New Semester, New Look!

Welcome! I hope you enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn to come to class! When is the last time you've done that?

We will use this blog to discover some links, post some pictures or just experiment with internet resources and services. You can "follow" it, post comments on it or link to it. Hopefully you know what all those terms mean!

First off - a survey. You will complete a short survey to give me an idea of what you're looking for. This class will be a combination of presentation and hands-on learning, plus, I hope, much class contributions.

Ready? First you all need to log on to your web-based email account. (You know what that is, right? :)

Play Time!

Let's spend a little time doing some "research." Or as I like to call it - play time. Playing with the internet, especially with a helper at close hand, will give you some time to really explore the things you want to explore without feeling like you're going to do something wrong. Trust me, you won't break the internet!

One thing I'd like to show you as you explore is this function: Open Link in New Window (or Tab)
When you find a link you'd like to explore, use your right click menu to check it out without losing your original location.
Hover the mouse over the link (use this one: http://pinterest.com/ )
Right click the mouse

Choose Open Link in New Window
View new link...close when done.
Easy Peasy!
You try it...we'll explore some of the links on this blog today. 

Welcome Spring, Welcome Class!

Hello all!
Welcome to another OLLI semester! I'm happy to be with you all this early morning and beginning our journey together through the Internet. This class will be best experienced with your input - please don't hesitate to contribute, ask, suggest or point out. I'll be handing out a short survey to you today so we can focus our attention more closely on what you're wanting to explore. Here are a few things that I am thinking of:

I'm counting on you to bring your interests and expertise to this class...it should be fun!

Spending a little more time with Picasa

First of all, we're going to make sure you all have the program on your computer. If not, click on the Picasa link to the right.
I copied a file of pictures into your My Pictures folder that we can use to play around with Picasa today. It will be fun!
This link will tell you more about Picasa's features - http://picasa.google.com/features.html

Click here for a video introduction on You Tube.

I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours

These days, it's rare to have someone hand you an actual photo of, say, their new grandson. More than likely they are showing you the dozens, if not hundreds, of digital photos on their cameras. Or iPods. Or cell phones. With the internet you can see even more photos of the little darling's every move with photo sharing.

Don't Believe Everything You Read on the Internet!

Welcome back! Help yourself to a piece of chocolate and roll up your sleeves - today we're going to check out some sites on the Internet and learn how to determine if what they're selling is anything we're interested in buying!
You will get a handout with some helpful indicators to look for when doing Internet research. You may not need to check all of these items all of the time, but once you begin to look for certain things, you'll begin to do it naturally.

Ready? Let's check out some of these web sites:
 RYT Hospital

 Garden help and information

CNN

NeuroGenesis

Women & AIDS


Other aspects of the web page to consider:

Objectivity

• Is the bias explicit or hidden?
• Does the identity of the author or sponsor suggest a bias?
• How does the bias impact the usefulness of the information?

Clarity

• Is the information clearly presented?
• Is the text neat, legible and formatted for easy reading?
• If there are graphics, do they add to the content or distract?
• If there are advertisements, do they interfere with your ability to use the page?
• Are the pages well organized?
• Are there mistakes in spelling or word usage?

Accessibility

• Does the site load quickly?
• Can you move around the site easily?
• Is there a text-only alternative for the visually-impaired?

For international and new domain names and extensions, go to:
Country extensions - http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html?sort=name
New domain names - http://www.internic.net/faqs/new-tlds.html

Adapted from Lesley University - Evaluating Web Sites

The survey says...

Glad to see you back again! We're going to take a look at some organizing techniques today and explore some of the places that you wrote that you are interested in. Like Facebook. Here is a previous post that has a couple of links for us - previous post. (I love citing myself!)

I think I sent all of you the link to this blog so that you can access it at home - but if I didn't, just let me know.