ALES 204 reflection blog

Communication Technology

Taken from:http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecleversheep/2459276180/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Most of the time, I have communication with others in person and on the telephone. Sometimes I use email. Four months ago, I was not particularly interested in experimenting with communication technology. But after taking “ALES 204”, my thinking started to change.In a class I took called “ALES 204”, we were equipped with the knowledge of utilizing social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger, for useful purposes! I created a Business “Facebook” page as an online professional profile; “Twitter” to follow news updates, knowledge updates in the nutrition and food science field and in other career fields; “Blogger” to read about the life and work experiences of different individuals; “LinkedIn” to connect with professionals and publicly posting “Flickr” images on my own websites without violating Copyright Law!


Social media is not the only thing we experimented on. We experimented with “Prezi”: a computer technology way of presentation. I learned many skills for interviewing. During the ALES 204 lab, I had a chance to take part in an interview, and I partnered up with Chen Shen. As we were conducting the interview, we discussed ways to improve the way we spoke and the interview's content. I agree Chen's reflection post, he said ALES 204 lets "us share the knowledge which we can use it to improve our communication abilities immediately". That is true, after that interview practice, I felt my interview skill improved.  If you want to know more about Chen, here's his blog: http://cshen3.blogspot.com/.


There was one more interesting topic that we discussed on: “Augmented Reality” Do you know what that is? If you don’t you can go to the ALES 204 blog and search for the blog post named “Futurecasting” and check out the Slideshare presentation. I assure you, it is neat. 
Here's a youtube video on futurecasting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6c1STmvNJc. In real life, you can see the England points of interest. On the phone, you see much more...


I’m glad I took ALES 204. 


Here is my comment for Naomi (http://naomiporciuncula.blogspot.com/2011/11/when-composing-e-mail-think-of-it-as-if.html?showComment=1323317357588#c7119520112273538378)


My comment for Chen Shen (http://cshen3.blogspot.com/2011/10/poster-presentation-in-my-biol-course.html?showComment=1323317984199#c7196709195276420702)


My comment for Kelley Reynolds (http://kelleyreynolds.blogspot.com/2011/11/coffee-production-in-haiti-wikipedia.html?showComment=1323317708921#c8643546634903174405)


My comment for Angela Komarnicki (http://akomarnicki.blogspot.com/2011/10/getting-involved-volunteering.html?showComment=1323318609777#c9049420886976471802)


My comment for Madeleine Bosnyak (http://madeleine-bosnyak.blogspot.com/2011/10/lab-poster-four-degree-future.html?showComment=1323319111908#c8325935722842168084)

Creative Commons

Have you emailed a book chapter to a friend? Have you found an online resource so awesome that you wanted to share with people you know? Have you posted a picture/video/article onto your social media account? I know I have. But guess what, all these things are actually ILLEGAL—unfortunately.  

One time, I found a cool picture online and posted it into a Wikipedia article. Few days later it was taken off. I researched the reason for that occurrence, and I think posting that non-public-domain image may have violated the copyright law. That is discouraging isn’t it? It is not. Why? Nowadays, there is something called “Creative Commons” (CC). Esther Wojcicki explained that Creative Commons “[provides] free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof to help people share materials on the web.” CC liscence is consistent with the copyright law Here is a CC thing. 

And here is the selection of license parameters:

Is posting these pictures a copyright violation? Hopefully not.

There are social media websites building its copyright license based on CC allows people to share photos, text, music and videos LEGALLY! Amazing! Now our friends and family can use OUR photos publicly and we can use THEIR photos publicly! Super!


Creative Commons even have their own search engine! Here is the link:
http://search.creativecommons.org/

Speaking of Creative Common, I think the author of this University of Alberta Biology 207 textbook is an open media supporter, too! He has this book under a Creative Common license!

Here's the reference:
it even has creative common information labelled!

Do you know what else is super besides Creative Commons? Naomi, because she likes superman. Go to her blog here: naomiporciuncula.blogspot.com 

Power of LinkedIn

The "LinkedIn" icon, taken from:http://www.flickr.com/photos/techweet/5397288659/
I enjoy acquainting people, I especially believe cultivating and building bonds with family and friends make life worthwhile. “LinkedIn” takes “relationship” to a new level. It makes a professional network of friends through a website? Amazing!

                        

Today in our ALES 204 class, I learned the “LinkedIn” website can help me build friendships with other professionals globally, and assist me on walking my career path! LinkedIn is also cool in that it is a database for opening job positions and we can get notifications for a job opening. Definitely, I cannot totally rely on LinkedIn, and my usage of it may not be successful all the time, but it is a viable option.

As another advantage, I can build connections with other professionals in the field of Nutrition and Food Science around the world. We can support each other in exploring and learning more about Food Science: New food processing techniques, food preservation tips and secrets (hopefully). Or outside the career field, I can simply get to know people who share common life interests.

LinkedIn is great: Not only does it open doors for a career, it also opens doors for building relationships. Looking at LinkedIn, I may look forward to embracing these technological online network advancement. 

Jeremy agrees with me about LinkedIn because he likes it, too! check out his blog (http://jeremyjamilano.blogspot.com.)and his "Reflection.noitceIfeR" blog post to see his opinion on "LinkedIn".


Are you tempted to get your own LinkedIn account? go to http://www.linkedin.com