Extra Credit: VoIP and Video Capture

For this extra credit assignment I downloaded the the Jing Project software and Skype to record a conversation and video of my friend and I. I had never used VoIP before, so I was excited to see what it was all about.

At first, I thought it was kind of awkward to record my conversation but I started to think of the practical uses that it can serve. The program is really easy to use, it took less than 15 minutes to download and is very user friendly.

I explained our class and why I needed to record her. We talked about how this program could be used for online interviews, for the employer to record the interview and be able to go back to see how the candidate answered questions. It could potentially be used for a teaching tool. For example if a professor interviewed an individual and wanted to show his class the interview later.

There are several things that the program can do as well as many benefits for users.

This was an interesting extra credit assignment that showed me another free and useful resource on the internet!

My Jing experience below:

C:\Users\Mariah\Desktop\Jing_Trial-ISM3004-MCurry.swf

Are you Smarterer? Extra Credit

This extra credit assignment was really interesting. I enjoyed taking quizzes and seeing just how much I know about platforms I use every day.

I took three quizzes, one on Facebook, one on Google and one on romantic comedies. The one I found most interesting was the quiz on Google. I found out so many interesting things that Google does and offers for their users, as well as fun things written into the code. It is so cool that wen you type "do a barrel roll" the Google home screen  does a 360 degree spin. Or when you type Google in backwards "elgooG" you get a mirror image of the Google logo. 

The Facebook quiz was the one I did the best at, scoring 85% proficiency. I knew the most about Facebook, but there were still things I didn't know. Mostly things like regarding Facebook Market Place and the logistics of Facebook Pages.

I also took a romantic comedy quiz. I took this quiz for fun because I love romantic comedies and I pride myself in my vast knowledge of them. Well this quiz showed me otherwise. I need to brush up on my rom-com knowledge this summer.

This was a creative and fun extra credit assignment but has taught me that I need to learn more about the websites that I use on a daily basis.

Facebook: http://smarterer.com/mariahlcurry/facebook

Google: http://smarterer.com/mariahlcurry/google_search

Romantic Comedy: http://smarterer.com/mariahlcurry/romantic_comedy_trivia

Extra Credit: Google+

For this extra credit assignment I had to make a Google+ profile. This was interesting to me because when Google+ first came out I was hesitant to see what it was all about. Making the account was super simple. I didn't have to add any personal information and I could choose who I wanted to follow and things I wanted to follow. I like the concept of circles, because that is one thing about Facebook I'm not too fond of, is having everyone lumped together.

I found the article, comparing Facebook to Google+, very interesting. I was surprised to see the number of people who said that they were going to ditch Facebook for Google+. So far I have not seen that with my friends. When Google+ first opened last summer, there was little to no buzz about it from any of my friends. Out of the 888 friends I have on Facebook, I found less than 20 that are actually on Google+.

I do agree that Facebook privacy was an issue when Google+ first came out. However, as result Facebook has made major changes in the privacy department.

Facebook also made other changes when Google+ came out. When trying the Google+ "Hang out" option, I found it was very similar to the video chat option on Facebook. The only difference is that the "Hang out" option allows more people to chat at once, which I think is more useful. You can "Hang out" with individual people or whole circles. That would be perfect for chatting with family members who are far apart of with groups for projects!

Google+ was a good idea in theory, however I haven't seen it take off the way that Facebook did. Granted the platform is still relatively new, however I don't think at this point it is good enough to compete with the empire that is Facebook and I don't see myself switching over anytime soon.