On the road to mastering Facebook

Facebook Features

Event

            There is events feature that is used to inform friends about upcoming events such as social gatherings, birthday, party, etc. When the host sends invitations to the Events, invited friends and guests will receive information about Events including event type, location, date and time, and a list of all of people who were invited by the host. Also, user can always change the setting to be public or private; private events will be hidden from the people who have not been invited.

Groups

            Another feature that Facebook provides is Groups. Any users can create Facebook Groups and is group page that allows the member of the group to post any contents. It is usually used for group purposes enabling members to communicate, share information, discuss, and etc. There is also privacy settings and user can always make the group private, hidden from the public.

Messages and inbox

            Messages and inbox is the most basic, yet crucial feature in Facebook. One can send a message to friends through Facebook inbox. User can also create a group message allowing members of the group to chat more conveniently. Moreover, another function of the message is that one can delete the message but it will still exist in the other person’s inbox. It is the simplest and most important feature in communicating with friends in Facebook.

Like

            Although it is very simple feature, I personally think Like is Facebook’s trade mark. There is “like” button in the bottom of every post for anybody to click, and it also shows the total number of like clicked for a post. The like button also functions as a tracking tool to find people’s preferences among the contents and is many times used for advertising related markets.

Timeline

            Timeline is one of the most major features in Facebook. The new Timeline feature shows user’s all related content. Every uploaded content will be shown in the order of uploaded time - the most recent content on the top. On the other hand, the visibility of the user’s content can be managed from privacy settings so that the content is not shown on a Timeline or the user can even change the settings assigned to each individual friend.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc   

Class 3, Assignment 1: Making Friends on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

Screenshot of my post with my usernames of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on Google Group 

Then I friend requested, followed and subscribed three of my classmates: Jung Yeon Kim, Chase Cote, and Shane Hewson

Jung Yeon Kim

Shane Hewson

Chase Cote

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc   

Class 3, Assignment 1: Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

Screenshots of subscribing/ following Immersive Education on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook

Facebook 

Twitter

YouTube

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc   

Assignment 2-4: Hardware System Review

In this era, technological innovation has been prosperous especially with a new stage of transformation marked by Steve Jobs. Although he has managed to bring all of Apple’s products with high-demands in the IT markets, the iPhone has been the most influential products of all time. As our society faces very rapid improvements in technology, the role of smartphones, particularly the power of iPhone, have been influencing major aspect of mobile consumer technology – eventually bringing in a huge impact on media and media markets as well.Introduced just a few months ago, Apple’s latest smartphone, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, offer great hardware and run iOS, specifically created by Apple Inc. for Apple products only. 

Apple showed its power by setting an Apple record of 4 million pre-orders just on the first day. As far as the technical specifications go, it’s offered in 3 colors: silver, gold, and space gray, and it is slimmer and bigger compare to the previous model iPhone 5. The iPhone 6 is offered in three different capacity, 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB, each costing $199, $299, and $399, accordingly. Moreover, a few other knowable specs include 4.7-inch Retina HD display, Touch ID functions, built-in rechargeable battery, built-in apps and free apps only available through the apple store.  

Although iPhone has always been creating a sensation with the introduction of new smartphone releases, it has a few competitive brands like Samsung, LG, Sony, Nokia, and many more brands that cannot be ignored. Among these brands and products, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is usually compared with the iPhone 6. When just looking at the numbers, Galaxy S5 seems to be a bit more superior to the iPhone 6, with Android OS, higher megapixels for the camera, quad core, higher RAM memory, and better battery technology. However, iPhone 6 still has its functions that are only available for iPhones and also has unique, yet powerful brand image and technologies that are still favored by many people in regardless.

I personally use iPhone 6 right now and I love it. I have used both Samsung Galaxy and iPhone, and while both systems have their own unique cons and pros, in my opinion, I liked iPhone better only because I think iPhone’s are very user-friendly so that it’s easier and faster to use. Also, I think many people like iPhones solely because of its design with Apple’s brand image. Overall, I think Apple has great and very competitive products including laptops (MacBook) and iPads as well.




This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc   

Assignment 2-3: 9News Denver reports on Minecraft for History & Culture

This article empathizes on the recreation of Bent’s Old Fort, one of Colorado’s top tourist attractions, that is to be captured by this new “minecraft” technology. I think this will not only benefit students by learning and creating the Fort using Minecraft, but also be very useful for learning and advertising purposes as well.

This program is also supported by Stanford University’s Architectural Design Program and I think it is really interesting to see how complex technology of reconstructing virtually in the video game Minecraft can become a real practice. I think this program can be further practiced and developed to reconstruct other famous historic sites around the world for greater benefits and purposes. I personally would use and visit such websites once it is available to us. It will be great to see the comparison between the actual site and the online virtual version of the site.

YouTube Video



This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc   

Assignment 2-2: Denver's KOAA News 5 reports on Colorado Immersive Education clubs for History & Culture

Continuing on from the last semester’s online course, I have been learning a lot about immersive education and power of virtual reality; how it can be used for not only remote (distance) purposes, but also people with disabilities like autism, or anyone with special needs.

This article talks about students in La Junta, working to virtually recreate Bent’s Old Fort to be available online for anyone to visit. It was really interesting to see how people, especially high school and college students, are following up on this idea and trying to make it happen. I personally thought creating the historic site accessible from anywhere in the world through online touring was a great idea for many purposes. It gives an access to anyone who wants to learn and experience indirectly without actually visiting the site. Moreover, I think it is great program for educational purpose – students can learn and understand better with a great sense of 3-D reality.

As the technology has been taking a major role in our lives, I believe that the improvements in technology can replace many pre-existing part/systems into the next steps and this virtual recreation of the real site could be the beginning of the transformation. Also, I think once these technological innovations become vitalized, we will become more dependent on the technology as the technology will provide better, faster, and more efficient outcomes.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc   

Assignment 2-1: What is Immersive Education?

In the beginning of this video, Professor Walsh starts by introducing himself and about immersive education. He is faculty at Boston College as well as the director of immersive education initiatives and has been using it since 1997 to teach remote and hybrid classes online. It also explains it was not good back then and empathizes about technology improvement.

Professor Walsh answers the question, "Why": he dedicated 20 years of life in immersive education and he has fundamental beliefs that we could change people's lives, we could change the way we learn by using advanced technology. Although immersive education initiatives started decade later, thousands of people are member of iED. 

Professor Walsh explains about what is immersive education and provides examples of immersive education, which are virtual worlds, leraning games, simulations, and full, augmented and mixed (FAM) reality.

College of education and faculty have developed a curricula that uses virtual world experience like video game or for students with autism; technology allows us to craft the learning activity (allows them a social experience in a different way as well) to the individual need to the kids. 

As an example, the picture above is Eco-move research project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It is immersive virtual environments to teach eco systems to the middle school students.

Towards the end of his video, he talks about certificates and chapters of immersive education. Then he offers a question time for two attendees. First question raises network issues that have been holding immersive education back. He replies back that a new technology will be available soon that will completely change just like webpage; visiting virtual world through web browsers without plugin. Can go to jied.org (Journal of Immersive Ed) to learn more about early access.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc