Wikkis

As our Midterm exam approaches in COM 435 I get online to check my wikki and am suprised how useful it is as a study guide. Before this class I had only heard of the idea of wikkis, now I am starting to understand some of the uses. Wikkis are extremely powerful and important modern communication tools. The most powerful aspect of the wikki is being able to widely broadcast large ammounts of information, pictures, videos, and other mediums to whoever you want. Another aspect is that you do not have to store any of the information on your computer. Once you put information on the internet it is there to stay, and to be viewed, unless you or someone else deletes, corrects, or updates the post. As the semester goes on I find myself going from an internet technology skeptic to one who is using these tools to my advantage.

Geocaching

Recently for an in class lab/project we did an activity with Global Positioning Units about Geocaching. Through this activity I learned that G.P.S. units can actually be extremely useful, and not only when you are in your vehicle. We used these units to locate different clues around the campus to solve a puzzle. Our class did it in the fastest time, and in my opinion used the most creative communication tactics. As we were walking around I noticed the many functions of the G.P.S. unit that we were using and was really suprised by its versatility. As soon as we turned it on It showed where you were it was located, the streets, buildings, geographic layout, and even some of the sidewalks that we were standing on. That was only on the one screen that we were using for the activity. In conclusion I believe that this lab is an extremely valueable tool to show the different uses of the G.P.S pad, while also forcing creativity in communication to share information.