More Social Networking/Professional Portfolio

There are a few pro's and con's when considering Plaxaco, Linkedin, or personal web site as a professional network. Plaxaco and Linkedin have formats that are already established. A web page can be created and changed however the user sees fit.

Plaxaco seems to me to be a more businesslike Facebook. You can add RSS feeds and keep a calender. There is an option for an e-card. It was easy to navigate in Plaxaco. You can add and import contacts and join groups that share similar interests. Plaxaco seems casual compared to Linkedin.

Linkedin is very business-like in their presentation. It really focuses on networking and finding jobs. Linkedin is also easy to navigate, but a person is limited by what they can add to their profile. Although both Plaxaco and Linkedin have a wide scope of what can be added to a profile, there is a limit to what can be put in.

A personal web page is limitless in what a person would like to share. To be sure, the person would have to be very creative. That doesn't describe me. A personal web page is much more creative, but more likely to be less organized and user friendly. It is also harder to get people to view your site.

bdurkan's books | LibraryThing

bdurkan's books | LibraryThing
Above is my link to my books in LibraryThing. This was a good site. I don't read as much as I should, but I listed some books that I really have enjoyed over the years. From now on, I'm going to list those books on LibraryThing to keep a catalog. It is interesting to see what other people have read. I wonder how they have the time. I think it will be useful to list the books on football that I have read, and to resarch what others have read in that field.

Image generators

This was a fun assignment. I used the Generator Blog and Letter James to create these images. I wish the Warhol one came out better. I see these sites as being fun, but you could use them to create posters for your class. A poster for a class would show a more personal side of you, and you could have a lot of fun doing it.

Podcasts

I enjoyed searching the podcasts for exercise and fitness. I found a dieting science podcast that informed the user on foods and how they work in the body. It was called Diet Science. The particular episode that I listened to was on foods that will help keep the liver healthy and function properly. I also found a podcast with video on exercise. The Ford Model's workout was interesting. It took a male and a female through a workout that could be done together with creative modifications.

I can see where podcasts can help a person keep up to date on topics that interest them. I think you could also have students follow a podcast to keep up to date on current events and trends. I think that podcasts would be very useful outside the classroom. Almost like a new form of homework.

YouTube

I had a lot fun searching around on YouTube. I started by searching for videos related to exercise, and I found quite a few. I refined my search to ab workouts and was amazed at how many videos where out there. I also searched for videos on the Pistol Offense in football. I, again, was amazed at how many videos there were on that topic. Most of those videos where of a play or two, but it was good.

I ended up putting a video of great football hits on my blog. Some of these are classics. I used this video in honor of the Super Bowl, and I hope it gets you fired up before the game. If you watch it after the game, maybe it will help with the post football blues.

I think YouTube can be a very successful tool in the classroom when used the right way. I can use exercise videos in an aerobics unit, and I can use videos of Lacrosse games to show the students how to play. These are just two examples of the endless possibilities of how YouTube can be used in the classroom.

Football Hits for the Super Bowl

Technorati

I had the opportunity tonight to explore Technorati, a site that keeps tracks of blogs. This site helps you find inforamtion that may be posted in a blog, posts, or video to name a few. I typed in the word Kinesiology and I found 4 posts on topic. I searched the blog tab and I found 28 blogs on Kinesiology. I found it interesting that I found 155 blog sites devoted to the Lakers and 430 posts. The #1 blog according to the Technorati top 100 was the Huffington Post. It is an Internet Newspaper and it has many blogs.

I found Technorati to be very interesting. I can see my self using this site to help me find interesting blogs for fun and for research. It is a very useful tool.

Delicious

I spent some time checking out del.icio.us and it was pretty interesting. It is interesting to see other people's bookmarks. I can see where you can get new ideas to find information based on the different bookmarks. I also like how things can be categorized by tags. The tags become more narrow in focus the more you search.

I looked for education sites under the education tags. Many different sites popped up. I could narrow my search by hitting a tag, or by using the search window. I looked up sites for the Lakers and for Notre Dame. I found sites that I visit regularly and some I've never seen before.
I also took some time and looked at other people's bookmarks. Some guy had 10 pages of bookmarks!

I do see how a social bookmarking site would help in research. There are so many sites listed. I'm not entirely sure how it would help my teaching job just yet. I'm sure it will as time goes on. I think it could be useful to share colleagues sites. I can see that as being useful. I'm not sure how I'd use this with studentsjust yet. Delicious is a very interesting site and social bookmarking is an interesting concept.