Week 4: Final Project

This week was mostly used for completing our final project and finishing up things that we were behind on. Almost everything was pushed back to Monday which was nice because I was feeling a little bit over whelmed with all that we had to do.

My final project was about the camera and how it has evolved over its life time. The camera is used in so many different ways from personal to medical uses. I talked about the history of the camera and how over one hundred years ago it took almost eight hours for a picture to be taken but now it only takes a second and you can instantly see your picture. I interviewed a friend of mine who took her love for photography and made a career out of it in broad cast journalism. She uses a camera everyday to document important moments in our society and share them with the world. I was happy that you gave us the freedom to choose what kind of genre we wanted to do for our final project. It helps us to become more creative and veer away from the normal class work.

Moving on to what I thought about the class as a whole. I really honestly enjoyed this class, I am personally someone that is more a math and science kind of person. I would rather be doing math homework then writing a paper. However in this class we talked about things that related to our day to day lives. We did a lot of dissecting of social networking sites which I thought was great because we were able to get behind the scene of that whole new craze. Learning about online dating was also a favorite of mine. I was totally against it at the beginning of this class, I thought that it was creepy and all the people on it were up to no good. Then I was able to see that a lot of older, middle aged people do have a hard time finding love and sometimes they have to take different avenues to get there. I would have to say as a whole the topics that Joyce chose were excellent.

These four weeks flew by but I feel that I have learned a lot from it. I really only have positive things to say about this class and I will definitely be referring my friends to take this class. Its was almost like a little break from the repetitive four test classes. So I would like to thank you Joyce for a wonderful four weeks. :)

Just a little something to make you smile :)

 (god I'm so corny)

Week 3: Online Classes

This week our readings were mainly studies that were done concerning online learning compared to face-to-face learning. The first article that we read was "Asynchronous Online Discussions". Asynchronous learning is a student-centered teaching method that is based on the constructivist theory that emphasizes the importance of peer-to-peer interactions. I think that this class is heavily based on this type of learning. This is my first online class and I personally have found it to be very successful at having me learn the material. Joyce gives us an article to read or video to watch and we as a class take that and ask our own questions and comment on things that we felt to be important. I would definitely say that this class is student run and I feel that it is almost better that way. It makes us students think a different way they the traditional read the book and take four tests. The article defines computer conferencing as: "a group that communications medium enabling groups of people to exchange ideas and opinions and to share information resources." Jeffery Mason made a good point that this definition relates 100 percent to this class and could be the definition of our discussion board. We find out in the article that the results of this study indicate that online discussions do improve students' perceived learning. I would have to agree with that in terms of this class. 


The second article that we read was "Examining Social Presence in Online Courses in Relation to Students' Perceived Learning and Satisfaction". This study had three main hypothesis'


a. Students’ perceptions of social presence in online courses are related to their perceived learning and satisfaction with their instructor.

b. Students’ perceptions of social presence in online courses are a predictor of their perceived learning.

c. Course activities perceived by students as having the highest level of social presence also have high levels of students' perceived learning.


I feel as though many of these hypothesis are somewhat common sense. For example with hypothesis A, if a student feels as though they are positively socially active in a class they will most likely learn more and be satisfied with there teacher. Most students have to feel comfortable with there teacher in order for them to participate in class. So I can definitely see the correlation between learning and there satisfaction with their teacher. I hope that that's what was meant by these hypothesis'. I was having a hard time understand really what they were trying to say. I didn't think that this article was as useful as the last one but I can see the relation  with the two. 


Finally the last article that we read was about E-zines, magazines that are available online. The article talked comic books that have e-zines online. I couldn't really relate to the comic books so while I was reading this article I was thinking about the People magazine website. E-zines allow there fans to contribute or comment on the site giving them the feeling that they are more part of the community. Joel stated "The community feeling is what these sites want because loyalty is an inherent quality within a community. The more the site provides users with a sense of community the more loyal they will be to that site." These sites also allow fans to participate in surveys or polls that ultimately give beneficial feed back to the sites. Soon I think that we will see almost all magazines become available online if they haven't already. 

People know have the ability to read the actual magazine online!

Week 2: Online Dating

The majority of this weeks class activities were about online dating and the people that are for or against it. At the being of this class I was confused about how all these different articles we were reading and videos we were watching fit together but now I think I'm getting the hang of it. We started out by discovering what we as college students are spending out writing time on which lead into reputation management because in this day and age our reputation is open for anyone to see with all these social networking sites. Then we learned about online communities which I believe lead right into online dating sites because that is just one of the many communities out there which is  also a controversial one among some people.

We started out the week watching a BBC video about web dating scams. Which I believe was very important to open all our eyes to possible treats of the internet and these dating communities. Part of me just doesn't understand how nyeve people can be when it comes to love. One lady from the video was talking to who she thought was an American solider who turned out to be just another online scammer. First of all I don't understand why she would allow a man to take thousands of dollars out of her account whom she has never met and second I think that an equal part of the blame should be put on the women for thinking what she was doing was safe. The whole thing boggles my mind.

Another article we read "Online Dating" was a more factual article about the people that have taken part in online dating sites and the percent of people who claim they have found love. The one thing that really   caught my attention from this article was that "57% of internet users agree that a lot of people who use online dating sites lie about their marital status." That, I thought was shocking. Starting off this week my view towards these dating sites was not good. I thought they were creepy, people are able to lie about there information, and honestly I thought it was for people who were just plain desperate. After hearing that statistic about 57% of people lying about here marital status I was disgusted. These sites are just another way for people to cheat and get away with it easier. 


An ABC news article "Does online dating work?" had may quotes that really got me thinking. Jennifer Gibbs a professor who studies online dating patterns says in regards to people fabricating there personal information on dating sites "I think we do the same thing in the real world when we write a resume or in a job interview, you try to embellish and exaggerate the positive sides and mask the negative qualities." Which is very true, I'm not going to say that my resume doesn't embellish and exaggerate. Someone also made a good point (I can't seem to find who said it in the discussion) that when you go on a first date you are also telling the other person your best qualities and leaving out the more negative ones. Which I thought was a great point. That and what Jennifer Gibbs said made me rethink my original stance on the information people provide on there profiles. Yes, there may be some strange people out there that completely lie about there information but a majority of the people are just want to make there profiles stick out from the next and if that calls for a little embellishing its really just human nature. I would have to say that this article was the one that kind of opened my eyes to the online dating community. I'm not saying that I personally would join but I don't think down on it as much as I did. 


I would have to say that after all these readings and videos from this week I  have changed my stance on the way that I view online dating now. I do think that it is aimed for the more middle aged crowd which is why I personally don't really understand why so many people are using it but I can see that it is harder for them to meet people and I guess sometimes "ya gotta do what ya gotta do."  However, I would like to end with a quote from a man in the "Homemade Documentary: Online Dating", "I'm kind of traditional, I believe in the random encounter, the meeting through a friend, the meeting at work whatever and now we rely to much on the computer age. Were gonna loose some basic human instincts that we have relayed on for generations and we will eventually die out." Just some food for thought :)

I thought this chart I found on google was pretty funny and I just wanted to share it!

Proof-of-Learning: Week 1

At the beginning of this class I was a little nervous about what it was all about and all the information overwhelm me. I would like to say that so far at the end of week one I have really honestly enjoyed it. Being the kind of person that isn't gun hoe about school there are few classes that really interest me but this is definitely one of them. It allows us to think and absorb information differently other then the standard read the book, take 4 tests and then your done. Being able to learn about hot topics in our social networking lives is pretty awesome. Being that it has turned our generation on a whole new path it is interesting to dissect social networking sites from all angles.

The first video that we watch "How does the brain work?" was about how our brain works in different situations.  The part in the video that talked about how our brain controls what we pay attention to was really interesting to me. Our brain first detects motion then it suppresses the background so we can focus on that specific thing. While watching this it made me think about kids with ADD or ADHD. Is this the same information that doctors and scientists use to study these disorders? The video made a point that when a magician is doing his trick and you are able to see his face a person is distracted from the trick and is paying most of there attention to the magicians face. This works to the magicians advantage so the secret to there trick is concealed. But when you are only shown the hands of the magician you can see more clearly how the trick is done. Going back to my thought on how this would relate to people with ADD/ADHD, what is going on though the brains of the people that can't focus and see the secrets of the trick? That i think would be interesting to find out.

I found this picture to by very interesting to answer my question about the differences in brain activity! 

Another thought that got my mind rolling was from the "Re visualizing composition Mapping the Writing Lives of First- Year College Students". I wasn't to surprised by the information given, but it was interesting to see the statistics and charts that diagramed the study's different findings. What really got me thinking was when Jennifer Williams said "Clearly, in the long run, the use of academic language is what matters, but I am a little fearful that the youth of today will not be able to competently do this in the future". I stated my thought on this statement by responding with "Although Jennifer you say that you are fearful for the youth today and them not being able to use correct grammar. I wouldn't be afraid, I'm more excited to see how we are going to evolve from this. Think about the different decades and how differently we communicate and write now compared to the people in the renaissance era. "She then went on to say that back in the day we used the same words just in different context and now kids are replacing the original words with the new slang words. Yes, I understand what she is saying but why can't we change? Why can't we veer away from the norm? I personally think that with this generations rapid technology change we are bound to see changes in our dialect. I don't think by using slang words it is making us 'dumber', I think that it is just the beginning of what change is going to happen in our future. 


I had never really heard the term social capital until I read the article "The Benefits of Facebook 'Friends':Social Capital and College Students' Use of Online Social Network Sites". Social capital has many different definitions but from what I gathered it is the friendships formed by social networking sites. Researchers hypothesize that SNSs can increase the weak ties one could form and maintain. Which I completely agree with. Its so easy to write a little comment on a persons wall which can stimulate conversation and creating a relationship that otherwise would not have been formed. Likewise, SNSs are brilliant when it comes to situations where you might have to change geographic location and you can no long stay in contact, physically, with friends as much as you would like.  What I wonder sometimes is what it would be like if all these SNSs didn't exist? 


Like I said earlier, I think that it is fascinating to learn about the different effects facebook has on an individual and our whole world. I did a power point on the business aspects of facebook and it is not just the United States that is consumed by this technology but the whole world. In 2011 Russia alone will increase its facebook users by 322% in the next 12 months. These social networking sites are literally changing our world and I am very interested to learned more about them. 

Creating a Blog

I had a little trouble creating this blog but I figured it out. I hope what I created is correct!