Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Tutorial eight: adding flikr badges and youtube videos to your blog

Adding a Flikr badge:

Displaying photos in your Blogger blog from your Flickr account is quite simple. All you need to do is get the Flickr Badge embed code from Flickr and paste it into an HTML/JavaScript page element.
To start, head over to Flickr (http://flickr.com/badge.gne) and configure your badge to your liking. If you want more freedom in the number of photos to show and image styling, make sure you opt for the HTML version. Make sure you choose an image size that will fit inside your sidebar or it will be cut off. You can force the badge to inherit your blog's background by selecting "No Background" in the Layout step of the Flickr badge configuration.

Once you have set up the badge to your liking, copy the embed code onto your blog.

Adding a YouTube video:

First, go to YouTube and find a video that you like. It doesn't have to be a video that you created.

Next, look for the box directly to the right of the video. Not only does this box let you subscribe to videos, it also gives you the code for embedding video. Go to the line marked Embed at the bottom of this box. Click inside the code box next to the word Embed. All of the code text should automatically be highlighted. If not, you'll need to select it. Copy this code. You can copy by right-clicking on your mouse and selecting copy from the drop-down menu.

Tutorial Seven: Assistive technology

Cook & Hussey (2000) explain assistive technologies as an approach which shifts and individuals disability from the person to their environment. Instead of focussing on the disabilities limitations, the assistive technologies are employed primarily to contribute to successful functional outcomes for persons with disabilities.

One piece of equipment introduced in the assistive technology tutorial was the Gotalks, which are battery powered communication devices used for people who cannot communicate well by speaking. The Gotalks come in different sizes. The pocket version has 4 cells and the bigger versions have 9 or 24 cells. The smaller versions are around $300 - $400 and the larger ones are around $800.

This assistive device is ideal for anyone with autism, down syndrome, severe cerebral palsy or retardation or any condition which limits speech. This piece of equipment increases functional capacity for its user by enabling them to communicate clearly greatly more than they would be able to with out this device.

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities.

The name of the community I am focussing on is facebook, its web address is www.facebook.com.
The focus of this community is to allow you to connect and share with friends and family from all around the world no matter where you are. Some of the services provided by this website are advertisements, online chat, discussion boards, emails and quizzes. This website is very interactive and run by its members. It is simple to sign up to and has thousands of members.

Facebook is a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other in real life. Although you may meet new people on Facebook, the majority of people use it to keep in contact with those they are familiar with. People using Facebook, such as myself, use it as a way of communicating with friends and family around the country and world. It is free to become a member and very convenient to use if you have access to a computer and internet. An extract from my own Facebook page is as follows: “Taylor is loving the group study in her lounge with the heat pump on.” This is an example of a friend sharing her thoughts and what she is doing at the present time to her friends who are also members of facebook.

A ethical issue which could arise within this community is the lack of identity of some of the users. It is very easy to accept new friends who you may not know, posing a potential risk that they will be able to know what you are doing, where you are and other personal details about you to a stranger. I think it is up to the individual to ensure you do not post any information onto this community that you do not want to get in the hands of the wrong people and to just be aware who the people are you are communicating with.

A benefit of using the online community facebook over a physical community is that there are not geographical restrictions of who you can communicate with. You can be anywhere in the world, providing access to the internet, and still keep in touch with those you want to. Another benefit of online communities would be for those who are unable to leave the house, for example the severely disabled, who can use this community as a way of staying in touch with people and not being isolated due to being home bound.

A disadvantage of communicating on the internet is the restrictions with physically meeting people. You are unable to explore places, or go out to coffee with your friends and family through the internet which provides a sense of bonding. Facebook is a good way of supplementing your communications but would not be best as a primary form of communication with other people.

Tutorial Four and Five: Video production sessions.

Task one was to work in a small group to plan and produce and edit a 30 second short film around the Otago Polytechnic campus. Once we had completed this task we were asked to set up a YouTube account if we did not already have one. From opening this account we needed to upload our short films and post them on the website.

YouTube: YouTube offers a range of videos, channels and communities you can watch and be a part of. You are able to become a member to this service and contribute to its resources, allowing you to connect with others from around the world.

Storyboarding was a technique used to help us create our finished 30 second short films. It all started with Sergei Eisenstein using the technique. Walt Disney and his staff developed a storyboard system in 1928. For our purposes a storyboard is a series of drawings of the proposed film, as it will appear on screen. These drawing play an important part in the production of any video or film It is a plan of the end product and is often referred to during production. Each scene of our film was planned carefully. This was so that when filming begins everybody knows exactly what is to be done. This allowed our group to manage our time well and have a clear understanding of what needed to be done.

Scripting the is basis for everything that is both heard and seen on the screen. It allows the author to describe the thoughts and ideas of the film to his audience. A script should cover the following points:
- Moods and expressions
- Facial expressions
- Vocal expressions
- Movement
- Interaction with other characters
- Special effects
- Sound track instructions
- Lighting
- Camera angles and types of shot
- Background sound and setting
- On screen graphics and titles

The more detail put into these scripts the closer the end product will be to the directors intention. The script should include enough technical information to enable to director to create the visual and audio picture the author wants. Some point we covered when writing a clear script are as follows:
- What is the major aim of your film?
- Is this idea relevant to the audience?
- Develop your lead character/subject for documentary
- Come up with a set-up. Some interesting situation or objective. This will help set the plot.
- Map out a beginning middle and end for your plot.
- Include subject movements and major activities.
- Include in the script any special lighting, sound or camera effects.

Tutorial Three: Blog creation Tasks

Today we were asked to follow instructions to set up an account with Blogger. To do this we were required to also set up a Google account.
In creating out Blog we needed to complete the following construction tasks:
- Choose a Blog Template
- Provide a Blog title, incorporating our name and the course title Participation in Occupation
- Provide a Blog outline. A short statement outline the purpose of the blog, can come from the course outline.
- Complete your Blog profile, including age, gender, industry, occupation and location.
- Up load a photo to your Blog profile.
We were then asked to start posting content on our blogs from the first two technical descriptions for tutorials one and two.

Blogger: Blogger allows you to share your thoughts, photos, videos and more with your friends around the world. It is easy to use and allows you to personalise your blog. Another blogging website like this one is www.squarespace.com

Five photos were then uploaded onto this blog from tutorial five onto our new flickr accounts. These photos were taken with a group of Occupational Therapy students around campus. The purpose of taking and uploading these photos was to familiarise ourselves with the flickr service and begin to link our blog with other sharing websites.