Week 14: Using Games and Technology for Learning

With the development of technology and games children have become accustom to video games and games on the computer. It is no wonder that these types of technologies are being incorporated into the curriculum in schools. People get bored with lectures and could be more responsive when they are learning and might not even realize it. Outside of the classroom there are all kinds of games that facilitate learning such as Sim City, Oregon Trail, and The Sims. There are some educational programs that parents can purchase such as Jump Start which focus on preparing students for the grade level that they are going to be entering next.

Also there are games on the Internet such as Second Life. Which allow users to create avatars and live out a new life online. This game allows users to explore new worlds and meet other avatars and interact. Some people have even divorced their real life spouses because of connections that they have made on Second Life.

In advertising games are a great way for companies to keep their target market on their website with the possibility of not even realizing that they are being marketed too. Also advertisers are jumping on Second Life and creating worlds and displaying their brands to users of the site. Advergaming as its called by professionals is a unique way to reach consumers and teach them about your product while they have fun playing and interacting online.

Click here to watch a video about advergaming. I selected this video because it is somewhat interactive in nature and is very entertaining. But most importantly it does a great job of getting the point across of what an advergame can do for a business!

Week 12: Distance Education

Distance education focuses on the pedagogy and adragogy technology and instructional systems design that aims to deliver education to students who are not physically on site. It is also referred to as distance learning. The concept dates back to 1728 when the University of London offered distance education degrees. Today there are many non-profit and for profit educational programs offering degrees to students through distance learning. Almost 3.2 million US students were taking an online class in the Fall 2005 term. There are five types of Distance Education: Correspondence, Internet, Telecourse, CD-ROM and Mobile Learning.

The advantages of Distance Education are that you can work at your own pace, and continue your education while working or pursuing outside interests. It increases contact to materials that might not be available unless they are offered over the internet. Some of the downsides are costs and security.

Distance educating benefits advertising professionals because the field is always changing. Professionals who work 40 hours or more a week might not be able to make it to a brick and mortor site for class. With the so many advances and changes in communication; distance learning allows for professionals to stay up to date with what is going on in the advertising field.

Click here to view a testimonial from a busy professional about her experience with distance learning. This provides support for what I mentioned earlier about the advertising professionals that might not be able to go to a physical classroom to take courses but are interested in staying competitive in their field. I found the testimonial interesting and enjoyed seeing how much distance learning can impact someones life.

Week 11: Open Source Software

Open Source software allows for users to study, change, and improve the source code, through permission in the software license. Open source licenses allow for growth, creativity, free use and the possible improvement of the software. An example of open source software is Mozilla Firefox. However open source programs are not just internet browsers, they can be from a wide variety of programs that are available for free on the internet. The open Source Definition is used by the Open Source Initiative to determine whether or not a software license can be considered open source.

Typically open-source software must comply with the following criteria:
the license must not restrict any party from redistribution, the source code must be able to be viewed and revised, no discrimination against any persons or groups, no discrimination against any fields of endeavor, the license must not be specific to a product or other software, and the license must be technology neutral.

Open source software even benefits advertising professionals because there are a large variety of programs that benefit advertising professionals such as photo and video editing software that is open source. This is a huge benefit because if someone was a free lance creative in advertising they would not have to spend any money to get into the industry. It allows for any one to compete against the big advertising agencies on Madison Ave in New York City. By using the open source software they could even revise or change the code to meet their needs. It allows for more opportunity in the advertising industry!

Click here to see a video of how to use open source video editing software. I chose this video because it shows that any one can use the software and learn from it. It allows for more creativity and for the free use and advancement of video editing.

Week 10: Learning Styles and Critical Thinking

A learning theory is an attempt to describe how people and animals learn they help us understand how learning occurs there are three philosophical frameworks behaviorism,information processing theory, and constructivism.

Behaviorism is defined as internal processes observable through behaviors. Cause and effect relationship are the focus of the theory. Behavior can be modified through reinforcement and the learner is conditioned.

One way to do this is classical conditioning it is the used by creating relationships through associations. Pavlov overtime trained a dog to salivate by just ringing a bell because he associated it with getting a treat. Other examples include advertising, sales, and a whistle on a sports field.

The second type of conditioning is operant conditioning it uses consequences to control responses.

Behaviorism is essentially what advertising is trying to accomplish. Advertising wants to change buyers habits and grow a large fan base behind a brand. Without understanding how people behave and the necessary requirements to change those behaviors advertising would not be effective. Advertisers use persuasion to show the benefits of products and gain market share. When advertising misses its goals it is clear that the marketers didn't understand the underlying behaviors of their target market.

Click here to see an example from The Office of Pavlov's theory. I chose this to display another example of how classical conditioning works. It is a funny video but does a great job of getting the point across and demonstrating classical conditioning.

Week 6: Photoshop

Photoshop created by Adobe is a computer program used to enhance, create and produce images. It uses a layer system to manipulate and create pictures. Users can create images themselves or edit old ones. It offers a wide variety of capabilities from creating fire, a grass like paint stroke, the ability to change the brightness of photographs and much more! It is a complicated program that takes time to learn how to use. Journalists and media companies have been criticized for changing pictures that created and gave off false pretenses. It is used by professionals to create advertisements, t-shirt proofs and create images and logos for other business purposes. Photoshop can be used by everyday people to improve the quality of photos or to add a missing family member in a photo. It can be used in education to create interesting images and allow for the creativity of students to grow.

In advertising Photoshop plays a huge role in creating advertisements for clients. Without Photoshop many of the print ads that people see would be impossible to make. It is so important that it is required to take a class on how to effectively and responsibly use it if you are an Advertising major at the University of Florida. It quickly allows advertising agencies to create spec ads and mock ads for clients. The final product is hopefully a well polished image only made possible by Adobe Photoshop.

Since Photoshop is difficult to learn how to use I have posted a video below detailing basic controls. Hopefully it paints a clearer picture for those of you that might be confused! Enjoy!

Week 9: Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet. The name was inspired by the cloud symbol that's often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams. A cloud service is elastic a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time and the service is fully managed by the provider. The goal of cloud computing is to provide easy access to computing resources and IT services. It allows for the sharing of data between two or more parties. Without having to send the updated information back and forth it saves money and time. It allows for people working together to update information in real time and for people all over the world to see their work as it is being updated. It saves space on computers because it is not physically stored on the users computers but on the internet. One of the most popular programs is Google Documents which is a word processing could computing program that allows for the sharing of spreadsheets, word documents and other materials.

In advertising cloud computing really pays off because typically advertising is produced by at least two companies. The advertising agency and the client. Communication back and forth between the two companies is so important. Cloud computing allows for the companies working together on campaigns to share information rapidly and quickly without using valuable space on their computer hard drives. This communication saves time that advertising agencies could not have even thought about years ago.

I have posted a video of Larry Ellison the CEO of Oracle discussing cloud computing. He is a great source because he is trendy and is very successful in the field of technology. Enjoy!

Week 8: Podcasting

Podcasting is technology that allows listeners to subscribe and listen to digitally recorded audio shows. If you choose to subscribe they are automatically downloaded to your computer by software throughout the day. Consumers can also put them on their MP3 players and take them with them on the go. This new technology allows for an innovative way for people to pick up subscribers and listeners. In schools lectures can be downloaded and put on MP3 players and students can view them while they are traveling. This allows for so much more flexibility and adaptability in education. Apple has introduced enhanced podcasts that allow listeners to see pictures on their iPods. To create a podcast you will need a computer, internet access and a microphone.You use an audio editing program to record your podcast, then upload it in MP3 format to a Web server using an FTP program. Then you create a blog and paste the URL of your MP3 as an entry in your blog. Make sure that you have permission to use content before you mix it into your podcast.

In the field of advertising podcasts can be used to distribute free information about products and services. It can be used to create discussions amongst consumers and answer questions. It is valuable because it is not very expensive and can give a plethora of information for people who are looking for it. It is a unique way to look trendy and have your companies message get out there.

I realized that podcasting might be confusing so I found a credible video to show how to create a podcast. One of the best things about podcasts is that it gives everyone a voice and they are so easy to make. Enjoy!

Week 7: Digital Story Telling

Digital Technologies are changing the face of education. There are issues and obstacles to consider when using these technologies especially in the classroom. Digital Photography eliminates processing costs, allows for huge quantities at low resolution, easier image manipulation, and for immediate viewing. This is beneficial to everyone because it saves money and time. Also if the picture is bad you can just retake it! In education it can be used to develop creativity, document experiments and field trips. Digital Photography and Digital Video allow for students to capture and record what they are learning. With the advent of digital video and communications growing rapidly on the internet digital story telling has emerged. It allows for ordinary people to share their stories in a new unique form over the internet. It is a broad term that ranges from web based stories, to videos and much more.

In Advertising this really pays off because it use to be much more costly to do photo-shoots for print ads and commercials. Now photographers can immediately look at their work and what they did. They can see how the light affects certain shots and adjust accordingly. If a shoot turned out bad before digital photography they would have to have another one, which would waste lots of time and money. Also it allows for new ways to share images and videos over the internet quickly and efficiently.

I chose a digital story from a student telling people to step up take risks and be the best teachers they can be. I chose it because I think it is unique and inspiring. Here is an example of digital story telling here:

Concept Map for the Adveritising Field

View my concept map for the advertising field here!

Garage Band

Click here to hear my song.

My sound is just my voice briefly describing a podcast and eme2040. In advertising sounds could be used in presentations to provide emphasis to arguments. Also people make presentations in advertising to clients and could use sounds in their presentations for clients to judge and listen too.

Week 1: 21st Century Skills

21st Century Skills can be taught in schools in the following subjects:

Global Awareness
Financial, Economic, Business, and Entrepreneurial Literacy
Civic Literacy
Health Literacy
Environmental Literacy

The following skills make up 21st Century Skills:
Learning and Innovation Skills- prepare students for the complexity of their future life. They should focus on Creativity, Critical Thinking and Communication.

Information Media and Technology Skills- Today's world requires thinking knowledge and content knowledge. Students must be able to critically think and be knowledgeable in the following areas,information literacy, media literacy, communication, and technology Literacy.

Students should also focus on life and career skills to be able to deal with dynamic change and anything that comes their way. Skills they should foster are flexibility, adaptability, initiative, self direction, cross-cultural skills, leadership, responsibility, productivity and accountability.

In the 21st century students will have to work on solving problems in groups, reason effectively, and communicate and collaborate with one another. If students focus on developing the skills mentioned earlier they will be able to take control of their future and manage their lives effectively.

This relates to advertising because the field is changing rapidly and most ads are designed by groups of people. Communicating with the client is the most important thing that you do. If you don't have a good relationship with them and understand their brand, you will lose their business in the long run. Also problems come up out of no where and it is important to solve them as fast as you can because it is very fast pace and clients will not put up with it. In advertising the problems are resolved by the team that you work with.

The following is a video about schools and 21st Century Skills. I found it to be very deep and profound. It got me thinking, I hope that schools think like this one and focus on embracing new technology and think forwardly. It is for the department of children and focuses on technology and collaborating.

Week 5: Visual Literacy

Visual Literacy involves understanding reading and writing and communicating effectively through them. The communication of visual literacy is seen throughout advertising and social media. From text messages to Billboards it is everywhere. Things like street signs and parking signs are a form of visual literacy. Visual literacy helps organize our world in ways that we don't even think about. If we didn't have these symbols you would not know when to stop or go while driving. Today people use Visual Tools like Photoshop to manipulate photos and change logo's. Our culture is very much visual. Visual literacy is not just understanding visual signs, but also being able to create them to communicate as well.

This correlates directly to my major; advertising. Without visual literacy there would only be radio ads. Today ads are designed for TV, Billboards, and the internet and visual literacy is crucial to all of these three types of ads! People make careers out of advertising in design; which essentially is being very creative at visual literacy.

The following web page shows photo's that have been manipulated and altered. Click here to see them. I think this is important to see because people might not believe everything that they hear but they are more apt to believe everything that they see and it is important to know that even pictures can be altered. And these pictures can shape or even create a story that isn't even true! This blogger did a great job of finding interesting photos.

Week 3- Copyright Law

Copyright Law not only protects the owners of the intellectual property but also those that are using it under fair use. It gives the owner of the work certain rights for a period of time. Copyright law covers the following things: Literary, Musical, Dramatic, Pantomimes and choreographic works, Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, audiovisual works, sound recordings, derivative works, compilations, architectural works. Typically there are four very important factors determining when fair use can be used.

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work.
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.

This correlates to the field of advertising because there are so many instances making commercials where advertising practitioners must ask for permission or pay a fee to use other peoples intellectual property. Following copyright is so important because you do not want to get in legal trouble for using a song or icon that is not yours.



I embedded a video from youtube of a Harvard professor talking about copyright law. I chose this video because Harvard is one of the most respected institutions.

Copyright Law

The following is an embedded video on copyright law using Disney characters as examples. Enjoy!

Week 2 - Kids on the Internet

I thought that the video from PBS about kids growing up on the Internet was so interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking. It was such a broad video and encompassed many of the things that parents worry about involving the internet and children. It was heartbreaking to hear about the boy who committed suicide because of cyberbullying. Many parents were scared because of the privacy that the kids have and the secret lives they could be living. The mother who had the computer in the kitchen was doing it the right way because she could see what her kids were doing. As to where some parents admitted that they had computers in their kids rooms and were not always able to keep an eye on them. They even looked into schools and what they are doing using the new technology and how they can grasp the attention of their students. I was shocked to hear about the secret world "Autumn" was living in on MySpace with her parents having not idea. Although the internet can be frightening it is something parents should talk to their children about and educate them on how to use the internet safely.

This applies to advertising and in fact it was even briefly mentioned by a teacher. Since kids and adults are shifting their media habits to the computer, advertising agencies and experts have had to figure out how to promote products on the internet. Teens are watching less TV and are spending more time on the internet. How do advertisers reach these teens using this relatively new medium?

I found a brief but very interesting video on Youtube click here to watch it. I liked it because it wasn't discussed in the TV segment that we watched for class. However it looked at factors in middle school students that would make them more likely to be addicted to the internet. I could see how someone with ADHD is more apt to be addicted because there is so much to do on the internet. And the same thing for a girl who is depressed because they might be looking for people to reach out to on the internet.