Four-Picture Photoshop Editing (Comic-Movie Clip)

Above is the finished product of a compilation of four basic pictures that were edited using Adobe Photoshop CS3. Pictured were cropped, re-sized, enhanced using the basic techniques in photo editing. Additional background was used to provide a vegetation setting while extensively using  Photoshop capabilities to provide effects. The mini film clip is based on a popular Anime character named, Naruto, who possesses abilities using special hand techniques. Being displayed in the clip is Naruto's ability to clone himself several times while at the same time as if appearing to retain his same strength and powers.

Meaning of Education Technology

Meaning of Education Technology from Jose Florendo

Media Text: Choc Nut Challenge

       On a typical early Friday evening in a classroom at the end of the hall, fifteen students sit idly while earnestly listening to their professor’s lecture that started a few minutes pass 5pm. His talk began with a modest conversation about the track of the subject’s course outline and like in most cases these story-telling part of the class is always as lively as a boy who had a few chucks of chocolate for energy boosters. As he patiently stirred his steaming hot cup of coffee using the rolled-up coffee sachet (ingeniously creative – ‘ahem), catching a few glances here and there, he comically tells his bits of anecdotes, like stories posted on a timeline that are mostly a variety of opinions, principles and what-not’s in government, and nosy businesses and dirty politics. It was quite unpredicted action that ensue when he pulled out an item from among his things, turned to us with his eyes wide open staring over his glasses, ripped its packaging and readily shared its contents to everybody. And since he allows us to take any knick-knacks during his class, it was quite obvious that this was a treat to enjoy, and we sure did. We even have a laugh at it when one of us tried to slip what was left in the package in the other student’s bag which the teacher caught. A good laugh and Choc Nut is indeed a delight to share.

        Like your common Marca Pina Soy Sauce or a Datu Puti Suka, Choc Nut is a Filipino household name in the arena of sweet treats that almost loved by everybody by mere reputation. It is an undeniable fact that this Filipino couture of sorts, in the field of mainstream delicacies, is not even a full pledge chocolate in its own right, but, it has captured countless hearts and paletes.

       This magical little bar is popularly known as Choc-Nut. Its full product name is “King Choc Nut Peanut Milk Chocolate”. Quite a bit “corny” for a chocolate bar some might think, but once you’ve grabbed one and nibble on a bite, you’d quickly realize it’s not so silly after all, and that’s a guarantee.  King Choc Nut Peanut Milk Chocolates are manufactured and distributed by Annie’s Sweets Manufacturing and Packaging Corporation. This sweets company is located in Jica Road, Buhay na Tubig, Imus, Cavite.

       While a few of you might already be in a state of reminiscing, others may be staring with blank faces as to what this product looks like? Let me tell you some of its features. The entire packaging: a combination of gold on the bottom part of the package and red on the product label. 

        The individual wrapped packaging shows a bite size bar shaped mini chocolate rolled in a foil and wrapped in a plastic with red horizontal lines bearing the Choc Nut logo. The previous wrapper it has was made of paper bearing the same design as now. Someone might ask what would it taste like? Its relative sting on your tongue would be different from that of how others would discover it, nonetheless, its namesake suggests exactly what it is – a sweet nutty milky chocolate bar. Its big taste and its character is brought to life by these simple ingredients, roasted peanuts, cane sugar, milk powder, cocoa powder, and vanilla. 

       In answering further this particular question of taste uniqueness, I tried conducting a taste-test survey among  a few of my classmates and professors to know who may have the same liking for Choc-Nut, and to make the opinion gathering worthwhile, I infused a variety of subjects for scrutiny. Come to think of it, this might be my first crowdsourcing? Elegant!

And the contenders are:

                                     Choc Nut                        

                               Hany Milk Chocolate        

                                      BarNuts             

                                      Choc-O-Star

The Judges Verdict:

Choc Nut

       Although the Choc Nut falls apart as soon as you open it, we withhold this due to its simple structure. This same structure is evident among all participants. As for Choc-Nut, it was refreshingly a simple mixture of tastes of a strong flavor of milky peanut without the peanut buttery taste.  Sweetness was light with a trace of bitterness, probably from the salt added. Kind of rough or coarse in texture, and mostly dark brown in color. Its reputation precedes its taste in most cases, and is without a question a ready favorite for most who took the survey.

Hany Milk Chocolate

       It is surprisingly noticeable that the packaging is pretty simple, the HANY logo is decked out in a 50's-style font and almost copying Choc-Nut's package. However, it readily makes up for like the choc-nut bar itself. The wrapper can be easily removed and you can try swallowing it in whole, although there are times that they crumble depending on your touch or grab. It has a very milky, sweet taste. Some of the taste-testers commented that its sweetness vary from time to time probably resulting from the quality of sugar used in manufacturing. It’s color also varies, sometimes it is light brown in color while at other times its darker. Nonetheless, it seems to be a surprising favorite for most.

Bar-Nuts

                

       The packaging is pretty simple, with a cartoon ant carrying a realistic photo of a choc-nut. This could the cheapest choc-nut-like bar in the local market, amounting to less than ₽20 pesos. But the catch here would be its size, yes, it’s small and almost a fraction of the usual Choc-Nut bar and it has a darker color compared to its counter-part. However, the wrapper is easy to remove and they taste pretty solid and pure for a choc-nut. But what can you expect for a small choc-nut? Some of the opinions gathered are, coarse in texture, sweetness is more relative to that of a locally- made peanut butter.

Choc-O-Star

                

       This local milk choco bar can be considered a rookie in terms of popularity, hardly unknown to the ones I surveyed. Most of the comments it garnered places it a notch behind Choc Nut in terms of taste, sweeetness, texture and an overall impression that its light to the senses, surprising low impact with a possible degree of likability.

       Of the nineteen persons surveyed, there were only eleven returned ballots that were qualified for canvassing (staged politics?) An undistinguishable differences in terms of sweetness, texture and packaging were announced making this challenge a head to head battle for all four participants. The final ruling however, made two stand out and square it off in terms of “expected standing” and a “surprising performance”. These two are, the old favorite Choc-Nut and its challenger, Hany Milk Chocolate. Odds were placed as two-to-one in favor of Choc-Nut, and for a moment, this may have been the case if it not for a barrage of clashing looks, peculiar taste-buds and bottles of mineral water to quickly drench the panels’ after-taste. Hany Milk Chocolate which was deemed an underdog, fought hard to inch its way to first place. Although as it almost turned the favor around, surprisingly it only came in second behind a solitary vote that pushed Choc-Nut ahead the hard-fighting adversary. A daunted task have finally been revealed as who was the best among the ranks, so far. But don’t count out the second best, we all, at one point do crave for sweets and everybody gets second chances….or opinions in this case.

       So what are you waiting for? Place your bets, dig in and enjoy to your heart’s content. c”,)

Education Technology - Act Three : Media Text

       The traditional form of written communication has been through messages. It has been largely and undoubtedly been in effective used from the time it had been conceived. Its modernization came as little as vaguely as the opportunities for improvement came by. Although relevant discoveries were as effective as what the messages convey.

       The modern message or modern text is characterized by any presentation that conveys messages in meaning, photo, videos, music, and these transmitted messages are being perceived. Media are the means for transferring or delivering messages. When the medium transfers message for the purpose of teaching, it is called educational medium. Today, education focuses more on the learner's participation and the existing idea of teaching materials. 

Factors of modern texts are: 

(1) Physical Form, Output of Media has physical form as an artifact. 

(2) Economic Value – This typical factor is in terms of its commodity status (cost price of media production). 

(3) Meaning – which pertains to the “Value Generation.”

Terminologies:

1. Analogy of Text – simply the analysis of the text media, newspaper, magazines, products, commercials)

2. Rhetoric – construction and manipulation of language by the creator of the text for “affective purposes.”

3. Captioning – verbal text that accompanies the visual message or text

4. Affects – intellectual, emotional, physical, psychological responses to rhetorical address of media text

5. Composition – is focused more on the image (juxta position) Adjustment, lighting, framing, arrangement of the image on media text.

A media text has its audience and production, and is usually guided by specific relevant questions. 

Education Technology – Act Two

       On this particular meeting, our Professor was extensively discussing the Principles of Education Technology, and that moreover, its purpose should be all about engaging the students into learning rather than it  being some kind of an entertainment.

       First on the list was about presentations, and since this would be the format wherein topics of subjects will be discussed, certain basic rules should be observed. One of which is the Rule of 8. For one particular presentation slide, a maximum of eight lines should be observed when placing texts or words about the topics being discussed, part of this would be the font type and size and that it should be readable for a the distant part of the classroom. Practice of this rule will allow the presentation to be clear and uncluttered thus avoiding a “pumped up” message board. One should also keep in mind the K.I.S.S. rule, an acronym for “Keep It Straight and Simple.” When presenting major parts of the topic or subject, only use certain Keywords, and avoid including the entire meaning. This will also allow you to expound on the matter while getting a good mileage on your audience’s attention since they will be getting the information from you and not the screen. Look alive and sound lively as to advocate interest among your listeners and to make your message clear and understood. When explaining, information should be outlined and concise. The presentation outline should include the following; Introduction, Main body and Conclusion. Any other information additives would be based on your entire understanding on what you are discussing.

                

       One Key Note we should all practice when preparing an effective presentation, would be the 9 Ps: Prior Proper Presentation Prevents Poor Performance of the Person Putting on the Presentation.This will serve as a template or guide to keep presentations meaningful and interesting.

       Education Technology can also be defined as the systematic way of designing, implementing, and evaluating the total learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives based on research in human learning and communication; and employing combination of human and non-human resources to bring about more effective instruction.       

       Education Technology can characterized by three categories, these are (1) Development, (2) Application, and (3)  Evaluation. Hence conclusively, Education Technology is the development, application and evaluation of systems, techniques and aids to improve the process of human learning. One particular example cited is the importance of language. Using the audio of recorded voice (through the use of a microphone/recording and transcription) stimulates the learning process along with visual learning techniques.

             

        Lastly, Education Technology is the application of the results and researches and studies, material and non-material teaching and learning. Material results of researches  include both the traditional aids (which the primary focus of this course). Non-material resources are the theories, principles of teaching. Including but not limited to methodologies, strategies and techniques of teaching.

                

       The ABCs of Technology assesses that technology should be: 

(A) Accessible 

(B) Beneficial and enhancing 

(C) Cost effective 

(D) Demonstrating and 

(E) Easy to use.

Digital Darwinism on the other hand, is defined as the evolution of consumer behavior of society, when society and technology evolves faster that its ability to adapt to the changes.

To have a clearer perspective of this topic I have below is a part of a definition of Darwinism according to Brian Solis, a Principal Analyst at Altimeter Group. He is also an award-winning author, prominent blogger, and keynote speaker.

“Social media, mobile, gadgets, internet thing-a-ma-jigs, real-time — these are just some of the technologies that are disrupting markets. Changes in how people communicate, connect, and discover are carrying incredible implications for businesses. The real threat and opportunity in technology’s disruption lies in the evolution of customer and employee behavior, values, and expectations....

This is a time of digital Darwinism — an era where technology and society are evolving faster than businesses can naturally adapt. This sets the stage for a new era .....charging behind a mantra of “adapt or die.” One of the most problematic aspects around digital maturity is that technology is both part of the solution and also part of the problem.Enter digital transformation.

 As technology becomes a permanent fixture in everyday life, organizations are forced to update legacy technology strategies and supporting methodologies to better reflect how the real world is evolving. And, the need to do so is becoming increasingly obligatory.

(Source: Digital Darwinism: How Disruptive Technology Is Changing Business for Good

By Brian Solis, ALTIMETER GROUP October 16, 2014)

http://insights.wired.com/profiles/blogs/the-wheel-of-disruptive-technology-and-how-the-future-of-business#ixzz3LyKvNBpZ 

Education Technology – Act One

        After going through three full weeks of somewhat an unproductive outlook, an expected angel of hope came and turned every unfathomable darkness into… finally a certified class for Education Technology. Kudos to ma’am Angie for taking us in as her responsibility. Thank you.

        First on the agenda, is an electronic portfolio, and its conception will still be determined. Crowd-sourcing was tackled along with its coherent accompaniment of responsibility. By definition, it is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.

       Education Technology was later described as the combining of learning and means of teaching through the utilization of technology. It is also accompanied by certain limitations set by the teacher’s responsibility.Discussed as well, were the latest tools in aesthetic learning. Once the entire course syllabus was given and each emphasized on their importance or relativeness, discussion regarding course output was given along with the typical mediums that will be utilized, such as blogging, effective presentation making, electronic portfolio among others.

        A short video on the history of communication was shown depicting the transition and gradual development of information display, usage and  exchange throughout the centuries, particularly the evolution of Educational Technology in the application of learning and teaching education explicitly during implementation and availability to the public when the Public Education was enacted.

       Part of my personal reflection on Education Technology is posted as a final and complete copy of my first blog that is already posted.

(...for October 2, 2014)

Education Technology, Technology in Education

The first time I have encountered the subject Education Technology, no definite idea sprung to my mind, none at all. It was like hitting a blank wall. Not that I was unexpected, I was not quite sure what to suppose or maybe I was just confused on what it really meant? Was it education in technology or was it the other way around?

Well, eventually I have realized that the subject’s compounded meaning is as simple as it is complex. It is the combination of skill and tool that is used in sharing ideas as well as the applied processes in assisting learning, and it is the form of teaching that readily utilizes available technology. Sounds simple? Maybe, but wait till you scratched the surface, that’s when it gets really interesting.

Technology in education have always been around since time immemorial, and it has been the means man have used in order to convey what they were thinking or  what they have experienced. It started as simple drawn figures in cave walls, then it evolved to verbal and written system of sharing ideas, discoveries and philosophies to interested audience. At another time, the medium for distributing knowledge transformed through written texts and books when paper and the printing press was invented. Not long after, certain devices got invented and other things progressed and developed, later did you know that the process of transmitting knowledge and information was made through easier structure of approaches with complex technologies. And today, it is everywhere.

Today’s technology flourishes,  virtually conceived and eventually reinvented ever so often. The current trends in technology significantly provides a multitude of opportunities for any aspect of man’s necessities, in the field of information, social, medical, engineering, media, and education. Any individual can have the every chance of developing themselves as well as others around them through technology. And not far from there is the coincidental competence it presents educators of today to readily harness the diversity of characteristics technology can offer in enhancing the student’s learning experience. One need not be left behind, all an educator has to do is be typically curious to learn the trade, be strong-minded in making a change and let technology take education and learning to greater altitudes. Because with technology in education, the future is now.