Link to Professional Portfolio

https://sites.google.com/site/mmarcial14fpukin/

Plaxo Account, Professional Portfoilo, LinkedIn

I just finished playing around and setting up various accounts and professional portfolios through Plaxo, LinkedIn, and Google Sites. As I began these assignments I found some fun in creating the websites, I thought it was pretty cool how you can personalize your information. The sites can give viewers basic information or you can keep it real simple so potential employers can view your current and past work experience. Its like a resume that can be grabbed on the web; which does not require any submission to any company. I thought Google Sites creation of your own web page was also intriguing, you can create your own website with all of your personal interests. Moreover, each person can manipulate the way the website is formatted.

I did not find many cons to these sites, however I was hesitant to add some personal information to the site (birthday, housing information, e.g.). The reason I am hesitant to put this information on these sites is because I am afraid of becoming a victim of identity theft. With all the personal information that goes on these sites, I feel as though it makes it easier for people to get a hold of personal information that may cause a negative outcome; maybe I am just paranoid.

Overall I believe these sites have great potential to boost a resume for future employment. Since today's world is evolving to paperless information, it would almost be silly not to put your work experiences on one of these sites. It seems anytime there is an open position anywhere, you have to apply online to attempt to attain the job. Becoming more internet savvy will just increase the possibility of getting hired somewhere. In addition, you can also build and create possible networking connections through the use of these sites. You can "connect" and begin networking with people in your similar or desired profession. In essence, this should improve your possibilities of getting set up with nice job if you are able to meet the right people. Unfortunately in this world its "not what you know, its who you know". These sites allow everyone to try to get know anyone. Cool stuff, I can see the great benefits of these sites.

LibraryThing

http://www.librarything.com/home/mmarcial14

I just finished exploring LibraryThing, this is the first time I can honestly say I was confused about what users could do with this site. I originally thought I would be able to read books from this site when I added them to my account, but I completely missed the idea behind it once I began playing with the site! But as I realized what the site had to offer I still found it somewhat interesting. I can post books to my profile that I have read and discuss with others around the world; almost like a forum. Users can write reviews of the books they have read, discuss them in a conversation online and find books for sale using the site (which will compare prices from different websites). I thought that was pretty cool. However since I am not the biggest book reader, I did not find this site as interesting as some of the past sites I have visited. Maybe if I have had read more books in my day then I could get into this site a little more. Nonetheless, I can see why many people can enjoy this site. It is difficult sometimes to discuss topics that interest you with some of your current personal friends. LibraryThing allows people with the same interest to discuss books with others that have the same passion about the book with another. It is always good to get someone else perspective when thinking about interesting topics; it allows individuals to see the book from a different angle. Unfortunately, as of today, I probably would not use this site very much. I like the idea though, social networking through books.

Image Generators

I just finished playing around with some of these image generator sites. I found Fototrix.com to be the easiest and most fun to use. Its pretty fun to see how easy it is to put the image you want on any kind of layout. After I got the idea how to upload the photo onto the layout I wanted, it was all down hill from there. Fototrix is cool because the user can upload images from their own files or upload images from other websites; all they have to do is type in the URL address to upload the photo to Fototrix. There are tons of layouts in this site! Of course I went with a basketball theme because I am a basketball coach.

The image displayed is a sophomore on our team, John Dickson. Great photo of him rising to the rim and finishing a play. Any athlete would enjoy seeing their picture on Sports Illustrated; it would be an awesome artifact to have in their career. I cannot believe how simple this task was to complete once I got the hang of it. I just saved an image from Sacramento State's Athletic site to my hard drive, uploaded the photo to Fotorix, picked the layout I wanted and I was done. Cool stuff, I only wish I could do some editing to the date to make it look more recent!

Locating Podcasts

I just did some snooping around for podcasts from podcasts.com. When I began trying to find some podcasts about kinesiology, I could not find anything under the topic. I checked podcastalley.com as well and I could not find anything helpful there either. My first intial thought was I that I was not typing in the correct terms in the right areas of the search. However after an hour of playing with these sites I could not find anything relative to kinesiology; definitely frustrating. Going back to podcasts.com I began looking for interesting sport podcasts that I felt as though I could listen to on a regular basis.

The podcast that I added to my bloglines account is "Around the Horn", an ESPN show on television in which four sports writers converse about various sports topics. I have watched this show plenty of time when I use to have free time in the afternoons. But since my time has been limited to the free time I have, it has been difficult to see on television. With podcast however, I now can download this show to either my computer or iphone and listen to the show on the go! That is pretty sweet. Moreover, I can see how podcasts can be extremely helpful in the educational world because of the mobility of the software. Teachers could put desired topics on podcasts and have their students listen to them when desired. Just like everything in Web 2.0, podcasts have brought the ease of accessing and finding information. 

YouTube Exploration

I have been to YouTube numerous times. This assignment was pretty simple for me. I am not a complete YouTube freak, but I do visit the website sometimes. Most of the time when I am viewing something on YouTube, it is because one of my friends wanted to share a video they have recently seen. Anyone who has internet access can literally find anything and everything on YouTube. There is endless information that can be found in this great site.

The video I have chosen is a speech by John Wooden; arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time. This video is extremely enlightening, he is a very inspirational man. Successful coaches today unfortunately is measured by the wins and losses one accomplishes. However Wooden makes a great argument about what true success really is.

I can absolutely see how the features of this websites can be utilized in school websites. All types of educational information can be found on YouTube. Not to mention, most of the videos can show an individual how to complete a certain task (algebra, cooking, using software, e.g.) As long as the integrity of the information provided to students is verified, I can see great ways to utilize websites like YouTube in an education setting.

YouTube Video

Technorati

I just finished exploring Technorati's website. I do not know if I was reading the instructions incorrectly or not, but I was only able to type in a key word at the top of the site search for the keyword "kinesiology". However when I did type the keyword into the search box, Technorati brought forth numerous blogs that had to do with kinesiology. When I tried the blog directory and tags tabs they did not give me the option to search for keywords. Nonetheless, I thought the reason behind this site can be very useful for people who enjoy reading blogs about their desired topic. By typing in the keyword in the search box, you can find plenty of blogs and tags for your desired topic. I see how this can be useful for many people. For coaches, I think if more coaches blogged about their days or ideas than I would be all over those blogs or posts. Finding blogs that you are interested in can spark conversation with complete strangers from all over the world. That is one of the key elements I find fascinating about blogs. You can have discussion with people across the world who share your same interest.