how to embed a photo

so what’s the difference between posting a photo and embedding a photo?

posting a photo is just putting a photo in from your computer. click the upload/insert button just above the text box when making a new blog post and upload the photo from your computer. like this one

 

to embed a photo, get the link of the website where you’ve gotten the image from and in this little line of code in place of “URL”: <img src=”URL”> like below.

<img src=http://imgs.tuts.dragoart.com/how-to-draw-pikachu-gangnam-style_1_000000013943_5.png>

if it doesn’t work (like it didn’t for me the first time i tried) go to the HTML tab (not the visual one) and make sure that the start of your link is a < not &lt; and the end is a >  not a &gt; and you should be good to go :D.

and there you have it.

and now you also have pikachu doing gangnam style

unlecture or lecture?

so, according to our most recent “unlecture”, a lot of people have not been enjoying this subject. i don’t know why, i think it’s great. the only thing that i haven’t enjoyed so far was the lecture this week. not only was it going backwards on the notion of having “unlectures”, but it literally felt like adrian was giving us a lecture on our dissatisfaction with the way this subject is structured. all stemming from that question people have been asking: “why should i go to the lectures if they are unnecessary?”. but the lectures are necessary. they are our way of communicating with the subject and the tutors. our way of having our questions answered.  but it’s also a way of learning for us. if we only ever do things that are necessary, we will never get anywhere. to progress in life and in media especially, we need to do the things that are unnecessary in order to excel in whatever it is that we want to do. the point’s of uni is to understand not just yes or no but “why”  but we will never see why if we don’t try (that sounded so corny but still).

the other things that adrian discussed was how the problem people are having with this subject is that they are simply too used to the teaching and learning methods of VCE and most other uni courses (i assume, this is the only uni course i’ve ever done, but i assume stuff like med or engineering is nothing like this). rather than an inherent structure of the course, we obtain structure through practice. we grow our skills and our knowledge by participating and contributing and asking questions. as adrian said, “the scaffolding of VCE is gone” and some people’s strength is in structure and order. it doesn’t mean they are dumb or that the subject is wrong, it just means that this method doesn’t necessarily suit them. but there’s nothing wrong with that, we are all different. if we were all the same, there would be no network. and if there was no network, there would be no subject.

my one criticism is not being able to use laptops during the lectures. i’ve found the stuff that we’ve been told in these three lectures to be the most important stuff that we have been learning so far this year. this is life lesson kind of stuff, not knowledge you’ll use in a one-off scenario kind of stuff. and i like to write down important stuff like that. because i am a better learner when i’m reading than when i’m listening. so if i’m taking down notes, then i’ll be taking in the info. and when i’m trying to write in a little notebook, my notes become illegible. but that’s not a problem with the subject or it’s structure. i’m really enjoying networked media.

iPads in 1968?

one of the readings this week was about design fiction. what is design fiction you ask? i’m still not entirely sure of a full and proper definition but here’s the one given in the interview: “It’s the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change. That’s the best definition we’ve come up with. ” (the interview blog can be found here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/03/02/bruce_sterling_on_design_fictions_.html).

kinda confusing but as i continued reading i began to understand a bit more (just a bit). that design fiction is creating things that we don’t have. kinda. i know what i mean. i just can’t really get it into words.like a prototype for something that hasn’t been made yet. like the hover boards in back to the future 2 (which i’m still very upset that we don’t have yet, btw. even if it did struggle over water).

what i don’t get is whether design fiction is supposed to simply remain just that, fiction, or whether it’s to be used as a method for innovation and the creation of new technologies. like that “a day made of glass” video that was featured in the post. is it made purely as fiction, for people to watch and wish for, or as something that will hopefully become a reality one day? coz that glass stuff was cool. although you’d probably get a bit sick of everything being see through all the time. that world was very bright. but all the intense touch screen stuff was great.

one of the other things mentioned in the article as design fiction   was the apparent iPad’s that can be seen in the 1968 movie “2001: a space odyssey”. for one, those didn’t really look too much like iPads.they were just big square things that were showing a video. although i guess that’s essentially what an iPad is. but there’s been stuff like that in every sci-fi show you can see on tv. star trek has a bunch of technology that didn’t exist when the show was made. (kudos to arthur. i got that great star trek meme from his blog. loved it so much i wanted to include it in mine too).

another example that came to mind was the thunderbirds. another old sci-fi show, thunderbirds had a bunch of awesome technology, some of which actually exists now today that didn’t back then – such as sliding doors (no not the movie, i mean doors that open when someone approaches them). no, we still don’t have those awesome hovercraft things that they used to cut that family out of the burning building, but maybe one day we will. i think that is the point of design fiction. innovative thinking and use of media and technologies to create things that we used to only be ably to dream about. and who knows, maybe one day soon we’ll all be moving about on hover boards, wearing shoes that tie their own laces and jackets that dry us off if we happen to fall into a lake because the hover board couldn’t get us across.

 

how to have a class discussion

so, the second networked media class has come and gone and what have i learnt?

that i’m not a very good listener. and i have a very short attention span. i was always a better reader anyway.

but when we’re asked to sit down in pairs or threes and discuss the answer to a given question, it shouldn’t be so hard…right? i guess not if you know the question. but i seem to have the terrible trait of tuning out at precisely the wrong moments. i have to get that fixed. so the majority of what i learnt in class discussions was that my discussion buddy and i share vary similar tastes in television shows. (who else here misses lost? anyone?)

but, despite my inherent lack of listening skills, i did manage to pick up on some stuff during the class (thankfully because i typed down anything elliot or my other peeps said because it was a lot more useful than what i was saying) but the main point i have is… i still don’t actually know what “networked media” is! so far the last two classes and “unlectures” have predominantly been about the blogs. “what is a blog?”, “what can we put in our blog?”, “why do we blog”, but thats just an assignment (yes, i know it’s important in the whole scheme of everything) and i still want to know… what actually is this subject?

all i got in class was “networked media is not necessarily social media”. ok, so now i know what it’s not. can someone please tell me what it is? i guess i’m single loop learning again here, just waiting for someone to give me an answer. ok, lets double loop it up. to be honest, i’m still not even sure that i get the looped learning thing. elliot explained that “Double loop learning involves questioning the assumptions that you make about the process and in doing, so renegotiate the task based on what you’ve renegotiated about the process.”.

we did have some interesting discussions on the blogs though in class. what i really liked was how elliot described the blogs as “cataloguing our thinking”. its similar to what was discussed in the previous unlecture about our blogs being ours. we are creating an online persona/identity, something which is vital in todays technological society. also interesting was when someone (sorry, i don’t remember who!) brought up the concept of consumption vs. production – our blogs are a way of us contributing to the online world, putting our voices out there to be heard.

this is going too long again. i’m still not getting the hang of short posts. i tend to write a lot, as i’m sure all those millions of people probably not even aware that my blog exists have now figured out. so one final thing from class that i liked.

i don’t really remember how we got onto the topic (me tuning out again!) but i think it was around the time when someone asked what is the network? elliot responded with this cool little bit of info about “web 1.0, web 2.0 and web 3.0” as elliot explained:

“Web 1.0 – any kind of technology that allows any user to post any kind of info (early internet)

Web 2.0 – info getting pumped in to online space – info must be categorised and organised eg. Google (analyse amount of links to a page and quality of content within that page)

Web 3.0 – streamlining content towards specific users. Adapts its content in a way that is specific towards a user – advertising. Eg. Amazon will recommend products based on previous purchases.”

i don’t know what this info really had to do with networks except, like, online info and stuff, but it was really interesting so i do hope to use it someday.

Why do we blog?

now that i have a couple of posts under my belt (metaphorically, i don’t actually have any belts), i can start to try and decipher what actually is a blog and why do we use it?

one point that i found really interesting is when adrian mentioned in the first “unlecture” that essay writing becomes so commonplace in secondary and tertiary school that no one ever questions why they have to write another essay but will always question why they have to keep another blog. especially because, as adrian said, after university, we will never write another essay. but chances are we will keep a blog of some sort. even the journals we used last semester we didn’t question. i did like the journals because, as i’ve mentioned before, i love print. but having started this blog i am loving it. its just so much easier and simpler and a far more productive way of getting my thoughts and ideas out. with my journal i would think carefully about everything i would write or stick in. but on a blog you can write so much more freely. and of course there’s the option of going back and editing something. there’s really only so much white out can do.

the freedom as well as a huge factor to the success of blogs. we can write about anything. of course, some stuff must and should be about the course and various readings but aside from that we have a free reign to discuss anything. and i can guarantee all of you that there will be a post from me about Pokemon in the future. but just try and compare keeping a blog to writing an essay. even the language is different. no need to worry about grammar or spelling (which is lucky because my spelling is pretty atrocious) or academic references. and in the end, we’ve written so much more than we will in a couple of essays spread throughout a semester. but it doesn’t feel like it, and thats the beauty of it!

but the bigger picture of the blog, as adrian discussed in the reading and the second “unlecture” is that once it’s posted, it’s out there. for good. anyone can read and someone will. the internet is forever. which, in a sense, is kinda scary. but what i really liked is how our content is truly ours. i have written this post and published it and it is mine. its that sense of ownership that makes the blog so important and valuable.

the internet has changed everything. how people go about their lives. how information is communicated. the list could go on for ages. and now we are out there. adrian said in the lecture that within a couple of weeks of having started this blog, we should be able to google ourselves and we would be hit number one. now for me i never thought this would happen. my last name being Midler, whenever i searched my name, the top 50 posts at least would be about Bette Midler and some random woman she knows called lauren. i tried earlier this year and same result. but tonight i hit up the google once again and was very pleasantly surprised to see myself as hits 1-6. granted, none of them were about this blog but just to see myself up there on google is something i had always dreamed of as a little girl who thought it would never be possible because of famous bette midler. the internet is growing and i’m excited to see where it takes us next.

loops, loops and more loops

this week’s reading discussed Chris Argyris (and some other guy called Shön who was only mentioned half the time but seemed important) theory on different modes of learning.

there were single loops, double loops, modes 1 and 2, something called a “theory in use” and various learning agents. right now my brain is feeling pretty loopy. even after leaving till the next day, printing it out and attacking it with my highlighter, i got about three quarters of the way through this article when my brain just said “NO!”. those were some pretty heavy concepts and theories in there and i just kept thinking to myself “i am soooo single loop learning right now”, and i don’t even know if that’s right!

what i did gather from the article was that single loop learning was simple “error detected – error corrected” by just seeing what is wrong and fixing it. double loop learning (assumedly the better and more in depth way to learn) involved rethinking about the parameters of the problem itself, and changing not just the error but the way we see and do things in the system as a whole. but i’m not sure. it was pretty complex. to be honest, i used dani’s summary of this reading to help me understand it because i respond far better to the familiar vernacular of a fellow peer than that of some fancy academic article. so thank you dani, you were of great help.

in a way i kind of  see these looped learning as how this course has been aiming to get us to learn. single loop learning is that of school or other university courses where you are given information and any errors are easily corrected (generally for you by a teacher) – thats the simple learning. that’s the “know-what”. but then we have double loop learning which is like this unit (and our course in general) which is where we have to do the learning for ourselves, work out what is wrong and why and reshape how we act before we can proceed. thats how you get the “know-how”.

i’m probs way off the mark right now but i feel like i’ve learnt something and that’s all that really matters…right?

Learning – Day vs. Night

so, i’m sitting here, at my lovely new mac computer (yes, i caved in. i’m a P.C lover at heart but i have to admit, this mac is pretty good. i did it for the editing software. and my old laptop took 30 minutes to start up, by which time i probably didn’t even need it anymore. anyway, back to the post) and it’s just passed into wednesday morning and i just cannot get through this reading.
i don’t know what it is, because generally i work much better at night. my friends think i’m crazy but lets be honest, i would much rather stay up till 2 am (ok, lets be realistic here, 1 at the latest) to do work rather than ever get up early (and yes, when i say early i mean before 9, sometimes 10). i’m a night owl. it must be genetic because my dad is the same (my mum on the other hand, in bed by 9 and up by 7, the horror!).
but it’s true, no matter how desperate the work is, i just can never bring myself to get up early to do it. yes, this does often leave me in a it of a manic rush to get assignments done and was a major problem during high school when i had a parentally enforced bedtime (yes, parentally is now a word) but i just work better at night.
but not right now. i just cant get through these readings (i probably have left it bit late). i think my problem is i still live in a print world. i love paper. i love books. i miss writing notes in a textbook (although i don’t miss trying to decipher my shocking handwriting) and i miss highlighting things. i really miss highlighting things. i used to crack out all ten different highlighter colours for every assignment and just highlight everything because it looked pretty.

and so now my brain just cant deal with a lump of   smart sounding words presented to me on a bright screen which i can’t draw on in a bright yellow texter. this is the internet, i’m used to “had a pie today! tasty” or “OMG!!! game of thrones! OMG!!!” but not stuff i actually need to take in. i guess as far as readings go, i’m gonna have to head back to the dreaded olden days and print these out. speaking of which, i absolutely loved that article adrian posted about print dying – http://theonion.com/articles/print-dead-at-1803,33244/?ref=auto
but i will never give up my books. sitting just underneath my beloved tv boxsets, they are all my babies (bit too creepy?).

well, this stemmed pretty far from my original idea for this blog. i tend to write a lot, not sure if thats a good or bad thing here. i think blogs are meant to be short. i guess my brain thinks more at night. i’ll have to start writing these during the day, while i’m printing out the readings.
i should stop now. i’m gonna stop. now. goodnight.

The “Unlecture”

well, guess i’d better start somewhere.
yes, i left this until ridiculously late. so late in fact that most stuff from our first unlecture has been pushed out of my brain by the second one that we just had today. But, there is a reason for the delay (even though it is a bit silly) and that is that blogging scares me.
i don’t know why. i live in a world were i post random crap (pardon my language) online all the time about trivial things in my life. so why should blogging scare me? i guess for me it’s just new. and in the unlecture where we were told just a lot about blogging and unorthodox learning and “unlecutres” i guess i just freaked out a little bit, crawled up into my squirtle shell and hid away for a week.
but now i’m here! and its not so scary. granted, it is almost midnight and my desktop background is threatening to change over once the clock strikes 12 (who knows what it’ll be next?!?!), but i’m writing and it doesn’t seem too hard.
so, what was the unlecture?
nothing i was ever prepared for or thought about when i had planned for uni. i guess we get so used to the learning methods in high school – “here is all the info you need to know, now go and memorise”. and lucky for me i have a very good memory. that system worked for me. so getting thrown into this whole new way of learning – “active learning” – is new and exciting. and it’s what we need. as adrian said we need the “know-how” not the “know-what”. i came to the first “unlecture with my laptop open on a blank page, ready to write down all that important info we would be told but left with an empty page but all new ideas. the empty pages are for the “know-what” but anyone can find the “know-what”. that’s what the internet is for. i really liked that idea of the “know-how”, it’s opened a whole new door for me. i guess i was looking at uni the wrong way so thank you networked media. time for a new semester

omg, can’t believe i just wrote a blog post. feeling so proud right now 😀