This week's topic in my EDUC 630 course was Presentation Software. This was a very interesting topic for me first, because I have never heard of the term presentation software, and secondly, I did not realized that there were so many presentation software on the mark. This week I learned that presentation software went far beyond PowerPoint and Prezi. I discovered that there are a plethora of software’s on the market to cater to everyone needs. From small businesses, education, to large corporations, below are a list of presentation software for your business and educational needs:

Active Presentation * Adobe Ovation Adobe Persuasion * Author Persuasion * Author STREAM * Beamer (LaTeX) * Beaver Group * Brainshark * Bruno (software) * CA-Cricket Presents * Church software * Claris Impact * Corel Presentation * Death by PowerPoint * Digitalsoft Keypoint * Flashspring *Google Docs * Harvard Graphics * Hollywood (programming language)* IBM Lotus Freelance Graphic * IWork.com * Jugglor * Keynote (presentation software) * Microsoft PowerPoint * Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer * MORE (application) * Office Wed Apps * OpenOffice.org Impress * Opera Show Format * PowerCom * Powerdot * Presentation technology * Prezi * Pulpmotion * S5 (file format) * Scala, Inc * ScreenShot Direct * ShowDocument * SlideShare * SoftMaker Presentation * SpicyNodes * Tech Talk PSE * VCN ExecuVision * Web-based slideshow * WYSIWYG * Zenter.

 God Bless America

Why Bother With Online Communities

When online communities began to become popular I found myself accessing online communities and

enjoying their sites, such as Sports Chat lines Craigslist, LinkedIn, and Facebook. However, over the past

few years these communities have become larger than life, eliminating the close knit atmosphere that

they once had. The personal touch that many online communities possessed no longer existed.

Over the last five years these online communities have flourished, reaching millions of subscribers. My two children have become permanent citizens to these communities as well as my students. Signs are indicating that these online communities’ populations will continue to grow….. Why do users participate in online communities?

According to Peter Kollock in The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace, there are three major reasons for why users contribute in online communities:

1.     Anticipated Reciprocity – A user is motivated to contribute to the community in the expectation that he will receive useful help and information in return. Indeed we have seen such active users receiving more help than lurkers.

2.     Increased recognition – individuals want recognition for their contributions. the desire for prestige is one of the key motivations for individuals’ contributions in an online community. Contributions will likely increase if they are visible to the whole community and are credited to the contributor. … the powerful effects of seemingly trivial markers of recognition (e.g. stars, ranking) are overwhelming.

3.     Sense of efficacy – Individuals may contribute because the act results in a sense that they have had some effect on the community. Wikipedia is a good example of this.

Yet there are also other elements which can motivate users to become active in online communities:

1.     Connections within the community – the more friends a user has within a given community, the more important it becomes for him to participate in. Therefore it’s important for online communities to allow users to form friendships easily and encourage a high level of interaction between users.

2.     Emotional Safety – a sense of belonging and identifying with the community. Once users become regulars in a community, just like in any offline community, they stop feeling fearful and begin to feel a sense of safety in and identification with the community. The key here is to get these individuals to become regular users in your community and create a cozy and ”feel good” environment for them.

3.     Common emotional connection – niche communities that are built around a particular emotional connection/cause between members tend to become more cohesive and experience lower percentages of participation inequality.

4.     Altruism - Yossi Vardi coined the term “Dopamine Over IP” – each user transfers dopamine to another user….by contributing content, a user knows that he will cause pleasure to those who view it and those users that forward this content onwards, know the same.

Retrieved from http://yaniv.golan.name/blog/

The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace

View Point

Technology and Urban Schools

The neglect for the educational needs of children in urban schools threatens the economic well-being of the nation. The lack of access to technology has become one of the major barriers in many K-12 urban schools districts.

Today’s students live in an environment that requires different approaches to meet their educational needs. Technology is a powerful classroom tool that enables teachers to teach more effectively and adapt the curriculum to each student’s individual learning style as well as allow students to be more responsible for their own learning.

Urban educators and school systems are failing to create students who are able to face the challenges of the society that they will live in. It is evident that changes need to be made and facilitated by our Department of Education.  Curricula need to be removed, teachers need to be more prepared for the hardships that will face with unprepared students, and technology needs to be their assistant.  There is no reason why technology should be unavailable to those who need it most.