Technology Race

The presidential election is in full force and more people than ever are getting involved, which warms the bottom of my heart. However, they aren't necessarily getting involved by donating money to a particular campaign or attending the rallies and speeches. Facebook, texting, IPhone apps, and Twitter are the foremost tools of the modern political campaign. In fact, I receive update texts from the Obama campaign and emails from the Romney committee, I found out about Huntsman's campaign announcement via my phone's newsfeed, and encouraged people to do some political research via this very blog.

Even since the 2008 election, technology has increased by leaps and bounds. Technology is being integrated into education and communication, changing the way we interact with our friends, co-workers, employers, even celebrities and is also changing how we see ourselves. I mean, look at me- I'm blogging for heaven's sake!(But I am still avoiding Twitter) I started this blog on assignment for a college class and in that same class worked on a project for improving support group websites. Nowdays, when I hear something clever or have an opinion on a world event, I join the discussion. People like Obama, Romney, Huntsman, and other world leaders are starting these discussions, even leading them in Congress, in the White House, in debates and rallies. But we, my fellow Americans, are joining them via Facebook, Twitter, text, Hulu, YouTube, blogs and other social media outlets.

Will technology set the curve for this race? Will the candidate who is the most "plugged-in" win through the reach of their technology?

The Click Heard Around the World

We all have our favorite gadgets and inventions- like sliced bread (which isn't as good as homemade, but to each his own), the toaster (I'm not sure why I'm on a bread train of thought), the iPod, cell phone, laptop, etc, etc. I think you get the point.

Many technological advances have catapulted our world into a digital era full of immediate communication. We got tired of waiting for a reply by handwritten mail (which, if you didn't know, is the coolest thing still) or, heaven forbid, we needed to walk across town to ask someone a question. The radio, television, the telephone, and the computer are all ways we've created to obtain information quickly and effectively. But there was one that seemed to start it all.

The telegraph.

Invented by Samuel Morse (yes, that Morse) in the 1830's, it predates the telephone, radio, and many other early technologies. Not to be confused with Guglielmo Marconi's invention of the radio telegraph system. Here's a prezi with more details about the development of the telegraph.

Samuel Morse on Prezi

To me, the telegraph represents the desire we had to start connecting to each other. It started the ball rolling, or the clicking started.

Glogging...?!

So I've just gotten semi-adjusted to blogging. Now there is glogging. That's right. Their slogan? "Why blog when you can glog?" Glogger: Poster Yourself.

Basically, glogging is creating "posters" with images, sounds, text, and videos to express yourself. A more visual way to blog I guess. It's kinda fun. Here's one I created.



Here's a screencast walking you through some of the designing features.

http://www.screencast.com/t/DmhV8YlOvf

Free Education...just a glimpse

So I've mentioned before that I write for the Insight Magazine for the BYU Honors Program. This year I've been working on several articles including one one free education. I couldn't resist sharing a small bit of the research I've done for the article with you all. Hope you enjoy it.

193 Opencourseware Consortium Members including John Hopkins, MIT, Notre Dame, University of California-Irvine and universities all around the world with material available in 10 languages.

44 Webcast classes available online for free with more being added every semester at Webcast Berkley.

16 full languages courses and Quick Phrases and Words in 36 other languages at BBC Languages.

iTunes-U has over 350,000 free lectures, texts, and videos from universities available.

I've been a bit hard on digital technology in the past, but free education goes a long way to smooth over differences I have with the internet.

Google In General

Can I just say that I love Google? That might come back to bite me when a new and un-thought of system as of yet develops and flips Google, but I think that is a bit in the future still. So I will enjoy Google for now.

Beyond the general search ability, email, and image searching, I have discovered a multitude of tools that I actually use consistently, for my daily life and other classes. Plus a couple that are just fun and kooky. Yes, kooky.

Google Documents: I started using Google Docs for my magazine class to save articles so I could edit and work on them on any computer, anywhere. Then, in my church ward, my bishopric uses Google Docs to put our Sunday program together, so the music can be put in by the music committee, the talks by the conducting person, and any announcements from various organizations and committees in the ward. Beyond just word-type documents, you can also do spreadsheets and to-do lists, powerpoints and budgets. Never. Ending. Possibilities.

Google Reader- At first this was just another way for me to keep track of classmates blogs, but then I discovered the other little secrets of Reader. Such as Notes, where you can place notes (similar to Evernote, but attached to everything else on Google!) and the Explore section. That section suggests items and sources you might like based on what else you have in your reader feed. It's almost like Google knows what I need. I'm trying not to get too emotionally attached.

Google Calendar- Though I lack the time to sit down and really put down everything in this tool, it's extremely useful to help coordinate schedules with family members, classmates, fellow employees, etc. Plus it will message you if you have a certain event or deadline coming up. Personal assistant? Yes, thank you.

I'm sure many of you are already on to more complex things, but for me it's the simple, but widely applicable tools that keep me coming back. I've explored and used several other Google tools including Sketchup in my book review project. Sites is another Google feature that I've found recently through class project formulation. I've been using GoogleTranslate for quite some time actually as I've worked on learning multiple languages. Also, Google Health is a feature that keeps your medical records online so you can readily access test results, medication, etc for yourself or someone you are caring for. Quite helpful.

Digital Economics (Kinda)

I've touched on economics once before, with Adam Smith and the invisible hand/market economy discussion. But, as with most things, more thoughts and discussions have been added to economic theory since then. To be honest, I had a different post already written on the development of economic theory, but during class I got several ideas that I wanted to run with instead. If you'd like a good history of the progression of economic model check out Rhett's post on economics.

This is an economic systems model- used merely to point out the connectedness discussed shortly.

It was fascinating to me today as I sat in class within the swirl of discussion on game theory, economics and the changing economies in relation to technology. As I've felt many times before in my Digital Civilization class, everything is connected. Suddenly I was scribbling furiously in my notebook (the paper kind, not the electronic one) about the similarities between economies and the digital culture/networks. And here are some observations I made...

- Current networks and websites can act as an economic system in the fact of the trading/buying/selling of information. That, as a whole, benefits anyone who wants such information.

- These systems can get replaced or modified as they fail to keep up with development. Facebook is, in an sense, a better Myspace. And Google in it's present state has largely eclipsed Yahoo and many other email networks due to the number of features it offers and problems it solves.

-In the credit card discussion in class (specifically the disassociation of signing your name an paying for something), it reminded me that there is a disconnect in this generation between the publicity of information, including personal info, and the consequences and dangers of having that information public.

- It has been a trend in history that economic systems go through booms and busts, even periods of rapid growth, recessions and depressions. So will the digital model or system experience that? Right now it is expanding at an unprecedented rate, but can this digital progression hit a depression? What would cause that?

I love seeing all these connections! Many more post will follow in the next couple day because my head and notes are full of things I need to post : )

Healthy Fear of Technology

I grew up reading and watching science fiction, in which space travel and extraordinary feats are common occurences. But it was all just make believe. Yet, as our technology develops exponentially, those ideas are in the realms of reality. My computer could take over right now and start writing this blog post or alter what I've written so it appears differently to various readers. And it could fool me. Because I am only marginally computer savvy.

Pay no attention to the woman behind the screen. She is irrelevant.

So how can this be prevented?
It can't be. Muhaha.

Be smarter than your computer. And your phone. And all your other gadgets. Learn how they work- the details- and be up on the new developments.

What a silly idea. Go back to your youtube videos and Facebook stalking.

Digital Catch-up

Okay, so thus far in the semester I've been playing with and experimenting with various digital tools and features. And not all require or deserve a blog post. But there are those special ones that need mention.

Cloud computing. I mean, really, how AMAZING is this concept!!!! I use Dropbox, mostly due to another class. Dropbox allows me to create something on my laptop and access it in the computer lab and on my friend's computer and anywhere I want to go! I can change it and save it and allow others to look at it, or even edit it. Particularly, I use this in my magazine class so that our peer editors, head editors, and director can all collaborate on our articles and design ideas. Never again do I have to wait to make an appointment with my editor to get feedback and never will I have "left" my work at home. So cool!

Another one that just makes me excited- creating animation or cartoons. I am not an artsy person with drawing or painting so this was incredibly fun for me. Even if it's silly, it's one more way to share ideas and be creative. Here's one I created.

Screencasting: An Adventure!!!

So, for the groups projects I was assigned Screencasting. A couple problems- 1) I had no idea what that was and 2) my computer resisted all efforts to do this. Not to worry, I have addressed both issues.

What is screencasting? Screencasting is when you create a video of the images on your screen; you see this style in tutorial videos mostly. There are a couple steps to getting the programs to start this. After some exploration of a couple programs, I recommend Jing.

Step 1: Go to the Jing website and download the free version.

Step 2: Once installed on your computer, Jing will have you create a username and password, which it connects to another site called Screencast. Jing helps you capture a screen or video and Screencast stores it and helps you share it.

Step 3: Jing will automatically take you through a tutorial, which I must say from a novice perspective, that is easy and straight-forward.

Step 4: Experiment! Go to a website and take a video of you trying to explain something. Maybe you want to teach your parents about privacy settings on facebook or something like that. You can delete it if you don't like it and try again.

Step 5: Once you save a video or capture, you can share it by clicking a link in Jing or Screencast. It will let your choose whether you want the URL or the embedding code.

This actually took me awhile to figure out, but I hope this helps you know where to go. Here is an example screencast I did of how to create a wordle, inspired by DareMe's post "Power of Words". Enjoy!

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