Week 12 Weekly Report and Reflection

Google Results for: "Aaron Biderman"

This week is the final week of ADED 1P32 for this semester, and I must say, it has flown by. We have learned to use so many different online tools this semester like Jing, and Feedly while also learning about digital citizenship and how it is important. We were also taught our digital rights and responsibilities for being an internet user while also learning what to be careful of. When I started this class my digital footprint was basically just my Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin accounts, and now it is much bigger. Now I have made all sorts of different accounts, and used many applications on the internet to the point where I just have so much more of an impact. The first links that came up when I searched my name on Google, however, were still my main social media profiles for the websites, Facebook, Twitter, an Linkedin, followed by some pictures, of myself, and friends. Then next page, on the other hand, had some of my newer accounts, such as my Feedly and Google accounts, with this blog even coming up as a result!

Well, that's it for me here, and I thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I hope you learned something, because I know I did!

- Aaron Biderman

Screencast

Week 11 Weekly Report and Reflection

rioscybercafe.blogspot.ca, 2012

This week we were assigned to learn about, and use, a webcasting tool. There are two basic types of webcasts, being podcasts, and screencasts. A podcast, is an audio file that is used to record a person talking about a topic, in a similar way to radio. The major difference, however, is that podcasts are on demand and very accessible to the person looking for it. The other type of webcast, as I said, is a screencast, and this is the one I chose to use this week. A screencast is essentially allowing for someone to watch your computer screen while you are using it. This is very useful when trying to teach another person, how to use an application or tool. This week, I used Jing to record my screencast, about how to use Animoto. Jing allows you to record, with, and without audio, on top of the video of your screen in order to best explain the application. I believe, that even though, I personally would not need to use it, this is a very useful tool for educators. In order to best teach an online class, you need to accommodate both visual and audio learners, and screencasts allow you to do that. While saying all this, I will not need this application so therefore, I will not put it in my PLE.

cybermonday2013.io, 2013

The article of interest this week from my Feedly reader, talks about all of the massive sales that come on Cyber Monday, the first Monday after American Thanksgiving weekend. The reason this is relevant to ADED 1P32 is because of the digital security topics we have learned about throughout this course. Cyber Monday involves huge discounts, leading to huge amounts of sales on online goods. With that, there is need for people to be careful, and cognizant of people looking to steal their information. The number one rule to avoiding that should be only giving out sensitive information to well-know, protected sites.

Week 10 Weekly Report and Reflection

Normally, when you think of programs for presentations, the first one that comes to mind is PowerPoint. While that is a great application, there are however, other tools that one can use to share presentations. Those include, prezi, animoto, and photopeach. This week in ADED 1P32, we were assigned to create a presentation about digital literacy, and copyright. The program I chose to use was Animoto. It was a great tool for being able to express thoughts about topics through pictures, and text. One issue II had with it however, was that in order to change music, choose all of the themes, and make presentations longer you had to pay for the service. For that reason, I couldn't put it in my PLE.

logos.wikia.org

Through this weeks work, I was able to improve my knowledge on digital literacy, and digital citizenship. This week focused on copyright and how everyone is responsible for following copyright laws. Copyright is defined as "

the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material." This is meant to protect authors works, so that they can make money off of it. This is relevant to digital citizenship, because as a citizen, one must make sure they always get permission to use someone's work, or they must cite it.

The article of interest this week for me, was about how rock star Bon Jovi is looking to buy the Buffalo Bills. The reason this is relevant to me, is because he has said he would have plans to either play more games in Toronto, or even move the team there. If this were to happen it would create a number of job opportunities in professional sport for a SPMA student like myself. 

My Animoto Presentation

Digital Literacy

Week 9 Weekly Report and Reflection

Voice Thread, 2013

This week we were assigned to learn a new tool called VoiceThread. VoiceThread is similar to a lot of the programs we have been using, like PowerPoint and Google Docs in the sense that it allows you to create presentations and share them with others over the internet. The difference with VoiceThread however is that the program allows for you to put voice notes over the presentation, to help better explain the point you are trying to make. This is a very useful tool because it is difficult to remember something when just reading it, or just hearing about it. When hearing it, while reading the presentation allows for a greater amount of retention of the information.

The other program that we were told to use this week is Poll Daddy. Poll Daddy allows for users to create polls in a number of different fashions, in order to gain a plethora of information. There are three different types of Poll Daddy accounts based on the needs of the user who is signing up. Once you create a survey you are given a URL of your survey so that you can either print off your survey and hand it out in person, or send your respondents a link which they can fill out the response on, with the results tracked by Poll Daddy.

Throughout this class we have been learning about Digital Rights and Responsibilities, and to me, it all boils down to respecting others. This can be respecting others as human beings by not insulting them through message boards or comment sections. Another type of respect is being respectful of someone else's property. To be respectful of someone else's property is not only using it properly, but not stealing it and either selling it yourself or giving it away for free.

Technology Use Scenario #10

Scenario 10: Kevin has just purchased the latest video game, Too Fast '22. He and his friends enjoy playing games on the computer. His best friend Vince also likes to play video games, but doesn't have the money to buy the latest games. Kevin decides to be a good friend and give a copy of the game to Vince.

I believe that Kevin is misusing technology in this scenario by copying a video game for Vince. This is misuse of technology because the video game is someone's property, and they have the right to make money off of it. Because Kevin decided to copy the game he took away a potential sale from of the game, losing any money he would make off of it. Vince also is misusing technology by playing an illegally copied game. If he does not have the money to purchase the game he should wait until he does.

Week 8 Weekly Report and Reflection

This week in ADED 1P32 we learned about Wiki's. Most people, if you were to ask if they knew what a wiki was, would think you meant Wikipedia. While wikipedia is a wiki, in general, they are just websites that allow sharing of information in an easy way over the internet. Wiki's also allow for the user to either turn off editing, or rather allow for everyone in the public to edit your page. This allows for the page to have hundreds of people reading over the work and making changes where they feel it necessary. By doing this you would get the most COMPLETE page, while also gaining both sides of a potential issue or topic.

Ogre3d.org (2011)

We were also asked, this week, to read about digital rights and responsibilities, and then pick the three that we felt were the most important to us. The three that I chose were; privacy, no cyber bullying, and ethical use. When I say privacy, I mean that every user of the internet should be able to feel comfortable sharing their information online. The only way for this to happen is for everyone to acknowledge their responsibility to keep others information private. There are two parts to the no cyber bullying responsibility. First, and most obviously, is not to cyber bully in general. Second, however, is that if you see someone cyber bullying whether it be on YouTube, Facebook, or whatever, you have to report it to the site so that they can remove the user. This is the quickest way to get rid of cyber bullies on the internet. Last was that people should make sure they use the internet ethically. This responsibility involves citing sources of information gathered, along with asking permission. This also involves not using information in unethical ways like cheating on tests or assignments. Another must for using information ethically is that you must follow the acceptable use policies of the site and server which you are using.

Week 7 Weekly Report and Reflection

This week in ADED 1P32, we were assigned to finish our group projects using Google Docs. This is a program that allows you to post documents, spreadsheets, etc. online where anyone with the permalink can view it. This is incredibly useful for a number of reasons, the largest of which being the ease it allows for you to share information with. This can be especially useful in a classroom environment because it would allow the professor to post notes, slideshows, spreadsheets, or any material pertaining to the class in an easy to access document.

I will definitely be adding Google Docs to my Personal Learning Environment, as it combines a lot of useful tools into one easy to use program. Google Docs would fall under the applications strand of my PLE.

A reading I found interesting this week from my Feedly comes from the Toronto Star. The post is entitled Rob Ford says he made ‘mistakes’ but plans to stay and is about Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford going on his weekly radio show and admitting that he has made mistakes, and apologized for his actions. Most people are caught up on his story, but if you're not, essentially there is a video of Ford allegedly being high on crack/cocaine while in the company of drug dealers. What made this article particularly interesting is how it mentions that Ford, while he did admit mistakes, never specifically mentioned this incident, rather his much less publicized drunken actions on St. Patricks day in 2012, and at the Taste of the Danforth festival. As is also seen in the title, Rob Ford does not plan to step down due to these allegations. It will be interesting to see where this leads.

Week 6 Weekly Report and Reflection

This week we were assigned to, amongst other things, create an Evernote notebook for our research project. My topic for that project is digital security. One of the things that I liked about Evernote, is that it really helps organize your research. Over the years of doing essays and projects it was always hard to keep track of which sites I used for what quotes, or whatever it may be, and Evernote is a tool that will help fix that problem. Evernote allows you to create a notebook for any topic that you will be researching and put all the videos, websites, book clippings, quotes, etc. that you find in to one easy to maneuver place. The best part however is that you can tag each of the notes with the important themes of it, which would allow one to search their notebooks for it in the future, if you find a need for that site again. This will allow you to keep the best, and most useful sources that you find for years into the future on an easy to navigate database.

Another useful part of Evernote is the web clipping tool that we had to use. This tool allows you to highlight certain sentences, paragraphs, or even entire articles that you deem necessary to keep in your Evernote notebook. It is just an easier way, when surfing the web, to easily organize any useful information you find. You can do most of the same things through this tool that you can on the site, such as tagging your articles, and putting them in the appropriate notebooks.

If I were to put this in my PLE I would put in in the applications section rather than the gathering of information section. I believe this because it is an application that I would use to SORT information that I have found as opposed to GATHERING information.

An item of interest from my Feedly this week comes from the Brock News. It is an article about students on exchange entitled Student Exchange Creates 'Experience of a Lifetime'. This interests me because I would have an interest in doing the exchange program, and seeing how other people are doing it, and enjoying it so much, only makes me want to do it more. It is also interesting to Brock students talk about the differences in schooling here, and wherever there exchange takes them.

Week 5 Weekly Report and Reflection

Biderman, A (CC) 2013

This week we were assigned to, among other things, create a Twitter account. Twitter is a great tool, in my opinion for a number of reasons. First off, Twitter is used as a social networking site and allows for individuals to connect with people all over the world through 140 character messages. This is the reason why Twitter was already apart of my PLE, under the "connecting" branch. Not only can you connect with your friends, but you can also connect with people with similar interests to you. For example, as an avid sports fan, twitter allows me to connect with other fans of the same teams, and talk to them about the sport.

Twitter, 2013

One other aspect that is useful about Twitter, that I did not think about while creating my PLE was the information that is shared via twitter. Information on a larger variety of topics is shared through twitter ranging from sports to politics. Not only can Twitter give you the information directly, but it also allows for you to follow your favourite writers, who tweet the links to their articles allowing you an easy way to know when they have posted something new. If I was re-doing my PLE, I may also consider putting Twitter in the "Gathering of information" branch.

Building off the idea that you can gather information through Twitter, lists are also a useful tool on the site. A list on twitter allows you to group a number of users in to one area based on a similarity in the topics they tweet about. For example, I could group all the writers for the Green Bay Packers (my favourite football team), into one list, and then when I wanted to read about them all the tweets by them would be sorted neatly away from the rest of my timeline.

Week 4 Weekly Report and Reflection

This week we were assigned to learn about bookmarking tools and how to use them for our benefit. Bookmarks are useful in a similar way to how a RSS feed is useful. The tool that I used when gathering my bookmarks was, Diigo. Diigo is a site that allows you not only to just bookmark a site in the classic way, but also allows for the user to highlight important phrases, or paragraphs. By using Diggo, one can also write an annotation about the site so that if you go back to it later, you can see what you wrote about the site. A tool like this is extremely useful for people with busy lives like a student. This is because, it allows for you to choose which sites you find reliable, and only read content of those sites. By doing this, you do not waste your time on sites with questionable facts, and sources, and actually learn the truth as to what is happening.

Diigo (2013)

This session we also had to use an online curation tool. The one I chose to use is called Storify. This online tool is used to tell a story about what ever it is that you choose to tell about. Storify allows for you to put a bunch of links, videos, pictures, quotes, etc. on to one page so it tells the "story" that you are going for. This tool is useful if you want to show someone, or a group of people a lot of information on a topic in a very user friendly, and easy to navigate way.

There were a number of interesting articles on my RSS feed this week. One that I chose to read was interesting because it talks about the way that marketing is leaning. The article is titled: What Can Be Sold in 140 Characters? That’s Now the Challenge for Twitter. The article talks about the direction that marketing is going and since live TV isn't watched as much, what marketers need to do to adjust.

Week 3 Weekly Report and Reflection

One of the articles on my RSS feed, was called UN probes 7 more Syrian chemical weapons cases, written by Reuters for the Toronto Star. This article showing up on my feed allowed me to keep up to date in the goings-on, in Syria, where there are many more questions than answers. This article informs my own learning, by giving me the facts of what is currently happening in Syria, while also not giving an opinion on whom is right or wrong in this case, allowing for me to make my own, educated, opinion.

Biderman, A, (CC) 2013 - PLE

One of the great aspects of having a RSS feed is how it allows you to pick and choose the sources where you want to get your information from. By doing this, it allows one to be more selective in what they read, while also making sure that they get the information from a source that they trust. A RSS feed clearly helps one with their digital literacy for all the reasons I mentioned above. It also helps users be more digitally responsible, because they don't just search for a topic, but they find an article on a topic, through trusted sources. RSS feeds also help users become a better, and more well-rounded digital citizen because it helps organize all the information in to one area.

Referring back to my Personal Learning Environment (PLE), my Feedly RSS feed, would fit under the applications branch of it. This is because, like iTunes for example, it helps me to organize different files, and information in to one easy to access page.

My Experience with RSS Feeds

As a part of the ADED 1P32 class, I was assigned to set up a RSS feed in order to learn how they work. One of the first articles that my newly made RSS feed directed me to was an article about how RBC is donating $675,000 to Brock for their music programs. The Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is getting $500,000 of it in order to turn the new facility into a world-class one, with the rest of the money going to the music at noon program already at Brock University. RBC is clearly showing their support for education, and especially for people pursuing careers in the arts. RBC is hoping that this gift will help keep arts education in Ontario and the Niagara region running for a long time.

Using a RSS feed is a very valuable tool for everyone because it allows you to sort all of the content that you would normally read into something a lot more organized. For whatever topic you like to learn about, there are a number of feeds worth subscribing too that would allow you not only to continue to learn what you did before, but also learn new things. If someone wants to become more up to date on the news outside of Canada and the U.S.A., they might want to subscribe to the New York Times - World feed, so that they get get news on the goings-on around the world. Overall, I believe RSS feeds to be a very valuable asset, that I will continue to use throughout my life.

Week 2 Weekly Report and Reflection

Graham Atwell defines a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) as an approach to using new tools for learning. To create an effective PLE, one must go through a series of 4 steps in order to make it as useful as possible. This blog post will go through those steps and apply them to myself.

Personal

Biderman, A. (CC) 2013 - PLE

In 5-10 years I would love to be working in the sports industry, being a player agent for one of the 4 major professional sports in North America. To do this, however, I would most likely need to graduate from Law school so that I would be fully qualified to understand the contract language, and more importantly, learn how to negotiate a contract better. I would also love to work for an already established firm, so that I could get my feet wet first an
d learn the business (along with gaining clients) before branching off into my own agency.

Right now, I am a 3rd year Sport Management student at Brock University. In order to achieve my goal, I have to first graduate from Brock, before applying to, and attending a law school. There are a lot of steps ahead of me in order to achieve my end goal, but I am on the right track now.

Learning

As I said above, in order to become a player agent, I must gain negotiating, and contract writing skills which are essentially only attainable through law school. In order to learn the way I need to I would need to use tools in the gathering information category in order to gain the information and knowledge that I would need to succeed in school, and then in my career. I would also need to use networking tools in order to make the connections necessary to get my foot in the door of the sport agency industry. Lastly I would need to use computer applications in order to do my work as effectively as possible both in school and in the business world.

Environment

I believe the quality of the environment that you work in is very much related to the quality of the work you produce. With that being said, I believe that working in a clean, uncluttered environment is conducive to doing your best possible work. I also think that the people that you associate with either helps or hinders the quality of work that you put out, so making sure that you work with people with a high work ethic is key to success. Knowing all of this I would want to make sure I work with more dedicated people and in an uncluttered working environment.

Habits

Getting rid of your old habits and replacing them with good ones is one of the biggest keys to improving upon your learning ability. One bad habit that I am trying to rid myself of is procrastination. I normally like to put things off to the last minute, but during the next 30 days I am trying to make sure I get my work done well in advance so I have time to improve it, and produce the best quality of work possible.


Reflection

Biderman, A. (CC) 2013 - Word Cloud

While creating my PLE, I learned a number of different things. The most important of them being that there are just so many different tools, and ways of learning that everyone's PLE would be different. I also learned that while I use everything for one task (gaining knowledge) there are a number of different avenues to gain that knowledge, and a number of other tools that help you do just that.

Making a word cloud for my Week 1 reflection post reminded me of the important of a digital footprint (as those are the two most prominent words). When creating a digital footprint one has to be careful of what they put out there and I believe those themes are evident in my Word Cloud.

Week 1 Weekly Report and Reflection

A digital footprint is information provided in cyberspace that is left behind for someone to see. I believe that a small digital footprint is good to have if in the right place. For example, having information about you on a Linkedin profile is beneficial, and can help you get employment in the future. That is an example of a positive digital footprint. However, a digital footprint can also be bad, if for example, you give your credit card information to an untrusted site where someone can find and use it. I believe the best strategy to keeping a positive digital footprint is to make sure you think twice about whether or not you would want someone knowing what you are going to put on the internet, and if the answer is no, don't put it there. The exception being if the site is very trustworthy (like amazon.ca), then you can trust that your information will be kept private. Netiquette is highly related to someones positive digital footprint because of how similar they are. If you keep civil and polite on a message or comment board there will be no chance that something bad that you said being kept and used against you. Someone who has the knowledge needed to be a digital citizen, generally would also have the knowledge to either not leave a digital footprint, or if they do, make sure that it is a positive one. I have learned that there are a number of different aspects about digital citizenship. One thing that I feel the need to learn more about would be about digital health and wellness. I did not realize that there were as many physical health problems spouting from the digital community as there are.

There are a few different aspects about digital citizenship that I look forward to learning more about in this class. One of them is digital literacy. I feel like all schools at this point in time need to focus more on teaching the students how to use technology as that is the way the world is changing. More and more communication on the internet is becoming a staple in the business world and learning how to use and communicate through the internet should be a topic in all classes.

About Myself

My name is Aaron Biderman, and currently I am a 3rd year Sport Management student at Brock University. When not in St. Catharines, I live in Thornhill, Ontario, a city just north of Toronto. My favourite activities including playing and following, all sports, but mainly baseball, hockey, football, and basketball.

With my Sport Management degree, I hope to obtain a job in one of the major professional sports, preferably on the marketing side. If not that, then I would also like to work on the personnel side of sports, in some capacity.

Taking ADED, will greatly help me in my future career because being able to connect with someone on the internet is becoming more and more essential to the world. Especially in the sport industry, there are so many people that want to constantly be updated on their favourite teams that the only way to truly interact with every fan around the world is on the internet. I also hope to refine my skills when it comes to navigating, and effectively using the web.

Me on my recent trip to Vancouver, BC in an Olympic bobsled