Monday, May 27, 2013

Growing Up Online

16 things that are surprising

  • Adults are scared of technology
  • Teacher feels threatened by SparkNotes
  • Only a few years ago, Facebook and Myspace combined ONLY had 160 million people, and that has grown a lot
  • Only one major study has been made on sexual predators online
  • As early as 2003, there was cyberbullying
  • That people ever thought gaining friends online was a goal, since the internet is so vast
  • The carelessness people had on the internet such as posting suggestive pictures
  • That the school principal would get involved in a teen's online life, if it didn't affect the school 
  • That Jess would ease into her online life connected to her normal one as easily
  • That Jess' parents would make her delete EVERYTHING
  • That Cam's mom is so nosy in his online life
  • That Cam's mom found out about the Madison Square Garden Activities
  • That Cam's mom sent everyone the files, as if they weren't openly available or as if she was some kind of watchdog
  • That in the end, Cam didn't share his personal things, and that his mom didn't push him, her being so nosy
  • The ignorance some of the parents still have about the internet, even while appearing in a film about it 
  • The vision of the "Wild Frontier" these adults have, since there are internet laws that are very strictly enforced, anyways
  • How the internet is seen as a kind of "rock n roll", which makes a large gap between the generations


15 things that are not surprising 
  • Adults think the only way to reach teens is through technology
  • More teens have problems with attention
  • Many teens read summaries online
  • People take a different identity online
  • Media coverage on sexual predators has grown
  • 1 in 7 teens have been sexually requested online
  • There are many different niches online 
  • Adults feel alienated by the rise of technology
  • People can use social media such as Facebook or Myspace to fight out things 
  • There is a larger anti-predator movement, with shows such as to catch a predator
  • Many teens hide their online life from their parents, because they simply wouldn't understand 
  • There are many forums that support destructive thoughts, such as anorexia 
  • When people try to contact online personas, they are usually blown off or stalled 
  • Cyberbullying seems to be growing, and even normalized in some social circles\
  • Parents may come around sometimes, when they see it as something constructive to their children, such as the parents of Jess
15 things that have changed since 2008
  • People used MySpace
  • People had old phones
  • Teachers weren't sure how to control sparknotes
  • Youtube layout has changed a lot, and the videos are better quality
  • People who write books like "MySpace Unraveled" 
  • People don't know how to use email
  • There is more knowledge among parents
  • There seems to be a larger sense of privacy among parents, though still many are ignorant
  • There seems to be a calming over the internet, since people know what it is now
  • There is a lot more humility on the internet 
  • People seem to laugh at these 2008 people who really did think the internet was a "Wild Frontier", when really it still has many limitations
  • People seem to be a lot more educated about predators, and they are seen as something to be joked about now, and not taken seriously 
  • There seems to be a larger activism against cyberbulling
  • There seems to be more awareness about suicide and anorexia online, and also prevention campaigns
  • There are definitely more social networking options now, and Facebook is competing, though still on top
Paragraph

1. I identified most strongly with the part about parents controlling your activity on the internet. In recent times, because of me getting in trouble with things, my parents have been trying to control my internet use immensely. It's a big change for me, and definitely annoying. Their ignorance is also overwhelming, but not as much as their paranoia. Cam's mom, for example, seems terrible and I feel like she is something that my parents could be.

2. I don't think I've ever been threatened by predators. There just seriously hasn't been pedophiles that have approached me and that I have felt in danger. Sure, I have encountered some online. To be honest, I think this video is very good in terms of showing reality. However, I find the concern overblown. I just think there might have been a different situation in 2008.

3. Being online makes me feel connected. Soon, my girlfriend is leaving and the internet is the only reason I can talk to her. I also moved only a year ago, but the internet has made me still stay in contact with my friends. Plus, its really entertaining, and although I wouldn't express my personality in ways like Autumn, its true that on the internet you can talk about anything. On the internet, people aren't judgmental and there's a sense of security. You can find people with common interests. You can be whoever you want to be.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Swiss School

The SUMAS, or Sustainability Management School, a unique business school based completely around sustainability, located in Gland, Switzerland, the first of its kind in Europe. SUMAS is the only business school in Europe that offers both a Bachelor's & Master's in Bussiness Administration in Sustainability Management. 


There is a lot of pollution and other environmental problems in the world. So much that very soon, we'll need twice the Earth's surface to absorb all our environmental waste. You can measure your Carbon Footprint online. Industry is the main player in this, who needs to make sustainable products. Given the urgency of the situation, the European Commission is making major action plans. That's why there's the Ecolabel System, which shows which things that are responsible to consume. 

Glaciers have been severely reduced. Global warming is not a political issue, but a moral one. Calcutta, Florida, Shanghai, and Manhattan could be flooded under the threat of global warming: there could be over one hundred million refugees. The ten hottest years have all been recorded in the last 14.

TIME RAN OUT


Assignment:

On the Starbucks web page, they say that they focus on three things: Community, Sourcing, Environment. In community, Starbucks contributed 613,214 hours of social service, and hopes to increase this number to a hundred percent. In terms of sourcing, their coffee is  93% purchased from ethical sources, and by 2015 they hope 100% will be. They look for product quality, economic accountability, social responsibility, and environmental leadership. For environment, they have store recycling in 24% of their stores, but hope to make it 100 by 2015. Not only are there municipal barriers to successful recycling in many cities, but it takes significant changes in behavior to get it right. 


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

GAFE


  • Google Chrome Extensions are applications that run inside the Chrome browser and provide additional functionality, integration with third party websites or services, and customized browsing experiences.
  • As long as you are using a version of Chrome that supports extensions, you already have everything you need to start writing an extension of your own. You can start by turning on Developer mode.
  •  Clicking on the Chrome Menu Icon, and selecting Extensions in the Tool Menu, there's the complex developer mode
  • Extensions are written using the same standard web technologies that developers use to create websites. 
  • HTML is used as a content markup language, CSS is used for styling, and JavaScript for scripting. Because Chrome supports HTML5 and CSS3, developers can use the latest open web technologies such as canvas and CSS animations in their extensions. 
  • Extensions are all in .crx format 
  •  A Google Chrome CRX file is actually just a renamed ZIP file so any archive/compression program, so any program which opens zip files could open up a crx file
GOOD/USEFUL EXTENSIONS

Autopager
With Autopager, the next page on a website is loaded automatically as you scroll. Won’t work with every site but is compatible with many, including The New York Times, Google, and Amazon

Google Dictionary by Google
If you click a word twice, definition will appear in a pop-up bubble. A number of major languages are supported.
Send to Kindle
Send documents or web pages to your Kindle quickly. Works with all current Kindles and requires just one click.

Time Tracker
Logs how much time you spend on various websites. Keeps track of your productivity. 

StayFocused
StayFocused can help by providing an on-screen timer and alerting you when you’ve wasted more time than you’d wanted.

Definitely, these extensions could be used at CNG. Many side software which CNG might be interested in using could be provided by the Google Chrome Extensions, sometimes for free. These useful tools could be used by students as well, in timing their productivity and boosting it. 

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Google Day 3/Presentation


Goals

  • Learn more about what it takes to be a journalist
  • Learn more about what I would be working on
  • Find universities which could interest people who want to study journalism
Useful for goal 3, where I asked myself where I wanted to study journalism.

Useful for goal 1, because it told me what I need to become a successful journalist

Useful for goal 2, because it explains what things people would like if they wanted to become a journalist

Useful for goals 1 and 2, told me what journalists do, get paid, and a lot of other information

Evidence

I know now that to be a journalist you have to be an extrovert, and that may change a lot of things for my opinion on journalism. 

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Google 20% Project Day Two


Goals:

Knowing what aspect of journalism attracts me, and how I would have to work to apply it
Knowing what kind of journalism I can minor in
Possibly finding out more details about this career


Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACmMweBwUS0
This link was helpful because it gave me a lot of information on what a journalist does, although it was set in Poland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyTIOIt_hes&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Good career advice on becoming a journalist by a journalist

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Good-Journalist

This was great stuff on the interests which you should have (or develop) if you want to be a journalist

Evidence:

I'm now a lot more sure about being interested in journalism as a career, because I know that I have the interests already built up to become one.

Next class, I really would like to answer what type of journalism I'm interested in, and whether it matters.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Google Day 20% Project Day One

Goals

To find out more about the career of journalism.
To find out more about career options in journalism
To find out more about universities to study journalism

Links

This link was super important not just because it gave me an introduction, but also I found out that journalism doesn't exist as a career in Colombia, since in the 90s the High Court ruled that journalism was "not a profession, but a human right". Two universities have minor programs on specific journalisms, such as public opinion.

This is a good article because after finding out about the difficulty in studying journalism in Colombia, I figured the best option was to study in the U.S. This is a good site about good universities, and tells in detail why they are good.


A good article giving detail about the career on journalism, including things such as different types of journalism, among other things. 

Evidence:

I have read and learned about journalism, and if anyone happened to ask me about my career or my specific interests in it, I could talk about it with some security.

One thing I want to learn next Google Day is how I can use a journalism degree, or how it is like to be a journalist.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Green Computing

1. I don't know anything about the topic, I've never even heard of the topic, I'm assuming it has something to do with ecology or environmental protection though.
2. My questions about the topic are basically this: If it is about the environment, how exactly is the environment helped or used in their computing? If not, what is the origin of the name "Green Computing"?
3. http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/green-computing
http://www.explainingcomputers.com/green.html
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/14753/green-computing
http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Computing
4. Things I learned about the topic
  1. The name "green" actually does come from ecology, since green computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers
  2. Mostly, their goals are reducing the consumption of energy and other resources, and disposing of e waste in responsible ways
  3. The origins of green computing originate in Energy Star, founded by the EPA in 1992 to promote efficient energy consumption
  4. It takes about 1.8 tons of chemicals, water, and fossil fuels to produce one single desktop computer
  5. Over 1 billion PCs have been sold worldwide
  6. It is estimated that by 2020, computers in the UK will amount to two-thirds of its energy consumption
This topic connects with my life because although I don't put so much importance to environmental stuff normally, I do use my laptop a lot, and that entails also charging it.

What actions could I take, I wonder, to reduce energy consumption in terms of buying hardware?

Thursday, March 21, 2013

TO-DO- Day 5

1. Students weren't there, however students did not play the game anyways
2. Not really, we're not sure if the game is fun or not, but if it wasn't even appealing then we already had a large fault there.
3.
-What was the biggest problem you encountered? How did you solve it?
Coming up for a theme, I had to think of something really hard to find it. In the end, I decided on a Titanic theme, and naming the game London to New York
-When did you get your biggest "AH HA" idea? What was it?
The inclusion of math as part of the game. I got this idea actually pretty close to the end, when I was designing my prototype. It added a lot more complexity to the ideas.
-Who in your group resisted new ideas the most and why?
I worked by myself.
-What doubts did YOU have about the project and how did you overcome those doubts?
I had doubts about the game not being complex enough. I overcame the doubts first by getting the confidence to know that I could achieve the goal of the game that I wanted. Then, I thought of other ways to make the game less simple, such as the addition of math.
-Who in your group played "devil's advocate" (a person who questions everything, even good ideas) and how did that help the process?
I worked by myself.
-What did you learn about yourself, teamwork, and the design process?
I learned that I like making games, and hope to make more stuff like this in the future. I learned, when building the game with Samy, that its important to have everyone understand what we're doing. As for the design process, I learned that getting people attracted to your game is important, because if nobody is attracted to it, you don't know whether its good or not.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Design Project Day 3

CHOOSE PHASE
1. I think my game has progressed into a board game that would be definitely fun to play for that group, because of the variations that it now has. It fits my descriptions of what it would be fun, I have tried to include those things and succeeded.
2. I want to keep the variability, the differing levels of dificulty, yet the simple game structure
3. There is really nothing that I think I can remove, the game is pretty stripped down already. Possibly the bullseye could be simplified to simply a goal.

IMPLEMENT PHASE

1.
  • Get cardboard
  • Draw start line
  • Make different level pieces
  • Make moveable goal
  • Find ball
2. Ball, possibly sticky tack
 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Design Project Day 2

1. I am working by myself, so my model is the only one. I have made some improvements since last class, however as for comparing it with other projects, I can't.
2.
3. More colorful bulls-eye, longer playing field

Friday, February 1, 2013

Design Project- Day One

DEFINE PHASE
1. Elementary, both
2. The game will be easy to understand, difficult to play
3. Colors, hands-on gameplay, suspense (i.e. luck), "wildcard moments" (moments where gameplay is changed or goes into a special phase, quick and speedy gameplay, variation, simple rules

RESEARCH PHASE
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrT_lAnfwKI
Good: I liked how the gameplay was designed to require effort, yet still easygoing and challenging
Bad: Hard to set up, if they did play it would be a one time thing

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0hyIrc7Tdo
Good: Easy to use and design
Bad: Would get repetitive after awhile, and not complex enough to be fun

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbBVbZuSslQ
Good: Amazing, very high quality, authentic and true to original arcade game, will not get tiring
Bad: Very hard to build, still might need some tweaking to be a true arcade game

IDEATION PHASE

1. Possibly a bulls-eye game, with targets
Maybe a maze game with marbles
A fishing game

2. I'll choose the bullseye game
3. Some problems we could encounter are boredom because the game would get repetitive, however we would try to stave this off by making different boards to play (i.e. different bullseyes, obstacles, etc)