Xavier’s Blog

CHAMPION OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2008 – 2009

CHAMPION OF THE SPANISH LEAGUE 2008 – 2009

CHAMPION OF THE KING’S CUP 2008 – 2009

Mr. Piaget before and after nkn09

Today is the ICT international day! So, enjoy it and do something related with ICT, like being in internet and using it!

Picture with CC permission from Visual Dictionary Online http://visual.merriam-webster.com/images…

More things to be published soon!

Sorry for the delay, but more works from NKN09 are on the way!!!

Xavi

The website opsound offers a big variety of songs all free:

Crystalline-Lattice

Every single year there are more people interested in a complementary education. However, time is always the most important obstacle in adult education. For most of the adults, professional compromises are mixed up with personal duties towards relatives and friends. Therefore, it requires a big effort to dedicate time to study and to concentrate in the chosen course. E-learning can become a very powerful tool in order to learn when you do not have so much time to spend. For instance, if you do not have to attend a regular class, you can schedule your class timing whenever it fits to you. There are a lot of people who download the course content or part of the course content after work hours. This helps to follow what has been taught more freely. Nowadays, the most common thing is to use internet connection at home, work…therefore, it has to be a simple thing to connect with the courses and be able to download its content. The relation with teachers and other students through the net it becomes very easy. The email is a useful tool, but now with twitter, the blog and other resources it is so easy to interchange impressions, comments, doubts and inquiries.

The role of the media is changing thanks to internet and because of internet. Nowadays there are more people all over the world that use internet as a source of information. Due its easy updating mechanism, the information is constantly changing in audio, video and writting form. Something that the conventional media sorces (radio, TV and newspaper), cannot offer neither with the same speed neither covering all these three aspects in one source: audio, video and text. There are multiple examples of radio stations that work only in the net. However, it is interesting to mention the example of one of the radio stations that works both in the net and in the fm. This is the case of iCAT fm, the younger syster of the Public Radio Station of Catalunya: Catalunya Radio. http://www.icatfm.cat This radio could be tunned through the fm but also offers a complete selection of music for those who tunned it online (there are several channels with different kinds of music). The new thing about the radio is that always there are text and images following what it is on air. In addition offers information every single hour with especial mention to the cultural life all over the world. The future of the radio is in internet: with an accessible mechanism to download the programs later on, with a more complete information about what’s on air…

This example is only for radio, but internet also serves for TV. Through platforms such as ustream users can find updated information about events that are happening in the world. Therefore, it could be said that a good media has to have this multifunction: have some presence in their source (for those who have not discovered internet, yet) and have some presence in the net.

Interaction is the word that could define web 2.o Thus, through interaction between users can be developed and updated the different contents of the sites. Some of the main examples are wikipedia, or for instance a blog (like this). If we link both concepts: wikipedia and a blog, the results is the definition of a blog from Wikipedia:

A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Not all blogs enable the free participation of the people. This is, not in all blogs is possible to send comments or write about what the author has written. But mainly, all blogs respond to a similar structure: the author or authors, write some ideas, some news, some research information…and this information is visible for third parties. The information posted in the blog could be also visual and audible. This means that it is also possible to put video, photo and audio. Blog Editors are responsible for the contents published in the blog. Therefore, they can moderate not only their comments, but also the comments from third parties.

The contents of a blog could be as the personality of the editor: miscellaneus, especified in a topic or issue, denouncing something, advertising another…

Quote with CC permit from Wikipedia

Ethics in internet is an open discussion. Where is the moral pattern in the cyberkingdom? In order to solve this open ended question there are many suggestions and some of them end in the law as the main refference to rule the net. But, Where is the cybergod? Are the national laws and the international laws the only jurisdiction? or there is something else? The importance of this question has also arrived to Rome and also the Vatican has a website devoted to this issue: “ethics in Internet”. Nevertheless, descending to a more terrenal level, we have to ask for the ethics in internet regarding education. Then, we can ask about the roles between students and teachers: are students or teachers aloud to openly criticise each other? what happen when a student starts blaming to a teacher or to other students in his/her blog? National legislation has to find an answer to these questions. From the respect of privacy or morality point of view, all kind of bad or legally unfair comments against other’s person public image are punishable.  Also, the famous “bulling” between students is the kind of behavior that has to be banned and punnish. Moreover, the moral pattern to apply, is mainly the respect to the national laws (almost all western constittutions protect the freedom of expression, but also protect the person from an abuse of this freedom). National laws and international laws also rule the rights of an author. Copyright laws are also applicable to internet? Yes, would be the answer. However, some of these laws suppose a limitation of the transfer of information. Open resources are some (but not all), and it means that if you want to use a copyright protected image or sound, then you have to pay. Here appears an open enden question: if internet is a common sharing space, why people have to pay? Why do not have free access to information and resources? Then we could all learn more from the rest.

Picture with CC permit from: www.southdacola.com

Internet offers to user the possibility to surf through a huge number of pages. However, this is not the only way to have access to some machines connected to a intranet or to internet. For instance, we are frequently requested to do simple operations in front a machine that is already connected to an local net: such as an ATM, to consult the library database… Nevertheless, the most important thing is placed in the internet database. The basic steps for non-experienced users, is to simply gather information through search engines such as google, yahoo, lycos… Begginers tend to act like Web 1.0 (users were only allowed to get information not to change or manipulate that information and send some comments and personal data through their email account). Mainly, the most consulted pages are media and information pages (usually are constantly updated).

The big jump is when user is interacting with the internet environment. Then, we have many different ways. The most individual is to blog (this blog is an example). However, there are more collective participations such as wikipedia, wikimedia and other spaces were users are allowed to change the contents of the displayed information. Nevertheless, social networks are also a good opportunity for users to interact with other users. The most common social networks are Facebook or Messenger. Then, the user is not only interacting with the information found in internet, but also is directly interacting  with the people that also connected to the net.

The possibilities of access to the net and their functionability, varies from one to another user. However, internet today is an easy and accessible tool for all kinds of users.