How to use a MAC

            In the first week of class we were instructed that we were going to use Macs for the course. I felt very comfortable at that point because I have a Mac and use it frequently. However, I was very wrong. Although I know how to properly use a mac I was unaware of the many different things that you could actually do on a Mac. I learned very quickly how to do various things such as screen shots . Screen shots are a very important feature to know and use with a macintosh computer. Especially as a student, the screen shot feature allows the user to take a picture of whatever they want on the screen. For example, if i am doing some online shopping and I want to take a screen shot of something to remember, I would take the screen shot and save the image to my desktop. Screen shots also come in handy when working with projects and using pictures from the internet.  Having the ability to properly and sufficiently use a Mac allows me to take advantage of all of my computer skills. This course will definitely open up my eyes to new tools and I will benefit from it at the end of the semester. Learning how to use a mac and it's many tools serves as a helpful purpose to all professional fields. Here is a tutorial that could help anyone learn how to do basic things on a mac. 

Distance Education and Virtual Worlds

The sites that I chose to use on the assignment that was due in class were all relevant to teaching. I actually took my time and explored through the many different ones and found a few that I found extremely useful. A resource that I would use for personal and professional reasons would be LiveMocha. It is an online tool which can help you learn how to speak another language. After signing up and completing my first lesson I actually believe that this tool could potentially be very useful in the professional workplace. Since I would be working within a football team this would most likely help me learn new languages if necessary. It will also help me communicate with other people and understand them better. Live Mocha is just one form of software that is completely free and found on the internet. I actually found live mocha while using Delicious. I have since then used the program and enhanced my language skills.

Symbaloo

SYMBALOO 

Symbaloo is considered a form of social bookmarking, its relatively simple; yet very futuristic. The view of symbaloo very much reminds me of an iphone app pool. It is used as direct links to website. This website was very inventive and easy to work with. I felt like it was a different take on tool bar. For example across the top of my screen I have bookmarks linking me directly to my most common websites. With symbaloo however, it gives you the option of complying your websites based on their category. Which is not only fun, but very convenient. I also appreciate how it allows you to like the website to the common icon. For example: Ebay has an ebay icon, the Indianapolis Colts have a colts icon. Easy to see, easy to decipher. 

Depending on the field of Sports Management I enter, this tool could be very useful. If I were in charge of community service I could be helpful to have direct links to certain non-profits and other organizations that we might be able to help. Obviously the links such as webmail, yellow pages, etc would be easily accessed through Symbaloo also.

Below is introduction on how symbaloo works:

Open Source Software

With a little bit of research I found OpenOffice.org 3, which is now the "leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more." Open Office 3 is available is many different languages and works on all common computers. It can store all your information for you and also read and write files from other software. Open Office can be downloaded and used for no cost what so ever.
The OpenOffice 3 software has been in the works for over 20 years. It was designed from the start as a single piece of software. A completely open development process means that any of the users can request new features, report bugs or complications with the software, and even enhance the software. Open Office 3 can do everything you need and want your office software to do, just without having to pay for it. The software itself is extremely simple and easy to use. If you are familiar with a word processor at all you can easily become situated with this software.
This software is great to use in any profession. Although I most likely wouldn't use it in my profession, I believe that having this program handy in the school system could be beneficial. If the students in the school systems were aware that they had access to free open source software then they would be more apt to do assignments that integrate using a word processor or powerpoint. This enables students who do not have the appropriate resources to have access to those resources for free.

There are many great aspects of openoffice3 however the most important thing is that it is free. It can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. Openoffice.org 3 is released under a LGPL license.  This license means you can access and use the software for any purpose necessary including domestic,commercial,educational and public administration.

OpenOffice.org 3 has FIVE different features to its software. Similar to Microsoft word, openoffice has:

Writer: fully equipped word processor or desktop publisher. Features include autocorrect, autocomplete, autoformat,Styles and Formatting, Text Frames and Linking, Tables of Contents, Indexing, Bibliographical References, Illustrations, Tables and other objects.
    "Writer is simple enough for a quick memo, powerful and stable enough to create complete books with lots of graphics, headings etc." (OpenOffice.org)



Calc: Similar to Microsoft Excel  is " the spreadsheet you have always wanted"

Impress: Which compares to Microsoft Powerpoint. It is a tool for creating multimedia presentations. It includes 2D and 3D clip art, frontworks, special effects, animation, and high-impact drawing tools.

Draw: Gives the user the tools to create and share with graphics and diagrams. It allows you to change and manipulate objects to create what you want. It also allows you to create flowcharts, diagrams and organization charts.

Base:  Allows you to change and interpret database data easily within the software. You can create and modify tables,forms,queries, and reports using your own database.

Concept Maps and Brainstorming

Concept Mapping is a technique used for representing knowledge in graphs or an organized manner. A concept map is generally used to generate ideas for brainstorming. It also enables the user to design a complex structure with ideas and side notes to further elaborate on ideas the user has. It is a great communication tool to use in the workplace when trying to explain or describe an idea to another person or a group. It compliments the learning by integrating new and old knowledge. It allows expansion of ideas.

Mind Mapping or concept maps are a very popular trend that have been seen more frequently in most professional workplaces. Mind maps are slightly different than concept maps. Mind Maps consist of a central word or concept, around the central word you draw the five to ten main ideas that relate to that word. Then, you take each of those words and elaborate further on those five to ten words with main ideas that relate to each of the words. The difference between the two ( Mind Mapping and Concept Maps) is that a mind map has only one main concept, which a concept map has several. 

In the picture above I did a short Mind map on the process of creating a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. I used the website bubbl.us which is an online brainstorming or mind mapping site that allows anyone with an email address to access it. The site is extremely simple to use and pretty much self explanatory. 

In my professional field, I definitely believe that concept maps, brainstorming, and mind mapping could be extremely useful and beneficial in many different ways. If I were hired to work for a professional football team, and I was in charge of their volunteer work and community service I could easily present ideas to the board about what the players could do. That would enable me to have a simple visual for the people I was presenting to. Hopefully at that point it would make everything a bit clearer and be easily understood. Now, I could also use these resources for a personal tool. These could help me create ideas and put them together in what you might call an "organized mess". Usually when professionals are coming up with ideas that is what tends to happen, however with this tool you can put all of your ideas together in one place and even in specific order! Not only could I use this in my field but also in almost every professional workplace, but also in the school system. I presented this to my room mate who is a Family, Youth and Community Sciences Major with a minor in education and she was so interested in the topic because these are the types of tools that are extremely useful to her. She explained that this concept mapping and brainstorming ideas could benefit her in each of her fields. 

There are other websites that are also easy to use and here are a few links to check out: