Final Gen2243 blog post

Well it's now that time of year where the semester is close to an end, the holidays are in arms reach, and finals have consumed my life completely. I must say, I have learned more this semester than any other semester in all my years of schooling, and a large portion is due to my course in social networking.

It's easy to learn in subjects that you enjoy (which is why my grades for my art courses are significantly higher than in my math courses), and I have enjoyed wasting time on social networks since the age of Myspace. Even though I was no stranger to Twitter, I did not fully comprehend why we use it. I used to think the purpose of Twitter was to tweet comical posts with an end goal of having more followers than your friends. It turns out I was almost right. The end goal is to have more followers, but in a way that improves your PLN in a likable and socially acceptable manner. I believe in this class I have learned how to do just that.

Of course Twitter etiquette was not the only thing I will take with me from this course. We had the opportunity to video chat with educators and professionals all over the world and discuss new and interesting ways to move forward in our particular fields. The video chat that resonated the most with me was when we chatted with European artist Kyle Lambert. Lambert gained notoriety in the art world when he started posting beautifully detailed works of art he created from scratch on just his iPad and the app "Brushes." I got to chat with him and pick his brain face to face. Later on I downloaded the same app and started making my own works of art. That leads me to another of my favorite aspects of this course: the bi-monthly "App Smackdown." Never before this class have I participated in a presentation about using apps to better your major or everyday life. One student Brittany started using a site called Statigr.am that I discussed during one of my presentations, and through the site she ended up winning a contest!

I have never considered my self a "tech savvy" guy, but it did feel good showing my friends a few of the things I've learned from this course. Above all, this class has helped me find better ways to get my art out to the world, and for that I am forever thankful.

An Educator At Rest, Tends To Stay At Rest

 Chapter 9 of Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's "The Connected Educator," has a clear message: It is now time to apply all the tips, techniques, and technologies to achieve your goals as a connected educator, and then some. In the beginning of the chapter there is a quote from the Leonardo Da Vince "Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." Okay so you've read the book from cover to cover.. Good job, but now the real work has just begun.

Leonardo was the original "Renaissance Man"and is a timeless legend for his innovations in art, engineering, and science. Plus he makes a good point. Now that you have learned about all the benefits of being a connected educator, go out and expand on them. Have you thought of new ways to invoke positive change at your school or institution that have not yet been brought to the light? Sure you can sit around and wait for things to change, but that doesn't accomplish anything. By reading "The Connected Educator" you have already taken bold new steps towards positive change in your career, but now it's time to keep walking forward. Remember, an educator at rest tends to stay at rest.

One way I will be moving forward is with a brand new website. I'm making the website with a website creator called Weebly. At first I was intimidated by the idea of creating a personal website from scratch, but it his ridiculous how simple a task Weebly has made it. Weebly allows any beginner to create a professional looking site for free (or you can purchase a custom domain name, or upgrade to a premium version).

The interface is simple, and it allows you to add and create elements to your website by just dragging and dropping to your website template. Still confused? Here's a site that will guide you through all the stages of creating your very own Weebly site. Till next time guys and stay tuned for the launching of my very own personal site shortly!

Diigo bookmarking

Hey guys I want to talk to you about an important bookmarking site called Diigo.com. I mentioned it earlier in a prior blog however I did not expand on what it does. Diigo allows people with an account (signing up is free and easy by the way) to highlight any part of a website, attach notes or anecdotes, and then share them with other users on Diigo. Or if you want to keep these notes or websites to yourself, you can choose not to share them however either way, they are all grouped together to your liking.

Whether you are sharing your notes with your connected learning community, or simply organizing them for research, there is no denying how useful this tool can be. To check out some useful material regarding connected educators, use the tag: clc-voc. Thanks guys till next time!

The Connected Educator : Chapter 5

This latest chapter I have read in the "Connected Educator" by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, focuses on all the different devices and tools to support connected learning. In the chapter it lists many websites to utilize connected learning. Among them are social bookmarking sites: Delicious, Diigo, Flickr, and Youtube; Blogging sites: Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr; and Micro blogs like Twitter, and twitter interfaces Tweetdeck and Hootsuite.

Social Bookmarking helps web surfers better organize the important content from websites they frequent by grouping them. Not only can you use bookmarking sites for personal use, but you can also share these sites with networks of your connected peers.

Blogging sites are simply websites that are continually updated with journal-like entries or posts. In the words of Nussbaum-Beach, "Blogs are great sources of ideas, information, and experiences about learning, leading and teaching."

Micro Blogs, especially Twitter, are essentially blogs however it is directly connected to your learning network and shares information quickly and efficiently.

Powerpoint Alternative for iPad

Hey guys in case you didn't know, I am an avid iPad user. I mostly use it for surfing the web or simply wasting time, however there are some really helpful apps out there. One that I have recently started using is Haiku Deck.

Haiku Deck is an app that helps you create simple, yet beautiful presentations. Haiku Deck is to PowerPoint, as the iPad is to the desktop computer. Haiku Deck is just the easier, more convenient way to make your presentation. Although you can tweak your presentation more with traditional powerpoint, Haiku Deck has a simple design that makes presentations impossible to clutter. Often people will make a presentation in powerpoint with long winded text and bulletpoints. Haiku Deck makes that impossible by restricting the amount of text in a slide to a minimal amount. Personally, this is what I love most about the app. Nothing bores me more than a presentation with a short story written on each slide.

I also learned about another cool feature in Haiku Deck from this article from chronicle.com. If you are unhappy with the simplicity of the presentation of Haiku Deck, you can upload your presentation to Powerpoint or Keynote. Whether you are presenting with Haiku Deck, or just using it as a rough draft before you upload it to Powerpoint, Haiku Deck can be an incredibly useful app

Nearpod 2

Hey guys here's a little extended information on my last blog about Nearpod. I read an article ( you can check it out here ) about a teacher who had discovered the app for his classroom. The teacher's name is Bryan Miller and in the article, he writes about how truly groundbreaking the app is. He first found out about the app after one of the founders of Nearpod, Felipe Sommer, visited the school and explained what it was. His school became the guinea pig and pilot school for the app, and now more then 40,000 educators are connected and using Nearpod. That's impressive growth, and truly an inspiring step towards better educating students!

Nearpod - The new powerpoint

Hey guys if you are a student, chances are you are familiar with Powerpoint presentations. Powerpoint presentations can be boring at times, (Am I supposed to be excited when someone puts a different animation for every bullet point?) and if you are sitting in a lecture hall its near impossible to keep your focus with every slide. This is why I'm pumped to show you a new app called Nearpod. Nearpod is basically an interactive powerpoint presentation. It is controlled by one person, let's say a teacher, who goes through slides while the students follow along on their Ipad. I know what your thinking, who cares? Well the slides can be interactive, which keeps the students engaged in each side thus enhancing the learning process. The students can draw, answer questions, type answers etc. Looks like no more napping in my art history lecture...oops!

Evernote the 3 prong approach to developing your connected learning community

Hey guys, a couple interesting things this week. First I want to talk to you guys about the latest chapter I read from "The Connected Educator." This chapter mainly talked about a three pronged approach  to professional development when dealing with the connected learning community.

The first "prong," is your "Professional Learning Community" (PLC). This is your personal connections among peers of teachers and administrators at your school.

The second "prong" is your "Personal Learning Network" (PLN) or the online connections you have made on your own to people in your field to help grow your knowledge personally.

The third "prong" is a community of practice or inquiry (CoP). This a collective of people whose interests overlap and form together to dig deeper and understand more as a group.

All three of these things together can really help you develop your connected learning community way beyond the typical teaching network.

The second thing I wanted to talk about is about a useful app called "Evernote" I read about in an article from Thenerdyteacher.com. If your a student like me, you should download this app no questions asked. As explained in the article I shared the link to, Evernote is basically a giant collection of your personal notebooks all linked together in an organized group

Whether your taking notes for class, jotting down cooking recipes, organizing work for your job, etc. Evernote is useful because you can share these notes with other people. For example say you're a teacher and want to remind all your students about homework you have due for next class. If all your students have the app, you can send our reminders that notify everyone connected to your notebook.

This app definitely keeps me organized (and I'm the least organized person I know). For anyone who really wants to see what it's about,  this video should help you get set up.

Your Working For Facebook For Free

Hey guys, back again for another blog post. This post is about something incredibly disturbing I learned about this week in my social networking class. It should come as no surprise that of all the social networking sites today, Facebook knows the most about you. The funny thing is people WILLINGLY give Facebook pieces of information about themselves, and don't realize that now Facebook owns this information and can do just about anything with it. This even came as a surprise to me when I read this post called "5 Ways Facebook Owns You"

In the article, it explains the story of a young girl who had been the victim of cyber-bullying. She was gang raped at the age of 15, and suffered from extreme depression. Her depression stemmed from leaked photos of her appearing on a dating site ad on Facebook without her consent. Bullied by her peers over the photos on the site, she eventually killed herself.

That unfortunate story is just one way Facebook can utilize your information. According to Facebook's "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities" agreement, Facebook has the right "to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced." In other words, Facebook uses you like a free advocate and spokesperson of certain products, and advertises it to all of your friends on the site. But you knew that already right?

Facebook (along with other sites like Google and telecommunication companies) acts like the black market of data mining, and every company trying to sell you something wants a taste. Facebook finds out what products you buy, where you shop online, and what interests you based on websites you post about or frequently visit, and sells this information to companies that think they have something you may want. Cunning move, Facebook.

All and all, we can't blame Facebook. There just using what you give them. You wouldn't scold a 6  year old for crashing your car if you gave him the keys and told him "Go have fun!" would you? One thing you can do though is limit what they know about you. The less they know, the more you know your not willingly participating to be the face of Cialis. Till next time - Romo

"Breaking Zombies"

Hey guys, just hitting you guys with some of my recent work from my illustration class. There are two projects I'm uploading tonight and the first one is a project im still experimenting with. The objective of the assignment was to design a poster advertising a television show. If you couldn't tell by the illustration, I've become a serious Breaking Bad fan. The portrait is of Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) and is done in ink and graphite. After I uploaded the picture to my iPad, I started playing around with some the different filters and got a really interesting effect in my opinion. Like I said earlier, this is for a poster so its obviously not finished yet but I was really proud of this portrait so I figured I would upload it anyway. I'm pretty sure I know how I'm going to finish up the project but if you guys have any ideas of what I should include on the poster please feel free to comment.

 "Walter White" (1st one has "transfer" filter, 2nd has "process" filter, 3rd has no filter)

"Zombie self portrait"

This last picture is a self portrait project where we had to draw ourselves but as a different character. I had recently seen the movie "World War Z" and I decided I would go for the zombie theme. Just like my Walter White portrait, the medium I made this with was ink and graphite. Hope you guys like em 

A class I will use for the rest of my life

Hey, guys! As you may or may not know, I am currently a college student at Stockton, and I wanted to post some weekly updates on my some off my classes as well as my art postings.

One class that I have really been enjoying this semester is actually not an art class all, but instead falls under one of my general courses. The class is called "Exploring your Digital Toolbox" and is a class I can honestly say I will be using in the real world, (unlike my applications of Math course, blah). The course teaches us how to really utilize all the applications and devices that have become so readily available with modern day technology.

Throughout the weeks we have been reading out of our textbook "The Connected Educator," by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and this week the reading was about PLN, or personal learning networks. The  chapter really gets down to the specifics and answers questions like "How do you build a Personal Learning Network?" "How do you know who to follow, and who to leave alone?" The chapter really shows you how to build a find and build your community (Now here's what I was talking about when I said this is a class that I would be using in the real world). Let's say I am an Art Teacher and its my first time writing a course curriculum and I have no idea where to start. The chapter gives you the tools to join or build your own online community that allows you to converse with and engage fellow art teachers about their disciplines.

Apart from the readings, we also get some quality hands on instruction from people across the globe via video chat. This week we chatted virtually with a man (whose name escapes me unfortunately) and got to experiment with Google Drive. In Google Drive, we learned how to create quality business forms and even had the chance to make forms for each other to fill out. Generating the forms was simple and effective, yet without the hands-on crash course I would have most likely never learned how to create and utilize it.

Recent Self Portrait

Hey guys this is a recent portrait I did of myself. The medium is Oil on canvas and it took me about 4 hours to complete. I hope you guys enjoy it and please don't hesitate to leave some feedback. Thanks!