Twitpics- Keep or Obliterate?

For me, personally, I love the idea of Twitpics! I think that they are a fantastic invention of the “Twitterworld.”  I’ve added quite a number of twitpics to my Twitter account over the past few weeks because to me, a picture is worth a thousand words. and that is 860 more words than allotted on Twitter. So it is more beneficial to all involved. =]

Twitpics tend to be able to show the individuals “following us” rather than us just coming straight out and saying exactly what is on my mind.  Instead I can send a series of pictures to ensure that my point comes across to all of the readers out there.  Twitpics, to me, just seem to be a more beneifical way of allowing our readers to grasp the concepts we want them to, instead of having to adhere to the 140 character limit that Twitter has us blocked on.

Add a comment 12/11/2009

Following Doug Covey

Throughout the last few weeks in the semester, I have been given the opportunity to follow, on Twitter, Doug Covey.  He is the CEO of Blueprint Education, a non-profit organization.  Most of the tweets he has produced within the last few weeks are specifically geared toward Education and the development of it through the weeks.  He focuses mainly on Technology with children or at least he has for the past few weeks.  He has said that “technology in the hands of children makes them better writers”.

Add a comment 12/11/2009

Anywhere but Here

I guess I never really thought about it from a logical stance, but maybe it’s true.  I’ve grown up in a bubble all of my life.  I mean I grew up in a suburban town in Texas and then in NJ.  I grew up learning all about how to speak to adults and the meaning of respect.  My parents always taught me that there were things outside of my little bubble, but I guess I never thought that they’d be able to affect me.  I mean, come on! A 22 year old college student affected by the goings-on of the outside world! Pscht.

But man oh man, was I wrong.  I’ve learned through experience that life isn’t fair.  That things don’t always happen the way I want them to but that I have to continue on, because if I don’t, I won’t accomplish anything.  As previously stated in past blogs, I’ve wanted to volunteer abroad for a few years now and just haven’t been able to find the time to do it. I don’t know how true that statement is, or if it is whether or not I’m terrified that I wouldn’t be able to handle the elements.  I think that I’ve taken a lot of things for granted in my life. I mean as I look around my room now, I see that I have a cellphone, laptop, computer, light!, TV, a bed, a working toilet, and even clothing.  I know that I’ve taken this for granted and especially since it is around Christmas time, I think we all become a little more stingy than in most other times of the year. And it’s sad when I actually think about other people who don’t have things like that. Who don’t have water or a bed or clothing to put on themselves.

As I was looking through MSNBC, I found pictures of East Africa’s refugee camps and how they are scrummaging around where the littlest bit of water.  I actually had to stop and think about that for a minute.  I mean here I am, taking 20 minute showers in the morning, leaving my water running when I’m brushing my teeth and taking for granted something as simple as water.  It actually disgusts me the way that I have acted over the past 22 years of my life when there are obviously hundreds of thousands of people who don’t even receive that!  

These are the pictures that I found and maybe they’ll make you rethink the things that we hold so close to us when there are people who don’t have such items:

Add a comment 12/08/2009

Emotions of the World

“We Feel Fine” is a website created by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. It can be used interactively (which I highly recommend) and allows every individual to view how people around the world are feeling.  Although I understand the mission/purpose of this website, to me, it seems a little creepy.  “We Feel Fine” takes the sentence “i feel” or “I am feeling” from millions of blog posts all over the internet and focuses mainly on how they are feeling; what they wrote on their blog.

The website allows for individuals, like myself, to view everyone’s feelings on different things going on in their lives.  Although, it does not go into specific detail as to why individuals are feeling this way, it seems to bring a sense of closeness to the individuals viewing them.  I mean there are over 6 billion people in the world, and we have the opportunity to view how people are feeling.  An individual from India is feeling “bad” and one from Nevada is feeling “inspired”.  Where else can you receive this information?  It gives us, as people and humans, more of an insight into the emotions of other beings.  Emotions of the World.

1 comment 12/03/2009

The Internet in our Daily Lives

Stephen Weiswasser of ABC once said “You aren’t going to turn passive consumers into active trollers on the internet.” and apparently Weiswasser has never met the consumers of the US.  It’s absolutely insane the amount of “trolling” individuals do on the internet on a day to day basis. It actually is quite nerve-wracking to know that people use the internet in replacement of actual face to face communication.

One thing that really intrigues me is that Weiswasser said individuals will not turn from passive consumers into active trollers and I think that is downright false. I mean, take a look at Black Friday.  For most people, this should be yet another National Holiday.  We, the American people, have been passive consumers for awhile and until recent years we were, but now the internet has allowed us to become these “active trollers” Weiswasser uses to define us.

1 comment 12/01/2009

Children Abroad

For the past few years I have made a promise  to myself that I would go abroad at some point and work in a third world county in their schools.  It’s finding time to do this that is difficult, but while going through MSNBC’s website, I found this article about children.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34045311/ns/health-infectious_diseases/

Not only does it make me want to go that much more, but I want to stay there longer and ensure that they don’t have to worry about things like that.

1 comment 11/23/2009

Are we Prepared for the Future of Computers?

In Kevin Kelly’s article, We Are the Web, and Sherry Turkle’s article, Who Am We, they discuss the beginning stages of the computer. How 15 years ago, the computer was thought to be nothing more than a giant computer that allowed us to just use it for input. Nowadays that thought process has completely changed. The computer tends to be the center of individuals own worlds. I mean if you take a look at college students, how many do not have computers? Or are not on them at least 3 times a day participating in recreational endeavors, not academic? If you look at it in the right light, the computer has become a super giant is our little tiny galaxy. When the computer itself first came out, we just intended its use to be merely for connecting the dots among already published works. We did not know that the computer was turn into such a required necessity just 15 years down the line. When the computer was first unveiled, we thoughts it to be or the use of connecting pieces of work together, but instead it has now become a hub of sharing. I can post something and millions of people all around the world can explore what I have written. They can comment or use it as a source in a written paper. The new technology that the computer has brought to the world has taken everyone by complete surprise. What started out as mere connector between pieces of work, has become a hub for global communication between all individuals.

Add a comment 11/19/2009

Twitter and our future

When I had first heard of Twitter, I had brushed it off as though it were no big deal. I mean, does anyone really want to know what I am doing at every moment of every day?  To me, it was just a waste of time.  A piece of writing that no one would really read and no one would really take interest in.  It just didn’t make sense.  None of my friends were even on Twitter and in my mind, it was just a ridiculous thought to have needed to invent a website that allowed people to know what was going on in their daily lives. Facebook does the same thing at times, but Twitter allows you to constantly be “following” people. Stalkerish much? I think so. 

                While reading Steven Johnson’s article, “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live” I had a sort of thought run through my mind that I had never thought about.  I mean Twitter will inevitably change the world we live in.  Within his article, he discusses how Twitter actually links people together and his example was earlier this year when he was at a conference and individuals began a conversation about the topic through Twitter.  Hundreds of people were commenting back and forth to one another to discuss the topic of this conference.  It amazed me while reading his article.  I mean when Twitter was first introduced, it was a social website where the only people an individual should really be adding were their friends; people they knew. 

But now, Twitter has become more of a broader social networking site.  Not only can an individual add their own friends and family, but they can add absolute strangers just to see what they are doing in their lives.  Honestly, I never imagine Twitter to go in this direction.  Now when I look at Twitter after reading Johnson’s article, I do not view it as just a way to describe what you are doing in your daily life, but a way to place your thoughts down so that other individuals can actually comment on them as well.  A whole new idea of conversation has been introduced.  Short, sweet and to the point with only 140 characters allotted.

Add a comment 11/17/2009

found this and loved it! written by my 7th grade teacher.

I Am A Teacher

I am a counselor and psychologist to a problem-filled child,

I am a police officer that controls a child gone wild.

I am a travel agent scheduling our trips for the year,

I am a confidante that wipes a crying child’s tear.

I am a banker collecting money for a ton of different things,

I am a librarian showing adventures that a storybook brings.

 I am a custodian that has to clean certain little messes,

I am a psychic that learns to know all that everybody only guesses.

I am a photographer keeping pictures of a child’s yearly growth,

When mother and father are gone for the day, I become both.

I am a doctor that detects when a child is feeling sick,

I am a politician that must know the laws and recognize a trick.

I am a party planner for holidays to celebrate with all,

I am a decorator of a room, filling every wall.

I am a news reporter updating on our nation’s current events,

I am a detective solving small mysteries and ending all suspense.

I am a clown and comedian that makes the children laugh,

I am a dietician assuring they have lunch or from mine I give them half.

 When we seem to stray from values, I become a preacher,

But I’m proud to have to be these people because …

 I’m proud to say, “I am a teacher.”

by Stacy Bonino

1 comment 11/14/2009

Are Video Games really a language?

In James Gee’s book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, one chapter focuses on the use of video games and semiotic domains. He begins to tell us, that the world needs to reevaluate their definition of the word “literacy” to include video games within the definition itself. His first argument says that “language is not the only important communication system.” Throughout the college class of Introduction to Writing, we have discussed the ways that writing and language has evolved over time. One of the things we discussed was the issue of symbols and images and how they have become a form of language. In ancient times, writing was in the form of symbols and images painted on cave walls or tablets of stone. At the moment in time, it was technically considered writing and even today, we consider that some of the earliest workings of language.

Gee discusses that how important it is to understand images that regardless if you, the reader, have text within the image or next to it, one cannot comprehend or understand the text unless he/she understands the image. In other words, when it comes down to it, we need to grasp the concept of images. They were used in previous times and now our world is becoming technologically advanced and video gaming is on the ways to keep up to date with that technology. Gee’s second argument focuses on print literacy and how it has become multimodal throughout the years. Nowadays when we read print, more often than not it is incorporated with other texts and other ways of communication. This further proves Gee’s point of being able to use images as a form of language which further allows it to become a form of literacy.

Add a comment 11/12/2009