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Artifact #8
Artifact #9
Artifact #10

Articfact #10

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/movies/the-24-hour-movie-and-digital-technology.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

This article was very interesting, because i can relate to many of the points that the writer is talking about. Personally i do not got to the movies unless it is a hit movie that i cannot wait to see, or someone wants me to go with them to see a movie. This is because it is so much more convenient for me to wait until the movie comes out to the public because i can watch it on my own time. Also i can barely stand to pay ten dollars just to see a movie one time. Once that movie comes out to the public there are times when you can pick it up at the store for 15, or go to rent it for less than half of that price. With that you can also watch it on your own time, and in the comfort of your own house. With new technology you can also pretty much watch the movie no matter where you are. With itunes now making movies available for purchase, and things like netflix becoming more and more popular you can be anywhere and watch your favorite movie. I am starting to believe that before long cinemas are going to become less and less popular because of new ways for people to obtain the films. As the article talked about, the way that movies are being made is also changing. Today you dont even need film to produce a box office hit, as we could see with the creation of James Cameron's Avatar who made everything from a digital image. Things are just becoming more digital as time is going on and before long i believe that cinemas will become a thing of the past. Right now when people talk about going to see a movie it is normally people who belong to the older crowd because that is what they grew up with, but personally if the movie does not ust jump out at me as being a hit then i can stand to wait a few weeks for it to come out to the public to see it.

Artifact 9: The Spirit of Sharing

This article does not surprise me at all now that i have seen how so many different companies are using the internet. Even though you would not really see the need for museum's to show their content on the internet, it is a very good way for them to create interest in the items they have. Things like Facebook and twitter are making it easier and easier for these places to create a buzz about what they have going on and catch the eyes of those people who may be interested in what they have to offer. After being enrolled in a art history course this spring i have been using the Saint Louis Art Museum website to look at the collection they provide online. They feature all of their collection online so it is not mandatory that you go to the museum to see the artwork all the time. Not only do they have the pictures of the art on the website, they also have some descriptions of the art that tell about the time and the artist. The art museums will get much more interest i feel from any outsiders if they preview their collections online because people would know what they will be going to see. Things like facebook and twitter will help to promote any special presentations that they have going on, and also create interest from donors.

Artifact 8: Health Online

This artifact was very interesting to me. I myself have been sick at times and found myself getting on webmd to try and diagnose myself. I personally hate going to the doctor so if there is any way for me to avoid that then i will try it. Although when i have used webmd, i still end up having to go to the doctor because I have to get medicine or something to take care of my problem. I do feel like these sites are a good idea though because they make society think about their bodies and gives people a way to know whats going on inside their body. I feel like the games being made to help the children with illnesses are very good because it gives them a easier way to understand what is going on in their body. Also the websites that get people together with the same illnesses are a great idea i believe because kids with very bad illnesses could become outcasts by the kids around them so those sites give them a way to interact with kids in the same boat as them.

Sometimes i question the effectiveness of the health sites because some people might be so quick to just use those sites and diagnose themselves and are wrong. Sometimes the best way to figure out what is really wrong with you is to go to the doctor where they are educated and know all of the signs of an illness. When using one of those sites you could be over looking a bigger problem than what might be shown to you.

Artifact #7:Professors Use Technology to Fight Student Cheating

In this article the author writes about all of the ways that students are cheating, and what schools are beginning to use to stop it. Although all of the scenarios that they discussed related to the steps that schools are taking did not sound to me like they would be good enough to stop someone who really wants to cheat.  The problems I had with this article is that many of the things discussed were a little far fetched. For instance the whole palm reader thing that the GMAT is going to begin testing just seams over the top and like a waste of money. Along with the palm reader, i feel like it is a little ridiculous that some colleges are encouraging the installation of a $150 program and webcam on the computers of people taking online classes so they can view what is going on in the room as they take the exam. I do like the idea that teachers are setting up phony websites with the wrong answers provided so that they can catch students if they are using the internet to complete assignments or tests. The only problem i find with that idea is the teachers are way to worried about what is going on as far as cheating and could be spending way to much time on the internet making these sites when there are other things in the classroom that they could be putting time into.

Eportfolio

Artifact #4
Artifact #5
Artifact #6
CMC-Stand 3: Units 1 and 2

CMC – Strand 3: Units 1 and 2

Hey guys, sorry I'm a little late on the blog entry but this weeks units are about searching and researching on the internet and online collaboration. 


The focus Unit 1:Searching and Researching on the Internet is to teach students about how to use the internet to do research. One main point of Unit 1 was why do people seek online information? They then gave a list of five reasons that explain what people use the internet to search for.

• To get an overview of a subject they know nothing about.
• To find factual information
• Keep up to the minute on news
• Balance different points of view from different sources
• Test a hypothesis or theory

Were living in the information age, and the internet has revolutionized our lives by making more information to more people than ever before. Although we have all of this information available to us though not all of the information is worth something. The book gives a short list of sources that are recommended for research. 

• Mailing Lists
• Newsgroups
• Online News Sources
• Electronic Journals, Books, and Reports
• Reports by major international, government, and professional organizations
• Commercial Internet Research Sites

When doing research keep in mind that there are political decisions behind what is shown and not shown on internet sites so make sure to see both sides of the political spectrum when researching a topic. As well as looking for political bias you must make sure that the information being collected is current and up to date.

There are three different types of search engines that are being used as well. Which one you use could affect the results that you get from your search. 

The three different types include:

• Subject Directories-organize online material into categories (Yahoo!).
• Keyword based search engines, which include sites like google and excite.
• Meta-search Engines run searches by searching other search engines and combining results (Dogpile).

During Unit 2 of Strand 3 the book discusses online collaboration. In all different focus areas such as health, education, law, and politics, you can be sure that there is online collaboration being used as an easy way to communicate. Anyone entering a career today should be able to communicate online and collaborate with co-workers because many times the people you work with you may never meet in face to face conversation.

The book goes over a online collaboration exercise that allows students to collaborate online with people they already know offline. One big point that the book mentions is that when online with people you do not know you must establish your identity and let others know who you are, and your intentions.

Artifact #6

This video is very interesting, i wasn't sure what to expect after the beginning when the guy had a random outburst it seemed like and started screaming. 4chan sounds like quite the website from what I've just heard. Its amazing to me how many hits a website gets mainly because it is anonymous. He mentioned that they get 780,000 posts on average a day which has to make it one of the most active websites i would think. I found it interesting that they saw the videos of the guy abusing his cat, and the forensic guys that are on 4chan were able to track the guys information down just by watching the video, then finding his myspace and where he lives so they could tip off the police. I also found it interesting that on the website there was a gathering of people that did not support scientology and they were able to form a protest on the site even though its an anonymous site. It sounds like 4chan has the potential to be a community that can put many minds together and solve a lot of problems. There is really not another website that i know of that you can get on and remain anonymous and voice your opinion like this. He also talks about he will not remove any comments or posts that are aimed at someone, because its someones opinion and if they cannot remain anonymous and voice their opinion then what is the point of the website.

Artifact #5

This podcast completely surprised me, not in a million years would i have thought that many of the things that we use on the internet every single day were created because of pornography. Things like being able to use a credit card to pay for things online that people use regularly was created to pay for porn sites. Not only the ability to use credit cards came from pornography, but also the ability to watch videos which was very surprising to me. I mean today when people get bored they go look at youtube, or even in todays world we can live stream video. Without pornography would we be able to do this? That is the question that amazed me the most. In the podcast it said that many of our social networks use some things taken from the porn sites, like chat rooms.

Artifact #4

Wow is the only word that comes to mind after viewing the Uncanny Droid video. I think its kind of scary that people have come up with the new technology to make these robots, and even further are able to control them with their own motions. What fascinated me most about the robot was its ability to move its eyes so fast and able to blink at the same rate that a human can. Its scary to think that someday in the next decade or so this could become a very common thing to see. Who knows someday we could have robots like this walking among us, and not even knowing they were there. At first glance i did not notice that this was even a robot because it looks so much like a real person. The first thing that drew me to the conclusion that it was a robot was the fact that at many times it had no expression on its face which is something that humans always have.
In the Old School? or What? video I found myself overlooking the fact that the pencil sharpener is technology as well. It's just something that we seem to overlook in todays society as something that we really need. To be honest if this was a video that just popped up and i started to watch i would have turned it off immediately because its like common sense to us today how to us a pencil sharpener. Although back when this technology was new many people would not have had a clue how to use it, so i feel like this was kind of a realization for me about how far we have come in our society. From pencil sharpeners to robots that move and look like human beings, amazing!

Artifact 3

In Nicholas Carr's book "What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains" he discussed a lot of topics about how the internet has made us more of a multi tasking type of society. I like how he talked about when your sitting down to read something on the internet today, you have so many links and different things that distract you from reading what you were trying to read. This is far different from when people read things inside a book because the book shields you from other distractions better. He then goes on to explain how a computer and the internet promotes you into multitasking because you can check your email, read an article, watch a video, and message a friend simultaneously and its fast. I thought it was a very interesting that he talked about how office workers would glance at their inbox 30 or more times per hour and even that small little glance takes your attention away from what you are doing and doesn't let you get into deep thought. He says that even though  so many things that are convenient on the internet and easy to use, it also makes it very hard to get done what you intended to do because there are so many distractions that can cut into your short term memory.

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Artifact 1

Artifact 2

Artifact 3

Reaction to CMC units 3 and 4

Artifact 2

As i read through the first part of the article, i wasn't sure what i was going to be hearing when i watched the video. I liked how Powers talked about all of the thinkers that he studied, people like Aristotle and Socrates, and was able to relate what they said to the modern world. When he talked about Shakespeare's analysis of the table, when they said that in that time it was amazing how people got to the point where they were so dependent on the tables that they could not go anywhere without them. This is just like the way that people are with their phones and computers today, because there are many people that are lost without their gadgets.

Along with being attached to the gadgets i like how he talked about how the best compliment to being overly connected is a healthy dose of being disconnected. Then he later talks about how he and his wife disconnected the Internet on weekends so that they would at least be disconnected from their technology at least two days a week, and it let them realize that they could easily use other means to look up the things they need to know. When they used the newspaper to find the movies that were playing it went right along with what he was talking about in the beginning when he said that even though paper is being used less he doesn't feel that it will be totally phased out because it has been around for so long, and its just something that everyone at some point relies on.

Technology is really distracting our society these days in many ways. As powers talks about the way his family was losing "family time" because of the use of the Internet and new gadgets, it made me think about the way the typical family has grown apart and become more reliant on technology to get through the day. Then once he talked about the way businesses are losing money because of technology. This is because employees have began to use the Internet all day and their minds wander from the tasks they are supposed to be doing and causing them to not get their work done.

This article doesn't really bring a surprise to me because when you take into account how many peoples lives have become more active and on the go there is just not enough time for many to sit and watch a news cast, or read the paper.Although there are still the older people that are more old fashioned and in a routine so they will still watch the news or read news papers, but the younger crowd is becoming more and more digital everyday. Before long i wouldn't be surprised if news papers become a thing of the past and everything moves digital.

With new things like Facebook and twitter coming into the view of the world, its not surprising how many people rely on them for news. What has surprised me lately about Facebook and other social networks is how many older people are beginning to use them to communicate. When they were started it was mainly just the younger crowd using them and as they have come along the older crowd has been using them to keep in touch with old friends and family members. Im ot sure about the reliability of these websites for world news and things because many people could input bias when writing about certain news topics. 

As far as the news being read more and more on the internet, i feel like in some cases it is better because on news cast they seem to place emphasis on certain topics and on the internet you read it for yourself and can place emphasis on topics that are important to you. 

News papers are becoming less popular as well and i feel like this is because of the rising price of paper and the emphasis on phasing out things that in the long run hurt the environment. If you just use the internet you wont have to deal with getting rid of papers and it takes alot more time to read through the paper than to just get on the internet and read what interests you. For instance, in my case all that really interests me in the news paper is the sports section and i can just get online and read everything that interests me from that section rather than looking through the whole paper.

Reaction to Units 3 and 4

I found parts of unit 3 very interesting and very true. When Tyler mentioned that technology used to just be for the wealthy it made me think about how people without a lot of money really do fall behind in society because they lack the newest technology sometimes. As he stated new technology isn't just something people want anymore, in many cases you need it to stay successful. This is why there are many people that don't like the development of new things because in many cases they can cause more problems.

Unit 4 was also interesting to me because many people also complain about how it is breaking down the need for people to have social skills. As Tyler said in his summary CMC can restrict the amount of face to face contact someone has with others which put them at a disadvantage when they are in a face to face situation.