ARTSYS Tutorial

ARTSYS --The Articulation System for Maryland Colleges and Universities. When I first read the title I did not understand what the website was used for. Obviously, it is has something to do with Maryland Colleges and Universities. However, what is the purpose of the site? How do you use it?

What is the Purpose? 

This website is a great tool for students who plan on transferring from a Maryland college to another. The job of this website is to help students see if their course they have taken or will take will transfer to another college. It was very helpful. It is usually up-to-date but I would double check both schools to make sure they still offer those courses. 

Using ARTSYS:

On the left hand side our tabs. Click on Course Equivalences. After clicking on the tab, it will take you to another screen.  

You type in your current College or University. You also type in the college you plan on attending. The first drop down button will ask your Transfer From/Institution and the next drop down button will ask you the Transfer To/Institution.









 After these steps you can search courses that will transfer to the college you want to attend. Example: Harford Community College to University of Baltimore. It will ask you to type in the Course ID: ENG219.








Next it will show you this screen verifying if University of Baltimore will accept ENG219 as a transferable credit. This screen shows you the following: how many credits you will receive for it, what grade you have to have for it to transfer, is it a GenEd to a specific area. In this example, it is to Literature AREA.


I have used this website and have found it to be very helpful. I observed that the website was not accurate for the most up-to-date courses that both Harford and Univeristy of Baltimore offer. In my web browser I opened another tab that had Harford's courses they were offering in the 2013-2014 and I compared them to the ARTSYS website for accuracy. 

Embedding vs. Downloading

Recently, I went Baltimore City for a conference at University of Baltimore. A group of us drove down and parked in the train station. As we were walking by the Dogwood tree's were in full bloom. They were stunning!The top picture is of the clock on the Penn Station building. This is a picture I took and uploaded to this blog. The picture of the Dogwood blooms (bottom) is from Google images that resembles what I saw at the station. This picture I upload using embedded text. The difference between to is this: 

Embedding an image or video in a blog is when the image or video appears within the context of the post, although the actual data remains on the server that hosts it. The disadvantage to this approach is if the owner of the video or image is removed or deleted from a website (Flickr or Youtube for example), then that image or video will no longer appear on your blog. When embedded in a blog, the HTML code instructs the browser where to obtain the video or image and how to display it (Web 2.0 Concepts and Applications).

Uploading an image or video from your own computer takes up space on your computer. The advantage is that you do not have to fear that it will no longer appear on your blog because it is your image or video. It also allows me to upload several images at a time. If I wanted to embed all my images, I would have to do them one at a time.

Have you ever used a search engine to look up fun facts about this world? I did. My favorite search engine for this specific search is Google. Below are a couple of facts that I found. If you click on the title it will take you to the article I am referencing. 

Fun Facts That Will Blow Your Mind!!

There are only 14 verified people still alive that were born in the 1800’s.

Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers were all invented by women.

If you had 1 billion dollars and spent $1,000 a day, it would take you 2,749 years to spend it all.

In 1916, 55% of the cars in the world were Model T Fords.

Starbucks is named after Starbuck , a character in the novel Moby Dick.

Sea Otters hold hands while they sleep so that they don’t float away from each other.

Of course this led me to watch a fun video on Youtube. Check it out. 

Web 2.0 Toolbox

 

After learning about Web 2.0 there are a lot of tools that I want to keep for the future that I found to be very helpful. One thing that I have found to be very helpful is my portal page.

"A portal page displays customized online content from different sources on the same page."

Examples of this are web sites like MSN, iGoogle, and myYahoo. Portal pages are personalized and includes content that the user enjoys. Data on a portal page can include all types of content including text, audio, and video.

My portal page includes:

• The Weather
• Youtube
•  My Calendar
•  The How to of the Day
•  Wired News

And many more practical things. Another tool that I use is a web site called Technortai. This web site is a dedicated blog search engine, which monitors the Web frequently for up-to-date information posted to blogs. Overall, I enjoyed learning how to use social media including: Twitter, Flickr, Blogs, Delicious, and Subscribing to RSS Feeds. I had heard about all these tools but never understood how to use them. Click here to go the the Technorati website and see what you think. As a blogger myself, I find it very helpful. 

 

 

 

SlideShare

This is great presentation that shows you the benefits of SlideShare. Learning how to use SlideShare and becoming proficient at it can impress prospective employers and colleges. You do not have to know PowePoint to create a SlideShare. You can also share your work on LinkedIn. SlideShare has many uses that could be great skills to learn and have in the future. This is taken from their "About Us" tab.  

SlideShare 101 from Amit Ranjan

SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations. SlideShare features a vibrant professional and educational community that regularly comments, favorites and downloads content. SlideShare content spreads virally through blogs and social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Individuals & organizations upload documents to SlideShare to share ideas, conduct research, connect with others, and generate leads for their businesses. Anyone can view presentations & documents on topics that interest them, download them and reuse or remix for their own work.

Delicious vs. Google

I am comparing the social bookmarking site Delicious to Google. My goal is to see how many results are the same on the first page, which set of results do I find more reliable, which ones are more useful, and which ones are more current. 

I am doing a research paper on American artists, the particular artists I chose was Norman Rockwell. Below are screenshots of what Delicious and Google come up with when typing in his name. 

Google Search Engine

Delicious Search

When I searched, Norman Rockwell, I received many different articles and websites from both these sites. I did not get the same result on the first page of each. Google gave me 5,260,00 results whereas Delicious gave me a couple thousand results. Delicious lead me to the Smithsonian website and gave me a lot of information on each piece of Norman Rockwell's. Google gave a lot of information from pictures, to biography's, to the website to the Saturday Evening Post (which who the main company Rockwell illustrated for). I found Google to be more helpful with this search. I am sure if it was a more popular topic Delicious might be more helpful with updated articles. Google had more up-to-date information. The sites I found on Google were more reliable as well. 

Favorite Websites

What are my favorite websites?

I use the Internet a lot but I do not have "favorite" websites. The ones I use on a daily basis are: Gmail, Blackboard (I am a student), Facebook and Pinterest.

Gmail was added to Google applications in 2004. It is a free web email services. Over the years Google has integrated other services and products that Gmail offers. When you have a Gmail account you also have access to Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google+.








I use Blackboard for my college classes. Blackboard allows my college to have their own site for students. This is apart of their e-Education platform--designed to enable educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology. In February, my school added the mobile app for a smartphone that you can pay to use blackboard on the go.

Facebook is a social media site that I use to connect with my friends and family. I am able to be constantly update about whats going on it their lives. I recently created a page for my moms local business. I can share what's going on in my life with text and pictures. 

Pinterest is a fabulous site! It is a tool for collecting and organizing the things that you love. When you "pin" you add an image or video from a website or your own computer. It will show the thumbnail of the image or video you pin. A user can repin any post. When a user clicks on the thumbnail it will lead to the original source.