Well, my classmates and I have been learning about the internet all semester in this seminar class. We have discovered many new web pages on the world wide web, and this past week we got to learn how to actually create our own.
Creating a website was something I had some experience in, but I learned much more last Tuesday. My dad owns an online media company for short track racing. He not only created a main website where he and his employees post coverage of auto-racing events across the country, but they also create and maintain webpages for clients, such as racecar drivers and racing series, that are linked to the the main website: www.Speed51.com. I worked for my dad for several years and helped to maintain many of the client sites through a program called Homestead Site Builder; however, I never actually learned the technology behind creating a webpage from scratch.
I was very intrigued to see the way certain keys on a keyboard can translate into commands that will place images, text, and hyperlinks in certain areas or in certain ways on a website. Through Homestead, I would design a website by using the tools they had on the program. It definitely was a lot less complex and easier to make a website look appealing by using Homestead, but I found that learning a new way to create a site was a great learning experience.
I was also interested by how to create animations online. I am still rather confused on how to do this, so I am glad that I can get more help on uploading my animation to a website when I go to class Tuesday. The animations are really neat to watch, and I cannot wait to see how my finished product turns out.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Week 14 - HON 1515
This past week in Dissecting the Internet our class only met for one day thanks to Thanksgiving Break. While I was most definitely anxious to head home and dreaming about delicious turkey and sweet potatoes when we met for class last Tuesday (this class was my final one of the day), I still managed to focus my attention on our guest speaker.
Colonel Michael Barry visited our class to share with us an insider's view on the perspectives of Cyberspace by the different departments of government, especially the Department of Defense. I was very captivated by the fact that these views came from someone who had a closer connection to the government than I could even imagine. I had never thought about Cyberspace being an actual area that needed defending before, or why the new term "Cyberspace" was created for something that we already had a name for: the Internet.
Ultimately, I was very intrigued by the presentation and thankful that I got to hear from a man with an inside connection to the Department of Defense. I found Colonel Barry to be an intelligent and friendly man that I felt honored to have met.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Week 13 - HON 1515
This past week in Dissecting the Internet we continued with our discussions about various topics (dealing with the internet, of course). It was very interesting to learn about all of these topics from the students in our class. I really enjoyed the conversation this past week about Internet Dating. In some cases, I think internet dating could be very dangerous and just down-right weird, such as meeting over online gaming sites, but in other cases, I think online dating websites can provide a great way (both simple and accurate) for people to meet their match. I know my cousin met her husband over an online dating website, and they have been married now for a long time, have three adorable kids, and just built a new house. Their life seems to be going great, and they owe much of it to the online dating site that paired them up. I really liked discussing each of the areas of research in Dissecting the Internet, and I hope to do more of this sort of assignment.
This coming week, we only have one day of class and then Thanksgiving Break! I cannot wait for some delicious turkey, but before that, we have a guest speaker coming on Tuesday. I have liked all of the guest speakers we have had so far, and I am expecting the same opinion of this next one!
This coming week, we only have one day of class and then Thanksgiving Break! I cannot wait for some delicious turkey, but before that, we have a guest speaker coming on Tuesday. I have liked all of the guest speakers we have had so far, and I am expecting the same opinion of this next one!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Week 12 - HON 1515
The image of a fluffy, pretty cloud that pops into my head whenever I hear "Cloud Computing" has forever been replaced by a scary, loud swarm of bees. Thanks Dr. Wilkes. Just kidding! It really was very interesting to learn all about how new technology is leaning toward Cloud Computing. I had no idea that many things that I use on the internet could be considered Cloud Computing, such as Gmail. I did enjoy Dr. Wilkes's presentation about his bees and how he is using Cloud Computing to store information about all of his hives. The video was pretty cool as well, but I am thankful that the bees were only on a computer screen. I will not be visiting any of those hives anytime soon. I am TERRIFIED of bees (and spiders, wasps, or almost any other type of insect).
We finished the lecture about Cloud Computing on Tuesday and began our discussion of the mini topics each student was assigned on Thursday. Having a completely open discussion is my favorite type of class, as I have mentioned before, so I definitely had a good time in class that day. I learned so much from the different things that people researched, and I feel like conversation flowed really well. I was especially interested by the video of the interview with a member of Anonymous and the wife of the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church. I think everyone got a laugh out of that one. After we watched the video, I found an article talking about how the church was planning on protesting Steve Jobs funeral, just as they protest the funerals of many soldiers. This image was included with the article:
We finished the lecture about Cloud Computing on Tuesday and began our discussion of the mini topics each student was assigned on Thursday. Having a completely open discussion is my favorite type of class, as I have mentioned before, so I definitely had a good time in class that day. I learned so much from the different things that people researched, and I feel like conversation flowed really well. I was especially interested by the video of the interview with a member of Anonymous and the wife of the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church. I think everyone got a laugh out of that one. After we watched the video, I found an article talking about how the church was planning on protesting Steve Jobs funeral, just as they protest the funerals of many soldiers. This image was included with the article:
Yeah, the pastor's daughter announced that they would be protesting the funeral of Steve Jobs, Apple Co-Founder, via Twitter for iPhone! How ironic.
I am now ready to continue these discussions and also to see the results from our Surveys on SurveyMonkey!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Week 11 - HON 1514
Captchas and Crowdsourcing: These two topics were the focus of discussion in Dissecting the Internet last week.
On Tuesday, I was introduced to captchas. I always knew what they were. I can not even count how many times I have had to type out the letters in a captcha before completing forms on the internet, but I never knew what they were called or their unique purposes. By watching two videos of the man who created captchas and the company reCAPTCHA, I felt pretty knowledgeable on the subject. Captchas are used to prove that the internet user filling out a form over the computer is indeed a human, rather than a computer program designed to fill out multiple forms or buy multiple tickets for an event online. Computers are not yet advanced enough to actually read the words hidden in these Captchas. Unfortunately, these Captchas waste internet users valuable time, so the inventor created a company that makes the time spent filling out Captchas productive. The program reCAPTCHA decided to put two words on Captchas. One word is a word that the website already knows the answer to; therefore, it can still prove that a human is filling out the form. The other word is a word unrecognized by the computer when it was pulled from a book that someone attempted to scan. By filling out this second word, internet users help computers fill in the blanks of books when computers cannot recognize a word. When multiple people match the same text with a word the computer was unable to recognized, it is deemed as correct.
These videos led into the class's discussion on crowdsourcing, which is when people are asked to voice their opinion on a particular subject. On Tuesday, we played crowdsourcing games on the computer, which were kind of addicting. I definitely played on that website a few times back in my dorm. We were then instructed to come up with ideas of crowdsourcing activities in groups for Thursday's class. These activities turned out to be quite interesting. We had examples of crowdsourcing ranging from the Human Knot to arranging ourselves silently based on the UNO Cards taped to our backs. My favorite activity would have to have been Josh and Chris's game, simply because we got to eat food! Yum!
This week it looks like we will be talking about Cloud Computing. Even after reading the Wikipedia explanation, I still have no idea what this is, so I am interested in learning about tomorrow!
On Tuesday, I was introduced to captchas. I always knew what they were. I can not even count how many times I have had to type out the letters in a captcha before completing forms on the internet, but I never knew what they were called or their unique purposes. By watching two videos of the man who created captchas and the company reCAPTCHA, I felt pretty knowledgeable on the subject. Captchas are used to prove that the internet user filling out a form over the computer is indeed a human, rather than a computer program designed to fill out multiple forms or buy multiple tickets for an event online. Computers are not yet advanced enough to actually read the words hidden in these Captchas. Unfortunately, these Captchas waste internet users valuable time, so the inventor created a company that makes the time spent filling out Captchas productive. The program reCAPTCHA decided to put two words on Captchas. One word is a word that the website already knows the answer to; therefore, it can still prove that a human is filling out the form. The other word is a word unrecognized by the computer when it was pulled from a book that someone attempted to scan. By filling out this second word, internet users help computers fill in the blanks of books when computers cannot recognize a word. When multiple people match the same text with a word the computer was unable to recognized, it is deemed as correct.
These videos led into the class's discussion on crowdsourcing, which is when people are asked to voice their opinion on a particular subject. On Tuesday, we played crowdsourcing games on the computer, which were kind of addicting. I definitely played on that website a few times back in my dorm. We were then instructed to come up with ideas of crowdsourcing activities in groups for Thursday's class. These activities turned out to be quite interesting. We had examples of crowdsourcing ranging from the Human Knot to arranging ourselves silently based on the UNO Cards taped to our backs. My favorite activity would have to have been Josh and Chris's game, simply because we got to eat food! Yum!
This week it looks like we will be talking about Cloud Computing. Even after reading the Wikipedia explanation, I still have no idea what this is, so I am interested in learning about tomorrow!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Week 10 - HON 1515
I am pretty sure I can feel my brain growing from all the information I have been taking in over the semester. Cheesy, I know, but I am really being serious. Especially in Dissecting the Internet, there has been so many knew thing that I have learned this semester. Obviously, in this class, information about technology is taking over. Just when I think I am an expert on technology and the internet, some new, interesting information is thrown at me.
This week, the knowledge came in the form of a guest speaker of a marketing firm. This man's company specialized in helping companies website's to appear further up on the list of matches Google comes up with when an internet user searches for a certain type of business. I did not even know such firms existed, much less were a very widely-used corporate tool.
It was fascinating to see they ways Google chooses to order its matches for internet searches. I also was amazed by how much money Google receives from companies choosing to advertise their websites at the top of certain Google search results. During his group's book presentation, Merrick even mentioned some interesting information about the enormous sums of money Google rakes in from advertising.
Speaking of (or rather writing about) book presentations, two more groups presented the books that they read on Thursday. Although much of the information was similar to that which was discussed in other presentations, due to the similarity in book topics, I thought both groups did a good job at making their presentations original. The use of PowerPoint seemed very professional to me, and it helped to keep a steady flow and strong organization to the presentation. These two groups wrapped up the presentations. Now it is time to move more fully into working on the Annotated Bibliography.
I am curious to see what we will be discussing next week. It is a mystery for now! I am sure we will be notified soon enough via the wonderful Internet!
This week, the knowledge came in the form of a guest speaker of a marketing firm. This man's company specialized in helping companies website's to appear further up on the list of matches Google comes up with when an internet user searches for a certain type of business. I did not even know such firms existed, much less were a very widely-used corporate tool.
It was fascinating to see they ways Google chooses to order its matches for internet searches. I also was amazed by how much money Google receives from companies choosing to advertise their websites at the top of certain Google search results. During his group's book presentation, Merrick even mentioned some interesting information about the enormous sums of money Google rakes in from advertising.
Speaking of (or rather writing about) book presentations, two more groups presented the books that they read on Thursday. Although much of the information was similar to that which was discussed in other presentations, due to the similarity in book topics, I thought both groups did a good job at making their presentations original. The use of PowerPoint seemed very professional to me, and it helped to keep a steady flow and strong organization to the presentation. These two groups wrapped up the presentations. Now it is time to move more fully into working on the Annotated Bibliography.
I am curious to see what we will be discussing next week. It is a mystery for now! I am sure we will be notified soon enough via the wonderful Internet!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Week 9 - HON 1515
We began presentations this week in Dissecting the Internet! It really felt very sudden for me. Even though we had been assigned the books at the very beginning of the semester, it seemed then that it was such a far ways away, and then suddenly the due date was upon us. The semester really is flying by. . .
Well, I definitely enjoyed listening to the presentations and discussions groups gave on their books. This week we heard from the students that read The Dumbest Generation, The Overflowing Brain, Distracted, and Against the Machine. Many of these books seemed to have expressed similar views on the internet's negative effects on our generation; however, students seemed to be annoyed that their books did not offer any solutions to these consequences. I know that is they way my group felt after reading Distracted. Our author rambled on and on about information that, although somewhat interesting, often had nothing to do with her point, and in the end, she gave no cure for "the dark age" our generation is headed toward due to new technologies.
Despite the similar topics and viewpoints discussed in all of the books, I thought each group did a good job at presenting their book in a unique way. For instance, I enjoyed the presentation of Against the Machine, where the groups first asked their classmates what they each thought the best and worst thing about the internet was.
This week starts another round of book presentations, which I am looking forward to listening to and discussing. We will also have a guest speaker! Yes!
Well, I definitely enjoyed listening to the presentations and discussions groups gave on their books. This week we heard from the students that read The Dumbest Generation, The Overflowing Brain, Distracted, and Against the Machine. Many of these books seemed to have expressed similar views on the internet's negative effects on our generation; however, students seemed to be annoyed that their books did not offer any solutions to these consequences. I know that is they way my group felt after reading Distracted. Our author rambled on and on about information that, although somewhat interesting, often had nothing to do with her point, and in the end, she gave no cure for "the dark age" our generation is headed toward due to new technologies.
Despite the similar topics and viewpoints discussed in all of the books, I thought each group did a good job at presenting their book in a unique way. For instance, I enjoyed the presentation of Against the Machine, where the groups first asked their classmates what they each thought the best and worst thing about the internet was.
This week starts another round of book presentations, which I am looking forward to listening to and discussing. We will also have a guest speaker! Yes!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)