Life Pro Tips

We're coming close to the finish line. One more quarter and you are finished with an important milestone in your life. Might not feel like it but it is. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics upon graduation you will have improved your earning capacity by approximately $185/week and you are significantly more employable .

As well, for the past year you've been consumed with considering the future. What school to go to, what major to study, etc. For this post let's talk Pro Tips. Simple ways to navigate the myriad of challenges in life you will face. https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/

Check out some of these tips. Maybe try one and comment on the results. Success? Not so much? Or include a tip of your own. Your choice. 

Why no cell phones in class?

Let's start a discussion with why from a professional's point of view.

Simon Sinek is a marketing expert and motivational speaker. In this recent talk he discussed the issues about mobile technologies and their impact on generations of people having grown up on them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrT8lJNa9Z8

For our conversation let's consider what happens during the stages of adolescence...

So for our blog post what is your reaction to the video. Then consider our school phone policy. Is it appropriate, fair, or unfair? What would you recommend the school implement if you were in charge?

Senior Tech News Curation

Welcome back. For our second post of Q3 you are in the drivers seat. Below are five different sites that are at the forefront of technology news. Each has a different slant. Please read one article from one site find another article about the same topic on another site. Then compare and contrast the points of view. Are they different? How? For your blog post please first summarize what the article was about and then compare and contrast the viewpoints from the different sites.

Tech sites:

https://techcrunch.com/
https://www.wired.com/
http://gizmodo.com/
https://medium.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/

Net Neutrality

As we know, the rapid rise of technology has disrupted many industries. In class we discussed the music industry in particular.

But there is a bigger battle going on over the internet itself. ISP's such as Comcast and Silicon Valley giants like Google and Netflix are warring over whether all data should be treated equally. Under the Obama administration, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) ruled in favor of Silicon Valley and ordered ISP's to be regulated as a utility like Con Edison. 

That is very likely to change under the new administration. ISP's claim all data is not equal and that content creators should pay more to distribute streaming content to help offset network maintenance costs for ISP's.

Here are two argument for both sides:

Pro Net Neutrality: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/net_neutrality

Against Net Neutrality: http://mashable.com/2014/05/16/5-arguments-against-net-neutrality/#GXx6m4ddomqn

Read both and weigh in on one side of the debate. Which side do you support? There will be a quiz on the articles.

Digital Literacy Continued

This is a continuation of our previous post regarding digital information literacy. Websites and news organizations make money from advertising when we view their content. There are three important distinctions for you to know:

1. Native Advertising - advertising that tries to sell or promote a product disguised as a news story
2. Traditional Advertising - most common advertising that sells or promotes a product 
3. News story - real content containing factual information about a subject and independent of bias and should answer, who, what, when and how

For this post take a look at the following two website banners and answer this question:

Which are these an example of: native advertising, traditional advertising or a news story and why? 

Digital Literacy

A few posts ago we discussed the difference between fake and real news. Since it was post election most of the focus was on Facebook and how fake news stories may have influenced people's votes. A recent Stamford study went further by including the internet as a whole and found troubling results.

Please read: http://motherboard.vice.com/en_au/read/we-need-to-teach-kids-how-to-be-skeptical-of-the-internet There will be a 6 question quiz on the article on Wednesday, 1/11/17.

You are bombarded by information all day long. Some from legitimate sources and others with dubious intentions. How do we determine fact from fiction? One way is to go to the source.

So let's begin. Visit this site and put your detective hat on: https://www.minimumwage.com/

For our post:

1. Is this a legitimate news source? Why? What are you basing your decision of legitimacy on? 
2. What organization is supporting this website? Who are they? Does that change your opinion of the information supported by the website? 

Do not copy someone else's response. Do your own research. 

Modeling Empathy

em·pa·thy

ˈempəTHē/

noun

1. the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

According to some studies empathy is on the decline among young people. Recent "research, led by Sara H. Konrath of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and published online in August in Personality and Social Psychology Review, found that college students’ self-reported empathy has declined since 1980, with an especially steep drop in the past 10 years." 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-me-care/ 

For this post:

1. research what is contributing to this phenomena. READ THE SOURCE and summarize it for us. You must also include a link. -5 without a link to the source. 
2. Also discuss briefly these questions: Why empathy is important? What are the potential consequences of a world with less empathy? 

Here is one way a student changed his entire school: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PIHtuKc3Gjg

FSU football player changes 11 year old autistic boy's life: http://time.com/4474258/florida-state-football-boy-lunch-autism/ Video is short please read article as well.

Hidden emotions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDDWvj_q-o8

The Brain and Personality

How we learn best may lie in first finding out our own personality strengths and weaknesses. The more we know about ourselves the faster we can eliminate unwanted situations and recognize quicker what works best for us.

IMPORTANT: None of this is scientific. We are merely exploring the concepts, trying to draw connections between learning and creativity.

For this post:

1. Take a test from one of the many listed on this site and share your results. https://www.123test.com/personality-test/ Tell us which one you took and share your results. Did they reflect your view of yourself or not? 
2. Then check out this brain simulator. http://www.g2conline.org/ Choose 3D brain in the top right hand corner and then Choose 1 section of the brain from the drop down on the left and describe its core function. Do not copy and paste. Summarize the Overview, Associative functions, Disorders, and Associated with Damages sections in the left hand sidebar.  

Fake news is the new news?

What happens when we only see what we want to see?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/10/12/facebook-has-repeatedly-trended-fake-news-since-firing-its-human-editors/

The internet is an amazing tool and has transformed society and how we communicate in profound ways. However, with the emergence of social media algorithms are now determining what we see and hear.  This is increasingly dangerous when we know there is a lot of incorrect and misleading information online.

For this post:

1. First read this article: https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/09/rigged/ and share one fact that stands out to you. What do you think are the implications of the fact you shared? 
2. Then go online and find a recent trending article/story that has been found to be misleading or outright false. Read the article and tell us what the controversy is surrounding it. 

Other sources: 

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/14/google-added-fact-checking-facebook-its-your-move-now/

http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/the-forces-that-drove-this-elections-media-failure-are-likely-to-get-worse/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/opinion/mark-zuckerberg-is-in-denial.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

https://www.propublica.org/

http://www.vox.com/new-money/2016/11/16/13659840/facebook-fake-news-chart

How to be successfull...

https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success#t-193591

For Blog post IV, I thought we would take a small detour. In our first class together I challenged each of you to make the most of your final year here at St. Saviour. We are a month and a half in and I thought this TED talk would help serve to help remind us of what it takes to be successful.  The video we watched in class was provocative and informative. For this post do one of the following:

1. Pick one the eight qualities you believe you possess and discuss how it has helped you
2. Or consider one quality you lack and how you intend on improving it
3. Or describe someone who is inspiring to you and what about them are you drawn to

Digital Media Etiquette Survey

Last week you took a survey on Digital Media Etiquette. Here's the results:

https://docs.google.com/a/stsaviour.org/forms/d/1aGHlpC0uTIaWb8kdIIiq463KKWedquWIt2_0UKoD3g4/edit?uiv=1

Take a look at them and compare them to the Pew Research Center results. http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2015/08/2015-08-26_mobile-etiquette_FINAL.pdf Starts on page 3. Compare and contrast one example from both surveys and give your opinion on what you think it means.

Stop Googling...Let's Talk

MIT professor Sherry Turkle penned an op-ed in the NY Times about a topic that affects each of us in many ways.

Please read and discuss your personal experiences on our blog.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/opinion/sunday/stop-googling-lets-talk.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Consider either of the following questions to consider for our blog.

1. What is empathy and how is technology impacting it in our society in your view? 
2. What are some solutions she suggests and are you capable of them?

I will be accepting posts without support references but they must be substantive. Do not just tell me you hate when you see people texting at the dinner table. I'm looking for evidence that you read the article and are aware of the content and how it affects your life.

Technology meets Fashion

For our first post I found an article that I thought might be interesting you. A company called Feetz is 3-D printing shoes and hopes to change how we buy them...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/business/smallbusiness/your-next-pair-of-shoes-could-come-from-a-3-d-printer.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=2&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F09%2F15%2Fbusiness%2Fsmallbusiness%2Fyour-next-pair-of-shoes-could-come-from-a-3-d-printer.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=1

1) For our blog I please describe in a few sentences what was interesting about the article in your opinion and...
2) Then think about your future and what field you are interested in. Tell us about it and how you think technology may or may not affect it in the future.

Here we go

Hello Class of 2017. Welcome to Senior year and your Tech class blog. A blog, for anyone who doesn't know, is a web page that is updated and typically contains information about a specific subject. Blogger is free with your Google account and you can create your own to share what you are passionate about with the world.

A blog is a powerful tool because of the contributions of its followers. Commenting on our class blog will be part of your grade throughout the year.

Please follow these Guidelines:

• Write your comment as you would a letter. Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. No acronyms ie: LOL 
• Never reveal personal information about yourself. No last names, addresses, screen names, email names. This is a public space so anything you say can be seen by anyone in the world.
• Never disrespect someone. "Do unto others as they would do unto you."  No matter what someone writes, respect their opinion and do not offend. 
• Don't just write your opinion. Include facts, from sources you find. Link to the sources but do not include something you have not analyzed first. 
• Be aware of copyright. Make sure what you use is copyright free. (Just because you found it online does not mean it is free for you to use without permission). 
• Stay on topic and keep it about education.  

We will go over in class what I expect of the blog. Please respond to this post to test that you can comment and you setup your blogger account correctly.