A reflection on Zazengo and ideas for the future.

1. As part of the Zazengo CyberARTS team my partner and I were responsible for creating videos that documented our progress with Zazengo in the beginning weeks. Later on we created two videos for the recycling team to promote the idea of reusing and recycling materials. We also created a final video to reflect on Zazengo and what we did.  We equally took parts in shooting videos and editing them.

Along with a partner I introduced a grade to the Zazengo competition 

We used the Zazengo website to upload the videos to the projects and teams they belonged to. We also created a YouTube page which can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/cyberartsnv 

2. I think the Zazengo website has improved a lot since we first were introduced to it. What I would like to see is a simpler navigation which stands out. I still believe it is difficult for new users to spot some of the buttons and features of the website. I would make the buttons stand out.

I also think there should be a better way to post content and videos. Perhaps allow for more than 1 picture or video to be posted, like in a blog.

Although I personally don’t think there is a need for a Facebook application YET there are several ways to implement it. One way that I think would be effective is a small card/box that features a project you want to let everyone else know about and perhaps a very short Zazengo slogan that intrigues people who don’t know what Zazengo is. Perhaps something along the lines of “Zanzengo – Imagine. Create. Change.” who knows?

3. My profile http://zazengo.com/users/Reza

Sample of my digital portfolio provided at the top. 

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Final reflection on zazengo.com class project. :)

1. As a part of the Zazengo CyberARTS team I worked as key contact person between Mr. Ford and myself, communicating daily all that the class accomplished, along with our next steps in the projects and problems/concerns we encountered. As contact person it was often quite difficult trying got keep both sides up to date and informed of the entire "goings on". Further, I also acted as Team Leader for the Recycling Project in the class. I worked with Aftab, Gal, Maxim and Kiril in creating an awareness campaign on recycling in the school and community. To accomplish this, we created a group itself on zazengo.com where we created awareness through posting videos, stories and starting discussions. As well, we advertised the recycling concept to the Northview community through posters that we put up, and slogans we created.

Throughout the course of this project I did a plethora of jobs including:

 - maintaining regular contact with Mr. Ford

 - keeping the class up to date with the goings on, and information I received from Mr. Ford

 - gave 2 presentations to teachers at Northview to advertise zazengo.com and get the rest of Northview involved

 - acted as host and helped to organized our "Inconvenient Truth" presentation

 - helped to create and follow through with the competition we posted onto zazengo.com for students to submit their work

 - worked with my team members for the recycling project

2. When we started this project in the beginning and actually checked out the site for ourselves, I remember being very confused and finding it hard to navigate around the site. I think if we were to start from scratch I would perhaps like to see a bit of a different layout for the site. Something a little bit more simplistic. For example, instead of having so many categories of groups: event, campaign, etc...I would just create one, as "Organization" and under organization would be all the pertaining information rather than jumping from group to group.

Example:

Organization:  CyberARTS

And under the Cyber ARTS page there would be links leading to all events run through Cyberarts ("Real Solutions for an Inconvenient Truth", "Re(Use-Duce-Cycle)", "Project Z") all campaigns etc... rather than having discussions and stories for each category.

I think a Facebook application for zazengo.com would be an excellent idea, and I think it should be a box like tool on profile pages, where there could be a mini profile of the person, with their picture, metrics, and organizations they're involved with, as well as their total number of volunteer hours. I think it would be interesting to see, and with the volunteer hours given, I think people that wouldn't normally go to a site like zazengo.com would be convinced otherwise.

3. A sample of my work is posted above, and my updated profile can be viewed at:

http://www.zazengo.com/users/Ramona

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Zazengo Reflection:

Zazengo Reflection:

In this semester our Cyber ARTS team worked on the website Zazengo.com. Each of our team member made different contribution to the website. We each registered an account on the site. We followed through the development of the website and made suggestions about the navigation, layout, and usefulness about the website while we were observing. Our team also contributed to the graphics of the website to make it more eye appealing. What I did for the website was I suggested ideas about the communication system and I wrote a suggestive proposal for the communication system. My idea was to help the teammates in a project to communicate with each other better. My teammates and me used Zazengo.com for the Northview Energy Saving project. We uploaded stories about how we planned to save energy for our school.

I think zazengo facebook application is a good idea to help the website gaining more popularity among teens. I think Zazengo should be more customizable so it can attract more people. For example be able to change the theme colour of the web page ext. The website should host more contests and encourage people to participate. It can be a form of video or other things.

My job was to design a communication system for zazengo.com

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Hmwrk

Our group, was the water conservation group, Turning off the taps, we basically were all about conservation of tap water, and changing ways to do it. Our members each had separate assignments. Jenny and Jane designed posters with messages and important information about why we have to save the water. Melissa and myself also designed posters, while Nicole being the leader of the group, organized and uploaded all our work onto the site.

If the option of redesigning the Zazengo web site was left to me, I would include in it more design icons and elements relating to nature to create a more clear sense of the purpose of the site. The colour scheme I view it to be fine, no adjustments would need to be made. However the overall appearance I would make a more drastic eye catching design, incorporating more nature. The facebook application will look very basic incorporate the design of my website with the naturalist theme in there.

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Zazengo Reflection

1.  What did you contribute as part of the Zazengo CyberARTS team? Describe your jobs and what each team member did. How did you and your team use the Zazengo site?

As part of the Zazengo CyberARTS team, I was part of the Energy Conservation group. As a group we researched different ways that we could reduce the ecological footprint of out school, and of course ways we could conserve energy, because the lights in the school are on almost always. As part of the group, we also went around taking pictures of the school to show the different things that we could do. With some of the pictures, we put in windmills, and solar panels, to show what it would be like if such were so. We created posters to promote the Energy Conservation cause. We used the Zazengo website to show our progress, and we also posted a lot of our photos. We created projects, and were joined with many others to support this cause.

2. Thinking about what you know and have experienced now, and if you could start from scratch with no restrictions, brainstorm the future of Zazengo. Consider the design, tools, functionality, navigation, feedback and communication capabilities of the site. What would a Zazengo Facebook application look like?  It would have to be compact etc. What would the eye-catching parts of that app. be?

If I start the website from scratch, I feel that I would leave it basically the same, but probably make it more interactive. Like Facebook and other websites similar to it, there should be an addition of being able to post comments for people on their profiles, whether to give suggestions, or maybe a word of encouragement. Otherwise, I feel the there should be some sort of way where a group of people should be able to chat upon the website so that people can communicate, and also discuss different topics.

3. Update your profile and list your "jobs". Include a sample of your digital portfolio.

Jobs:

Editing FAQ’s

Coming up with contest ideas

Writing the criteria for judging

Assisting in judging

Taking photos to be used in posters

Creating posters to promote energy conservation

Research

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