Final Technology: Scrapblog

For the last emerging technology I decided to try a scrapbooking online site. A lot of my friends love to scrapbook, so I figured this would be a fun and cheap and easy way to try it out. I did not find the site "scrapblog" to be very user friendly. The HELP feature never worked, I had to log off and log back in to be able to see my photos on the second page, and every feature was slow- moving. I thought I had added sound to the 2 pages I made, but apparently not. I also had to post the scrapblog onto my blog manually because I wasn't able to get it to post with their blogger feature. It was a nice idea, but ended up being a lot of work. I thought this might be a nice idea to show kids how to use to make cards for their family members but I would not use this site for kids. I will still show it to my mom though! :) For those who love scrapbooking, look around the internet for a better site. Maybe someone will have a better one on their blog!

Melissa

Scrapblog for Mom

homegrown rock and roll

homegrown rock and roll

Smilebox

I went to Smilebox to make my photo share. It was simple! I loved watching the show twice right in a row. It was nice to take a look at all the things in your life that make you happy right in one spot. Smilebox made it easy to select any picture from your computer and put them into a "pile" on the left and them drag them into the position you wanted them in slideshow order. That came in handy for adding pictures from the same event that are in different folders. At the end, you could post the show right to Blogger so that was easy too! Smilebox was very simple and very fun. I'm looking forward to looking at everyone else's photos! :) Have a great week!

Melissa

Customize a digital slideshow

RSS Feeds

Happy March! Happy Wednesday! So far the RSS feeds on my iGoogle account are working well. I am getting way too much info from FoxNews, but the other feeds have been nice and have given me some good info to read. I am getting feeds from People Magazine and the US Department of Education so I should be covered for now. I tried adding my RSS feeds to my Blog and as you can see, FoxNews was easy to add, but the others did not cooperate. I did get to post an article right on my Blog from WebMD where I'm gathering health and fitness news. Take care everyone. Have a great week.

Love,
Melissa

FDA: Labels Misleading on Major Food Brands

FDA: Labels Misleading on Major Food Brands

The Beginning of the RSS Feeds Project...

Well, I couldn't figure out how to make the feeds show up on my blog, so I started an iGoogle account and the feeds are over there. I'm going to try at another time to get the feeds onto my blog so I don't have to play all over the entire world web internet everytime I log onto the computer. Have you ever thought about how much work it is? You log into to your home computer account, look at the news stories there and check your normal boring personal email, you log onto facebook and look around in there, you log onto Oncourse and click around in here for class, you have to go into OneStart to see your school email... Then there's work computers with your regular login and password, then there's work email, and more logins and passwords for every other system you have to use like Gallup surveys, work orders, supply orders, recognition, timesheets, and pin numbers to get your money out! OMG... I have had enough with computers for one day. Take care everyone! And if you figure out how to put your RSS feeds in a gadget on your blog, please share that info with me. :)

Love,
Melissa

Yum...

It's Delicious! Please visit my site to see my new bookmarks on the Delicious site.
http://delicious.com/melt.17

By the way, I don't think I can take much more of this winter weather. Eww, it's gross!

Love,
Melissa

MelT's Podcast...

My podcast is that little red "x" to the right. I don't know how to make it any better. Just click on it already... :)

Podcasting...

...thank god it's over with!!! Ok, that was a new challenge. Anyone who has never created a podcast and thinks it will be no big deal and it will be easy to figure out how to get it onto your little blog is sadly mistaken. It is a big deal and it's not easy to figure out. I am not saying posting things is hard or reading websites and clicking things on a computer is hard, I am not saying that at all. What's hard is knowing where to go. Where do I go to create this masterpiece? How do I add a soundtrack? Why is the music so loud? Now why is it so quiet? How do I put more than one song on here? Why are my eyeballs crossing? Is this headache from the computer screen or the aggravation or the 2 Diet Cokes I just chugged down in 15 minutes? I had a good time recording myself, although I still can't get over the sound of my voice when it's coming back at me. (I don't really sound like that do I?)
I used a little program called Audacity to record myself reading from my favorite book. Audacity was very user-friendly and reminded me of the television show "Ghost Hunters" which I'm sure Mel Carson from our class is familiar with. For those of you that don't know, the people on that show lurk around haunted places in the dark and use sensitive recording instruments to get ghostly sounds recorded and then play that back for the haunted house owner. I hope they never come to my condo building or I'm moving out. But anyway, they use something with that same audio recording type of screen that looks like a heartbeat monitor. It was cool to zoom in on one second or cut out a sound or "um". Audacity seems like a great place to record yourself talking, reading, or telling a story. I was thinking that people in the Navy could record a podcast and post it to a blog and then their moms could listen to their kids even if they were halfway around the world. It would also be great for people who just got engaged to put their story on the internet so they could just send out a facebook update telling everyone to look at their blog so they don't have to tell the story 900 times. Add some video and you can explain anything from how to change a tire to teaching sign language.
I also used podOmatic to actually get the podcast from my computer onto my blog. Once I read and re-read every tip and suggestion on Oncourse and got to podOmatic from the Web 2.0 site, it was a breeze. It was quick and easy and I was so glad I was able to add pictures to my podOmatic user ID (what is that like 10 user IDs and passwords now?) and to the actual podcast. I could not figure out the volume issue so the background music is slightly dumb, but I still enjoy it.
Ok, so check it out. Watch my podcast. I will not be upset if you skip a lot of it. I did. I mean, 19 minutes of reading? Come on. I would like to suggest to people podcasting and vodcasting and blogging and emailing and facebooking and oncoursing and working to write down- and keep in a secret location- all of your usernames and passwords. It can get frustrating and annoying when you can't get into something because you have 90 passwords in your brain getting all mushed together! Have a great second half of your week and Happy Valentines Day! :)

Aaand it begins...

Ok, well, here we go with the Podcasting...I hope this isn't too tricky. I figured out the picture size problem I was having. I guess when you add gadgets they are huge pictures that take up the entire screen like a billboard when you select "add picture" so be aware of that fact. I'm fired up for the Superbowl and I hope everyone else is too! Have a great weekend and GO COLTS!!!

Picture Pages...

Ok, will anyone tell me how to make my pictures smaller??? They are HUGE and I don't like it!

What Is A Vowel

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

C:\Users\Owner\Documents\What Is A Vowel

View more presentations from guest1fa9e7.

My First Blog Post

Hello! My name is Melissa Taylor. I am a 32 year old mom of a 10-year-old beagle dog named Baxter. We live in a condo by ourselves on the south side of Indy. I have a rad boyfriend Drew that I am totally in love with. I work at National City, now a part of PNC as a teller/desk universal role that keeps be very busy every Monday through Saturday. I returned to IUPUI after a 10 year break from college last semester to pursue my dream of becoming a teacher. I'm not sure why I didn't get back in school sooner, but I'm happy to be working toward something I have always had a passion for. I truly believe you are the only person who can make you happy, so you have to be in charge of yourself and your life. I am finally taking charge! I enjoy working with the people in my branch and I have several friends at other offices that help make work fun throughout the day. I also recently started practicing yoga and I am loving it. It reminds me of dance which I practiced from the time I was 5 until I was in my 20's. I made a brief return to the dance world as a substitute teacher (and a student!) at a studio with one of my favorite dance teachers from my past who now owns her own studio. http://juliebandyperformingarts.com/index.html But when school started, I had to eliminate something. I am also going through RCIA classes at St. Roch Catholic Church where I will be baptized, confirmed, and receive my first communion during the Easter Vigil Service on April 3rd. It's going to be a busy semester! For those of you creating your first blog ever like me, just take your time and be sure to click around a lot. Blogger makes it very simple to create your blog spot. Take your time when uploading the PowerPoint. I got tricked in Slideshare because I was also in Blogger on another tab so I wasn't sure when it was done with it's upload. The recurring theme in this course has been PATIENCE. Those lacking patience will never succeed in using technology for anything. I am a firm supporter of taking breaks from the computer whenever necessary. Getting mad a machine does not make it work any better! I have a great family and amazing friends who are my biggest supporters and they have all told me the same thing about working with computers, and it's that you have to be patient. As long as we all support each other throughout this class, we can all learn to use these magical machines for good!