It is very important to many consumers that they are buying green, safe and healthy products, whether it's food or cleaning products. A friend told me about a site that she started using to check the greenness of products, because to her, it is important to be a consumer that is aware of where the products are coming from and how they are manufactured.
Good Guide is a site dedicated to educating consumers about all products. The video introduction explains the goals of the site. The video instantly grabs your attention, showing you familiar products and explaining the science behind the ratings. People that are dedicated to being informed consumers understand the value of this site and how relevant it is to their goal of being socially responsible.
Products are rated by a staff of scientists in three categories: health, environment and society. You can use the personal filter ensure that products are rated according to what is most important to you. Downloading the transparency toolbar will rates products that you are shopping for on the web and compares it with other possibly better products. To look up products while you shop in person use the mobile app to scan the bar codes to find out how safe and green they are.
As you view all the products you currently use, your confidence is boosted by all the green and socially responsible products you currently use. While it may come as a shock that some of the others are not as safe, this site allows you to view other products that satisfy your promise to consume greener, safer products.
I think that this tool could really change the way that people shop, which is the goal of the site itself. Keeping people informed about what their buying is the first step towards fostering a more informed and greener society.
This is a very successful e-learning lesson on the effects
of various drugs on the body, in this case, experimental mice.
Colorful, attractive, and humorous animation provides an
effective attention-getting device. The
cool music track evokes the sense of being at a drug party, not that I would
know that personally.
The user immediately engages with the material by being
invited to pick up one of many variously stoned mice hanging out in a lab cage.
You can point to see which drug each mouse is imbibing, and then pick it up
with your rubber gloves and drop the wriggling culprit in a chair. From there the
user is introduced to the learning content, systematically presented using
diagrams, animation, and audio.
Instructions were clear, including text, arrows, and
voice-over narration, so I had a clear idea of what I needed to do next.
My confidence was further increased by clear navigational controls.
This site would be highly relevant to high school health students studying the effects of drugs, and I shall recommend to our school's health teacher.
I was recently introduced to a wonderful new social network. Turntable.fm is a network where people join together to play and listen to music. It is like a radio station where all the listeners vote on what is played and the majority rules.
When you first arrive, you are provided with a list of rooms where different types of music are being played. Rooms are usually created for specific genre's and sometimes rooms are created with a theme in mind (these are my favorite). Themed rooms often generate great discussions as unexpected music is played! There is also a search bar so you can quickly find the type of music that is right for you.
When you enter a room, there is a DJ stand and a dance floor. Up to five DJ's can be up on the stand at once and they each take turns playing one song at a time. It is a fun challenge to try to choose songs that flow well with the previous DJ's music choice. On the dance floor, you can find all the people listening that are not DJ'ing. At the bottom of the room, there are two buttons, 'lame' and 'awesome'. Each time a new song plays, listeners can vote to rate a song, votes are shown on a meter in the middle of the room. If you choose 'awesome', your avatar dances to the music by bobbing their head and the meter moves to the left. If you choose 'lame' the meter moves to the right. If enough people 'lame' a song, it will be skipped and the next DJ plays a song. This is a great feedback system for the DJ's to see the type of music that listeners enjoy. As an added incentive, each 'awesome' that a DJ collects gives them a point. Points can be used to unlock new avatars so you can stand out in the crowd.
The feature I use the most in Turntable is the chat window. I have been introduced to a ton of new music that I love by people that I have met in chat on Turntable. I had many discussions that began with 'I love this song' which led to 'If you like them, then you would really like...' It really is a great place for a discussion about great music.
Another great feature is that you can 'like' a DJ and add friends. When you view the lobby that shows you all the rooms, rooms with friends or DJ's you like appear at the top of the list. This is a great way to listen to music with a group of friends or quickly find a DJ that you enjoy listening to.
I have found that Turntable.fm is very motivational.
It grabs your attention almost immediately by only requiring one-click to reach music. Turntable maintains listener's attention by rotating DJ's which leads to more musical variety.
The music played in Turntable is relevant to you since you select a room with a genre that interests you. If a DJ is playing songs outside of the genre, listeners are usually pretty quick to point it out and skip their song.
Turntable builds confidence through chat feedback and voting. If you are getting 'lame' votes regularly, try a different genre. Most rooms are very easygoing and give out many more 'awesome' votes than 'lame' votes.
Turntable more than anything else is satisfying. It may take a few tries, but once you find a room you like, Turntable will quickly become a favorite site to visit. I often play it in the background while I am performing daily tasks, I find that I like to listen to different genre's depending on my mood or the activity I am currently participating in.
I highly recommend that you try out turntable. If you have even a slight interest in music, it is definitely worth a visit. It is currently in Beta testing, so you need to have a Facebook friend that has an account in order to gain access. If you would like access and don't have a Facebook friend with an account, feel free to friend me.
A great motivational tool I’ve been using lately is My Fitness Pal. Available both as a
web site and an app for your phone, My Fitness Pal is a fitness tracker and tracks the
amount of calories you intake and the number of calories you burn through exercise.
When my boyfriend first told me about the app for my phone, I was dubious. I’ve long
hated the idea of tracking calories as it seems to become an obsession for those who do,
but I’d been working out regularly for over a year and seeing very few results, despite
eating healthy. The app got my attention because it’s so easy to use. You can search
for nearly any food you’re eating, build recipes and meals that you eat on a regular
basis, or scan a bar code to enter items. It’s especially great for me because it has nearly
everything Trader Joe’s sells and I shop there pretty much exclusively. Likewise, you can
find exercises and the average calories burned for various amounts of time. Essentially,
the app does all the work for you. And once you enter foods and exercise on a regular
basis, entering information takes mere seconds.
The app has proved very relevant for me. It showed me I was under eating and showed
me how many calories I really needed to intake to lose, and later maintain, a healthy
weight. I’m not looking to be a size zero, I just want to be healthy and the app showed
me how under eating can contribute to excess body weight as much as overeating. My
Fitness Pal has given me the confidence to keep working toward a healthy body weight. I
understand better now portion size, how many calories foods really have and how much
exercise I need to keep my metabolism brewing at an optimal level.
I’ve been very satisfied with the app and tell everyone about it. It really is a fantastic
tool to help people realize what they put into their bodies and how they can, and should,
alter their intake to live healthier lives. The most amazing thing is losing weight with My
Fitness Pal really hasn’t been that difficult. It’s simply helped motivate me to realize the
250 calorie cupcakes sitting in my office aren’t really worth it. They don’t really taste
that good anyway.
Almost everyone wants to be happy or is searching/pursuing something that gives their life happiness, satisfaction, meaning, purpose or direction. Sometimes we know what would make us happy.Sometimes we don’t know. Sometimes we know what would make us happy, but don’t set clear goals to achieve it.
The Happiness Project Toolbox is a resource where one can learn about what makes them happy and how they can achieve their happiness goals. It’s free and users can participate in individual projects, group projects, blogs, inspiration boards, journals and more.
The Happiness Project Toolbox website is by Gretchen Rubin, author of the book The Happiness Project.This site cleverly expands on her book and lets participants create their own “happiness project” using different elements in the sites “toolbox”.Participant’s projects help them identify changes they’d like to make in their lives and clarify specific goals and measurable action item steps to boost their happiness.
Attention The site does a good job in stimulating and sustaining the participant’s attention.First it arouses curiosity – what’s it about? How can it help me be happy? This toolbox approach maybe new to many people and their curiosity is aroused by finding out how this can help them. People want to learn more about themselves. In Keller’s book, he sites Maw and Maw’s description of curiosity “…curiosity is manifested when a person… exhibits a need or a desire to know more about himself…”
This website captures attention with its ease of use and site maneuverability and readability, along with the novel approach and use of variation by letting users participate individually or with a group, publically or privately, and offering tools such as journals, inspirational boards and blogs. Since people differ, different tactics are supplied.
Increased curiosity is displayed in the sections where there are exploration questions that the users can investigate.There are challenges where the users set concrete and measurable goals in the resolutions toolbox section.This also helps them be both focused and interested in the process.
The use of blog entries with interesting, concrete and at times emotional posts retains participants’ interest.The Inspiration Board tool uses metaphors, analogies, and famous quotations to arouse users and to make ideas more concrete.
Relevance The author has a clear understanding of the importance of the content, creating relevance for the learner.The site clearly answers the key question for relevance – “in what ways will this learning experience be valuable for my students?” – since the site has a major focus on setting and obtaining learner defined goals.It provides users personal achievement opportunities and positive role models via the “secrets of adulthood” tool and “inspiration board” tool.
Confidence Does the site give tools for the users to succeed and does it help them in their ability to control their successes?Does it assist in building a positive expectation for success?The requirements for success and the evaluative criteria are explained on the site, stating there is no wrong or right way to use the tools. Users are allowed to go at their own pace and are offered a variety of environments – work on their own or with other people. The site projects a positive attitude and engenders trust. The personal commandment toolbox page gives participants opportunities to identify principles to guide their lives, which can help them feel in control of their successes. The resolutions tool gives them an area to chart their success on a weekly basis, providing feedback; however, unless the users initiates more challenging resolutions.
The site provides varied and challenging experiences that increase learning success. There is a “2011 Happiness Challenge” with monthly themes and weekly resolution videos featuring the author (see photo at right) and follow up questions. Also the inspiration boards, along with the author’s blogs, function as a confidence booster.
Satisfaction The site can help users feel good about their experience and even create a desire to continue learning, since they get feedback on their progress which is recorded on weekly resolution page that the user self-initiates. A check in a daily box creates a % average score. Since some goals are rated monthly instead of daily (put $300 in 401K each month), this seems to be a faulty scoring system. There isn’t any personal feedback or information given individually to participants by an instructor that would further reinforce positive feelings for their effort and accomplishments. Also, there isn’t any earning of points or symbol type of rewards.There is a Happiness Hacks toolbox section which gives users the opportunity to teach others by providing their tips for success.
