In all honesty and truth, I am extremely nervous about the last paper that we have in this class. When I took on the course I didn't really think that we would be into the topic this deep and now I'm not so sure how I'm actually going to do. I don't really have a topic in mind, but I should probably be along the lines of trying to figure it out because I've come too far in the course to not succeed.
For the most part I think I'm really scared about the information. I haven't failed a paper but along the way of doing them I just feel like they're so unorganized and I doubt myself a lot doing the paper. I may not even be doing that bad of a job, I just don't feel like I fully understand the topic of the papers. Even though I'm really nervous about the paper, I would have to just buckle down, meet with you, and others in the learning center and get it done.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Clay Shirky SOPA
I was completely unaware of Congress trying to have so much control over our social networking and file sharing until watching this video. Clay Shirky began his TED talk by giving the scenario of a bakery going out of business because they could no longer use printed sheets of cartoon characters. The defense for this? This was considered "copyrighting".
Shirky goes on to explain that congress has passed SOPA. Basically, SOPA is like our internet police. Now of days we share videos, music, pictures, etc. on social networking sites making any type of digital media available to us world wide. That's what you're supposed to be able to do on social networks, right? Wrong. Congress wants to put a stop to that. They basically want to sell us these items that would usually allow us to have access to all these social networking sites but not allow us to use them in the way that we have (free music, videos, etc.).
For me, I think that SOPA is a bad idea. To an extent, I do think that Shirky has a point . File sharing is something I actually take part in on a daily basis, mostly with music. My friends are always sharing new music with me and vice versa. This does save me money to a sense but it's mostly done because I rarely ever want an entire album from an artist. Same thing with movies, I don't think anyone is a fan of wasting money. Movie theaters here are nearly ten dollars just to see a movie. Nothing is more annoying than spending that much money to see a movie that didn't turn out to be so good. These files being available to us on the internet eliminates that. I don't think that file sharing is something that is mallicious, for me it's just to save money.
Shirky goes on to explain that congress has passed SOPA. Basically, SOPA is like our internet police. Now of days we share videos, music, pictures, etc. on social networking sites making any type of digital media available to us world wide. That's what you're supposed to be able to do on social networks, right? Wrong. Congress wants to put a stop to that. They basically want to sell us these items that would usually allow us to have access to all these social networking sites but not allow us to use them in the way that we have (free music, videos, etc.).
For me, I think that SOPA is a bad idea. To an extent, I do think that Shirky has a point . File sharing is something I actually take part in on a daily basis, mostly with music. My friends are always sharing new music with me and vice versa. This does save me money to a sense but it's mostly done because I rarely ever want an entire album from an artist. Same thing with movies, I don't think anyone is a fan of wasting money. Movie theaters here are nearly ten dollars just to see a movie. Nothing is more annoying than spending that much money to see a movie that didn't turn out to be so good. These files being available to us on the internet eliminates that. I don't think that file sharing is something that is mallicious, for me it's just to save money.
Jane McGonigal's Gaming can Add 10 Extra Years of Your Life
When I first read the title of this video by Jane McGonigal, it was very intriguing. I wasn't sure how much McGonigal could persuade me into believing this, but it definitely caught my eye.
Starting the video, McGonigal introduced to the crowd the top 5 things that people say they wished they would have changed on their death bed. The main things that they said all lead to problems that can be solved by playing video games. I had this in mind as she introduced each one to the crowd. She shares with the crowd that she had a traumatic incident hitting her head and getting a concussion. Her concussion didn't heal properly and lead her to have a bit of a depression. She even had suicidal thoughts.
To better her situation, McGonigal developed a game that she, her husband, and identical twin could play. The focus of the game was to conquer things that could trigger her brain not to heal and also part take in things that could also make her better/ examples being taking a walk or something that made her feel good in general. By playing the game, she was able to pull herself out of that state of mind and she got better.
Basically, the game that McGonigal designed relieved them of the suffering and kind of took their minds off of what was really going on. This was called post traumatic growth. In all, by doing these validated activities that you do in the game in real life, you give yourself a natural "bettering" and this adds on to your life span.
This is my favorite from Jane McGonigal. I even took it so far as to do the activities that she told everyone to do in the video and I plan on applying these things to my everyday life for my own personal sanity.
Starting the video, McGonigal introduced to the crowd the top 5 things that people say they wished they would have changed on their death bed. The main things that they said all lead to problems that can be solved by playing video games. I had this in mind as she introduced each one to the crowd. She shares with the crowd that she had a traumatic incident hitting her head and getting a concussion. Her concussion didn't heal properly and lead her to have a bit of a depression. She even had suicidal thoughts.
To better her situation, McGonigal developed a game that she, her husband, and identical twin could play. The focus of the game was to conquer things that could trigger her brain not to heal and also part take in things that could also make her better/ examples being taking a walk or something that made her feel good in general. By playing the game, she was able to pull herself out of that state of mind and she got better.
Basically, the game that McGonigal designed relieved them of the suffering and kind of took their minds off of what was really going on. This was called post traumatic growth. In all, by doing these validated activities that you do in the game in real life, you give yourself a natural "bettering" and this adds on to your life span.
This is my favorite from Jane McGonigal. I even took it so far as to do the activities that she told everyone to do in the video and I plan on applying these things to my everyday life for my own personal sanity.
Khan Academy
Khan's concept is really a concept that I really agree with. The fact that technology is so available to us should really spark our minds to use it to its highest potential, especially when it comes to our school systems . To further his concept he applied it to when teaching a subject that a lot of people either grasp or don't care to grasp ; math.
Khan begins his TED talk with an example of him teaching is cousins in Louisiana and how they performed with him in person versus the videos he had posted online; basically teaching the same concept. His cousins actually preferred the videos over him lecturing . This was because the student could learn the concept at their own pace instead of someone constantly asking "do you understand" or teachers becoming irritated because the student doesn't always quite catch on to the concept.
Khan developed Khan Academy to in a sense eliminate that sense of insecurity about learning a subject like math. The students go online to watch their lectures and complete work at their own pace. This in general give students that understand the concepts of the subject the option to go a little faster and the ones that don't quite understand to get extra help. The teachers also get a "progress report" so to speak to get kind of an idea of what areas he/she needs to spend more time and overall it leaves the classroom more open for extra help and understanding.
By far, Khan has had the idea that I enjoy most. His idea are more "right now" and something we can actually implement rather quickly to see drastic changes. I do believe Khan's idea has more appeal to me because of the fact that I can relate because math is a subject I struggled with and also having to experience teachers that may not have had the time to always meet my needs one on one.
Khan begins his TED talk with an example of him teaching is cousins in Louisiana and how they performed with him in person versus the videos he had posted online; basically teaching the same concept. His cousins actually preferred the videos over him lecturing . This was because the student could learn the concept at their own pace instead of someone constantly asking "do you understand" or teachers becoming irritated because the student doesn't always quite catch on to the concept.
Khan developed Khan Academy to in a sense eliminate that sense of insecurity about learning a subject like math. The students go online to watch their lectures and complete work at their own pace. This in general give students that understand the concepts of the subject the option to go a little faster and the ones that don't quite understand to get extra help. The teachers also get a "progress report" so to speak to get kind of an idea of what areas he/she needs to spend more time and overall it leaves the classroom more open for extra help and understanding.
By far, Khan has had the idea that I enjoy most. His idea are more "right now" and something we can actually implement rather quickly to see drastic changes. I do believe Khan's idea has more appeal to me because of the fact that I can relate because math is a subject I struggled with and also having to experience teachers that may not have had the time to always meet my needs one on one.
Video Games
In response to Katie's video about video games, I would very much agree with what she is saying. I am a big gamer and i love playing video games. I dont think that anything that I learn in video games could harm me or steer me along the wrong path if i were to continue to play them. People these days are really immature and stupid if you ask me if they believe that these type things are true. I honestly am ready to get the hell out of this class because it is absolutely boring . I wish I had something else to write about besides video games and technology. Even though I play video games and all this class is extremely boring . Wise man close his mouth , mad man close his fist , young man shows his age, judge man named it sin. Bad man dont exist no no evil man exists. Good man dont exist no no righteous man exists . Sad man cannot cry in place where man can see. Never witness father weep an
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Cathy Davidson The Future
The ideas that Cathy Davidson had in her video were interesting but I'm not so sure I agreed with them all. One idea that I really liked that she brought forward was the fact that we have to develop a new way of educating our future leaders and so forth. We can't take the same education methods from the 19th century and apply them to today. For the most part, things haven't changed so drastically to where we won't be able to function with the methods that we are using now, but things have changed enough to where new methods should most definitely be brought forward.
Davidson's examples that she gave on how we're "programmed" so to speak to work alone and silently was something that I had never really paid much attention to. I think that maybe I never really think about it because that's just how we as people have been since before my time. I do believe that a lot more can be achieved in groups versus working alone. When working on any major task, it's always easier to have help and also have different ideas, different ways to solve the problem, just different views. This method also eliminates insecurities about not having strong points in every subject, or every single thing you do because these things would be more focused on your strengths.
Overall, I think that she had really good ideas...but I guess I should say that I'm not sure that these would be things we could implement immediately and see changes.
Davidson's examples that she gave on how we're "programmed" so to speak to work alone and silently was something that I had never really paid much attention to. I think that maybe I never really think about it because that's just how we as people have been since before my time. I do believe that a lot more can be achieved in groups versus working alone. When working on any major task, it's always easier to have help and also have different ideas, different ways to solve the problem, just different views. This method also eliminates insecurities about not having strong points in every subject, or every single thing you do because these things would be more focused on your strengths.
Overall, I think that she had really good ideas...but I guess I should say that I'm not sure that these would be things we could implement immediately and see changes.
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