Wordle.net is a website that allows users to easily create 'word clouds.' A word cloud is a bunch of text that is based on the inputted words and how frequently they are used. The more they are used, the bigger the words will be in the word cloud. For example, if the input is 'apple apple apple banana banana grape,' 'apple'would be the biggest word, followed by 'banana' then 'grape.' You can customize your wordle by changing the direction the words go in, the fonts, and the colors. There's also an option to weight words and color them by how you want them [under 'Advanced']. Wordle is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license, so anyone can use their created wordle or any wordle on the site for any purpose [even to make money!] You just have to give credit to the site.
Wordle, I don't think, has much use in psychology [unfortunately]. It's a really cool site and I love it, but it doesn't have much of a practical use in psychology. Maybe if someone was doing a presentation, a wordle could be a cool compliment to a poster or opening to a slideshow. As for personal use, I would definitely use Wordle is my every day life. I like taking random web pages and making wordles, or using my friends's blogs and making wordles for them.
Here's an example of a wordle of this blog [including this entry!]
Distance education is not a new concept, and is dated back to 1728 and the University of London, the first university to give out distance degrees. Distance education allows people who are not physically present with an instructor and/or a learning facility take classes. The most popular form of distance education today is online. Even this class is a hybrid of an online/in classroom class. Distance education makes it possible to earn a degree without ever stepping into a classroom, and is a great alternative for those with a busy schedule. Distance education is also good where educational resources [such as teachers, books, classrooms] are scare, say in thrid world countries. All kids need to be learning is a computer and internet access. Distance education and degrees earned online are becoming more popular, but because of this, people must watch out for diploma mills. These mills scam people by making them pay thousands of dollars for a fake diploma, and the people are never aware. Especially online, people need to be careful, and make sure they sign up with a creditable college or university.
I think that distance education is great example of taking advantage of the internet. I think it's a great alternative for any one who wants to continue or go back to school, no matter what major. For me personally, there are quite a few options for receiving a Masters of Ph.D. in different fields of psychology, and these programs are definitely an option for me, especially if I can get a job right out of college, but would like to earn a higher degree.
Here's a link to GetEducated.com. This website is an awesome compilation of online programs for college degrees. You can search by subject, school, type of degree, etc. They provide the latest news in online education, as well as what to look out for when signing up for schooling [ie. detecting diploma mills].
Open source software is a popular idea on the rise. Open source software is software who's code is public domain, and can be edited in any way by anyone [that knows how!]. Almost everyone has heard of open source software, but may not recognize that it's 'open source.' The browser Mozilla Firefox is one of the most well-known examples of open source software. Another big example is the operating system Linux. Open source software provides great, free alternatives to software that you otherwise would have to pay for. For instance, instead of buying Microsoft Office, or Adobe Photoshop, you could download Open Office or Glimp as free alternatives. Although they may not be as good as their licensed opposites, they're a nice alternative. Another down side to open source software is that there's no company to go to if you have questions, or if your software isn't functioning correctly. But, there are plenty of forums where people and program writers can help each other out, and try to solve issues.
Open source software is another one of those things that it's good to be aware of. From a business prospective from any major, if you're on a tight budget, but need certain kinds of software, open source software may be the perfect option [because nothing is better than free]. Especially when open source software is comparable to it's counterpart, more and more people are turning to use and take advantage of it, even in every day use.
Here's a link to SourceForge, a website dedicated to the downloading of free, open source software. The next time you see a program you like, try looking for a free alternative on this website - you may be surprised what you find!
Social Bookmarking allows us to take one of our favorite browser tools and make it public. Social Bookmarking offers a way for people to share their bookmarks, mainly through websites such as Delicious. It works on a 'tag' system, in which people associate certain words or phrases with each link or resource. This is the organizational system in which people search through bookmarks. An advantage to this is that humans have a better understanding of concepts of a page, vs. a computer trying to pick out key words to use to describe a website. The words picked out by humans may be better at describing what the website is about, and therefore easier to find what you're looking for. But, it's hard to make tags uniform. For example, someone may capitalize a word, or misspell a word, and they're not always included in the search.
Social Bookmarking is a useful tool, especially if you're collaborating with others. I could see tools such as Delicious being used in psychology, especially in research. If researchers are working together, but have a bunch of different online resources, social bookmarking allows them to easily share this information, and also allows a database to find similar or new websites.
Here is a link to delicious.com. You can sign up through the site or through your Yahoo account, and start bookmarking. Delicious offers a button to install on your browser to easily and quickly bookmark sites you're on.
Cloud Computing is a fairly new concept, and one that is rapidly growing. Cloud Computing offers and alternative to having your own hardware to store information, and instead allows info to be sent to a 'cloud.' A 'cloud' is actually machinery that is stored in warehouses around the world. The information that you save on the internet [for example, like in Google Docs] is stored in these 'clouds,' and could be sent anywhere, to any server in any location. What's good about this is that no matter what computer you log on to, you can access your account and information via the web; as long as you have internet connection, you can access your information. Cloud Computing also offers alternatives for say, small businesses. If businesses can't afford or don't want to pay for expensive processors to uphold their website etc, they can use Cloud Computing, and only pay for what they use. The downside to Cloud Computing is that there's no backup system. If the servers or any part connected to the servers goes down, all information could be lost, and there's no way to get it back. When we save stuff on the internet, we don't really think about where it's going, and what we would do if we couldn't get it back. That's why, for now, Cloud Computing could not replace having hard copies of files on personal hard drives.
I think Cloud Computing is something everyone should be aware of. Especially when the internet is such a huge resource is our lives, it's important to know what's going on with your information, whether you're a psychology major or a business major. Cloud Computing should not only be known for professional reasons, but for personal reasons too. I'm sure that a majority of us use cloud computing via email, and we didn't even know!
Here is a video from www.youtube.com from user HighT3chDad on September 29, 2008. It's a nice video summing up and answering the question, "What is Cloud Computing?"
I'm glad that there are tools for concept mapping, because making them on Microsoft Word was annoying! Tools like webspiration and bubbl.us are pretty nifty sites that allows users to make quick concept maps or flowcharts easily. They provide many customizable options to make creations neat and professional-looking. I'm not too much of a visual learner, but flow charts are very common in the business world, and these tools makes it even more efficient to create one. I can also see these tools being useful to creative professionals, such as writers, to map out a story, or map out what they want to write about next. Concept maps can make their appearance as an everyday use organizational tool.
