Computer Based Training vs. Instructor Based Training in the Workplace - by: Ann Wester

I work for a large state facility that employs over 1600 people and among the many jobs that I have held at this facility over the last 25 years, being an instructor was the most curious.  On average, 15-20 new employees come to work here every two weeks.  As an instructor, it was our job to orient and teach new employees about the facility and the various responsibilities that they would be responsible for as well as the policies, procedures and laws for which they would need to abide, as well as provide continuous and updated training and instruction for all other employees.  Unfortunately, there are merely four instructors assigned to this large facility, so we relied heavily on computer based training for new and existing employees.  The advantages of computer based trainings are clear; you can access a larger number of employees at one time, it’s self-paced, and the information given is consistent across the facility.   I found that most employees, especially those that have been with the facility for a few years, preferred computer based training.  When asked why they preferred this training style compared to instructor based the answers were the same across the board:  ‘I can complete it on my own time, in intervals if I want, and I finish quicker because I’m not waiting on someone who asks a lot of questions’.  Great, right?  Or so it seemed, a questionnaire given to current employees (who have been with the facility 2 years or more and receive training yearly) touching on priority job responsibilities found that nearly 45% of employees were unable to answer a majority of the questions correctly.

The same survey given to new employees (who have been with the facility 6 months to a year and at this point only have had one training period) touching on the same priority job responsibilities had 15% rating of those unable to answer the majority of the questions correctly.  So what is the difference?  New employees receive more face to face training with instructors than the current employees.   New employees stated that they connected the material to real situations given by instructors, had the opportunity to ask questions if they were unsure and knew that they had someone to go to face to face and ask for assistance.  With the advancement of technology we can become more efficient and provide endless information to large populations of people, but at what cost?  Learning doesn’t end when we enter the workforce, it is constant throughout our lives.  Shouldn’t we have the best possible teaching practices in order to provide the best possible services to our customers?  I believe there is a greater learning possibility with a mixture of instructor based and computer based training when it comes to our workforce. 

www.eadulteducation.org

www.brighthub.com

Ann Wester - dig2000

 

Can I see your watch?

As technology advances, these companies invent new ways for us to use our technology. The new tech around is wearable technology. What does this mean? Well, the most recent form of wearable tech are watches, not just any old watch, but a watch that connects to our mobile devices and helps us do our everyday duties with touch or a flick. There are a bunch of tech watches out there like: Moto 360, LG G Watch, Sony SmartWatch, Samsung Gear, Pebble, and many others. There is something that is very peculiar about the list of wearable tech/Smart Watches, the list is missing an Apple product. Apple has always been on the ball when it comes to innovative technology but why is there not a Apple product on that list. Well, the simple answer to that question is that, Apple was not ready for it yet.

 

The Apple Event that happened a few months back saw the announcement of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus but they also announced near the end of the event the Apple Watch, the Smart Watch that will compete with the rest in the name of Apple. Apple showed off some of the features that the Apple Watch will be capable of performing.

 

The first thing I would like to talk about is the customization options for the Apple Watch. Apple stressed the fact that you can make the Apple Watch your own personal watch that no one else can have. The customization starts with the size of the screen at 38mm or 42mm. This then leads into the type of alloy that you can get it in, the alloy goes from stainless steel to 18-karat gold. Next is the type of band that goes around the wrist, you can have a more professional looking band or a sports band for whatever you need from the watch. And last is the face of the watch itself, it can be customized to your liking.

 

Other features include: feeling the notifications like messages and being able to respond from the watch itself, you can check e-mails on the watch, you can make calls from the watch, track anything fitness related, you can pay using Apple Pay using your watch, and you can use a vast array of other apps on the watch.

 

The Apple Watch is stated to be released in the early part of 2015 for different prices depending on the version of the watch you decided to purchase. Will this be the best Smart Watch on the market or just a bust waiting to happen?

http://www.apple.com/watch/
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/best-smart-watches-what-s-the-best-wearable-tech-for-you--1154074#articleContent

- Angelo Walker
  Digital Media 2000
  Fall    

Cutting Edge

 

With the news and the release of Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, other phone companies are getting overshadowed and their phones are getting little to no recognition. Out of all of the other phone manufacturing companies, the only company that can compete with Apple is Samsung. Earlier this year Samsung released their next sequel to the Galaxy Note family, the Galaxy Note 4. Along with the announcement of the Note 4, Samsung announced another phone that will share the Note family tree. This phone is called the Galaxy Note Edge. This phone has gotten little buzz since its announcement because, essentially, the Note Edge is very similar to the Note 4. They have the same amount of features with the Note Edge having a bit more features. The differences between both phones are the small dimension changes, Note Edge is slimmer for an obvious reason that I will talk about later. Other differences are features like: battery life, screen size, and processor options.

 

The "edge" that the Note Edge has to the Note 4 is the biggest feature difference between both phones. The Note Edge has a curved edge on the right side of the phone that can be used in different ways and can be customized to one's particular liking. The biggest use of the toolbar on the phone are the notifications that appear on it. The toolbar makes it hard for users to not know if they got a new notification from any resource they get notifications from. Since the notifications have been moved to the new toolbar, called the Edge screen, users can focus on the main screen without random interruptions from notifications. Other uses for the Edge screen are: clock/timer application, ruler, light, recorder, and fitness information. As stated above, one can customize this Edge screen to fit them as a person.

 

If users want to get their hands on the Note Edge then they are going to have to wait since the phone has not been released yet and is yet to have a release date. The Note 4 on the other hand is available now. What is your preference, Note Edge or Note 4?

    http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynoteedge/noteedge_design.html

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote4/note4_design.html

- Angelo Walker
  Digital Media 2000
  Fall

The Good, The Bad and The MP3

Long gone are the days of waiting at your favorite Specs or Peaches for the newest record, tape and CD releases. In current times, acquiring your favorite music can be easily done through ITunes, Amazon or illegally through a file sharing site; like bit torrents. The evolution of digital music has made it much more easily accessible for listeners; at the same time making it easier for musicians and non-musicians to create and distribute their work.

The impact this accessibility has had on the quality of music produced is arguable. True audiophiles say the best music is played via vinyl, on a classic turntable, through speakers that utilize glass TWTs, etc. These types of systems allow for a more pure listening experience, to artists that played real instruments. It is my opinion- the knowledge that these artists had of what a listener could and want to hear, required a different level of talent than what is used in the production of music today.

However, as times change so does public opinion and perception of what kind of music is enjoyable to them. New talents have emerged, some good-some bad, that have mastered the capability and advantage of digitally manipulating music. Some of today’s most popular recording artists use beats and loops that were completely created through digital means. These ease at which someone can edit and remix tracks prove most advantageous to their final product. There are also down sides, for example auto-tune, giving non-artists the capability of digitally manipulating music.

Music’s digital convergence to MP3 and WAV has provided that both; many good and many bad artists are given a means to be heard. Unfortunately, the digital evolution has blurred the perceptual line of what is good and bad. Just turn on the radio and listen, you can hear a song and go “alright!” or hear a song and go “WTH is that?”; point being-both are still getting played.

-Chris Moses, DIG2000, Fall

Digital Media Fueling Entrepreneurial Drive

Digital Media Fueling Entrepreneurial Drive

Digital media has become a big part of everyday life for many people.  Some of the people most affected by the growth of digital media are entrepreneurs.  Never before was it so easy to get your name out there or produce digital medium as it is today.  The best part is, the avenues to promote a business or idea keep growing... almost on a daily basis.

  

In the old days, businesses relied on word of mouth.  If you offered a quality product, consumers would in turn tell others about their dealings with your company.  This was great for businesses that have been around forever and already established a name for themselves.  It was a different story for new/emerging companies that offered new products people had never seen.  Getting street cred was a daunting task that many entrepreneurs could not overcome.


Today, it is simple as sitting down at a computer to promote, market and create a new company. Almost 150,000 new businesses open there doors in the United States each year and a lot of the credit for this belongs to digital media.  There are so many different ways it benefits the realization of people's ideas and supports entrepreneurship.

The video below depicts a young boy using different digital media mediums in order to help find his missing iguana.  It showcases just a few ways to get peoples attention in a digital format.  Imagine the boy being the entrepreneur, the people being their customers and the recovered iguana to represent the sale of their product.  It's a cool way of seeing how easy it is to reach out to people in order to serve a purpose. 

People are always looking for the newest things on the market and digital media has provided a path for entrepreneurs to get their products out there in the consumer's grasp. Many of us don't realize how much digital media has an impact on businesses.  Being successful is all about chasing your dreams and it's never been so easy to make them a reality as it is now.  That being said, it's not all fun and games when it comes to opening up a new/cutting edge business.  We will touch on that topic in my next blog post.  




Chris Ouimette
Digital Media 2000
Fall 2014

Should digital video replace traditional photo chemical film? By Devan Meeder

Avatar was Filmed With Digital Camera 

For most of the 20th Century,  movies were filmed using photo chemical film, but digital film arrived n the early 2000's and which became the more popular choice, and it’s now tipped to completely take over from traditional film. So should photo chemical film be discontinued? Well lets go over some of the pros why digital is superior over film. Digital allows anybody to be a filmmaker. Using traditional Photo chemical you have to change rolls or canisters of film every 8 minutes, which can add big costs. With digital you can film for hours with a memory card. Since its takes 8 minutes replace a film it also causes an inconvenience for actors since they would have to wait, With digital you film as long as you want. Digital Cameras can also be made in shapes and sizes allowing for more film possibility's and easier to take complected shots, photo chemical film cameras have big, bulky sizes which is will limit how they shoot a movie. Also Digital Film is always improving technology with 8k coming out in the future, Photochemical film can no longer be improved upon.

Christoper Nolan's Interstellar was filmed using Photo Chemical

However, even with all this pros that digital has over photo chemical, I still think photo chemical should still be around for the foreseeable future. Photo chemical film still has very unique look, that digital film cannot yet capture, Film director Christoper Nolan says film looks like a paint brush painting while digital film looks like a crayon painting. Its also more reliable way to archive a film, Since digital would be stored on a hard drive, hard drives could eventually fail. However having a film on Photo chemical can last forever with proper archival techniques.

Overall I think Digital and Photo chemical film can co-exist. While they both have pros and cons, they are both equally important for the movie industry.

If you want to know more information on Digtal Film and Photo Chemical Film, I recommend the movie side by side here is trailer to the movie.