WORDLE!

Using wordle was a really fun assignment in my EME 2040 class. I had seen word clouds before, and think they are a great visuals and was happy that wordle.net made it so easy to make them. It was especially fun to see what words I used the most in all my blog posts.

I especially loved Wordle because it used lots of different colors and could be personalized any way you wanted.

Although I do love Wordle, I don't necessarliy see it helping in my field of journalism. Maybe it could be used to see if a certain word is being used too often in a long article, but that's about it. However I am sure I will come across a reason to use it someday.

Try out your own Wordle here

Using Computer Games for Teaching

Personally I am not a huge fan of using computer games to teach. I think that kids these days already spend enough time in front of the computer screen. While a computer is good for teaching one on one, there is no need to use a computer game to teach kids when there is a classroom full of people to learn from and with. It's also better to be in a group so ideas can be bounced off one another.

While I do see the benefits of using computer games to teach (such as it's something kids might actually have fun doing), I think that there are other methods that should be used my teachers. I mean, a teacher's job is to teach the kids, so why would you let some computer do it?

As for relating this to journalism, it doesn't really relate. One thing I could say however, is it's important for journalists to not just rely on what the find on the computer/internet. They actually need to go to the source and interview in person.

In class we talked about a game Second Life to teach kids about the world around them. Here's an article on Second Life....

Second Life, Do You Need One?

communicating today

I think the internet and social media is changing how people today communicate. Way long ago we could write letters or talk in person, then we could send telegrams, then we had telephones, then there was e-mail. Now we can talk, call, e-mail, twitter, facebook, myspace, instant chat and web cam.

While there are many benefits through all these new ways of communication, there are some backlashes too.

Having so many ways of communicating makes it easier to get a hold of people, easier to keep in touch with people and it allows you to cheaply contact one another from any place including over seas. However, having so many different ways to communicate without actually making human contact has made us forget how to do that. Here's and article on communicating on the internet....

http://www.rsna.org/Technology/internet3-1.cfm

Social Bookmarking

I absolutely love del.icio.us! The idea of being able to organize my bookmarks and share them with others is absolutely great. It also makes it easier discover new web sites either relating to your job or your hobbies and interests. It is also nice to know that even if you don’t have access to your own computer, you can still have your own bookmarks.

As for applying social bookmarking for journalism, it would be very helpful. When working on articles it would be great to have different folders for each one and bookmark the links you use to add information to your article. I have always wanted to keep track of web sites I reference for articles in case I need them again, so this will be great for me to use!

Here is a link to Delicious

Professional Web Presence

I think that having a web presence is very important when applying for a job. It is important for employers to see that you are internet savvy, and it is a way to tell them more about you besides what would be on a typical resume. Of course, it is important to make sure your web presence is somewhat censored. Many people believe this should mean no pictures of partying and no full blown opinions of things, but I have a different idea of this. I don’t think you should have sexual or pictures of you extremely intoxicated on things like Facebook,. But, I do believe that you should have your web presence reflect who you really are as a person, and not every tiny little thing that could be controversial be removed. For example, I do have some partying pictures, but I’m not going to get rid of them because I do like to go out with friends and have a good time every once in a while and if my employer can’t understand that, then frankly I don’t want to work for them. Of course this doesn’t mean that I have multiple pictures downing shots or doing the beer bong.

In journalism it is especially important to have web presence. It’s an easy way for people to contact you, and it’s an easy way to share your profile. Also, lots of times when you have an article published, it will show up in a google search of your name. And the more articles that show up, the better!

Here is a screen shot for a google search of my name. Notice the articles that show up

Distance Education and Virtual Learning

Personally, I am 100% against distance education and virtual learning. While at UF I have taken three online courses, and I am confident that had I gone and listened to a teacher in a classroom versus having to watch lectures online I would've done much better and learned a lot more. Learning online makes it so that you don't have to pay as much attention and you can gloss over things. It is also hard to discipline yourself to sit down and actually do online education because you don't have a scheduled class time and can always "do it later." I think that students by far get a better education by being in a classroom with a teacher lecturing and being able to come in contact with others in the class.
As for journalism and distance learning, I definitely don't think you can learn journalism from afar. Many of our classes are taught through peer on peer discussion. We critique each others papers and voice our ideas and opinions, which is much easier to do together in a classroom than in an online chat session.
Although I am against distance learning, I will acknowledge that it is getting better and better through the use of web cams.

Photoshop picture manipulation

Photoshop picture manipulation is one topic that means a lot to me. After taking a photo journalism course this past semester, I am 100% against photoshop manipulation. I think that if you are making the reader or viewer think something is real, it should be. Even if it is something completely minute that is being taken out, it is still keeping the absolute truth from the viewer.

Not only is it not telling the truth, but it is making people have severe body image issues. As far as I'm concerned, almost every picture of a model or celebrity is photoshopped in some way, especially those on magazine covers and billboards. This makes it very hard to be happy with your normal self, and gives many children false aspirations of what a person can/should look like.

This relates to journalism because we are always trying to tell the truth. It would be easy to do a story on photoshop manipulations that people see daily, or what local magazines and advertisements in your town are using photoshop manipulation. Also, if you are a photojournalist, it's important to not photoshop your pictures!

Here's a great Web site that shows celebrities who were manipulated in photoshop,

http://www.hemmy.net/2007/05/25/celebrities-before-and-after-photoshop/