is right, I slept through the winning goal to wake up promptly afterwards. I blame it on an action packed day beforehand, a glass of wine afterwards, and the cozy couch from which we watched the game.

Regardless, I hoped everyone enjoyed this year's world cup and is ready for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to take place in Russia...

Wikipedia as a Research Source?

I've watched the progression of the use of Wikipedia in the classroom over my own lifetime. After a few years of cultivation, when Wikipedia first emerged as a resources for a wide variety of topics, I can recall teachers slandering the validity of information posted on Wikipedia and forbidding the use of Wikipedia as a source in research projects.

Then Wikipedia became a source of free entertainment between my friends and myself, set the tumbler on random and read about whatever nonsensical topic popped up. Better yet, we would find a random page and see who could get to Hitler or Jesus in the fewest "clicks" or links.

Further on in my education, in my later high school and collegiate years, professors began to include Wikipedia as a research source. No longer was there a great ban on Wikipedia, but an informal acceptance of the validity of Wikipedia's content.

What changed? Did school teachers and professors alike attend a Wikipedia conference which deemed the source as valid? Or did something in the content of Wikipedia change that teachers favored enough to permit it as a source? Do you agree with this change? I know I do!

No Internet in Technologically Advancing Nation

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/nyregion/for-those-in-the-digital-dark-enlightenment-is-borrowed-from-the-library-.html?ref=education&_r=0

Here we are, discovering, learning, making, curating, using all of these wonderful online tools and communities meanwhile there are hundreds of thousands (I would venture to say millions) of people without internet. Are there other ways that you can think of getting easy and cost effective internet to these households?

Instructional Design Project EME6414

This blog is an example of an online classroom assignment that would be anchored to a class blog maintained by the instructor:

 Assignment: Sustainable Housing on a Budget

Each student has been assigned a geographic location in the United States that will host a sustainable house.
- Research the type of house that would be best suited for the geographic location and each student design the house that they would like to build.
- Students will have $50,000 to budget for the resources needed to build a house for a family of 4. Take into consideration the resources that are local to the geographic area. What will have the smallest environmental footprint? Are there local resources that will withstand the harsh seasons experienced in each location?
- After the students have designed a house and found the resources that will be necessary to build it, research the costs of purchasing these resources, transportation and the total cost of building this house. Who will be hired? Will there be volunteer help (note, the entire house can not be built entirely with volunteer labor. Electrical and plumbing are a minimum.)

Researching Resources
Students will be using Scoop.it and Pinterest.com to create boards to curate ideas on the type of sustainable house the student would like to build. I have gone ahead and created a Topic on Scoop.it and a Board on Pinterest with some general ideas that students may feel free to work off of. Be sure to include visuals, youtube videos, papers, spreadsheets and many more resources to demonstrate an in depth knowledge and study of the house that students would like to construct. Please be aware of Map Engine by Google and use the resources available there. There are a variety of other resources available online including wikis, blogs and other social media tools, please feel free to use these to further enrich your project search. Students may even go so far as to link these pages to Scoop.it or Pinterest.

Final Presentation
The final presentation of this project will be done via Voicethread.com. Each student will be asked to put together a slide show accompanied by audio guidance that walks their classmates and instructor through the details of the sustainable home they are building. Each presentation needs to include but is not limited to:
1. Brief summary of the geographic location assigned;

• location, weather, resources

2. Type of house being built,

• why was the design chosen
• what resources are being used and why 

3. How is the house being built

• what time is being volunteered if any?

4. Budget

• write out a budget for the house; materials, labor, etc
• is the house within budget?
• what sacrifices had to be made to keep the house within budget?

5. Other things to consider

• how easily can this house be built for underprivileged families?
• how easily are the resources bought and transported
• are the resources used local?

Grading
Final projects will be graded on a point scale according to the standards and questions addressed above and will account for 70% of the final grade.
The remaining 30% of the final grade will be based on the student's use of their Scoop.it and Pinterest accounts.
Extra points may be awarded to students who choose to use other tools to assist in their researching efforts (a personal account must be made and obvious effort put forth, extra points are at the discretion of the instructor).

FERPA, what the heck?

This week in Web 2.0 we are exploring Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in relation to web based classes. I was unaware of the rights that I had to my grades and scholastic privacy. Although I am pleased that my grades are sheltered by FERPA I am unsettled by the matter of the freedom to hand out personal information. FERPA hinders the sharing of personal grades but allows that "Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance." Unlike the concerns that the legislature has, I believe that my personal information should be more securely guarded than my grades. Maybe I'm paranoid but to think a stranger could call up to a school and request for an address, phone number, birthdate, etc of a youth, that gives enough information to stalk a youth. Protecting grades does not seem nearly as important as giving out a child or teenager's info.

Happy Fourth of July!

I had the privilege to travel down to Clearwater to spend the best known holiday with my family, Independence Day! We had a great time at the beach surrounded by masses of multicultural families all basking in the freedoms granted via living in and being citizens of America!

My younger sister and her best friend.

They're flying a kite...somewhere...

Impeding storms accompanied by water spouts ushered us off the beach before we could participate in the fireworks display but overall it was a wonderful day!

A gorgeous and very American sunset

After too much sun, lots of family, many meals consisting of pizza and maybe too little sleep we all get a little crazy. Or maybe it runs in the family. Needless to say it's always fun with this bunch of hooligans :)

Things get a little wild when you lock too many of us up together...

The End of the Camp Season

My reign as Camp Director has ended for the season and work returns to "normalcy!" I am both excited and sad that camp has finished. Long days, short nights, little personal time, few hours for homework, parent drama, youth drama, paperwork nightmares, learning how to be a leader and teacher, improving communication skills, making new friends and business connections, driving a headlight-less golf cart around at night. My old-black-back-country camp cook told me that if I carried too many heavy things I would loose my woman-hood, no longer be able to bear children and my boyfriend would no longer want me because I would be useless. We had a youth poop in a bag and hide it in the camp sulfur sock.  I learned how to drive a boat via my program director Brice, jumping out of the speeding boat. Needless to say I am delighted for and fearing next year.

Keeping in touch and up to date with my online class was a nightmare. I might reconsider taking summer classes, or at least summer A and B classes, to avoid an educational failure. It was difficult finishing each week of camp to fill my 12 hr "break" with missed classwork, projects, blogs, etc. tell myself to buck up maybe there will be more time next week.

What I can say in regards to my class is expect a whole heap more from me and as a camp director watch out 'cause it's going to be wild camp next year!

A New Slew of Social Media

Encouraged by a new list of social media web pages, I ventured out to see what Fakebook and Edmodo were like.
Fakebook is a resource for musicians who need to keep notes via technological resources. As a non-music writing musician, I found little application for this resource. To be honest, I was turned off after reading the "about" portion of the page and had no desire to investigate further.
Edmodo, on the other hand, is a fantastic resource to link classmates together in an easy to navigate facebook/classroom-like interface. After signing up and entering my Web2.0 class code to sync with other classmates I was ushered into the "community"in a breeze. If you couldn't tell, I was impressed with the ease of access granted and the lack of redundant questions/informational blanks. I would highly suggest that others go check it out!

Life as a Camp Director

Lately, I've been overwhelmed by the adjustment of the focus of my job. Fall tends to be recruitment, Winter/Spring is fundraising, and summer I pack up my bags to move to camp where I become a camp director for 6 weeks. It becomes a 24/7 job, waking up to make sure meals are getting started, making coffee to schmooze with adult volunteers to ease the crank of the heat, checking program areas, running events, calling back to the office to clarify issues, driving into town for one of the many "oh crud we forgot this!" trips, the list goes on!
In the midst of all of this, it has been difficult to remain technologically connected, (especially when only one building on the 600acre property has internet). To compensate for these challenges I've been Tweeting up a storm (in comparison to how often I used to). I have expanded beyond the hashtag for my Web2.0 class #EME6414, to begin a hashtag for the camp that I work at, Wallwood. #WBSR It's a young one, but it's out there!

Shipping Container Homes?

Colton, my boyfriend, and I have talked for a long while about making our own shipping container home. It's recycled material, cheap, and fun! It wasn't until my recent Pinterest searches that I realized how popular shipping container homes have become. We're not alone!!! My natural inclination has been to tend toward sources that have social bookmarks that indicate container homes. I've found a nitch within the greater "Alternative Housing" topic that I can focus in on more.

Image source.

Alternative Housing

I have been enjoying Pinterest in relation to my latest class assignment to observe social media bookmarking. I chose a somewhat obscure topic being Alternative Housing. Here is the link to my board.
We as a family are very interested in using the "trash" around us as renewable resources by means of making our own home. It's a topic we've talked about for a long while. Do we want an earth ship sort of home (a hobbit home almost, that is made with the local natural resources and recyclables like glass bottles) or do we want a tree house (yes we've seriously considered this) or to get crazy and creative and create a home out of a

Technological Overload

Life was all great and dandy with MySpace, then Facebook, then StumbleUpon, then Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. Through my Web2.0 course I have discovered that the list does not stop there. Social media stems far beyond what I would call the "main stream" web sites and apps to include a wide variety of web sites that allow you to blog (there are many), track your twitter success, storify.com which "Makes the web tell a story" with your information, Delicious.com which allows you to store your links and never loose them (but I thought that was what the favorite's tab was for), Diigo.com allows you to annotate your reading and save it online. The list goes on. After discovering these I realize that I do indeed have a small Personal Learning Network and there's no way I can keep up with all of these different site options without quitting my job and doing it full time!

How often does the average person use all of these pages? At once (that's absurd)? Which one are most  useful to you ?

I can learn anything!

Diversification of knowledge due to Web2.0 has become the largest selling point of the Web2.0 tools that have become so readily available. So much more information has been made widely accessible, allowing for the public to be far more knowledgeable about any topic they so choose.

There was once a time when, in order to look up new information, you needed to search through a filing cabinet full of cards with each book listed. This was a time consuming process that may have been a reason, more or less, as for why finding quick specific information proved new impossible.
For a far more extensive time period, newspapers have been a primary source of trending and varied information. Although newspapers offer a great collective of information, most of the articles I sift through to find the few topics of interest (heath, cartoons) and leave the rest as recycling.

With Pinterest, Facebook, every blog and forum imaginable, and Google Chrome, I can learn practically everything about anything or everything about nothing at all. I have learned that crushed aspirin dissolved in water helps your plants fight off infections, one of the best pumpkin bar recipes you'll ever have, 25 life changing hacks. The list goes on. Most times Web2.0 helps in ways as simple as, I have three yellow squashes and a handful of radishes, what can I make for dinner?

What new things have you learned via Web2.0 means? How has it affected your life?

Is this really homework?

Recently, I realized that the "homework" that EME6414 requires is some of the most entertaining and engaging homework that I've had to do. Although it has been a mild lifestyle adjustment, Tweeting, blogging, Pinning, forums, etc. have kept me entertained and never bored. This is due partly because of the ability to participate only in things that I enjoy or things that are relevant to our coursework. No wonder why people do it all the time.
Are there Web2.0 tools that you have always used and have found a new use for? or new tools that you enjoy participating in beyond the means of homework?

Museums

Inspired by the blog on a visit to Kennedy Space Center on Share Ideas (http://shareidealukas.blogspot.com/) I remembered back in grade school when we took class field trips to museums to learn our country's history; to see the art, science and culture.
Well, I still visit museums because I'm a kid at heart and haven't discovered what I was made to do in life. I see space shuttles and wish I had remained in engineering school so I might be chosen for the next space exploration program. Great art museums inspire me to go home to draw what I would hope to be the next Mona Lisa. Or even, flying in an airplane makes me hope to get my pilot's license and travel the world. U-picking blackberries reminds me that I love gardening and should grow a U-pick farm. There are a world of opportunities with a finite amount of time. Web2.0 has allowed me to explore these interests into much further depth than I would have been able to before, and to do so casually. No need to sift through cards and cards of bibliographies and read an extensive book on a topic that I only wanted a chapter of. Convenient.

But this renders the feelings of what if I never want to grow up?

After watching Vanessa's videos on Personal Learning Networks (PLN), I've discovered I'm somewhere in the middle of wanting a large PLN but needing a small PLN.

Truth be told, I have the FOMO. The Fear of Missing Out. I want to have a large PLN so I don't miss out on things that are relevant, but I live a hectic and consuming life where I don't have time for these things; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest. How do you find a means to balance them out?

One of Vanessa Dennen's PLN videos (for that odd stranger not in our EME class that has stumbled upon this blog):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_kFmxaZPK0#t=22

Youth Protection: The world was not "better back then," we just have brighter lights.

This blog was provoked by Clay Shirkey's chapter on Collective Action and Institutional Challenges in his book  Here Comes Everybody and by a remark that was made in a training session I attended earlier this week on Youth Protection. I delve into (really skim) this topic fully understanding the touchiness.

As an employee for a nationally acclaimed youth organization, youth protection is on the top of the list of important subjects for me. Outside of my job, it is still on the top of the list.

As aforementioned, the woman leading one of my training sessions this past week made a remark that I found ignorant, if I'm going to be honest. It went something to the tune of, 'Youth protection is becoming a real big issue these days. Times have changed and people aren't being raised the way they used to, like them good 'ole boys.' She continued on a little longer like so, but you get the point. My jaw dropped, 'How can she or anyone believe that?'

The thing is, most people don't even realize the vast social impact that Web2.0 has made. Back to Shirkey's chapter, he writes on two different cases of sexual abuse between a Catholic priest and (several) youth, pointing out the affect that Web2.0 had on the two cases.

The first (mentioned in the book) occurred in 1992 where "Rev. James R. Porter was accused of sexual abuse of children in three different Boston parishes." The scandal was publicized and brought before a court of law (notably many years after his service as a priest). He served in three parishes where he continually abused youth, wrote a note to the Pope that said 'I'm sorry I've been a bad boy, I don't want to be a priest anymore, let me get married and settle down,' and they let him! The greater issue at hand was the Catholic church's reaction to his deeds, quietly passing him along from parish to parish and quietly dismissing him. Families and youth were hurt, calling out to be heard, trying to make the Catholic system aware, but they did nothing.

The second instance, Shirkey notes, takes place in 2002 where sexual abuse accusations against the Catholic Father John Geoghan are publicized. Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) was formed as an activist group in the basement of a church and grew exponentially. People were pissed, not only because of the obvious situation at hand but because of the Catholic church trying to brush things under the mat again. The Catholic Church kicked the group out of the church basement and forbid VOTF to meet. But this is the neat part, thanks to Web2.0's involvement in the modern affair, they still met and grew even more. Although there were attempts on preventing physical meetings they found alternative locations and chatted with communities online through the tools Web2.0 provided. Geoghan was charged and sentenced (at a much faster rate) and the Church was faced with their issues more so than before.

Obviously, these situations have been abreviated and I'm 100% sure that they aren't 100% correct. Point is,
technology and more specifically Web2.0 provided a means for people to communicate, share and broadcast their ideas and issues with Geoghan's case. The Church could not prevent them from meeting and sharing the story. Bringing it back to what my instructor said in her training session and taking from Shirkey's chapter, problems with youth protection have been happening for years, decades, centuries, hell...forever. It's not a new thing and it's not happening more than usual. Only recently in our history have we been able to create communities so quickly and cheaply to spread these and issues. Now, all it takes is a post, tweet, blog, whatever it may be, to signal aggression and people are at (almost) immediate attention.

I hope to encourage thought and discussion. Who knows, maybe recent generations have been "raised worse" and we're all doomed.

Source:
Shirky, Clay. "Collective Action and Institutional Challenges." Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. 143-60. Print.

An alternative summer office..

When I think of summer typically three things come to mind: HOT, water, and camps.

This summer, as with most in my future through the duration of my current career, I have the pleasure of experiencing all three. 

Welcome to WBSR!

This is the camp at which I have the pleasure of serving as Camp director for 3 weeks. Hot, rustic (a polite word for it), and internet free! You (and I) might be thinking, 'You're crazy!' And you're probably right. But I'm still pumped and looking forward to making things work.

Today, I had the pleasure of getting the Twitter app for my iphone which I plan on using as my primary source of Web2.0 connection during my stay at camp. I weary as for the productivity that may or may not ensue due to the ease of social distraction cell phones provide. But only time can tell.

Much to my chagrin, the Web 2.0 course requires the use and involvement of current technologies in our studies and "classroom" discussions. These technologies include the obvious (blogging), skype, public journal entries (that are not blogs), twitter, etc. Although this is not new news, I still feel resistance to participating in all of these outlets.

I am fundamentally against entrenching my life in technology and social media. It would be silly to completely reject their validity and role in our society, but social media has stolen much of our ability to communicate face to face without interruptions. Almost every single table that I waited, during my short stint as a waitress, had at least one person on their phone at some point during the meal. When was the last time you had a conversation that lasted longer than 5 minutes without checking your phone? We've lost the ability to deal with the awkward silences. Instead of filling that time with moving conversation people pull their phones out to see what others are doing instead. There's a level of depth that is then lost in conversation when you don't devote your attention to the person/people at hand.

This all goes to prove how powerful Web 2.0 is and how deeply involved it is in the general populace's life.

Thoughts? Am I alone in the fight against getting absorbed into the mass collective that is Web 2.0? We might be calling ourselves the Borg all too soon...

Hello! My name is Cassie and I have the pleasure of starting a blog to guide my academic studies this semester. Web 2.0 is the name of the game and by the end of this course I hope to have a greater understanding of the influence technological tools has on communication, learning and development (at least that's the general idea I gather). Hopefully, you too will join the journey and find the information that I post equally beneficial!

My dog Jonah, or J-Dog for short, was the muse for the title of this blog (although he really has nothing to do with it!). Expect star appearances from Jonah, because who doesn't love a blog with a dog?

Isn't he cute?

Cheers!

Cassie