Week 8: Report and Reflection

Happy Sunday bloggers!
 

 

This week we were introduced to "Wiki" or Wikipedia as most of you call it. Wiki is a tool that allows for everyone to insert their input on various topics on the web. From most of the classes I've taken at Brock, the professors usually do not allow articles or information from Wikipedia to be used as a scholarly source. This is because anyone can edit the information at anytime, which does not make it reliable. For example, I can go to the Toronto Raptors' Wiki page and edit it to say that they are a soccer team even though they are a basketball team. Once I click save, the information will be saved even though it is incorrect. Therefore Wikipedia in my opinion can't really be trusted. Now Wikipedia also has another function that is VERY similar to Google Docs. It basically allows you to create a shared document for others to contribute to. When comparing the two, I found that I really prefer to use Google Docs. Google Docs provides a better platform and is a lot easier to use in my opinion than Wiki. Also, Google Docs allows for me to choose who I want to be able to edit and share my document, while Wiki leaves it open for the entire world. Although they are used for different reasons (Wiki more for research and Google Docs more for personal use) I would still prefer to use Google Docs when planning projects or ideas with group mates, colleagues, and friends. I do not really recommend Wiki to anyone.

 

Also In this week learning activities, we were challenged to search through different wiki resources to identify different digital citizen’s right and responsibilities. During the process, I once again realised that Wiki isn't a very reliable source for information, and should not be trust. But nonetheless, I think the three most important rights and responsibilities digital citizens need to understand are: 

 

1) Understanding digital ethics and etiquette

2) Taking the initiative to report and prevent unacceptable behaviour

3) Understanding the great responsibility you possess that comes with the privilege of being a digital citizen

 Yousif, Z. (CC) 2015

Finally, I wanted to share with you all another interesting article from my feedly. This article is called Why Richard Branson Thinks Failure Should Be An Option For All Entrepreneurs  by Forbes magazine. The reason why I really enjoyed this article is because, many entrepreneurs feel that nothing can come out of failure. But this article and Richard Branson does a great job of explaining that failure for start ups is extremely reasonable, and that it should be approached as a learning experience. If you've got the entrepreneurial spirit, then give it a read!

 

Until next time,

 

 

Zaed Yousif

Week 7: Report and Reflection

Good evening everyone!

This week we were introduced to Google Docs. Basically, Google Docs allows you to create a document, just like a Word document, and share it with the world! Once you share the document with the people you want to share it with, it allows them to edit the document as they please. When they sign into the document, their edits will show up in different colors to identify who have made the changes. This is not only an awesome tool for group projects, but also for working professionals! It allows for team/group members to work together without physically being together. It saves time, effort, and allows for a new dynamic to be created within groups and teams. Since Google Doc can share to the others and let others edit, students can conveniently work on the document at anytime they choose, no need for the hassle of planning a group meeting or anything. Overall,I think Google Docs is an extremely important tool for working professionals and students. It increases productivity like no other tool, and it really should be implemented by group members in order to better their work. If you haven't given it a try then I strongly suggest you do so.

I found a really interesting topic from my feedly this week that is really relative to me as a co-op student. It's called How to Answer the Question 'What is your Greatest Accomplishment?'. In many of the interviews I've been in, this question as come up. As much as I practice and prepare for my interviews, this question always becomes a challenging questions for me to answer. At this age, I personally haven't accomplished many things that will necessarily "wow" the interviewers infront of me. This article does a great job of explaining how to approach the questions and provides very useful tips on what types of accomplishments you should use. If you'd like to better your interview skills and answers, give it a read!

Regards,

Zaed Yousif

Week 6: Report and Reflection

Hey everyone!

 For week 6, I was introduced to a new tool called "Evernote." When I had first read the activity for week 6, I chuckled a little bit when I saw the Evernote logo. As a Blackberry user, Evernote comes pre-installed into my phone. Ever since I've had my phone, I've always wondered what this application does, so I was really excited to finally actually be given the chance to learn bout it. Evernote is basically an application and a webpage for users to take notes, insert and save pictures and various websites. In addition, it also has this feature called web clipper, which allows us to clip articles and actual web pages to your notes. What is so awesome about it is that it is not only for Blackberry! I can use it on my computer and you guys can also download the app on your smart phones!  Finally, it is also allows you to actually share your notes with your colleagues and class mates, which is a HUGE plus. To me, Evernote can be used in every setting. Whether your're a student, or a working professional. 

In my personal PLE, I would classify Evernote as a tool under the "Organizing" category since I have "note taking" under that category. Evernote basically is a digital advanced way to take notes. I found the app very useful to search for topics related to my research project. I had the opportunity to sort all my notes in the way that I wanted them to be sorted. Furthermore, I had the ability to share my notes with my groupmates and my instructor, which only makes group work that much easier. I really recommend this application to everyone! It is very user-friendly, and you can tell that the developer really had kept students in mind when creating it. Give it a try, it will only help you in your work!

I want to share with you all a very interesting article from my feedly this week. If you've been keeping up with my posts, you'll be very used to me posting articles about the Toronto Raptors. I've decided to change it up a little bit this week. As a co-op student, I constantly find myself facing challenges and problems in the work place. Often times, I'm scared to bring these issues up to my boss because I don't want to be looked down upon. This article "How to Approach the Boss When Conflict Arises" gives about 10 tips on how to deal with that fear or stress. It put so many thoughts into perspective for me, and I really could take away something from every idea that Forbes provided. Give it a read guys!

Regards,


-ZY

Week 5: Report and Reflection

Happy Family Day bloggers!

This week, I was "introduced" to twitter in my ADED 1P32. I have been using twitter for about 6 years now, so nothing that I learned was new to me. For millions of people around the world, Twitter is a great social tool to connect with friends and family, and also keep up with what is going on in today's society and pop culture. Uses get to share their thoughts, opinions, and even other links with a limit of 140 characters. I personally never associated Twitter with learning, but through the learning activities, I saw that it could be easily connected to learning and is a great tool to use.

Users connect through "following" other users. Once you follow another user, their tweets, retweets, and favorites will appear on your news feed. There is also the use of hashtags in twitter to create trending topics. When a user tweets about a certain topic, they use a hashtag follow by a key word to include in that certain trending topic. It's a great way to see a variety of people's opinions and thoughts about certain topics that are going around in today's society. Following educational accounts and searching for trending topics are great ways to use twitter to learn new things. Being a digital citizen really requires you to use different tools to enhance your learning, and Twitter is a great tool to do so. Have a look at my news feed and follow me!

Yousif, Z. (CC) 2015.

In other news, I'd like to share something awesome that happened this past weekend. If you've been reading my blogs, then you'll probably guess it is about the Raptors. Well you guessed right! Kyle Lowry was voted to the all-star game for the first time in his career. The article talks about how he's just soaking it all in and enjoying the moment. It's a great read if you're a Raptors fan, and an even better read if you're not a fan just yet. check it out!

http://www.nba.com/raptors/holly-blog/lowryallstar-021515

Regards,

-ZY

Week 4: Report and Relection

Hey fellow bloggers!

This week we were asked to check out a couple of tools and curations and really try our best to learn to use them. Diigo is the only bookmarking tool that I enjoyed using. For starters, I found it incredibly easy to learn and use. I never found myself stumped not knowing what to do next, everything on the website is straight forward and easy to learn. Diigo really organizes your bookmarks in a way where it is easy for the user to refer back to what they were reading. This is done through the layout of the website, as well as the ability to create tags and descriptions for every website you bookmark. Also, the ability to highlight texts really pushed the tool over the top for me. There are many times when I search for websites for school assignments and that tool can come in handy. In my own opinion, if Diigo really wanted to sell itself to our generation, it should emphasize on the fact that you can access your cloud from our PC, MAC, iPad, and your iPhone or Android. Our generation wants every piece of information that we need at our fingertips, this is exactly what Diigo does. From an overall stand point, Diigo really saves you time and effort. Having all your bookmarks in one location, categorized, and explained really makes referring back to those bookmarks easier. I really believe that every student in particular should give this tool a try. It can only benefit and make your school work much better.

The second tool that I really enjoyed using was Paper.li. Paper.li is a curation tool that allows you to create a newspaper based on topics and stories that you are interested in After you create an account, you basically search key words that reflect the topics you are interested in, and the website creates a newspaper for you including all those topics. It even updates all on its own!. It includes articles, tweets, videos, and photos, which allows you to obtain so much pieces of information. This is a great way to keep up with my PLE, since it keeps me connected to so many different things. This tool is another great tool that I recommend for all of you!

Take a look at my newspaper!

Yousif, Z. (CC) 2015.

Finally, I'd like to share with you guys something really exciting that happened this week! 

http://www.nba.com/raptors/raptors-rally-cut-down-clippers

This article is from my Feedly, and it's a great article on the great win by the Toronto Raptors on Friday night! It really shows how great the Raptors are clicking and how awesome their team chemistry is. With regards to my PLE, "collaborating" really takes great team work and team chemistry. The Raptors possess the tools to be a great team because of how they collaborate, I can really learn a lot from how they operate together. Thanks for reading!

Regards,

-ZY

Week 3: Report and Reflection

Hey bloggers, 

In my opinion, learning is not only acquired through school and academics, We live our lives and learn new things every single day, through new experiences and events that we put ourselves through. The digital world is great because it provides us with so much information that we can learn from, such as learning from other people's personal experiences that may help us or even motivate us in our own lives. I personally like to learn from other people's experiences, thoughts, and opinions. Seeing what people have to say about their experiences really helps me put my own thoughts into perspective, and helps me as I embark on my life's journey.

HypeBeast is the page that I'm most interested and thought to share with all of you this week. There are so many blog posts and web pages from different fashion designers and especially shoe designers. The posts often explain the reasoning behind the certain releases of certain shoes, and explain the inspiration and technology behind the shoes. I'm learning through the creators of the shoe and those who have actually worn the shoe, and they're experiences gives me a chance to decide for myself if I'd like to purchase the shoe or not. Having my feed allows me to broaden my horizons with not only fashion, but also the other things that I am interested in.

From Blogger: Nike Introduces the Kobe X: HypeBeast

The RSS tool would be a great fit in my connecting category with regards to my PLE that I  created in week one. This is because a blog post connects people from all around the worlds, and allows us to comment and feed off of each other's opinions and thoughts around the certain topics.


All in all, I have found that the RSS Feed tool is a great way to simplify how we all surf the web. It allows for me to personalize my searches and filter out everything that I'm not really interested in. I had a great time using the tool, you guys should try it too! Thanks for reading!

Regards,


ZY

My Experience with RSS Feeds

Happy Superbowl Sunday bloggers!, 

Throughout the week I learned how to use a tool called "RSS Feeds." This tool is basically like a webpage in which you subscribe to any pages or blogs which interest you. Being a huge Raptors fan, I subscribed to the "Toronto Raptors" page. This is an awesome site for me and all my fellow Raptors fans because, it provides all the scores, stats, and news regarding the Raptors. Today I came across a fantastic article on the Raptors' win last night against the Washington Wizards. Although I watched the entire game on TV, its nice to hear an "expert's" opinion on the Raptors' performance. So here's the article on the Raptors' OT win last night, even if you're not a fan, who knows what can happen once you read it! Check it out!

http://www.nba.com/raptors/raptors-eclipse-wizards-6th-straight-win

Regards,


ZY