Lesson3: The Browser as Personal Work Environment

Think
What arrangements do you have to make now to be able to work on whatever you want to wherever you are?

I have used: USB drive, CD ROM, and windows mobile called "W-Zero3 [es]." Windows mobile can contain Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF viewer, and other software almost as much as I want. I have been using Firefox for years in my laptop, but mainly at home since there are not enough coverage area where I can access the Internet by wireless LAN. Sometimes I bring out my laptop, but it was limited into off-line activity. So Portable Firefox is exactly the tool what I needed. And I also use social bookmarking service called "hatena bookmark" at everywhere, and feel that tag system is convenient. In addition, G-mail is useful not only for organizing my e-mail(I onforward e-mail received at my cellular phone) but also for saving data without using the PC's memory.


Explore
View a couple of these screenshot tours 1 2 3 4 showing how different users have developed a personal work environment in Firefox (FF). Most users have provided details on what extensions or tweaks they've made to develop their browser as a personal work environment. Take notes on some of the features that look interesting.

Viewing these various screenshot was exciting, and I was stimulated to develop my own work environment in Firefox. I'm interested in Add-on of: "PDF Download," "Menu editor," "How'd I Get Here", "Adblock Plus," "Download Statusbar," "Showcase Sidebar," and "Stylish" so far. And I also found "Diigo" is very usuful for university student.


Explain
1. What are the main skills needed to use social software?
In addition to computer literacy and communicative skill, active attitude to participate in discussion with other users is needed to improve and develop social software.

2. What are the affordances (what the software makes possible, what it impedes)?
Social soft ware enables and encourages us to deepen our knowledge not only by solitary activity but also by mutual conversation. For example, "Diigo" is called as "social annotation" while ordinary process of reading, highlighting, and annotating is usually done alone.

3. How can the technology be used to network professionally and connect users to learning resources?
Social bookmarking survices might be useful tools for organizing academic paper since it needs a lot of references.

4. What learned skills and understandings may promote your development as an effective learner in the digital age?
Since Firefox and other social software are becoming useful day by day, the skill to check news and keep up with the evolution may promote.