Week 12

Week 12

This week we looked at the topic of Social Media in the future. Shane took us through a number of theories about the future of social media and what developments we can expect to see in the future. We also looked at Tim Berner-Lee’s vision of a semantic, or linked, web and discussed if we have reached this. Shane then gave us an exercise to discuss a number of questions:

1. How do you think one particular social media tool will evolve in the next six months?
   We decided that current social media sites like facebook and Instagram will evolve and adapt to new trends, we took the example of snapchat stories evolving as a possibility to innovate.
2. What is the long term prospect for this tool?
   We concluded that this type of social media has plenty of potential for people to connect and to make the world more connected.
3. What three major ideas do you think holds for social media in 2020?
   We said that developments such as facial and voice recognition will become more prevalent  within social media, likewise virtual reality.

Shane also took us through a number of trends that are currently happening in social media circles for example whatsapp’s user base has risen by 100 million users since the start of 2015.

Week 11

Week 11

This week we discussed the issue of ethics in business and social media. Shane asked us to discuss three questions in groups –

Would monitoring employees at work via technology be ethical? My group came to the conclusion that this depends on the extent to which employees are being monitored.Under what circumstance is it ethical to use consumer data from another company? We decided that permission must be sought before this information can be used.Is it ethical for facebook to alter your mood using newsfeed?We had no issue with this as all information on facebook is in the public domain anyway.


Shane also explained meta ethics (Truths or values), normative ethics(standards for right or wrong) and applied ethics (specific issues). He went on to discuss the topics of Deontological theory (Duty theory or rights theory) and Consequential theory (ethical egoism, ethical altruism and utilitarianism).


I also reviewed the literature available about google tends and Wikipedia, I particularly enjoyed Jimmy Wales TED talk about Wikipedia and how it works, I was particularly interested in how Wikipedia monitors edits to ensure garbage does not make the website, I also read the article abot the hoax that managed to avoid this monitoring process and be on the website for over 5 years. I also particularly like the google trends page, I explored the information about game of thrones and its rise in popularity over time.

Week 9

Week 9

This week we were visited by a guest speaker Lucie Bohmova from the University of Economics in Prague. Lucie introduced us to the topic of ‘Social Media for Business’, she explained the importance of social media in business and explained the 4 ‘C’s that must be achieved to be successful on social media - Creativity, Creation, Community and Connection. She also explained how a successful brand strategy works on social media, get people to know you, get people to like you and get people to trust you. At the end of class Lucie set us a group task to to create our own company and suggest how we could market it using social media. We were also asked to discuss how will social media change by 2020. Our group concluded that social media will become far more interative in the future, for example devices such as glasses will have built in social media outlets.



I also completed another portion of my groups app, I came up with the concept of a 'share your meal' section where the user could share ingredients and picture of their paleo meals with other social media users or use it to keep account of their diet, below is a screenshot of our blocks for that section.  I completed the 'tools' section of the app where we included a calorie counter, BMI calculator, portion guide and also I found a tutorial online on how to build an activity tracker using MIT app inventor which was in keeping with our apps objective.

Share your meal blocks:

 

 

 

Week 8

Week 8
In week 8 we covered the topic ‘Uses of Visual Social Media’. Different uses for visual media sites include academic, recreational, social, political and commercial. Examples of visual media sites are: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. Shane used Barack Obama’s social media campaign and the ‘ice-bucket challenge’ as examples of how visual social media has been used in the past. Shane also spoke about the dangers of this type of social media, in particular to do with our privacy online and the type of information we publish on the internet.

This weeks e-lab required us to set up and manage a flickr account. I found it interesting exploring a new social media site I had never been to before, the problem I had however is that I am already an avid Instagram user therefore I could not help but to compare the two sites, although they differ I still felt they had the same purpose. Having been on instagram a number of months therefore I was already in tune with how the site works so I automatically felt like I preferred instagram.

I also completed a part of my groups app, we finalised our idea and I was given the task of managing the development of the app, we agreed to meet once a week to focus on the progress of the app. Below is a screenshot of the blocks for the home page and information page of our paleo food and fitness app.

 

 

Week 7

Week 7

The topic for week 7 was Mash-ups, Mash-ups are a web application that uses content from a various amount of sources to create a single graphic interface, i.e content can be taken from different sources, for example price comparison websites. The main functions of mash-ups are combination, visualisation and aggregation.

For the lab session we were required to create our own mash-up by creating visual information using google maps. I followed the directions provided and created my map which showed the locations of heritage Oak trees in Ireland. I then edited the icons and embedded it into my blog.

Week 6

Week 6

The topic for our week 6 lecture was Video Communication. Video communication is a form of digital, these include sites such as YouTube and Blogger. We also learned about synchronous and asynchronous communication, Synchronous Communication is a direct form of communication where people can be simultaneously present while Asynchronous Communication is the transmission/reception of communication without the coordination of the sender/receiver.

 

Podcasts are series’ of digital media files, audio or video, usually released and downloaded via the Internet. Uses of podcasts include general use (e.g. for enriched communication), business (e.g. marketing), education (e.g. distant learning, mobile learning), entertainment (e.g. musicians, authors) and news (e.g. clips of newscasts/radio shows).

 

Screencasts are digital movies. This software provides a facility for the processing, storage and uploading of content through screencasting, examples of this software are Screencast-O-Matic and Jing.

 

I also completed the online lab for this week. We were required to record a screencast using Screencast-O-Matic, I recorded a screencast of myself typing up a presentation on powerpoint while narrating what i was writing. I then completed the task where we were required to record a screen cast and upload it to youtube. I recorded a simple task and then added audio to it using youtubes editing features. Please find a link to my video below.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhDVaL1T8ZU

Week 4

Week 4
Week 4 we learned about social bookmarking, which is the use of bookmarks to organise, share, manage and search for resources/ information online. Shane introduced us to social bookmarking sites such as pinterest, diigo, dig and reddit. We were also introduced to the wisdom of crowds theory which is where a group of people collectively make a correct decision, we carried out an experiment in-class to test the theory. Lastly, we discussed the tag cloud which is a stylized way of visually representing occurrences of words used to describe tags.

The lab session required us to set up a Pinterest and diigo account and to experiment with social bookmarking. I had never used either of these sites before so I was interested in trying them out, I particularly liked pinterest how it allows me to explore my interests and share these with my social group. Below is a screenshot of my pinterest board.

Week 5

Week 5
Week 5 we were introduced to the processes of designing and presenting content effectively via social media. Shane presented a number of ways of presenting information for example, Plotagon is a means of presenting using virtual video, mind meister is a mind mapping tool which can be used to document and formulate ideas., Prezi is an online presentation app which uses a zooming user interface (ZUI) in order to present information, Powtoon is a user centered design for using animation for presenting information and infographics sites which use information graphics to virtually represent information, examples of these sites are easeal.ly, tag galaxy, gliffy and hashtagify.

The lab for this week required us to set up a prezi account and present a short presention (see below, hopefully I embedded it properly). I have used this application before so I was quite used to it, besides it is quite simple to understand and apply.

Week 3

Week 3

Week 3 dealt with the topic of collaborative information generation. The objectives of this topic were to explore means of developing content collaboratively and to examine the advanages and disadvantages of user generated content. In preparation for class I read through the links provided which gave me a good background to the topic. I thought the article by Val Swisher was particularly beneficial and I also like how there was quite a good discussion in the comments section underneath. She explored the pros and cons of internal user generated content (IUSC) which is content generated within a company or organisation foe example. Val felt that conent would be more technically accurate, I can see what she means as it is written by those in-the -know rather than a specialised writer. Also, Val explored the theory that this leads to interesting conversations about each others content, providing more 'ways of thinking'.

I also completed the lab session for this week when we had to create a 'magic 8 ball' app, this allowed me to build on what I had learned in the previous week by adding an accelerometer and a random item list to the app.

Heres a screen grab of the app from my phone:

Here's a screen grab of my blocks for the magic8ball app:

Week 2

Week 2

Week 2 we were introduced to the concept of social computing. Firstly we were presented with different forms of communication, traditional (face to face, telephone, letter), semi-traditional (email, online chat, mobile phone) and social media (integrated online means, web conferencing). We also learned about power when it comes to computing, communication power (who has the power online) is provided by influence meaning that those with the largest influence automatically have the most power. Also, gatekeepers are those who have direct power to influence society (journalists, teachers).

Source credability is how we precieve where certain information comes from and what value we put on the information as a result, this is provided to us by the expertise of the author, the trustwillingness of the author and the goodwill of the author. However we also put value on how others precieve the information (i.e. how many likes it has on facebook.)

We were given an exercise to challenge ourselves to go without social media for a day and see how we coped. Now my hand was forced slightly given the fact that the wifi at home was out of action so I had no real choice but nevertheless it provided me a real oppertunity to carry out the exercise. During the day I felt almost remote, cut off from the world slightly, I found myself urging to take out my phone and click on the twitter or facebook app to see what was going on in the world only to realise that I shouldnt (or couldnt!). It was a saturday too when I would usually click into twitter at least every 15 mins to check the latest premier league scores and to recieve instant updates of the action that was unfolding. This is where I felt I missed social media most, the practical nature of being able to locate information instantly, more so than the communication nature, I'm very must a reciver more so than a provider when it comes to social media, my last facebook update  was in december 2014 and my last tweet was "Happy new year everyone #2015",  but I still check both every day to see what everyone else has been up to. I was surprised how I found it hard not to think about social media throughout the day, It surprised me how much it was engrained in my daily routine and how reliant I was on it.

I also completed the lab tutorial for week 2 where we were tasked with developing a simple app design 'Hellopur'. I found the task quite enjoyable and felt i picked up the methods and material pretty quickly. I downloaded the app onto my phone and tested it, it worked perfectly. Here is a screen grab of my design screen:

Week 1

Week 1

Week 1 I missed the first lecture as a result of not being registered to the module in time. I was recommended the module by a friend who had completed it last year who said it was really interesting and worthwhile. I have completed modules in previous semesters such as 'IT and E-Business' that have thaught me about social computing and social media so I felt that this module would be really beneficial in backing up what I have previously learnt. I also worked for a company where I was in charge of updating the firms social media pages daily, its website and also posing articles on the firms app. This module should equip me with skills needed to carry out this work more effectively.

Having missed the first lecture I did go back and read the background material on blackboard, mainly around the topics of web 1.0, web 2.0 and web 3.0. I particularly liked the article 'How web 3.0 will work' by Jonathan Strickland. I have previously learned about web 1.0 and web 2.0 in another module so I had a good understanding of those, web 1.0 was described to me as being like a plain text page with no interaction between the user and the site or between the user and other users of the site, likewise the definition I learned for web 2.0 was: 'web 2.0 applications are designed around sharing content among communities of users' i.e social media sites. I also learned about the 'net generation' and their carachertistics, we watched a facinating clip created by some students in America about social media
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

I found it interesting that while web 2.0 was designed to connect people to other people, web 3.0 will move a step further and connect people to information, making it easier and faster for people to find out the information they want to know. I also watched the youtube clip provided documenting the evolution of the web.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsNcjya56v8

I also completed the online tutorials about how to collaborate effectively and how to create wikis on blackboard.