This assignment looks at web browsers: What they are, what they do, , and which ones we use, and which ones are most popular.
Part 1: What is a browser?
A browser is a software program that allows your computer to access and interpret information on the Internet. Once simply a vehicle that simply displayed content, browsers now have many built-in features that purport to make your internet browsing experience faster, more productive, and more enjoyable. One of these features is a built-in search function. Chrome, made by Google, uses its own search function; others partner with search sites and embed them therein. For example, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer uses Bing for quick search. Another handy tool now standard in web browsers is the bookmark. You can save the links for the web pages you visit most often, either in a list or, as I prefer, on the toolbar itself, so that one click takes you to the site you want. The toolbar itself can be customized with everything from the bookmarks just mentioned to plug-ins, like Amazon’s “Wish List,” which will add an item from any site you are viewing to its user-created list on Amazon.com, and Evernote, which will take the information you select from any web page and copy it to be filed digitally as you choose.
Part 2: What browser do you use most often?
I use Mozilla Firefox 3.6 most often, mostly because I have been told by AUM computer folks that it is the most compatible browser with Blackboard, and I am taking most of my grad school classes online. It annoys me, though, that when people send me links or when I click on links from Twitter or Facebook, almost all of them open in Internet Explorer 8. I have bookmarks on Firefox, and they are updated from the bookmarks I had when I used IE on a regular basis. So this back-and-forth unnecessarily complicates things for me when I am working with the web.
Part 3: What are the 4 most popular browsers?
The four most popular browsers are Firefox, developed by Mozilla; Google’s Chrome browser; Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE); and Safari, which comes standard on Macintosh machines. According to June 2011 numbers, Firefox is the most popular of these four browsers with a market share of about 42 percent, while Safari has the smallest share, at just under 4 percent. Each of these browsers has held its share basically steady since at least the beginning of the year. But there are definite trends concerning the other two. IE began the year leading Chrome by about 2.5 percent, but Chrome overtook IE in April. It was just a matter of time until that occurred. Chrome has enjoyed 31 straight months of growth since November 2008, two months after its introduction. Conversely, since achieving its all-time market share high of 88 percent in March 2003, IE suffered the continual erosion of its dominance, staved only by a 0.4 percent increase in September 2010. The once-ubiquitous Internet Explorer is now the third most popular web browser, with a comparatively meager (and still shrinking) 23.2 percent market share.
Browser statistics taken from "Web Statistics and Trends," http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Assignment 8: School access to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites
Some schools do not allow students or teachers to access sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Explain why they are correct and give reasons/examples.
Schools are correct to restrict access to sites like Facebook and Twitter because they feature user-generated content that school administrators cannot control. Much of this content can be objectionable and even run afoul of school rules, but teacher and administrators cannot be held responsible for user-generated content. For example, almost every school has specific policies barring bullying in school. But administrators are powerless to block comments regarding individual students that might be construed as bullying. In addition to the content issue, students may be distracted from relevant lessons if they have access to Facebook or Twitter. Blocking these sites altogether is the only solution to maintain a positive student environment and student focus in school.
Some schools do not allow students or teachers to access sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Explain why they are wrong and give reasons/examples.
Schools are wrong to restrict access to sites like Facebook and Twitter because they are robbing their students of the world of constructive possibilities made possible by digital collaboration. Facebook allows students to collaborate in groups, and Twitter allows them to take advantage of opinions and news in real time. Modern education philosophy places great emphasis on students’ abilities to collaborate with others; social media, by its nature, encourages such collaboration. In addition, social media has the added benefit of offering collaboration on a digital platform, so it encourages students to use and master technical components that will be a large part of their success in adult life.
Schools are correct to restrict access to sites like Facebook and Twitter because they feature user-generated content that school administrators cannot control. Much of this content can be objectionable and even run afoul of school rules, but teacher and administrators cannot be held responsible for user-generated content. For example, almost every school has specific policies barring bullying in school. But administrators are powerless to block comments regarding individual students that might be construed as bullying. In addition to the content issue, students may be distracted from relevant lessons if they have access to Facebook or Twitter. Blocking these sites altogether is the only solution to maintain a positive student environment and student focus in school.
Some schools do not allow students or teachers to access sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Explain why they are wrong and give reasons/examples.
Schools are wrong to restrict access to sites like Facebook and Twitter because they are robbing their students of the world of constructive possibilities made possible by digital collaboration. Facebook allows students to collaborate in groups, and Twitter allows them to take advantage of opinions and news in real time. Modern education philosophy places great emphasis on students’ abilities to collaborate with others; social media, by its nature, encourages such collaboration. In addition, social media has the added benefit of offering collaboration on a digital platform, so it encourages students to use and master technical components that will be a large part of their success in adult life.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Assignment 7: Predict the future!
I think that in 50 years, cordless telephones will have gone the way of the typewriter or the manual television set.
When they were developed, cordless phones were liberating. Before they were on the market, if you wanted to make a phone call, you not only had to be in one place, but you had to stay there. Remember stretching those spiral cords as far as they would go? Or how about running back and forth if you wanted to change phones – leaving the phone off the hook in one room, running to the other room and taking the phone off the receiver, then running back to the first room and hanging up? Cordless phones freed callers of their need to be tethered to the wall. You could roam your house free of such worries as, “How long will it take me to coil this cord back?” – as long as you didn’t wander so far that the receiver lost touch with the base!
Of course, the phones’ range is not their only wart. Their batteries are their lifelines, and if they are left off their hooks, they quickly drain and lose their capacity to hold a charge. Anyone who has kids will tell you that there is nothing more frustrating than picking up a phone (when you finally find it, abandoned wherever your kids left it), trying to turn it on, and finding the battery dead. You might as well not have a phone at all.
And then there is the issue of beginning a call at home, chatting for a while, then having to leave. You have to cut the call short, either to call the person back later or from your cell phone. The cell phone is truly the liberating voice communication technology that cordless phones once purported to be.
In 50 years, it is highly likely not only that cordless phones will disappear, but also that land lines themselves – telephone wires into people’s homes – will become unnecessary. The internet is already providing voice communication services that replace the telephone. They offer flat-rate fees without all the add-ons that phone companies browbeat customers with. Skype even allows you to see who you’re talking to. Once people get comfortable with the internet as their conduit to the outside world for emergency purposes – 911 and alarm services – there will be no need to pay extra for landlines, and therefore no need for cordless phones.
When they were developed, cordless phones were liberating. Before they were on the market, if you wanted to make a phone call, you not only had to be in one place, but you had to stay there. Remember stretching those spiral cords as far as they would go? Or how about running back and forth if you wanted to change phones – leaving the phone off the hook in one room, running to the other room and taking the phone off the receiver, then running back to the first room and hanging up? Cordless phones freed callers of their need to be tethered to the wall. You could roam your house free of such worries as, “How long will it take me to coil this cord back?” – as long as you didn’t wander so far that the receiver lost touch with the base!
Of course, the phones’ range is not their only wart. Their batteries are their lifelines, and if they are left off their hooks, they quickly drain and lose their capacity to hold a charge. Anyone who has kids will tell you that there is nothing more frustrating than picking up a phone (when you finally find it, abandoned wherever your kids left it), trying to turn it on, and finding the battery dead. You might as well not have a phone at all.
And then there is the issue of beginning a call at home, chatting for a while, then having to leave. You have to cut the call short, either to call the person back later or from your cell phone. The cell phone is truly the liberating voice communication technology that cordless phones once purported to be.
In 50 years, it is highly likely not only that cordless phones will disappear, but also that land lines themselves – telephone wires into people’s homes – will become unnecessary. The internet is already providing voice communication services that replace the telephone. They offer flat-rate fees without all the add-ons that phone companies browbeat customers with. Skype even allows you to see who you’re talking to. Once people get comfortable with the internet as their conduit to the outside world for emergency purposes – 911 and alarm services – there will be no need to pay extra for landlines, and therefore no need for cordless phones.
Monday, June 13, 2011
First post
This is my blog for FNDS 6213, educational technology, one of three courses I am taking online for grad school this summer.
I look forward to sharing my work with my fellow students and seeing their work and their blogs, as well.
I look forward to sharing my work with my fellow students and seeing their work and their blogs, as well.
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