Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #7

Hello Everyone,

I can’t believe we are already halfway through the course and spring finally. When I say finally I sound stupid as we really did not have a winter this year in Canada. But on to this week’s lesson, seven weeks into this course I have noticed there is a consistent lesson that is being taught in this course “collaboration”. A tool called Google docs was introduced this week, I have an on-off relation with Google docs as I use to use it a lot when I was in grade eight back in 2008. The main reason was because I was broke and could not afford my very own flash drive and the fact that it was accessible anywhere there is the internet made my life a lot easier. I started using Google docs again when I came to university because as a business student I had to participate in a lot of group projects. And since it allowed us to collaborate without sending each individual group member a specific file it reduced a lot of works when it came to final review and formatting.

http://www.vpnanswers.com/unblock-google-docs-in-china-with-vpn-step-by-step/

I don’t really want people to choose sides here but using google docs I can’t help pull parallels between Google docs and Prezi another tool that was introduced in this session. I am familiar with both tools and they both have their benefits. Google on one hand offers a comprehensive package word processing and all, however, Prezi is only a presentation tool. In my opinion, I think Prezi wins by a long margin as Prezi knows what it is and strives to be the best at it.  The creative freedom that Prezi offers to the users is awesome as it brings new life to what a presentation is all about. I know this because I have impressed my manager by using Prezi once and I am quite chuffed about that.

About adding Google Docs to my PLE I say why not, I am surprised why I forgot it in the first place. It is a great tool for collaborating and I have already been using it for years. I can actually say that I use to use Google docs before it was cool.

As an aspiring CPA working in an accounting firm I often hear other people often complaining about how the busy season can take a real toll on the work-life balance. But I for some reason have never felt that I don’t like my job or that my job is affecting my life in a negative way. This might because I am a student and don’t have many responsibilities, I cook when I want to, I don’t have to take care of my kids, I can get drunk on a weekday and still wake up and go to work without a hangover. However, after reading the article on my Feedly (Click here it is more of a video), I think it is because I try to find self-actualization everywhere I work. I love my job and I wake up every day eager to go meet my colleagues and talking to my clients. It might sound boring but that is who I am and I love it.

Till next time

Kev

Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #6

Hello Everyone,

This week on the deep mysteries of the interweb we have a new tool on the horizon. Well no, not so much on the horizon as I am already using it. But in all seriousness this week was mission Evernote, after using Evernote this week I did not think it was all that revolutionary. As a student whose typing speed is at max 30 words per min, I always preferred a pencil and paper as it is much more versatile and I can make paper airplanes which are always fun. I think the main reason why I did not like Evernote is because I do not think I am as familiar with Evernote as I am with one other tool is used called as OneNote.

I, however, did enjoy certain features of Evernote as such as the ability to share my ones my notes at the click of a button and having a convenient add-on to snip articles, blogs, and websites I find interesting. However I am not sure if I was using the tool wrong but I could not figure out how to ship multiple things in the same note rather than creating a new one for every bookmark I created. I really found the aforementioned feature frustrating as I had to copy everything from other notes to a single page. I using OneNote I get to experience all the same features I get in Evernote along with the benefit of familiarity. I also have the ability to write notes manually with a stylus as my computer has a touch screen and can do a 360-degree flip. For the reasons explained above I do not think I will be adding ever note to my PLE as I just was not sold on the idea and I believe there are many other tools out there that can do the same job and are much more user-friendly.

This week I while getting familiar with Evernote I also did a lot of research about the impact of digital literacy in the modern age. And I found quite a few interesting articles regarding digital literacy once was my favorite was a thesis written by Douglas A.J. Belshaw (Click Here). It is a very lengthy paper however it does a great job of explaining what digital literacy as it breaks it down and begins with the definition of literacy itself.

https://howsecureismypassword.net/

While going through my Feedly, I came across a few good articles one was regarding digital security and how to protect yourself (Click Here). I really think this will be a useful article for my fellow badgers working on the project related to digital security. The article outlines some very simple techniques a person can use to secure this digital environment. Techniques such as not recycling your passwords and frequently changing your passwords. The article also referred to this tool that evaluates your passwords and informs you on how long it will take for a PC to crack your password. I tested my Netflix password and I was told it would take a desktop PC about 423 sextillion years to crack my password. No one shall steal my Netflix account hahaha.

Till next time

Kev

Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #5

Hola a todos,

For people who did not get my greeting, it means hello everyone in Spanish. The reason I started this blog with a Spanish greeting because after experiencing the extreme cold we have been facing, I really wished if I could escape to a Latin American or Caribbean country. This week has been an interesting week as I would never have expected a course where Twitter use is promoted and encouraged. Many educators still live in the 20^th century when it comes to social media and believe that social media is usually a waste of time, this new viewpoint of using twitter as a personal learning network is really refreshing take on learning.

http://www.playbuzz.com/maximumpop10/which-celebrity-twitter-feud-are-you

My experience from today’s lesson and using a personal learning network has been nothing but positive. A personal learning network, in essence, allows me to participate in what I would call a global classroom. It is a place where learning happens through collaboration, I personally think I can really benefit from this sort of atmosphere as in essence a PLN is a vast think-tank. One difficulty I faced with twitter is its character limit, this constraint makes it a little bit tricky to get your points clearly across.

I have been using twitter for a while now but never have I used it for learning. Twitter for me was always served as a medium to stay in touch with pop culture (At my current age I don’t know why I ever thought that was important) and laugh at the stupid things some celebrities tweet about (Which I still do as laughter is the best medicine). But now I think that twitter can be a valuable tool for learning as nowadays all companies, professional institutes and news sources have twitter and I can just as easily follow people who have something valuable to offer. Twitter has been a part of connect and share section in my PLE diagram created in week #2 even though it was only for “learning” about pop culture.

Using microblogging tools such as twitter can greatly help in education as it truly encompasses digital citizenship. As it encourages global discussions and gives me the opportunity to share and collaborate with a large audience. Having a social learning environment has given me the ability to challenge people’s ideas and vice versa. This really expedites the learning process as you get the ability to learn from the experience of millions of people.

This week on my Feedly I found an article (Click here) that every college student needs, a lesson in savings for the future. From personal experience, I know that not long ago I was very bad at personal finance and an article like this would have helped me greatly. The article about the building an emergency fund and lists out some very simple yet interesting methods to build your savings. I think all the methods are interesting, however, my favorite method is the “Weekly challenge” as it is very simple and can lead to some pretty substantial savings.

Weekly Report & Reflection blog post #4

Hello Everyone,

This week has been a challenge for me, as I was sick due to the flu that has been making it way around to town and I had to finish a big project for work. However, let’s forget the boring small talk, this week like every other week was an eye opener. As an aspiring CPA working in an accounting firm I regularly take parts in different audits, and I constantly use certain websites to assist me with my audits. Finding these sites was a hassle to begin with and I don’t look forward to finding them again on a different computer. Diigo is really going to allow me to organize my content in an effective manner and will allow me to access the content on any device. Besides bookmarking and tagging, I really find the highlighting is a really tool helpful as it will now allow me to highlight important accounting guidelines that I use on a regular bias during audits. The screenshot below shows the bookmark I have added so far.



Shah, K (CC) 2016

Personally, I think the use of curation tools can be best utilized for research as for me research can is an extremely boring process and I will gladly use any tool that will make my work easier. As I have mentioned in my earlier blogs earlier I am planning a nine-month trip to Asia and I am planning to live on a shoestring budget during that trip. So tools such as this will help me in my research for my trip and will definitely be an integral part of my PLE as it will help me in other endeavors.

Another thing I learned in this session was the TRASH method, the internet is filled with so much so-called “trash” that it the aforementioned method is a necessity. After reading the TRASH method, I noted that I have been subconsciously using this method all the time. As a final year student, I have written my fair share of papers and it is absolutely necessary for a student that we can short out the “trash” (I really want to use a different word here I need to keep this blog professional).

This week on my RSS feed in keeping up with the spirit of the big game, I read a weird article about serving wine like a pro during Super bowl. Even as a wine lover I thought this article was a bit off, what person in his/her right mind would drink wine during a Super bowl game. Super bowl as we all know is the unofficial beer and chicken wing day. There is a reason that beer companies pay millions of dollars to broadcast their commercials during the game. All personal feelings and bias aside, yes I did find the article interesting  as it does effectively explain how to pair wine with food served on Super bowl. Food served during the big game lacks the subtlety of flavor and is often like a punch to your taste buds so pairing wine with that is difficult, to say the least (Click here for the article).

That’s all for today Folks,

Till next time.