Week 14 Learning Entry

During the week we learned and discussed gaming for teaching and learning. The concept is to make learning a game so children will learn and possibly memorize better. The idea is already in use is many schools during primary grades.

I think teaching games are very useful to anyone at any age. I do not believe that all gaming is teaching and there should not be any gaming at schools in place of learning. I do remember Oregon Tail when I was a kid, however, it is not a teaching game! It was a game to play on the computer. You did not learn anything! Learning to play on a computer is not a teaching game. Games can be fun and help you learn, but I think there is a fine line between gaming and learning.

I have attached a link to an online game called "Word Whomp." It is an online free game that gives you seven letters and a time limit. The goal is to spell as many words as you can before time is up. This is a learning game, but very close to gaming. I still think it makes you think!

Week 13 Learning Entry

This week we discussed the issues associated with distance education and virtual schooling. Distance education can take a few forms such as online, blended, and virtual. There are pros and cons to this type of education. Pros include time flexibility and work pace. The cons include costs and possible lack of motivation. Many universities are offering online classes for larger courses and there are already some schools that are completely virtual.

I personally have taken multiple online classes here at Florida. They all have been business courses. I do not like online classes at all, I think there is a lack of connection between the student and the course. Since it is online the class is not taken as seriously as others. I know most business students have taken close to 50% of online classes for their major. I think that is not such a good idea, by experience I have learned more from physical classes as opposed to virtual.

The outside source I chose was an article of the "Trends Affecting Distance Education." It is pretty lengthy but the main point of the article is for administrators to evaluate is distance education is something they should implement at their school/universities.

Week 12 Learning Entry

This week we began discussing our Professional Web Presence Project and learning how to utilize the Google Sites. Google Sites allows someone to make a website for no charge and makes is quite simple. The site is created based on certain layouts and color schemes so that the site can be personalized, but also making it easy for just about anyone to use. The site allows for anyone to make their own website for any reason or purpose.

Google sites would not be particularly useful in the field of sport management, but would be useful on a personal basis. Using the site to create a professional web page was interesting and could be used in the future as a tool for applying to jobs. I think that as my experience in my field increases it would be very useful to add to my page.

I chose to add a video about Google Sites. After watching it I learned more about Google sites and what it could be used for. I was also able to learn how to do certain things in Google sites, this way I know what to do and I am not searching for how to.
Click here to watch the video.

Week 11 Learning Entry

During week 11, we discussed and examined open source software. Open source software are programs that can be found online and downloaded free of charge. Usually they are very similar to programs that have to be purchased, such as Photoshop. The open source software can be used in replacement of the purchased software allowing companies that can not afford to purchase the software to have a fighting chance against a bigger company.

Open source software can be very helpful in sport management. Although most people believe that anyone who works in the sport world makes a lot of money, it is untrue. Most universities and college operate at a deficit throughout the year. Money is not always available to the smaller schools and would not be able to purchase such expensive software. I think the open source software would help the companies and schools that can not afford the software to still produce services and products of the same caliber as larger schools.

My outside source is an article about the "Economics of Open Software." The article addresses the biggest debate of open source software: should open software be allowed to damage the revenue of the large corporations. It was interesting to find out that the economics of people enjoying free software is more than the economics of the large companies.

Week 9 Learning Entry

This week we learned about Google Docs and social bookmarking. Google Docs is an online source that can be used to form new documents between people while reducing the amount of emails and new documents. It is a great idea and if used correctly can be extremely helpful.
We also learned of social bookmarking. The whole concept it very good, but to some people might not be very useful. Instead of bookmarking on your personal computer, you bookmark on a website. This way you can use your bookmarks even if you are not on your personal computer. You can also share your bookmarks with other people and learn of other sites that are unknown to you.

Both of these websites can be useful not only in my personal life but also my professional life. Google Docs would be perfect in sport management because many people work on the same project all the time. It would cut down on paper waste and reduce the number of emails someone receives for a single project. I plan to use the source when I am interning this coming semester. I also have used it personally to help with a Secret Santa plan. Social Bookmarking is not really my thing, but can be very useful in my field. There are too many websites for sport jobs, sport news, and sport publications that I can barely remember any of them. It is something that I need to take advantage of and hopefully I will follow through with it.

I have attached a link for an article titled "7 Things You Should Know about Social Bookmarking." I read this article and was impressed the only downside the authors found was with tagging. I thought it was pretty interesting though.

Week 7 Learning Entry

This week we discussed digital storytelling, which I found out was movies and pictures mixed together. This is a very interesting spin on just pictures. I thought using animoto was very simple, but when I tried to use imovie I had the most difficult time. I still do not know how to mix videos and photos.
The only way I think digital storytelling fits into sport management is if you have a presentation to make or if you are making a video for some event that took place. I think it would be really useful for presentations, an example being that if someone wanted to persuade another that UF was the best place for college sports, they could put a video together of all the championship wins and the activities that go on around the campus. So I think this is useful to spice up just a regular slide show or video, but something that does not truly effect sport management.

Digitales is a website that I found from googling. I used this source because it has workshops that people can attend to learn how to make videos and use digital storytelling. The camp is open to anyone for any purpose and they have multiple choices of length for the camp. I found it pretty interesting because it is basically what we learned for adults.

Week 3 Learning Entry

The Internet is changing! it is now Web 2.0. The new phase of the Internet is very helpful and extremely more entertaining. Users can now not only read material, they are able to participate in just about any thing. From wikis and blogs to social networking sites. Web technology is growing and should be accepted as opposed to rejected in every business, corporation, or field.

In sport management, enabling a more participation based user would be very useful. Since everything is changing so quickly, from technology to the standards in an industry, my idea is to create some sort of web 2.0 application specifically for sport managers and others in this field of study. People could update information that has worked for them and their company and the ideas and information that has failed. It would be very helpful to know what is the "new standard" or does or does not work. Sport companies are always trying to expand in new areas, gain more revenue by some way, and change how certain things are done. This sort of application would be very useful for those trying a new idea or area. It would also cut down on company expenditures for failed experiments, if it has already been tried in another company. One downfall of this idea is that companies would be sharing some big time inside information and they might not want to participate. However, in an organization like the NFL, where all of the teams are on an equal playing field, it might work a little better.

Click here to visit the website of the North American Society for Sport Management NASSM.
I chose this website because if this application was ever going to be made, I thought it could be found on this website because it is all about sport management.

Week 4 Learning Entry

Before this week I thought copyright specificallyy protected the owner, however, now I realize that it protects the user as well. I think most people only know that it protects the owner. I also learned from the Copyright website that what is stated as against the law is not all encompassing. The rights of copyright and owners is unlimited.

In the sport management curriculum, copyright and plagiarism is a very pressing issue. We also learn about licensing, which is similar to copyright. Licensing is the act of selling the right to use a specific logo. For example the numerous companies that sell Gator gear must pay a fee to use the Gator logo and any of its affiliated symbols. When you purchase the license you are unable to change or alter that logo or symbol. It normally is not done, because you purchase a license to use that specific logo. Licensing is not just associated with sport management, although trademarking and copyright is usually associated with other fields.

Licensing is such a big deal in the sport world, that there are conferences around the world. There are many people that work specifically with licensing agreements.
You can click here to view the International Licensing Expo. I chose this website because it is very interesting and you can learn who licenses their product and name.

Week 5 Learning Entry

This is the week that we started Photoshop. I am pretty excited to be working on photoshop. For previous jobs with photographers, I worked with the software, however, I was only told what to do; I never really got to explore the program. I think it is pretty hard to navigate if you don't know where all the commands and different applications are. It should get better as we move along.

Photoshop related to sport management directly through marketing and advertising, which all sport managers are knowledgeable of. Being able to manipulate a picture is a key role in these fields. Although it is an ethical issue, one must be able to perform such tasks if instructed. One might also be instructed to create a completely new picture from scratch. Before this week, I had no idea if that was even possible.

Click here to view some photoshop disasters done by professionals!
I chose this source because it proves that even professionals make mistakes too! It is not exactly the most pure content, but still pretty funny!

Week 2 Learning Entry

During this week, we discussed how the world is changing, is aspect to technology. We watched the "Did you Know" videos. I had already watched the one from a few years ago, but the video for 2009, its content was truly shocking. We also went over the Mac computers and operating system. The ability to use either operating system is beneficial in every field of expertise. In sport management, the use of computers comes in handy quite often. In each different organization that one might work in, they might have a different operating system. Being able to operate both on a Mac and a PC makes me feel as if I am more computer literate. Although I hate to admit it, but Mac seems to be the system that will be used most often in the future. Being able to navigate a computer might give me an advantage over someone who can not.

I am a PC and will probably always be a PC, unless Mac lowers it prices! David Letterman made his own PC/Mac commercial. You can view it here. I chose this source because in the video, Letterman express his annoyance with the PC/Mac commercials. As am I!

Copyright Homework

As a student, copyright, along with plagerism is a big issue. The fact that Creative Commons, a not for profit organization, increases the right for sharing. Wikipedia, is a source that many people use to acquire a general knowledge of a subject. Recently, Wikipedia and Creative Commons have joined. The Wikipedia board has accepted the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike license as the main content liscense. The copyright notice will be changed on all of Wikipedia site (over 700 sites in 250 languages).
The article can be found here.

I HOPE I AM DOING THIS RIGHT....!!!