10-5-11 (makeup for 9-28-11)

Everyday you learn something new. Throughout doing the computers project I have found the style and design of the project extremely interesting. The design of of the projects seems like a blank canvas. There is a skeleton of an outline and then a way that we are supposed to do the project that is rapidly changing. When we were first introduced to this project we were supposed to create, a 2000 word research paper, embedded technology, 1 fiction novel relating to the theme, an expert review, and a final electronic presentation. I am confident we are not going to be doing a 2000 word research paper considering we only have 1 week and 2 more days left in this project and nobody has even thought of a research paper let alone attempted to write one. I also doubt we are doing an expert review, at least if we are then I'm going to be way behind. We seem to have incorporated the rest of the required items into the project design so far, but like I said before the design is a skeleton. Right now it is a shrunken skeleton without arms. I said before that the Media Triangle was missing something but I guess I wasn't really thinking of the Media Triangle, I was actually thinking of the project design itself. I feel these projects should be something bigger, for some reason they feel extremely small. I also think they need something to put all these artifacts, articles, and little bits of information together to somehow prove disprove or put more information behind your driving question. The information we find needs to be put to some kind of final conclusion for us to learn more. It also seems like our projects are too virtual. I am a very hands on kind of person and it feels like we cant touch any part of our project. Even if it is just a final analysis paper it is still somewhat physical. I think that we should have a final mini-project to summarize the rest of the elements from our projects, that way the people like me who want something physical can have it and the students who don't wouldn't have to make a physical project. I also think we should incorporate the expert review into the project, it sounded like it could be very interesting. 


"Shoot for the Moon, even if you miss you'll land among the Stars." - Les Brown    

My Computers Symbaloo- http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/computerswebmix

10-5-11

Everyday you learn something new. Today I found out that the computers we know of today have their roots in the 17th century. The first computers were made by astronomers and mathematicians for timing and problem solving. As I continued researching past the origins and into the social effects of computers I found that even in the 80's before computers were what they are now people already had all kinds of predictions of the harm they can bring. Many said they would take away our values of culture. Others said they would take away our values of logic. I find the part about logic very apparent in today's society. If you found a person out on the street and gave them the a random problem eg. 2x+4x+34+61-12=500 and the option to use a smartphone to help them they probably would use the phone's internet to find out how to do the problem and then use the calculator to solve it. My science teacher always says that physics takes the path of least resistance. The same seems to hold true in psychology. I personally value the ability to do something like that without the problem without the aid of computers or calculators. even as I say that I know I am the same way, except I find that I prefer typing over writing because I don't have good handwriting and find it easier to type. Psychology takes the path of least resistance. I do still however value the ability to write even though I prefer not to use it, but as a society people don't even value these abilities anymore. I also saw today that the simplest things can interest people. I leave my water bottle on my table during class and my friend was looking at it and messing with it. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was just "really intrigued by it". I have never thought about how something so simple can be so interesting to someone. My literature group in Language Arts is innovations and later in class she told me how the water bottle was innovative. That simple water bottle was so interesting to someone and now that I think about it, extremely innovative. And they said bottled water would never take off!

"Shoot for the Moon, even if you miss you'll land among the Stars." - Les Brown    

My Computers Symbaloo- http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/computerswebmix