Metacognitive Blog 9

Metacognitive means knowledge about one's own thinking or knowledge of your own thoughts and the factors that influence your thinking. I want to reminisce about a couple of my blogs pertaining to the facebook topics. The first blog I gave my personal opinion about the new facebook and how I liked the original better. My very next blog I found an article talking about how a company wants potential employees to give up all their social network passwords for interview purposes. After seeing that article my discomfort with the new facebook increased, significantly. I think that is unnecessary and invasion of privacy. Do you want my password for my debit card, email, and code to my house too! Example why this is stupid, Facebook implements security features so people can have at least 5% of privacy on the web. Because once you put your pictures and information on the web, especially social networks, its public and out there. Anybody can see it! Just yesterday facebook added a security feature that allows you to have more control over who can see your postings on the site. They launched a beta version of its updated Facebook Publisher tool, which adds a privacy control feature designed to let users pick and choose who can see their posts. Now whats the point of having a team at facebook dedicated to enhance security, when Companies, businesses and employers are going to make people, who don't even work there yet, give up their passwords! To all there personal social network affiliations, that's crazy.........but still, even though how wrong this is I would still give up mine to land that job lol.

U-BLOG 8 Camstudio

This week in class we tested the waters with Camstudio, an opensource screencasting program for Windows. We had an assignment where students had to create a video, with audio, of yourself teaching a skill with pertaining to your group's opensource software. My groups software is Openoffice so the skill I demonstrated isn't really challenging but the whole experience with Camstudio was fun!! I really enjoyed recording myself then going back and listening to myself. I recorded about 20 videos lol and I still don't like it. But its so fun now I just want to make a bunch of videos with me talking on it.

The purpose of Camstudio is for educational reasons and it is great for teachers! Especially in a class like web design, programming, or something in that field because teachers can post help videos on the web and students can have 24/7 help. So its awesome for teachers but enough don't take advantage of this free teaching tool. How did you guys like the Camstudio experience?

U-BLOG 7

After blogging about my dislikes with facebook I found a very captivating article on computerworld.com. It asks this question, would you hand over passwords to your accounts in the off chance it might land you a job? The question stems from a report that applicants for jobs with the city of Bozeman, Montana are being asked to provide information about any social networks they’re a part of with their passwords.

This is so ironic because last week I wrote about companies basing employment off people’s Facebook profile. I understand why companies are doing this because they want professionals with the highest morals and want to know who they are investing time and money in. But my beef is, Facebook is just entertainment and businesses should know how to separate the two. Nobody on Facebook treats it like a professional page to profile your job skills. It’s not a place to be moral so everyone who is a member has something, at least one thing on there that is not the best representation of themselves. If you don’t then you’re one of the people that facebook is not intended for and the reason why it is so lame now. Okay if you have pictures on there and your smoking crack you shouldn’t get hired but if I am at a party with a beer and cig in my hand, don’t judge me as a person with no morals or a slacker. It’s Facebook! It’s not real! People are on the web and become a totally different person. I type messages and comments on there that I would never say to a stranger. Giving your social network password to a potential employer is like saying “please don’t hire me”. It’s basically snitching on yourself. You can be whoever you want to be on the web and its like people don’t understand that, especially adults. Like background checks, credit reports, drug tests, and whatever else they do before hiring people is enough. What does a company need my password to my Facebook or MySpace account for? That’s the whole point of a password so you can be the only person who accesses it. But you know what’s funny even though I just talked all this trash and I think it’s stupid and don’t agree with it, I would probably still give up my passwords for that Job. What would you do? Would you give up your passwords to your social networks for a job?

http://blogs.computerworld.com/would_you_trade_your_online_passwords_for_a_chance_at_a_job

U-BLOG 6 Facebook is officially lame

I have a question, do you guys miss the old facebook? I know I do. The concept is still the same but it's just not the same. Facebook use to be exclusive, now everybody and there mama is on there. It really didnt matter what kinds of pictures, content, and information you put on your profile because it was a select group of people who would see it. You didnt care about what those people thought about your profile but now companies are basing whether or not your going to get hired, off your facebook page. I really dont think thats cool. A couple years ago only people from 18-25 years of age knew about facebook and many people in that age group werent aware of it. Now businesses and all kinds of entitys are members of facebook. So there is no telling who will access your profile.I know you can put private security settings on your account but its ways around that. Does anybody feel the same way I do?

U-BLOG 5 WHO NEEDS TEACHERS?

This is a very interesting question. It can stir up a really good debate.... I think we need teachers because they push students to learn and find information. Plus they do to many of the little things that people take for granted like organize materials, design objectives, grade assignments, plan lessons, answer questions, and etc. Without teachers I believe many people would waste a lot of time with non sense. The only thing I don't agree with when it comes to education are school system curriculum's. The cirriculum's that make students take ridiculous classes that don't benefit your career like Gym for example. Why is that a class? So its not the teachers it is the material we learn and how it is presented. The people who say teachers are not needed are the individuals that really really hate doing homework.

U-Blog 4

The last few class meetings have been very enlightening and an eye opener. I knew there were open-source software and web applications that are great tools for learning, training, businesses, schools and etc. But I didn't realize there were so many that could benefit individuals on a personal level. After these last few classes I don't want to pay for anything anymore. I believe that every application and piece of software that costs money has a free version of the same thing, just not a big brand name. I know when I go to the store I buy the off brand version or walmart version of products.

Even hardware like calculators can be found on the web but your calculus teacher tells you to buy a 100 dollar T98 or whatever when its free online. There is project management software, finance management software, web design programs, everything and anything you name it! The only thing that disturbs me is the fact that colleges and universities make students kick out all that money when the products we are purchasing, we can get on the web for FREE! And I learned that at school! So I know the Schools and Universities are aware of the free tools and resources. Everything a student needs to succeed is right there on the web for free and its not cool we have to come out the pocket to find that out. The only thing required for school should be a computer!!

U-Blog 3

Yet another article on compterworld.com caught my eye titled,"Why Google's 'Lively' is great for telecommuters". The author talks about Google launching its free version of a 3D virtual environment called Lively. Google plans on filling holes where Second Life failed at or left open. Second Life is a free online virtual world used for business, education, and entertainment. For the moment Lively looks silly with a cartoonish look and is a trendy place for teens to use, like social networks and instant messaging started out as. Only later to become tools for professionals and business to collaborate and communicate. Eventually Lively will become a great tool for telecommuters to replace business travel presentations, and conferences.

Employees traveling away from the office can enjoy the same interaction and involvement as coworkers at the office. As more companies start to use virtual environments, more ideas will surface on how 3D can increase productivity. One may think that companies will not take advantage of 3D environments but that is what people always say when new teen trends occur. Just like nobody thought social networks and corporate America would team up but obliviously that is not true.