Ideas for Intro

The first thing I will talk about is what I learned. I learned how to write in all sorts of electronic environments, many of which I had no prior knowledge of. From there, I think I should go into how much fun I had with everything. Creating these projects felt more like a fun activity and less like homework. From there I will describe what things I had to fix for my portfolio, why they needed to be fixed, and how I fixed them. I will add a thank you to the class, because peer reviewing was very helpful and it taught me a lot. I will outline my best piece of work, which I believe is my enthusiast blog. This is a rough outline of my intro, and I of course will expand on these subjects when I write the intro in full.

Ideas for Portfolio Theme

1. Discovering the electronic side of writing - The things I learned most in this class all revolved around learning new electronic environments. I had no idea how to create and work on things like Ning, Google Sites, Wikitravel, and even Blogger. In this class, I learned how to write in all sorts of new electronic environments, and what you need to do to make it appealing to your audience.

2. Writing in electronic environments is fun - It really is. I can honestly say I had a lot of fun writing and creating things in this class. I enjoyed working on my enthusiast blog, it was so much fun to write about one of my passions in any way I wanted. I can honestly say I had fun doing homework! It was fun to write stuff about my home town. That's why I like writing so much, it's fun, and shouldn't be tedious, and this is one of the main reasons I enjoyed this class.

3. Use of multimedia - Multimedia is something I never really knew how to use effectively when it came to writing and designing things. With this class, I have learned how to use multimedia effectively for writing and design purposes. I believe this is a great skill for all writers to have, especially in the age where everything is moving towards electronics.

2 Things I'd Revise

Here are the two projects that I think need the most revision for this portfolio.

1. Wikitravel - My wikitravel page content-wise was good, but there were numerous things that flew over my head that I missed and caused me to lose points. I just didn't follow the layout properly at times and put things where they didn't belong, and my tone was below par as well, mainly because I think I used this a way to somewhat vent about the problems in the town when I should have been focusing on the good. To rectify this, I will go back and fix the layout to adhere to proper standards. I will then fix my tone and make it sound more neutral and less cynical.

2. Social Networking - I know we haven't gotten this back yet, so it may be a bit early. I just think there will be things that we messed up on that need to be fixed, I just don't know what yet. Once I get a better idea, I will find ways to improve the site(s) both in a multimedia and informative sense, depending on which one needs the most work, if not both.

Kimball and Portfolios

Kimball made some great points about what makes for a good portfolio. The first is that a portfolio is used to show your best work. To do this, you need to revise and polish your work to prove it is the best you can do. The thing that stuck out to me the most was when he suggested that portfolios should follow a certain pattern. Being a portfolio is comprised of your best work, you want a good reflection of yourself in this portfolio. The design and structure of it should go along with the image of yourself you are trying to portray in your work. Also, it should follow a pattern of some kind. This would be work you had to fix the most, or what you had most fun doing, what you learned the most, etc. It was a very helpful article for this final portfolio.

Final Thoughts on Finished Social Network Project (3/3)

First, I'd like to say by finished I mean completed awaiting review. Overall though I think we did a great job on our project and we don't have to change that much. Everyone did their part and pulled their weight. We all easily agreed on what we should do for each component of the project. We all found great multimedia items for the site, such as youtube videos, music, and pictures relating to our topic. I really liked how fun and easy Ning is to use. Creating it was very similar to creating a facebook page. The blog portion is a great way to post developments, facts, and opinions on our topic, and the message boards are easy to use and a great way for people to get involved in the online community. Facebook causes was another thing I liked about the assignment. It was fun to see how people can come together and raise awareness, and even money, in one of the largest and most recognized social networking sites. Everything was easy to find and use on Ning, and Facebook causes was easy to use as well, for the most part. Overall our group worked together very well, and I think we completed a great social networking site for a cause.

Ning Network: Facebook Causes (2/3)

For my group, I chose to create the Facebook Causes group. Upon completing the creation of the site, I have to say I was very underwhelmed with the interface. I didn't even know how to get to it from the main Facebook page, and the customization options are far worse than that found on Ning. However, I did like the fund raising option that facebook causes presents. Also, by having causes directly connected with facebook, it is possible to reach a larger audience. That is why I think getting Facebook causes going is essential to this project. By using the Facebook interface, we can reach a vast audience and hopefully persuade them to join our cause on Ning, so we can really have a true online community that supports our cause.

Thoughts on Ning Network (1/3)

My first thoughts about Ning is how it really is a great way to spread information about a cause. With a blog area, message boards, facebook-style personal profiles, and picture/video sections, this really is a great place to start social networking for a cause. To me, it seems like the ultimate information ecology. We can provide information to a large group of people, who can comment on it and add their insight, which we could possibly use to enhance our site. It is also a great place to interact with other people in your online community. Your personal page on the site is very similar to a facebook page, which can lead to fun and jovial interaction between members. I believe that with the recent boom of social networks, it is only a matter of time until this catches on and gets huge.