moodle

          Moodle is an open-sourced virtual learning environment. It is more than simply an online space for sharing files. It can be used to support more collaborative, social styles of learning and teaching. Moodle is provided freely as Open Source software (under the GNU General Public License). Basically this means Moodle is copyrighted, but that you have additional freedoms. You are allowed to copy, use and modify Moodle provided that you agree to: provide the source to others; not modify or remove the original license and copyrights, and apply this same license to any derivative work. It provides all the sophisticated high level functionality of an educational CMS and more – and there are no license fees. It is designed to create opportunities for rich interaction between teachers and learners. It has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students. You can access Moodle through any web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari) on any internet-connected computer or device such as an iPad. Moodle offers a range of connected online tools that individuals, and groups, can use for a variety of purposes. Through Moodle, educators can: Upload video, audio and links relevant to a lesson, Engage students in a discussion forum, Guide a real-time discussion or “chat”, Create, conduct and grade quizzes, Prompt students with survey questions, Post classroom blogs, Create and maintain a classroom glossary related to a lesson, Assign, collect, review and grade assignments, and Work collaboratively on a classroom wiki or group-edited document.


This program doesn't cost anything. Its free and also it can be access through any web browser or can be download.This program is easy to understand and also their is demonstration sites which enable us to explore Moodle as a teacher, student or even an administrator. And we don't even need to worry about making a mess, as both sites are reset to a clean state every hour. Teachers love this website and one of my teachers actually used it so she could share handouts with us online. 

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This video explains how you can use moodle in the classroom

Gmail phone app

        This is the gmail phone app on iPhone  android and Motorola. This is for people who are constantly moving and don't have time to sit down on a computer and check their email. As you can probably tell by the name, this application is only useful for people who have gmail. I know that on the iphone there is the mail app that comes with the phone and you don't have to download it. I think that application is more useful for people who have a hotmail or yahoo account. It is too hard to use for the gmail user. It is not user friendly, while the gmail app is very easy to understand. When you initially get the app, you will have to put you account in and sign in but after that there is no signing or logging back on. You will constantly get updates if you get an email. On this app, you can check you inbox, sent mail, trash and do everything that you could do on the computer. 

        People have great things to say about gmail but there are still some complaints which you can read about here. This application does not cost anything in the apple app store nor the google play store or any other phone. This information technology is very easy to understand and is very user friendly. This technology is definitely ready for the next generation of learners because they don't have that much time to sit on the computer just to check their email. I would recommend this app to anyone who has a smartphone. 

   

Google Screen Capture

                      Google Screen Capture

           Google Screen capture is a screen capturing technology on Google chrome which can capture the whole page or part of a page depending on which option you choose. If you press the option that says capture visible region, it will capture the part that is visible on your screen. This information technology is really useful for of people who need to show evidence of something on the web. You can easily capture anything. There is also snipping tool which is a screen capturing technology but it will not scroll down if you are trying to capture the whole page. There is also print screen, but that also has the same problem as snipping tool. Those technologies would be good for using outside of chrome. If you are on Google chrome, the screen capturing technology is the best out of everything. In this technology, you can easily blur out or highlight any part of the page if you like. 

Here are some screen captures I took using google screen capture 

Everybody I ask says that Google screen capture is the best screen capturing technology that they have ever used. You can read the full review here if you are interested in getting screen capture. It shouldn't hurt to try it out if you have a Google account and Google chrome. You can download this from the Google extensions and it is absolutely free. If you don't like this technology, you can delete or disable the extension from Google chrome extensions. This information technology was created so that screen capturing could become really easy. This information technology is very easy to understand and download. You can share your screen shots on social media websites such as facebook. I would definitely recommend this technology to all Google chrome users because it is the best screen capturing technology I've ever seen. 

Here is a video which explains how to download and use Google screen capture.

Netflix

Summary

              Netflix is an american provider of on demand and internet streaming which is available in north and south america, the Caribbean, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. When netflix was established, it started out as a dvd and cd distributing company that was based on subscriptions. You still have to have a subscription but nowadays people buy this for their ability to stream videos. There are more than 36.3 million subscribers on netflix. 29.2 million of which are in the united states. We can watch T.V shows and movies online with netflix for just $7.99 a month.

Opinion/Evaluation/Reflection

         People have great things to say about netflix. You can go on this website to find out what people have to say about this information technology(Netflix review). My information technology costs $7.99 a month for unlimited usage and also you can get a free trial before actually buying netflix. This information technology is already in some other format which is dvds and cds but nowadays, most of their customers are for online usage of netflix. Netflix is very easy to understand because it offers audio visual aids everywhere. You can even look up how to use netflix and a lot of links will come up. You can take advantage of this technology for entertainment or even education by watching educational videos. 

                                                "What is netflix?" video

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix

 

Youtube

 Summary

        Youtube is a website, information technology, app or whatever you want to call it because it comes in all forms. Youtube is everywhere. Everywhere you look, you see youtube. This information technology is a video sharing website or app that anyone can upload their videos on to. There is a lot of content on this website. We can use it for any purpose we like to use it for. There are educational, entertainment, short movie clips, trailers, music videos and much more. There are people that video blog on youtube which means that they make a video of themselves and what they do in their day to day lives. If you like something that is interesting on youtube, you can subscribe to that channel and watch more of  their videos. The thing I love about youtube is that almost all the previous posts of mine have youtube videos to explain the other technologies. The first video ever put up on youtube was called "Me at the zoo". It was made by one of the co founders of youtube.

Opinion/Reflection/Evaluation

          People love this app! It's plain and simple. This app is part of everyday life now. A lot of the people that I know use this website instead of watching TV. The great thing about this technology is that you can use it in many different ways such as to improve gaming, writing or if you're stuck in a math problem, maybe youtube can help.

This app was first made because the founders of this website were having trouble sharing videos with each other so they came up with this idea. This information technology is absolutely free.This website is very user friendly. The first time you go one it, you will find out how to use it. This website is absolutely ready for the next generation of learners. A lot of people will get help from this website. It's been around for 8 years but it has great days to come. I would definitely recommend this piece of information technology to everybody I know. Everybody should use this!

Sparknotes

Summary

       Sparknotes is a website that originally started up as a study guide for literature, poetry, history, film and philosophy by four harvard students; Sam Yagan, Max Krohn, Chris Coyne and Eli Bolotin in 1999. Later on it got more subjects such as math, health,  physics, biology, chemistry, economics and sociology.Barnes and noble bought sparknotes in 2001 for approximately $3, 555, 000. At the start sparknotes was part of a website called "the spark", but later it started printing literature study guides called "sparknotes" which would help students study for upcoming tests and exams. Then it expanded into a website. Sparknotes also has something called test prep which prepares you for the major tests such as the SAT and ACT. It also has something called "No fear Shakespeare which has the major Shakespeare plays translated into modern english." There is also video sparknotes which explain the major Shakespeare titles and novels studied in class. Sparknotes makes its revenue from ads on their page and people buying "sparknotes to go". There is also a mobile app for sparknotes which does not include "No Fear". 

                                              "Example of a video sparknote"

Opinion/Evaluation/Reflection 

               People have a lot of interesting things to say about sparknotes. They are mostly good because of the ease it provides in studying for almost any subject in school especially literature. (Sparknotes Studyguide Review), This is a link to a website the reviews study guide websites and sparknotes has a pretty good review on it. I recommend that you guys go and read this review. Sparknotes does not cost anything at all except if you want to buy sparknotes to go which is in book form. The online version and the app version of sparknotes are absolutely free. This app is very educational even for people who are just looking to get knowledge. This information technology was created so that high school and upper level students could easily get access to study guides and prepare for tests and exams. Sparknotes has made me become a better English student by studying the "no fear" and saprknotes summaries of shakespeare plays. This information technology has high hopes for the future students and could expand their services to other mobile services such as windows phone. I would definitely recommend this information technology to any high school or upper level student. I am living proof of a student that was made better because of sparknotes. 

Sources:

Myselfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SparkNotes

http://www.sparknotes.com/( A link to the website.)

                                

Facebook

Summary

          Facebook is an online social networking website that connects people from all around the world. Whether you are in Canada or in Pakistan, you can still chat, video chat, share pictures and videos with each other. You can basically do everything you ever wanted to do on facebook. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes in 2004 initially as thefacebook.com. Users can make an account on facebook.com for free. You have to add friends on this website and you can share photos and videos. This keeps on updating and you get a notification that a friend has added a picture or updated his or her status. You can also send and receive private messages from your friends. This is a great way to keep in contact with your family if you live far away. You can add friends and that will send your friend a friend a friend request which the other person can accept or deny. There is also a mobile version of this app. It is a little different than the computer version of it but with the user friendly layout of facebook, anybody can easily get through it easily. You can even organize groups or events on facebook, such as if you are having a party, at your house, instead of calling everybody, we can just create an event on facebook and easily invite our friends. 

                                                           "The facebook home page"

Opinion/Evaluation/Reflection 
          There are more than a billion users of this website and that says everything about facebook. Almost everybody know about this website and have great things to say about it. I have never heard a bad remark about this technology. Everybody loves to use it and at one point it was used more than even the great GOOGLE! Even though, it was just for one day, it says a lot about how much people love this website. This technology does not cost anything to use. Both the website and the mobile app are absolutely free. This information technology does not have a commercial free version because, that is the way these guys make money. They have commercials but they only give ads on your page according to your liking. This was created in the first place just for colleges and universities to use and for the students to get to know each other, but it expanded on for the world to use in 2005. This website has privacy settings that you can set yourself and those are very user friendly. This piece of information technology is definitely ready for the next generation to use and learn from. 

                                                          "A video explaining facebook"
Sources:
Myself
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook