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Please check out my comment on Marcia's blog

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Please follow this link to my comment on Kristi's blog

BP9_20100603_Web 2.0T3-Nuospace

Nuospace is a web 2.0-wiki tool for any type of business. Although my last tool had a wiki element in its contents, I would like to try several to see which is the user-friendliest and can be incorporated to fit the needs of my AR project and work department. Neospace comes in two forms: a hosted service available of the web and as standalone software to download. Aside from sharing knowledge via wiki, users can also share documents, manage documents, and have discussions and blog. What I found that I like is how easy it is to add content, how a history of previous versions is available, how email notifications are sent when updates are made, and most importantly how pages can be printed in PDF format. What I was not happy with is the fact that content can only be in the form of text. The document management tool was very useful. Revisions to documents can be approved or rejected, files can be locked from users, and comments can be visible on the document so that you can see if pending changes are taking place. Overall this web 2.0 tool seems very easy to use and has just about all components that I am looking for to complete my AR project. The cost is free for the basic edition, 5 users or less with 1Gb of space. The cost then goes up from there all the way to $599 if you are a very large corporation. If this tool is of interest to you, check it out at http://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=Nuospace.

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Please check out my comment of Jason's post at BP4_2010061_Web_2.0_Tool

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Check out my comment on Scott Mixon's blog at BP3_2010061_Web 2.0 T1 - Google Maps/Earth

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Cyn.in is a Web 2.0 tool used for business of all sizes who wish to collaborate on knowledge and communicate more efficiently. There are three versions of this tool to choose from; On Demand and On Premise are downloadable for a fee and the community version is free. Once a member, businesses are able to blog, have live discussions, store files, share calendar events and images, or create a wiki. I thought this tool would be a perfect practice tool for the wiki I am working on for my Action Research project. A WYSIWYG content editor takes the content you wish to put in your wiki and formats it for you. For someone who is unfamiliar with creating a wiki, I think this is a real attraction. The File Repository is also a great feature offered on Cyn.in, Documents, spreadsheets, media, or files are securely stored and indexed. Access privileges can be controlled for the space or for individual files, which is perfect for my needs. Since some much of the information I work with contains individual’s personal information, it must be handled safely. Another great feature I found while touring the Cyn-in tool is the scheduled Publishing $ Expiry. This is a feature that will publish and expire content at predefined times. In my work, policies and procedures for many types of aid are changed every July when the new Federal Aid year begins. Being able to expire and archive documents when the new policies are set to come out would save and enormous amount of time and effort. There was no end it seemed to what this tool could do for businesses and I am very happy that I came across it. Check it out for yourself at http://www.cynapse.com/cynin/features.

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I have found a Web 2.0 tool that I believe will help me in my current career. Harvest Co-op is a communication tool that allows co-worker to stay organized and informed without having to interrupt their work day. The set up for this tool was very simple, I simply created a group name and added the email addresses of my co-workers. Once implemented there are several features that are available to help everyone stay on the same page at work. The worksteam displays status updates and the time entries from everyone on the team. This tool serves as a work log of what was accomplish for the day. The watercooler serves to keep workers connected. There is a built in time tracker where you can start and stop by the click of a button. On the right side is a daily agenda. This is where team members can add what they are working on today and you can update your own or view those of your co-workers.The Team Status is a single glance of the last status update of everyone on the team. In a work place where my team is always trying to catch up and changes are happening daily to how our job is done, this tool will be great for keeping all members updated with the lasted updates to our procedures and a timeline for past status changes. It will also be useful in keeping everyone working within a timeline so that tasks can be completed more efficiently.

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I have worked in the financial aid office of Full Sail for over five years now and the one thing that I have come to learn is that the job is always changing. I decided that google reader would be a great way of keeping up with the latest updates from sites that I deal with most in the financial aid world.

The first RSS feed I subscribed to was Full Sail University blog. It is important that i know what is going on around our campus, when new degree programs are launched, and what are students are doing. The second RSS feed was the Department of Education. All regulations that we have to understand and implement come from the Department of Ed so it is important to know what is changing on the government side. The third RSS feed was NASFAA, this stands for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. NASFAA is the link that helps financial aid professionals stay up to date with the changes to the industry and legislature. IFAP is the fourth RSS feed I subscribed to. The Federal Student Aid website is essential to my job and the policies and procedures Full Sail has in my department. Lastly I subscribed to Apple Tutorials, I have found that the more educated I am about the tools I use to access all this information the easier it is to get the job done.

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Blogs are becoming a powerful learning tool in the world of education. Teaching professionals are finding that using blogs allow students to become a part of the learning experience and that they promote debate and conversation more than typical lectures. Communication becomes much more immediate and accessible.

Educators in grade school are using online learning environments to post their course material, deliver assignments, and post feedback. Parents now have a place to go and find out what their child is learning, assignments due, and how student is doing in class. Students are learning at a young age to post discussions about topics assigned and give feedback to classmate's posts. As our society becomes more tech savvy it is important for children to learn at an early age how to use the online tools that are available.

At the college level, using blogs allows for students to research their interests of study, collaborate with others, and promote the work they are most proud of. Blogs give students a network of people who are have similar interest and through posts they are learning from each other as opposed to just what is being presented in class.

I think what is most exciting about the use of personal learning environments, blogs, and online sharing is how it can change the perception of learning. When you are in control of the information you are receiving and able to voice opinions on a topic in real time it is less like work and more like enhancing oneself.

Flieri, Renee & Flowler, Heather. (2007, Nov 1). Educational uses of blogs and wikis. Access my library. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-33449705_ITM

Dell, Diana. (n.d). Educational uses for blogs and tags. Slideshare. Retrieved June 4, 2010, http://www.slideshare.net/sqoolmaster/educational-uses-of-blogs-and-tags-234136 from

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