Content Blog 5: Blogging

A blog [from weblog] is a website that consists of regular entries, and these entries could consist of anything: personal stories or commentaries, descriptions of events or happenings, etc. in various forms of media [e.g. text, pictures, videos, etc.]  Blogging can be for personal use, business-based, or even for educational purposes [such as this one!]  There are a plethora of websites dedicated to blogging, such as livejournal.com, xanga.com, and blogger.com.  One of the best things about blogging is its versatility.  Anyone can make a blog for any purpose.  For example, someone may want to blog about all the local restaurants they've been to, and write reviews.  A business may want to keep their employees updated on things going on within the company.  A teacher may want their students to write their assignments on a blog.  Blogging opens up a whole new world of communication.

Blogging could definitely, and probably has, enhanced the world of psychology.  It's a great, quick and easy way to share information, both for giving and receiving.  Researchers could keep a log of their studies and share their results, or even just someone interested in psychology could update new findings in the field.  Blogs are easy to make and easy to follow.  Blogs can also be personal or professional, giving different dynamics to reading about or reading the writings of psychologists.

Here's a link to one of my favorite video blogs [vlogs] on youtube.com.  Her name is Michelle Phan, and she does makeup tutorials and makeup reviews.  She does her videos from home with her computer, and is the third watched guru on youtube.  I think that's pretty cool :]

Content Blog 4: Audio and Podcasting

Audio has been an important media element, and humans have been trying to record and improve the recording of audio for centuries.  In the last 20 years, the format of audio files have become smaller and smaller, mainly with the goal to be able to fit more songs on a portable mp3 device.  There are a handful of formats audio files can come in, for example, .wav or .aac.  The most common formats we see are .wma [Windows Media Audio] and .mp3[MPEG Layer-3 format].  Audio is useful if we want to enhance a presentation, or simply listen to our favorite song.
Podcasting [Personal On Demand broadCasting] is a new type of media that consists of web shows that are downloaded through web syndication, making this form of media unique.  Podcasts are portable, and are available to watch whenever and wherever you are [as long as you downloading all the available episodes!]  Also, anyone can create a podcast.  All you need is a a mic and/or a webcam, a computer, and a connection to the internet.  You can find podcasts of just about anything.

Podcasting, more than the knowledge of audio, could definitely be useful in psychology.  Podcasting opens up a whole new realm to communication and the way we share our information.  I'm sure there are plenty of psychologists or professionals in the field of psychology that have their own podcasts, or subscribe to other podcasts that informs them of thing such as current research.  Podcasting allows novices and distinguished members alike be on an equal playing field in distributing information.

Here's a link to a personal friend's podcast called "The Blender Show."  He [Ian Elsner] centers his show around the open source animation software Blender, as well as the abstract ideas of animation.

Content Blog 3: Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is quickly arising as popular tool both socially and in the business and educational world. Digital storytelling is fun and sometimes simpler way to make or illustrate stories or plots. There are a variety of applications that are available for our usage such as Animoto and Go Animate. Businesses can use digital storytelling in presentations, or even to make a new advertisement for their company. In schools, it can be used as a new way to present books, or to teach different elements of story telling, such as plot, theme, etc.

Unfortunately there is not much use for digital storytelling in psychology. Once again, having this knowledge and skills might come in handy for specific situations, but I don't feel like it's a great necessity to know for psychology. But, knowing about applications such as the above mentioned is cool to know for every day life, especially if you're in to photography or animation. Animoto makes it really easy to make professional-looking slideshows, and Go Animate allows anyone to easily create short animation clips.

Here's an example of the application Animoto.  It's a 30-second self-made project that tells a story of too many donuts.  Enjoy!

Content Blog 2: Photoshop

Oh man.  So, Photoshop is really cool.  This is the first time I've ever really used Photoshop, and I heart it. Adobe Photoshop is a photo-manipulation program that has gained widespread popularity, and a tool we see used in every day life. In class, we learned how to use basic tools in Photoshop.  We learned how to remove plain backgrounds from pictures, how to make layers, how to use the brush tool and render clouds, how to crop and transform pictures, and how to create ellipses and text.  It's almost hard to get used to because you have so much freedom to do whatever you want.  We also learned about how Photoshop is used in today's world, in both advertising and the news media.  We went over some famous photos that were altered or "photoshoped," and also looked at how some ad models were heavily changed with Photoshop.  I think Photoshop is a great tool, especially for the creative or those who want to be creative.  But, because of this program, we now must constantly question, "Was this photoshoped?"

As much as I like Photoshop, I'm not sure how much use the field of Psychology has for it.  I think having the skills though might come in handy in certain fields of psych or certain studies.  For example, if you're working with an advertising company, knowing the tools and capabilities of Photoshop may help in more successfully creating an ad.  Or, if a study calls for certain types of photos, one could create their own in Photoshop, or at least know how to alter an existing one.  Even though there aren't many opportunities for Photoshop to peek its head through in Psychology right now, I wouldn't be surprised if that changed in five to ten years.



Source: www.youtube.com from user alethorpe from website http://www.funpic.hu/funblog/allatok/allatok.html
This video demonstrates one of the many cool things you can do with Photoshop :]