The Newspaper Clipping Generator

This is an online app called 'The newspaper clipping generator'. It allows you to name the paper, choose a headline and then type information. This can be useful for displaying information in a different context.

Dangers Of The Web

When you surf the web, your computer is constantly downloading files and in some cases other software so you can use the web to its full capacity. However, sometimes these files or programs are written by people who want to steal your information or harm your computer. This is called Malware or Malicious Software. There is also a danger when using online social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, these sites can put children at a much greater risk to receive a message from a stranger which could then lead on to meeting with a stranger. Other concerns of social networking sites can consist of a lack of age-verification mechanisms, access to provocative pictures and videos, and easy access for predators and cyber-bullies.

On the Internet, cyber-bullying takes various forms. It includes sending hateful messages or even death threats to children, spreading lies about them online, making nasty comments on their social networking profiles, or even creating a website or profile to humiliate their looks or reputation. Cyber-bullying differs from school-yard bullying as teachers can't intervene when it's on the Internet. Another issue with cyber-bullying is that the bullies don't witness their victims' reactions as they are not in their presence. A woman named Mary Ellen Handy experienced being cyber bullied due to a girl being jealous after she'd dated a boy. She'd receive messages such as "I hate you, leave the school." from the girl, and Mary stated herself "she'd call me every name in the book." The jealous girl managed to get up to 20 others to join her and to send messages of abuse to Handy,  This case went on for a few months making Mary nervous to go to school, making her feel physically ill and even had a negative effect on her grades.

To make sure your child is safe using the web, make sure they know that they should never give out any personal information online such as a phone number, address, or any private information such as passwords or credit card details. Your kids would not give their address to a stranger on the phone, nor should they divulge it online. Teach your children to come to you and let you know if they have any trouble or anything which they have not seen before and might be dangerous. A parent can also use a parental control software for an appropriate reason to make sure their children don't go on dangerous websites.


References;
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/4-dangers-internet
http://www.internetsafety101.org/snsdangers.htm
http://www.surveilstar.com/top-5-dangers-of-using-the-internet.html

TED Talks

I decided to use this video from TED Talks as my subject because I sometimes fear preforming in front of people when playing rugby or the drums so 'How I beat stage fright' caught my eye and I felt a sense of good will after watching it. The video is about Joe Kowan, a songwriter who didn't have the confidence to show anyone his songs until the age of 30, when he decided it was time to put his fears behind him and show people his work. He uses humour to entertain the crowd but still gets his point across and I found it very inspiring on how he overcome his problems and fears, becoming a new confident person which allowed him to do what he wanted to do.  The song he uses to give his story is very funny, and you can tell that the audience are all intrigued.  His positive attitude inspires you to believe in yourself, and no matter how hard you may think something can be, you can still achieve it if you put your mind to it.

Blog Review - A New Approach

I've decided to write my blog review on "A New Approach". I decided to read and review this blog as I like to be up to date with all the new gadgets and believe that technology is going to have a massive impact on education in the future. Technology is used so often that people need to be educated to keep up to date with new changes and new techniques. Although this blog was initially made in 2007,it's still updated very frequently so there's always something new to look at and the information is up to date. It has plenty of tags on the right hand side which can be useful if you're looking for certain posts and even has a radio which you can turn on whilst scrolling through which adds a nice touch. Each post tends to have the same font style and similar size, with headings being bolder and larger to make the layout clear and easier to read. Each post contains media which is relative to the blog whether it's a video, app or an image, keeping it interesting whilst giving information at the same time. There are also has some fun and interactive applications available to use such as voting polls. The blog helped to give me ideas for my own posts and I would definitely recommend it to others that are interested in technology or are thinking about making a blog. A blog provides you with tools and method of uploading almost anything you need to display information and is a great way of creating a project of work, a good way to represent a business and also a useful app to use for making a diary or a page for your own entertainment.

Here's a link to the blog that's been reviewed; http://mandy-newapproach.blogspot.co.uk/

Glog

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A Glog is useful when different media is needed on one page. Here I have used text, images and a video from youtube to provide information, personal advice and examples of a chosen topic. Glog could be useful to teach as it's easy to function and children would be fascinated by the different media available for them to look at.

My Photo Story

My idea for my photo story came from looking back at the photo's taken on my first holiday away with the lads. Hundreds of photos were taken but I tried to summaries the holiday by using a small amount of images that were taken throughout the week.

Twitter

Twitter is a social network that is used by millions of people. You can publicly post whatever you like to say and can also add images and links, and it allows you to see what other people post. Unlike Facebook, you don't add people as friends and send requests to be signed up to each others profiles. On twitter, you simply follow someone and their tweets will then appear on your home page with the rest of the people you follow, unless the person has made their profile private. Twitter also has other features which allow you to communicate and keep up to date with society. When another person makes a tweet, you can "retweet" and/or "favourite" it. Retweeting it will add it to your personal page, and it will be shown on the home page for the people following you to see. Favouriting it will put it in a list with your other favourites, which are only viewable if you click on someone's favourite list. You can also reply to peoples tweets which easily allows you to have conversations and send messages back and forth to each other similar to texting. This means that everyone can see the conversation as they are tweets you're making on your personal page and they will show on he home page of those following you. However, Twitter also has a feature called "Direct Messaging" which means you can directly message someone and they'll be notified about it and be able to read it and reply without noone else being able to see it.

 Advantages of twitter;
1. Able to follow celebrities and other profiles which you're interested in
2. Keeps you updated with what's going on
3. Can communicate with people and see tweets and photo's which you may find interesting or funny
4. Free way to share images and to communicate with people all over the world
5. Often find interesting information and can learn alot of new things from others

Disadvantages of twitter;
1. People can get hold of your personal information and use it for
2. Can easily get addicted
3. Bullying can be popular on social networks
4. Stalkers can use twitter to find out what people are doing and where they may be