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.