Palm/Blackberry

While using the Palm/Blackberry's today in class, I was already somewhat familiar with them since my boss has a Blackberry for a phone that I had to program and our Associate Attorney uses a Palm as a calendar when she is out of the office. I love how you are able to keep a calendar, access the internet and be able to talk on a phone all at the same time! I also absolutely love how the Palm allows you to keep a digital calendar instead of lugging around an actual daily activities binder. It is a space saver and that is definitley something that I could use not only in my personal life, but in my career as well. Since I am graduating with an office administrative degree, I will be pursuing my career as an administrative, so the Palm would be very useful with keeping up to date with co-worker's and your bosses daily activities and prepare myself for the next day. In my personal life, it would help me stay more organized. Since I am getting married in August, I am scheduling/preparing for a wedding so having the Palm and/or Blackberry would help me stayed organized in preparing. Before the next class, I will be preparing myself to finish what is necessary for the Palm/Blackberry assignments as well as finishing my Access assignments.

Podcasting

Today, I learned how to podcast, which is really similar to dictation, which I use on a daily basis. Although I am not use to talking into a recorder, I was fairly familiar with the recorder being used today. Out of the three podcastings assigned, my group decided to have a group podcast explaining the OAD degree and the instructors within the degree. So, as a group, we recorded that podcast first. After recording the group podcasting, I recorded my other two podcasts required. I absolutely love the podcasting. It would be very useful not only in my personal life, but in my career as well. Podcasting allows you to "keep in touch" with everyone in your personal life as well as your career life. It allows you to keep an journal of things that may be useful later on in life. Before the next class, I will be working on my Access as well as preparing for our next project, which will be using the Palm/Blackberry.

PC Tablet

Today, I used the PC Tablet for something other than tutorials. I wrote out my scripts for podcasting. In the end, I really like the PC Tablet rather than typing everything out. Some days, I am just not in the mood to type and the PC Tablet fills that mood I am in. You don't have to type, you just write everything out and the computer does it for you. It is an amazing piece of technology. If only it wasn't so expensive! I would use the PC Tablet almost every day that I didn't feel like typing, which since I do it on a daily basis, is almost every day. Some days, my fingers do not want to function and the PC Tablet would come in handy. Yes, it may take me longer to complete a project, but it would give my fingers a break from typing. I would absolutely love to use the PC Tablet at work. When having to complete 3 to 5 dictation tapes a day with possibly 2 to 10 letters on each, I can really get sick of typing. So, if the tapes are short, I can just easily pull out the PC Tablet and complete the tape that way rather than typing it out. In my personal life, I would use it almost every day as well. Right now, I am planning my own wedding, so the PC Tablet would be much more easier to take notes and store things that trying to keep everything organized in a wedding planning binder. Before the next class, I would like to go over what I need to do in the rotation list. I will be preparing myself for podcasting and recording my scripts that I prepared for podcasting. I will also be attempting to complete access. This semester has been a little stressful for me and since I have until the end of semester to complete access, I could possibly complete it during the next class period after recording my podcasting scripts. Until then, toodles!

Tablet PC & Wacom Handwritting

While using the Wacom Handwritting and Tablet PC, I found that I did not like it as much as I thought I would. Even though it is very useful and interesting to use, I couldn't get the use of the pen for both to work right. I still prefer the use of a mouse rather than a pen to open, close and write/type things. Through using the Wacom Handwritting and Tablet PC, I learned how to manouver the pen over the computer and/or tablet to open, close, maximize, minimize documents as well as create new documents, emails, journals, etc. I find that the Wacom would be very useful in the workplace because it would be easier to take notes and email. Before the next class, I will be preparing my scripts for podcasting as well as using the PC Tablet with my scripts for the podcasting.

Adobe Acrobat

While working with Adobe Acrobat, I learned many new things. I learned how to convert a document into a pdf document, save/print files, manipulating pages as well as adding and changing text graphics. I find Adobe Acrobat to be very useful. I wouldn't necessarily use it in my academic life, but more in the workplace. Being that I work at an attorney's office, we convert files to pdf on a daily basis. This makes getting documents to other attorneys and/or clients easier. It makes the process of settling cases and the whole discovery process more easier to complete in a timely manner. Before the next class, I plan on going over the instruction sheet for my next project, which will be Tablet PC/Wacom Handwritting so I can get a better understanding of what I am to complete by the end of the class period.

Dragon Natrually Speaking/Voice Recognition

While working with Dragon Naturally Speaking and voice recognition was very interesting. I learned how to speak into a microphone while the computer types in Microsoft Word and various other programs what I am saying. While using Dragon Naturally Speaking, I realized that this program could be very useful in my everyday life. Not really in my personal, but in my academic life as well as in the workplace. In my academic life, I could use it to write papers and/or reports and in the workplace, I could use it since I transcribe dictation on a daily basis. I usually transcribe three to four tapes a day with about five to ten letters per tape. So, with Dragon Naturally Speaking, instead of rewinding and fast forwarding tapes, either my boss or I could use the program to help get correspondence out every day. Before the next class, I plan on going over the instruction sheet for Adobe Acrobat since that is the program/technology that I will be using next class.

Workplace Technologies - Photoshop

Today, I learned how to use Photoshop for the first time. While using Photoshop, I learned how to edit photos, create a slideshow, straighten a photo as well as take wrinkles out of photos. This is the first time that I had to ever use Photoshop. My mom owns this program for their business, so it is helpful for their business when creating trophies, plaques, shirts and/or coffee mugs for their clients. At my place of work, I really do not think this could be of any use. With working for attorneys we really do not use pictures. In the field of employment law, we never have to deal with pictures so we wouldn't have to "restore" any pictures of any kind. Now, if I were to go further with my education and go into the field of art, then this could be extremely useful in my career. Since I am still undecided on what I plan on doing after graduating, I am not sure what I would use Photoshop for. That is to be determined later on. After class today, I plan on going over what I as a team member need to go over to work on our team projects next week. Next week, my group is going to working on the Dragon Naturally Speaking and Voice Recognition. So, for next week, I will need to have read the instructions sheet provided for the group on Blackboard.