Final Entry

This project was a great experience!

I worked in a group which out of the whole three years I do not think I had worked with anyone except maybe Natalie. It was interesting and fun and we worked well together, we all had different qualities which helped to make the group a success. For example Natalie and Amy had previous experience using html and editing software, Nadia likes to write, Fahima liked looking at academic text and I loved researching and finding images.

Edgar Guest wrote: ' The greatest of workers this man would have been-tomorrow. The world would have known him, had he ever seen tomorrow. But the fact is he died and faded away from view, and all that he left here when living through, was a mountain of things he intended to do -tomorrow.' I am pleased that are group did not adopt this ' I will do it tomorrow' attitude and as a result we were able to have the group task finished 2 days early. This is an example of good communication and understanding. 

Some of us in the group had problems understanding Html and I have to admit in the beginning I was one of them. Before this class I had never done anything like this, but after a weekend at home fiddling about i soon began to get the grasp of the basics. My group has kept me on my toes by posting such high quality blogs, presentation and layout and it gave me the drive to want to maintain the  group standard. This standard I think is also reflected in our group Wiki, the pages have a continuity style and is quite simple it does not have to much going on which is a factor of a good web page.  

We have continually checked our group Wiki for mistakes and hopefully you should find none, as five people have been checking looking out for errors.

Some sections could be said to be  too long but we did try to edit it down to what we think is essential and so everything that is on the pages we feel needs to be read.  In terms of how it is written that is an area which I feel can always be improved.

My role within the group was to help find images which I felt would enhance certain pages, I also conducted research about 'MySpace' and 'FaceBook'. I always did my research and write up when i told the group I will do it as what I do or do not do when it comes to our group work effects more than just me.

Nine weeks ago when I started this project my perception about blogging and virtual communities was quite negative but through Howard Rheingold, Nigel and my group as we looked at positive aspects. I have become more optimistic.

If you check out our group project you will see Niasi Education a virtual class room set up for children who cannot attend school for various reasons. They educate youths  all the the way to A level.   You will also see how helpful it is for people who travel often to keep in touch with their love ones.

If i could change anything about the project it would be time as in terms of the technical side i would be able to be more hands on. I did my best visually and gave my opinion and described how i think it could be changed. My strength was giving ideas, sticking to deadlines and findig images.

We all worked hard and I hope it is reflected in the Wiki. 

Please view our project using FireFox if you can. Thanks!

No More Weeks!

I can not believe time has gone so quick. It is true time waits for no man, well in my case woman.

I am pleased to say our group project is almost finished! There is just one more section which needs to be completed. The last session we spent the time going through all the complete sections, we were checking for details such as whether everything was referenced properly and the images were suitable sizes and complemented the text.  The images really gives the pages character.
I have finally decided on my home page that I would put a picture up of Barbados. This is the view from my room where I stayed. In terms of reflection afterall this hard work I have put in I would like to reward myself by going to maybe St Lucia for the summer. 
I had to put the picture in from the LCC PC's as i was not able to upload pictures at home. It seems it is another Wiki problem according to Natalie, she Enlightened me I have a Mac Book and use the Safari browser she said that it does not allow you to upload pictures in Safari but it does if you use FireFox. I don't know because the blog entries allows me to upload images. I have kept the cell properties around the image white as I asked a few people how they thought it looked and the overall feedback was good. I did try it with the Blue background in the cell which the image has been inserted in but the white looked much bolder and complemented the text.
The links are also underlined as I have acknoldeged that most links are blue and underllined so I have used the line and added a tag. My name is not underlined so hopefully the difference would be distinguished.
Nigel your apology is accepted! It's not your fault but the force of nature : -).
Imagine poor little me was getting dragged left right and center by the wind. 

Reflection 1 week 2 go

Does time not fly? I can't believe 8weeks have gone! It has been challenging and i have learnt a lot of new things such as cell padding which allows you to move the font way from the edge.

Today in the lesson Natalie was transferring what i had written up on to the Wiki, i emailed it to her. I then searched Google for images to support the text after all images are just as important as the text. Once we found the images we thought carefully about where would be appropriate to insert the images. Progress is going very well for the group and i am very optimistic about us finishing on time despite the other work load we have. With all this workload that we have had this term planning has been the key to stayinng on top.

Reflection Wiki

I have decided to go with a dark blue background and so i will have white text so it is not harsh on the eyes. The text is broken up into each link being in an individual cell they are all the same length. I have decided to go with a simple layout i think it is more effective than having loads of things going on. After all as i stated earlier in my blogs, when looking at web pages the best where the easiest to navigate. I went on the internet to find the different html codes and made sure i used the American spelling 'color' when editing the Wiki.

Reflection 2 weeks 2 go

I have noticed I have written a lot of blogs, they are not long and that is because I have a short attention span and so i tend to go away quite often and do other things and then come back. I am glad that I have identified my way of working, so that i can complete the tasks to the best of my ability.

I also did the research and interview which I said I would do. I did not want to let my group down so i am staying on top but most importantly I would not like to let myself down.

Is the project on track? I think the project is on track everyone is doing their individual contributions to the task and all the pages of our group project is made and so it is just the contents which now need to be added.

On Mondays lesson I allowed everyone in my group to see what I had done and to see if they were happy and how I may be able to improve it. On the whole they were happy and I got constructive criticism from them. I will make the suggested adjustments.

Mike Wesch & Students

This video which Nigel found on You Tube does reflect our own class, a lot of the notes are thoughts and actions of many in the class. The signs that i can remember identified some students in our class. Just today mentioning no names I saw several doing other work that was not related to the lecture such as checking their facebook. These actions and habits seem so normal to a modern students life.

What do the US, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan......Have in common!

Censorship!!!!!!!!
Pakistan recently has banned Youtube.
Have a look at this

Freedom of speech?

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. It is one of the most precious of all rights."

Yet freedom of speech is not free for many across the world. Amnesty International is a charity which protests against persecution, false imprisonment and other cruel treatment that many people are facing around the world for freedom of speech.

The Internet is a tool which many people use to express how they feel, this could be political or emotional sometimes both. These feelings are expressed through blogs, forums and other means. Many people join virtual communities for escapism but due to censorship they have to still be careful of what they say.