How will I benefit now or in future with all of this technology??

Facebook and twitter can be used immediately in my profession and even better in the future. I would love to create a facebook page, twitter page or a site for basketball team that gives live updates in real time. This would be awesome for players, families and fans. We could post practice times and locations, along with schedule for the day. Players can post questions back. Parents know what time practice is and when it will end. We could do the same for games. Post time and locations (would come in very handy during tournament time), depart times, etc.. Along with all the pictures of games and team events this site could be lots of fun and very useful.

Facebook and other interactive sites would come in handy now but down the road even better. As a basketball coach, I know that about 25-40 percent of my players have internet access. Most all have phones but not all have internet access or mobile devices to keep them constantly connected. I think this number will go up in the near future, providing or economy get better. That would be my concern. Relying on something that not everyone has access to. Hopefully 100% of my players will be connected soon.

WEB 2.0

Amazing!!!! I know there must be a zillion websites, but just looking at the web 2.0 awards really shows how much is out there. And this site gave us only the top 4 in each category. I looked at several of these. And may continue to look into them with all the spare time that I have right now.. I looked at the spanishpod. It seems to be a great way to learn spanish. I also looked at netvibes and pageflakes. These are start up pages for your computer that have links or whatever you want to have on your computer all in one page. Very nice. I looked at several others, and most already have apps for iphones or other mobile devices. I believe there is an app for everything..

GOOGLE DOCS

Being a coach for the last 17 years has really helped me out with the computer. I have had to make a million forms, calendars, budget organizers, car wash tickets, pamphlets, enrollment sheets, contact sheets, dinner flyers, etc. etc. etc...... Google Docs has everything that I need and then some. I do agree that this will be the new wave of using document tools. I have ran into problems with opening attachments from other coaches, and/or they having problems opening mine. This is the new wave software tool. I am already thinking of the new ways I can use it now. For sure I can use it for what I mentioned above, but cant wait to keep playing with it to find new tools to incorporate into my program.

RSS assignment

Just completed another assignment for week 3 and once again came across some information that I did not know about. I often go to websites, mostly newspapers, and read the blogs from the writers. Now I have them all in one location, and I believe it will notify me of new posts. I have been looking at Gizmodo website for years, not even realizing that its just a bunch of blogs. I recommend this site to anyone. It lets you know about all the new technology and technology rumors. Adding sites to bloglines is a piece of cake so I anticipate that I will be using this site more often.

3 articles that I found interesting

First Article:

Social Networking: I found this article to be very interesting. Right off it grabbed my attention. The article discussed the Virginia Tech mass murder and explained how my space, facebook and other social networking sites put families at ease when wondering how their loved ones were doing. With social networking this is done in real time. The article then went on to success in social networking. I was surprised to learn that wikipedia is a non-profit site and makes no money. When I think of these sites I am always amazed that they sell them to bigger companies for 100's of millions of dollars. The article went on to point out the number of users on these sites, and they are amazing. I am sure they will continue to climb. 217,000,000 my space users!!! Wow!! Finding out that facebook was started by a Harvard student in 2004 was no surprise, but learning that Harvard restricted the site to is students was. Oh how things have changed.

Second Article:

Emerging Technologies Changing Public Library Service Delivery Models: This article did a great job explaining to me Blogs, Wikis, RSS (really simple syndication), podcasts, vodcasts and instant messaging. The article summarizes what these social networking tools are and how to set them up and use them. Somewhat like a tutorial and some background information. The article then provides great ways to use these tools and examples of how many libraries are using them along with links/references to the examples. Easy and great Read.

Third Article:

Always On: This article was the longest and a little hard for me to read or get into. But, it turned out to be real good. Basically it explains how the Neomillennial Students will learn using all the new modern technologies and how these technologies can be incorporated into teaching. It explains how the Neomillennial Student is always connected to the world with their computer, pda, phone, games, etc.. And because of this we must use this in our educational programs. The article goes into great detail on how to do this and how to engage different types of learning. Finally, the article provides us with good examples of how some schools and universities are already doing this. Very informative read.

View From My Front Door

View From My Front Door
Originally uploaded by tjwilkins34

I took this picture looking NWW outside my front door. Its a gray day as a storm is approaching. The wind and the sprinkles are already here. It is supposed to just keep on coming and get stronger as the afternoon approaches. Its going to be a wet week, but we need it here in the central valley big time. Let it Rain, Let it Rain!!!!

I love the Ocean!!

Eddie Aikau 2009
Originally uploaded by L u s i t a n o

This is a picture from flickr. I could sit out on the beach all day and watch the waves, surfers, seals, birds, dolphins, sandcrabs, etc..... The beach is my favorite place on earth. Some are better than others, but have never seen a place by the water that didn't feel nice. I can't wait to go to Kauai in July 2011 for my wedding. Its going to be awesome.

Isnt Technology Great!!

Technology is awesome. This post goes out to my iphone. I have had this phone now ever since they came out. I have purchased all three models. I had the first generation, and the second (which I still use now) and my fiance is using the 3GS. It amazes me how awesome this phone is. I have my entire personal and work calendars in my hand. And because I am a big dummy who hates to remember things I have mostly everything set to an alarm so I don't miss meetings or any event. I set my alarm to remind me whenever I want... Five minutes before, 15 minutes, or even 24 hours. I have the internet hooked up for when I am not by a computer, my email comes right to my hand, I check the weather constantly (even to places where I am not going, sometimes just wondering how cold it is in Truckee or how hot it is in Palm Springs). My maps application gets used constantly, and on the new version the gps shows me exactly where I am so its almost impossible to get lost. I have tons of games and apps just for killing time when I am bored. All my favorite music, TV shows, movies are always with me. My scorecenter updates me when my favorite teams are playing and what the outcome is immediately. ITS AMAZING. I rarely even use it as a phone because there are so many things to do on it. I just recently added DVR programming to it so I can set my TV to record whatever show I may miss. This phone is glued to me.

The other day it went down and stopped working for some unknown reason. I was suddenly without it. It was a weird feeling, like if I was stranded on an island and disconnected from the world. Beware folks.. These gadgets are addicting. I advise everyone to purchase a back up phone in case your phone goes down or be close to the ATT or Apple store for a quick purchase. I was lucky to fix mine on a reboot, but OH BETSY.... It was rough. And yes I do have a back up phone just in case it happens again.

Busy days but well worth it

Day one went well. I was able to get a ton of work done without missing a beat at work or practice. However, I realized that my day went from 5:00 AM to 11:00 PM with the only breaks being in my car driving from Visalia to Porterville (25 minutes) and then Porterville to Lemoore (1 hour) and then back home to Visalia (40 minutes) after we finished practice at 8:15 PM. I got home in time to eat some dinner, work on my class and catch up on everything. My schedule should be pretty consistent but busy.

Going to really cherish my weekends and relaxation time that I can get with family. Right now text messages and phone calls, while i'm on the road, is all the contact we get. Need to find some time in there.

Today will be another 5:00 AM - 11:00 PM day.

I've also added a home studies student and soon will be adding independent study students to my work load.

This will all pay off and thank the Lord for the great support from my loved ones. And I am thankful for the opportunity to get my masters and for these extra duties at work. Absolutely helps with the finances

Bring it on!!!

FPU ONLINE MASTERS PROGRAM

I am in day one of the Masters in Kinesiology online program at Fresno Pacific University. So far it looks to be challenging and a ton of work, but the kind you want to do. I can't wait to dive in and get into it further. Its going to be time consuming and worthwhile. The Professors are great and willing to help with all aspects of the course.