Week 5 Update- Exploring the new tools

So this week, I examined a few different new tools including: Picknik, Mogulus, Skrbl and GE Whiteboard. Mogulus is one that really stood out to me the most, although I am not entirely certain I would ever make effective use of it. It used streaming video from around the world (and of the tools we have examined, this one certainly seemed to carry the largest worldwide impact) and broadcast events that people wanted to share. From my examination at 8:30 at night, there were a wide mix of different events ongoing at the time. I do wonder, as I consider it now, if the reason that there were so many different languages being spoken was because of the time as it is reflected around the world right now. People were able to broadcast streaming video, schedule a show, or set up special events. I was interested to see just how many people were on and broadcasting at the moment. While I found this tool interesting, it also seemed to show a lot of pseudo radio shows where the broadcast was a camera recording a "DJ" with callers sharing their thoughts.

Picknik was the next interesting tool, which stood out because of its ability to pull pictures from social networking sites to be modified and played with. At first, I thought many of the features were not unusual or special beyond what I could access in my Kodak Easy Share modifier, but the ability to pull and play with the photos from so many different locations added a new and interesting twist.

Skrbl and GE Whiteboard I will group together, although they are different tools. Both had some interesting possibilities, but are not tools I see using in the future soon, especially the GE Whiteboard. Skrbl seemed to imitate the ideas that are popular right now with the SMART board technologies that allow people to share a screen, and others collaboratively to input their thoughts, highlight, circle and discuss. Good idea, but not sure I would make use of it. GE Whiteboard was again neat, but had not practical use that I could surmise for what I would ideally be working on. The tool gave the opportunity to draw objects, shapes, and play around and the screen would record your actions to be played back later. I'm not real sure the practical applications of this, other than a neat, free version of a drawing tool. It may require more investigation.

On the project side, I am slowly moving forward with my Message Design. I am working to assemble a poster, based on a Materials Handling course I am currently devising for work. I have done a fair amount of research lately related to how the back works, and how it is affected by lifting. So I am looking to put that knowledge to use and make the poster based on those ideas. It seems like a great idea, but my "glitches" seem to be occurring related to my lack of knowledge on Illustrator and Photoshop. I have the benefit of these tools on my work laptop, which I have never had before, but it is a lot to absorb. I have the benefit of the Lynda.com videos which my boss has allowed me to get, but that's a lot of videos, and I don't have a lot of time! Additionally, I've been finding there's not a lot of space to really cram in all of this information. Joni emphasizes the need to consolidate our ideas, but this could be tough.

Thanks for reading!