presentations galore

Mary's FlashDance

• I enjoyed looking at TILT. It made me feel a little better about the unsuccessful attempt I made at designing a training module using Flash. The animation and interactivity were functional, yet not very involved and probably wasn't that difficult to create once the content was developed. However, I think we pointed out in discussion the fact that the TILT tutorial probably isn't that great at building knowledge in users.
  

Michael's Corporate Empire

• I liked this look at e-learning. It definitely made me re-evaluate some ideas I have had about the functionality of corporate training. I had really only looked at the positive sides: low cost, quick uptake, ability to be done during down time at work. But the large scale dispersion of this training style probably has overlooked the contextual delivery of the training content. I had really been thinking I may like to go into corporate ID, but now I'm not so sure.
  

Ted's Copyright Conundrum

• Great job Ted. This was a topic I have always found pretty fascinating. My initial interest came from reading numerous adverts for Creative Commons in Adbusters magazine and Kalle Lasn's book, Culture Jam. As a dj and videographer I had to think a lot about what was fair use of music and visual media, but I didn't have a really sound understanding of what fair use actually was. So I just assumed if I was using it, it was probably fair. But I do think the idea of 98 years of copyrighted Mickey is pretty absurd.

Jade's Broken Social Scene

• When I first heard about MySpace a year or so ago I was pretty confounded. I hadn't really been privy to Friendster or any of the older SNCs. It's amazing to see how quickly these communities have teetered over the tipping point and how quickly the idea has spawned other similar ideas. The concept of being able to develop a virtual identity that won't be held to the same rigors one's real identity faces daily just seems comforting. It isn't really surprising that people, especially young people have gravitated to SNC as a social outlet because they have a safety net.
  
• I read something related today in the NYTimes. Apparently, major advertising corporations are beginning to use consumer created videos as advertisements in hopes to ride the bull we now know as reality TV. The appeal of reality TV is simple: people enjoy seeing people like themselves triumphing and tribulating (if that's not a word, it should be) on TV. It makes them feel better about being average. In the same vein, if someone sees an advertisement akin to a YouTube video, it makes them feel as though they could be just as successful with their own home movies.