Thursday, May 7, 2009

A Few Last Words............

I wanted to dedicate this blog to giving some personal thoughts on the course and also by opening up the comments to others and what they got out of this intermediate composition class.

1. Great integration of group and individual and group projects. Personally, I like to steer clear of working with groups and depending on others, but by being able to have individual projects within a larger group really made the process of working together constructive and not hectic.

2. The laid back environment of discussions really let people speak their minds. I think we have a very interesting class dynamic with people who do have strong opinions and great commentary in different arenas. By being able to talk in a round group discussions I think we were all able to appreciate what everyone had to say and learn a lot from the different people in this class.

3. The course topic of technology, which at first scared me due to my lack of proficiency with many forms, ended up being a manageable and very interesting topic to base the class of off. I think by looking into history at passages and by dealing with present day forms of technology, there were many thought-provoking topics explored in this class.

Thanks Scot and Class!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Ace the Final Paper

With the final research paper being due next week, I thought it would be helpful to include come tips from various sources and myself about how to write a good paper that address the prompt.

1.Have a thesis, and state it clearly and concisely at the start of the paper. A paper is not a newspaper article, or a book review. The thesis should be the backbone of your paper – eliminate material that is not relevant to it. Refer back to the thesis as the paper develops.

2.Have a conclusion The paper should not just fizzle out when you run out of ideas – finish with something that ties your argument together nicely. It’s often useful to summarize your argument, gathering together the main pieces of evidence and showing that they demonstrate your thesis. In this class’s case, we should restate the authors and theorist that dealt with technology and the particular field.

Lastly,,

3. Do not plagiarize. Plagiarism is a serious offense and is grounds for failure. ]


Good luck everyone!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Surveillance: Keeping People Safe and Companies Growing

After watching the show about the schools that are monitored my cameras, I began thinking about surveillance in general. To be honest, as I mentioned in class, I think that surveillance leads to productivity and overall a better environment. Cameras in the work place and classroom are often very discreet, and as long as employees and teachers are notifited of thier presence, I feel as thougth they should not have a significant impact on peoples actions.

If the teachers you hire and employees you hire are leigitnment people with good intentions and a good work ethic, then cameras keep them safe. An environment in which employees work to thier maximum and don't waste time on the clock is an environment prone to success and growth. If teachers and employees that are being surrveilled are allowed an appropriate amount of break time during a work day, then every action while not on break ideally is should be a productive one.

Friday, April 10, 2009

SMS Alert

So I was thinking about this texting phenomena that we were discussing in relation to the article we read for Wednesday....

And I have come to the conclusion that while the power of texting can lead to scary and uncontrollable situations in some extreme circumstances, the overall power of cell phones and texting has improved the way society works.

We have been able to cut out the uncertainty of correspondence between people and now how means of direct and almost communication. Texting and email alerts have lead to a society that can run faster, smoother, and more reliably.

What do you guys think? Agree or Disagree

Friday, April 3, 2009

Blogs from Many Places

So during this work week we have not discussed much new material, but I thought it would be interesting to share some popular and unique blogs with all of you. I mean our blogs arn't too personal or particularly interesting, but some people put a lot of their time and emotions into blogs.

This is one of the most popular blogs in the world. It is a group blog this discusses technology.

This blog is called lifehacker and is a place for people to go "for comments and advice on just about anything".

This is ablog dedicated to making people's lives easier. Its an interesting blog that lest readers's into secrent about how to make their lives more convenient.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Idhe and Greenhouse Gases

After reading the introductory material about Idhe this past weekend, I became interested in what other kinds of topics, on a more in-depth level that Idhe explores with his idea of Phenomenology. So, I visited his homepage and came across an article that interested me titled: Whole Earth Measurements . I focused on the first part of the article titled, "How Many Phenomenologists does it take to detect a 'Greenhouse Effect'?" It's a short passage that discusses and debates between the different ways that technology and humans have interpreted and are interpreting pollution, our environment, and raising temperatures due to CFCS and other potentially harmful chemicals.

In this article, Ihde debates between what really is harmful to our earth and what is natural. He debates how we use technology to measure Greenhouse gas and if maybe our calculations are based on faulty math, and maybe we are just not sampling enough data or looking at a big enough picture to come to conclusions.

Read the article and let me know what you think!

P.s. I know you guys have missed me, I've been reallyyyyyy sick :(

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Wikipedia Controversty.

So this week I found a really interesting article relating to Wikipedia and it's entry on President Obama.

I stumbled across it while checking out a different article at wired.com.

Check it out, it discusses how since the president moved into offices pa there have been several ommisions to his page.

Do we treat Wikipedia differently than other wiki sites?

A wiki is a resource meant to me alterted by users for other users, but does this clash with people thinking that it's wrong to omit cotroversial information about our president?

Is it wrong that people are trying to save-face for our president by omitting his ties to controversy of the past?