Online Courses

So this course was my first online course and overall I feel like it went well. At first I took an online course because with the rest of my schedule was kind of hectic with labs and stuff. Taking an online course allowed for me to free up some time during the day and allowed me to do the work whenever I had free time between other classes. At first it was hard to get used to. Im used to having teachers reminds us each class of when the assignments are due. Although through Web CT it reminded us when assignments are due, unless you checked every week, you only realized something was due a couple of days prior when Web CT said an assignment is due soon. After getting used to this fact and realizing it was up to me to check on the assignments and stay on top of things, I think things went smoothly. Another thing that I needed to get used to was the fact that when you ran into problems with the assignment or the sites that we being used, it was kind of up to you to communicate with others and try and figure it out. Of course Professor Reid was on instant messanger whenever you needed to ask him things, but having someone explain how to do things online was not as easy as I expected it to be. I think this is because I was used to meeting with the professor face to face and having them show me how to work things and how to fix my problems, so having to communicate through the internet was definiatly something I had to adjust to. Besides getting used to staying on top of things myself and communicating through the internet, everything else was pretty good. I am happy that I took an online course and I am happy that for my first time, everything went pretty well.

Our Final Podcast

Okay so before when me and my roommate went to the library to complete the podcast assignment we usually anticipated that it would take hours. This is because it did take us several hours to complete and upload the assignment. During our first podcast we have several problems getting the microphone to work. After figuring out how to work the microphone, we had issues uploading the podcast onto itunesU. Therefore the process was frusterating and extremely long. The second podcast went a little better and it took us less time to get the microphone working but we still had problems with uploading. The third podcast took us even less time but it still was a lengthy process and we were still running into some difficulties. I was very happy yesterday when we went into the library and completed and uploaded the assignment in an hour and half. This was like record time for us and even though we still encountered some problems, they were not hard to fix. This makes me extremely happy because now I definiatly feel as if I have come a long way since the beginning of this course. I feel as if I have really accomplished something. It is a good feeling when you get better at something not by accident but because you kept trying and got used to the device. I also feel like I am becoming more computer aware. I feel like I know a lot more about computers and how to fun things than I did four months ago. I am really grateful for the opportunity to learn how to create podcast and I really do hope that I will have use for them in the future.

Play Money- Overall

After finishing the book Play Money, I can say that this is by far my favorite read for this course. I felt as if this book was the easiest to read and I think the author did a great job making it interesting and keeping my attention. It could be because I have personal experience with the things that were discussed in this book, but overall I enjoyed it very much. I wish that I could have the computer knowledge to take part in the virtual world, and maybe even make myself some money. Although I do not know much about the trading and selling of virtual items for real life money, I wish I did. I envy those who know enough about this topic to know which items are going to be wanted and which rare items to pursue and buy. When I first began reading this book I felt as if trading and selling virtual items was an easy route to fast cash. I was completely wrong though. I now understand that just like every other person who works forty hours a week to make a living, even those making money from this profession still have to put in their hours. It seems as if the hours needed to make a living through this type of action may even exceed the forty hour work day. Although I do not know much about this process, I do know a lot more about it than I did previously to reading this book. I feel as if the author has given me the knowledge to expand my horizons and see that there are far more ways to make a living than the popular professions. Now a days people are making more money through the internet than doctors and lawyers are making. I am happy that I no longer think that the only way to make a decent living is by going to school for years to become a higher paid professional. Overall I feel as if I have gained a lot of knowledge from this book and not only was it useful but it was interesting too. I give the author credit because previously it was hard for me to come across a book that was both interesting and useful, I usually only could find one at a time.

Neovox # 2

Okay so for my second Neovox I decided to talk about the negative effects of video games. I feel as if when most people discuss the advancing technologies, they fail to look at the negative side of things. I also decided to write about video games because I have personally witnessed a lot of the issues that I discussed. When working with children I have witnessed parents who fear their children will become obese because they enjoy playing video games rather than playing outside with their friends. Obesity is becoming a more and more common issue among Americans. The number of obese children are increasing, and increasing fast. I do not mean to blame all obese children on video games, of course there are other important factors that contribute to obestiy like children's eating habbits, but the lack of physical activity plays a role also. I have also witnessed parents who fear that their children does not have that many friends in school because they are always playing video games and this results in them not building on the necessary social skills. Again there are other factors that could play a role in their child's lack of friends but the parents feel as if video games play an important part in their child not having friends. Another huge thing that one will run into when working with children is aggressive behaviors. When someone witnesses an aggressive child and talks to the parent's about what may have caused this behavior, some say violent tv and video games. There has been many cases done that proves that children who play violent video games for more hours are more likely to have aggressive behaviors. When parents are concerned as a teacher or an assistant teacher at the time, I would suggest simply monitoring their child's video game playing. If the parent is really that concerned they can take the video games away completely or they can set a limit of the time their child is allowed to play. Now there are ratings that go on the video games to give parents the opportunity to know what age the game being looked at is appropriate for. There are always ways that parents can get around the problems at hand, all the needs to be done is for the parent to take the necessary action.

Play Money- Taxes on Virtual items

I am kind of drawn on how I feel about taxing virtual items. I feel as if people are making profit off of selling virtual things than they should be taxed because everyone else is taked when they make a living. Another part of me thinks that there shouldn't be tax on virtual items because these items don't actually exist. I feel it is almost bad enough that someone is paying real money for a nontangible thing but then to turn around and get taxed on those items it's even worse. I never really understood the point of paying real money for virtual things but I guess if someone is really interested in getting ahead of the game in a video game than he or she will go to whatever limits to do so. I just don't know if I feel it is right to tax someone on something that they will not be recieving in real life, but then again I don't agree with taxes at all so it could be a biased opinion. I guess I may feel as if it is only fair for our government to tax these items because if they are in need of the money for more important issues, it is only fair that they tax these items if their going to tax tangible items also. I don't know, when it comes to these issues I have mixed feelings.

Play Money- Work And Play

After reading some more of Play Money, I have come to realize that there really is an issue between the two terms work and play. Some may think that for those who make a living working online and selling or trading virtual things, it is more playing than working. Before reading this book I was one of those people. I always thought that if people were spending their days online trading things or playing games, it wasn't work, it was play. After reading this book I have come to change my mind. Within these chapters we read about several different people who made a living online, and their lives did not seem as if they were that much better than normal. Of course they didn't have to worry about leaving their houses early enough to make it through traffic and still get to work on time, but they did have other obligations. Every person that was talked about in this book seemed to be online for an excessive amount of hours everyday. Some people are even online and working for longer than the normal eight hour work day. I believe that working online has its ups and downs. For one, if a person has young children and does not want to put them in day care, they can stay at home and watch the kids while making a living to support these kids. If a person is handicapped and in a wheelchair they may find it tedeous to find a business place where transportation and moving around is easy. There are certain circumstances like these that make me feel like the ability to make a living online is extremly beneficial. However, there is always the case that while working online you do not have a boss that is always checking over your sholder to make sure your staying on task, there is not way to guarentee that your not going to get distracted easily. There is also the issue where a person working online may lack the social interaction needed. Besides communicating through the internet, when working online, these people are usually in their houses for the majority of their day. Who do they talk to? In this book it shows how easy it is to get addicted to an online occupation. It may start off as one who is doing it for fun and enjoying whatever little income they are getting. Then once that person starts to make more and more, they strive to keep that income increasing. Although many may see this type of job as playing, I believe that just like every other job there are negative aspects that go along with it and there are also tedeous tasks that they must complete. I guess whether or not you work online depends upon your preferences. If your not a peoples person and you would like to sit home and do your work, online professions are just right. If you like to communicate with others while being out and about, then online jobs are probably not the road you want to travel.

Virgina Tech

The Virgina Tech shooting was a horrible incident. After hearing many different stories about the incident from various news channels, I have come to the conclussion that technology played a role throughout this occurance. Technology was used from the campus staff to send students an email to tell them to stay in their rooms because it was not safe elsewhere. This is my eyes may have saved some lives. Although there was a lot of lives lost this day, I feel as if it may have been a lot more if there weren't emails being sent to students telling them to stay in their rooms. I even heard from on news channel that the shooter has posted onto some type of blog telling whoever could read it that he was going to shoot people at Virgina Tech that day. This gives me mixed feelings, part of me feels as if maybe it were a cry for help thinking that someone would read it and somehow he wouldn't have gone through with the whole thing, and then another part of me feels as if it was him being cocky and bragging. Regardless of my feelings the fact of the matter is if the news was correct and this really did happen, someone should have read it and someone should have done something. I understand that there may be a lot of this going on all the time and therefore it must be impossible to decide what threats of statements to pursue but if that isn't the case was it not reported because no one read it? I always imagined that once you put something on the internet there would be hundreds if not more people reading it or watching it. Was I wrong? Another disturbing part of this incident is the video that I saw on the news off of someones cell phone. I mean cmon why is this person close enough to the scene that he/she could record the horrible incident on tape, why wasn't he or she running for their lives? I mean is technology really advancing to the point where people would really be stupid enough to put their lives on the line to catch something "big" on video? I am sure there were a lot of people inside that would have rather been outside like that person, and if they were they would have been running to safety rather than taping the damn thing on their cell phone. These are my feelings and I do understand that there are facts that may not be correct, regardless of that though this incident was horrible and sad. My heart goes out to friends and family of the lives that were lost that day.

Play Money- Noobs

I actually recognized a few of the phrases seen throughout the first chapter. My ex boyfriend actually played online games quite often and I guess I learned a couple things from him. He used to play World of Warcraft, or as he refered to it as WOW, and call of duty 3. He used to talk about pwning noobs, which I later found out to mean killing newbies. I thought it was quite funny that the book actually incorporates some of the language I was so used to hearing. I can relate to the problems that this guy is facing in the first chapter of this book. Online games can become addicted and especially when people are participating in them so often that it becomes a second life. The guy in the first chapter explains that he was in a position where he had to make a decision, either he cut down the hours he played online games for or he made a career out of it. This is a completely common problem faced by online gamers because it is often hard to know when to stop playing, and the often lose track of time. I speak of this because I learned from experience that people who participate in online gaming get addicted, and for mine and my ex boyfriends case, it caused us a lot of problems. I am sure that if he knew how to he would turn online gaming into a career for himself as well, but as of right now he must now be capable of doing that. This is probably why I didn't know prior to reading this chapter that making a career out of online gaming was even possible. I am interested to find out just how people do so and I am extremely interested to see how much more I can learn about the actual process of making this hobby into an occupation.

Video Project Experience

After working on the video project with my group, I figured I would share the experience. Okay so I was very nervous, I am not good in front of cameras. Besides when I was little and my parents used to videotape the cute things I did, I am never on camera. Therefore when it was time to sit down and have a conversation in front of the camera, I did kinda bad. I should have talked louder, and I stuttered a little with my words. This makes me very grateful for the fact that there was only one project for this course that required me to get in front of a video camera. I don't mind the podcasts, after I figure out how to work them, because your just talking, you not being watched. I guess I should probably work on my "public" speaking because I am going to school to become a teacher, and talking in front of the class comes along with the job. Somehow I feel that I am going to be much more comfortable talking in front a group of first graders, rather than talking in front of college peers. That is what I am going to keep telling myself atleast, in the mean time I need to work on my presentation skills, hard core.

The new text messaging

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L4Jk6GDud0

Here I found a video about a new text messaging device where instead of manual typing in the message you want to send, you hold down a button and speak the words while the new device types the message up for you. In the video they time how long it takes a man to manually text a certain message and then time how long it takes to send the same message using the new device. The new device is quite faster then old text messaging, sometimes being a minute shorter in time. This is great and saves you time from typing the message but what boggles my mind is that most of the time while im texting, it is usually because I cannot speak out loud. In order to use this new device you have to speak the message you want the phone to type up for you, so it kind of defeats the purpose of being able to quietly send a message to someone. Although I do text message at certain times when it would be easier to use this new device, such as while I am driving, but most of the time it is because I cannot talk. I kind of feel like this is just like calling someone on your cell phone and just having a conversation. Although it may be helpful if you can speak out loud but the person your talking to is in a place where they cannot talk but most of the time I text because I cannot talk, so this device kind of seems pointless to me. I'm sure it will become the next big thing but I don't really see that much purpose in it.

Catch Up

Time to play catch up. After looking at Professor Reid's post to the course blog, I am behind in this class. This leads me to believe that maybe I shouldn't be taking online classes. I think that since there is no one checking to see if you did you work every day, or no one telling you everyday what is due that week, it is extremly easy to fall behind. I guess I need more motivation and more of a schedule for this class. Another aspect that I don't like about this class is the fact that a lot of the sites will not work for me on a daily basis. All last week the typepad would not allow me to log in and now the Wiki is acting up on me. Every time I click on the wiki some weird window pops up with all different symbols and letters on it. This makes it very difficult to stay on schedule with this class because if a site is not working for you, your basically out of luck. I am planning on taking summer online classes and I am hoping there aren't as many sites that I need to participate in. I bet a lot of people who are good with technology enjoy this class, and it is a great class, but I am just an idiot when it comes to using unfamiliar sites. I am also not good at fixing things when they go wrong. I have been trying my hardest and I hope that I will recieve a decent grade, but in order to do so I have to catch up on the work. :)

Video Proposal

My short video idea is to contrast new and old technologies. I was thinking that at first we could show the conviences of new technology such as a person who is late for work because of a personal phone call or something along those lines and then contrast it by showing how a person with a cell phone uses it in the case of an emergency. Another aspect we could show is someone who decides not to go out with friends because their favorite tv show is on and they dont want to miss it. Then we could contrast it by showing someone taping their favorite tv show by using DVR. Then to show the negative aspects of new technologies we could show a young child sitting home and playing video games and then having a hard time holding a conversation in reality. We could also show something along the lines of a teenager mad because they don't have the most recently updated technological device. This would portray to viewers the positve and negative aspects of technological advances and how their are always going to be a good and bad side to devices created. This would all be put together in a kind of slideshow sort of way flipping from different scenes to the next. I think this would be fun. But I am more then willing to particpate in a different video proposal, I just thought this would be a fun idea to pursue.

Frusterated

Okay so I am officially frusterated. I can not log into the course blog and I don't know how to do it. I keep trying to log in and a note comes up and says that the page is insecure and asks if I want to continue. After hitting Yes, nothing happen and it just goes back to the original page and my log in and password are no longer there. I first thought that my information was wrong so I requested my password and user name and after recieving an email with the information, it still did not work. I don't know what to do considering I am suppose to post to the course blog this week. This is one of the main reasons I do not like all of the different websites and technological devices used throughout this course. I do not like that I cannot log in and it may effect my grade. If anyone can help me with this problem I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you

Snow Crash Chapters 8-16

Okay so I was correct in assuming that I would be confused throughout this book. I have a hard time trying to figure out when Hiro is in the real world or the virtual world. The virtual reality part of this book is very interesting in thinking that it is really that easy to get a persons background. In chapter 15 when Hiro and Y.T go to the concert together, Lagos puts a red laser on someones face and in effect is able to bring up their complete background. It is really interesting to think that it would be that easy to gain useful information about peoples lives. I am not completely sure of whether or not Hiro and Y.T went to the concert together in real life or in the metaverse. Another aspect of chapter 15 that interested me was this new character Raven. Raven kind of scares me a little bit. Raven is a big guy who shows up to the concert on a motorcycle and stares Hiro down. Hiro previously recieved instruction to stay out of Raven's way (from Lagos) therefore this brings me to the conclusion that Raven is going to bring some evil to the book. This book is really interesting to me because I sort of like the fact that I am not sure what world the events I am reading about are taking place in. I like the fact that I have to think about whether or not Hiro is speaking of reality or the metaverse. I am only at chapter 16 but I have a feeling it is going to a get a lot more interesting than it is right now.

Class update

So I am kind of getting confused while reading Snow Crash. I do not really understand the whole virtual reality concept, and it is hard trying to figure it out. I am not used to reading books on technolodgy. I understand that people make avatar's that represent themselves and communicate with others through the virtual reality. That part of the book does not confuse me but when it comes to the library and hypercards, I get completely lost. What are hypercards? What is the library? The basic concepts of this book I am fine with but when it goes into depth about hypercards and snow crash, I have no clue what's going on. Other than reading Snow Crash everything else in the class is fine. I am scared about making the next podcast because I am not sure how I did on the first one, therefore I don't know what I need to improve and work on. I like doing the podcast with a partner because it makes me more comfortable. It is just like having a conversation rather than having it be a project you do by yourself. If we are not doing the podcast on Snow Crash what are we suppose to talk about? Overall the class is going well I am just trying hard to completely understand the book.

Snow Crash- Chapters 1-7

After reading the first seven chapters of Snow Crash, I think it is very interesting. In the first chapter I was confused as to what a deliverator was. After realizing it was just a fancy name for pizza delivery boy, I was then amazed at the technolodgy the pizza place had. I think that would be awesome if there really was a pizza place that delivered your pizza within 30 minutes and if they were late, it was free. I do think it is a little crazy how serious it is that none of the deliverers are late though. I understand the pizza place is ran by the mob, but Hiro was actually like cutting through backyards to deliver the pizza on time? I know it is extremly exaggerated because I am sure the owner never would actually land on your lawn in a helicopter to apologize for a late pizza, but I find the book to be a lot more interesting than the Smart Mobs. Another thing that I do not understand is when Hiro is talking about reality and when he is talking about the virtual reality. I can already tell that I am going to get confused throughout the book, but i'm hoping it gets easier to decipher between the two as I continue reading. I am also very interested to see what role Y.T is going to end up playing in this book. I know she helped Hiro out with delivering the pizza but I am excited to see whether the mob is going to repay her, or whether Hiro himself will repay her. I am also excited to see what happens between Hiro and Juanita, will they reunite again or will she help him become rich?? I am excited to keep reading which is a good thing because I am not usually interested in things that deal with technolodgy but Stephenson is making it interesting for me :)

Smart Mobs- Chapters 7 & 8

In chapter 7 Rheingold discusses just how powerful text messages can be. Philipinos texted messaged many a rumor that the pope John Paul II had died. This led the nation into panic. This is just one example of how powerful text messages are and how much panic and chaos they can create. I believe that text messaging is not the only way to get messages to millions of people. The same message could have been displayed on the internet and the same amount of people probably would have found out. Just like children in Toyko use text messages to relay drama, jokes, and rumors between one another, the internet allows the same thing. I understand that both text messaging and the internet are both advanced technolodgy so in a sense it's talking about the same thing, but I believe the focus and blame lays on text messaging because it is a much newer concept than the internet. One of the things Rheingold discusses in chapter 8 is how to advoid the advances in technolodgy. Rheingold believes that it is up to a family to decide whether or not to keep up with the latest invention. I believe this is true to a certain extent, of course every family does not have to go out and buy the new flat screen televisions that hang on the wall, but what happens when every other child in school has a new gadget and your child is the only one without? How do you decide where to draw the line? Being a college student I use my computer and email to recieve all of my messages from professors and from the school, what if a child was to not have a computer? Would that child be worse off than the rest of the children with laptops? I believe that it is a family decision whether or not to buy their children the latest nike sneakers but I believe some things are necessary to keep up on. If I did not have a lap top at school I believe I would be worse off than those kids that did. For one I would not be able to take this online course, and I would be going to all those classes that the teachers send emails out to cancel. Not only that but what happens when a teacher sends an email out saying to bring a book to class at the last minute? Of course there are computers available around campus but one does not always have time to walk to these computers and check their emails. I do agree that with the amish man that said they do not like who the person becomes when they use these new devices. People tend to lose social skills when their constantly talking on their cell phone or on the internet. My main concern is how materialistic children are becoming with keeping up on fashion as well as these new technolodgies. Once again, I believe it is the choice of the families whether or not to keep up to date with advancing technolodgies.

Smart Mobs- Chapter 4-6

In chapters 4, 5, and 6 Rheingold speaks about some of the advantages in the increasing technolodgy. In chapter 4 Rheingold speaks about the technolodgies that allow people to tell where people are located throughout the world. Although this may have obvious disadvantages, there are also some advantages. Of course it helps out the police if their trying to locate a suspect and there is no other way of doing so. This allows our streets to stay safe, making it that much easier to catch criminals. Also if a person goes missing there may be ways to track them through the location devices that are being developed. I believe that some of these advantages are much more important than the obvious negative aspects. I have already talked about the risk of privacy being forgotten with the advances in technolodgy but if it is able to save people from dangerous criminals I believe it is well worth it. In chapter 5 Rheingold discusses the easy process of buying and selling things of the internet. I think this is an amazing discovery because it makes life so much easier for many people. Elderly people that cannot make it out of the house so easily are able to log onto their computer and purchase needed goods. Ebay is also a great technolodgy. Ebay allows people to sell and purchase things on the internet without going anywhere. People that have valuable things that they need to get rid of are able to do so fastly. In chapter 6 Rheingold discusses wireless connection to the internet. As a college student I am especially appreciative of this technolodgy because now it is so much easier to do homework and look things up without sitting at home and doing so. I can now bring my laptop to places with wireless internet and complete homework that I was previously confined to doing so in my house. These new techolodgies are amazing creations and I believe that every single one of them makes life easier for people everyday.

Chapter 3- Smart Mobs

In chapter three of Smart Mobs, one of the issues that Rheingold talks about is the controversial issue of free downloading of music. This issue is controversial because just as Rheingold says Napster wanted to allow people to download free mp3s but music artists feared that this would harm their record sales. I believe that downloading music on your computer is harmless because no matter what site, Napster or the other many sites, people will find a way to download music and there really isn't a lot to do to prevent this. It is actually the same thing as one friend going out and buying the cd and having the rest of their friends burning the cd. I still believe that if the cd is a good enough cd, the artist will still make plenty of money. Of course I understand where music artists are coming from, their record sales probably did decrease a lot since Napster was created, but with technolodgy advancing, it's inevitable. Just as i'm sure that with technolodgy advancing movies will soon be available to download more frequenlty and easier. It is something that has to be dealt with as more and more people have the technolodgy to make these downloads easier. I do agree that it is probably very frusterating for music artists to know that their spending so much money to produce an album only for their music to be downloaded and copied to a cd for free, but theres really nothing these artist can do. I also believe it was acceptable for Napster to agree that the artist have a right to tell which songs they would like to be downloaded for free, but with all the new sites created, it is again inevitable.

Chapter 2- Smart Mobs

In chapter two of smart mobs, Rheingold discusses the differences between face to face relationships and online networking. Online networks are far more advanced to the groups people find themselves in real life, outside the online world. When not online, people tend to find themselves in common groups such as family, friends, co-workers, and neighborhoods as opposed to them more distint networks found online. Online networks can arrange for people to meet others in similiar situations as themselves, for example single mothers facing problems raising their children on their own can go online and talk to others in an alike situation. These single mothers can then comfort in knowing others are in the same or worse situation as themself. Another positive aspect to online networking can be seen through other websites that allow strangers to get to know each other without actually coming into face to face contact with one another. Facebook is an example of this, where people from all different colleges (and more recently high schools also) can meet each other through common friends or common online groups. Online networks allow strangers to come into contact with each other without facing the risk of actually meeting a stranger in real life. Of course there are also negatives that come along with online networking, such as whether or not a teenager takes the risk of actually meeting a person in real life after only knowing them through online networking, but there are always going to be negatives that go along with every aspect of life. I believe that online networking is a good thing, allowing people to come into contact with others they would not previously meet.

Chapter 1. Smart Mobs

In chapter one, Rheingold discusses the high useage of cell phones all around the world. Not only are teenagers in the US obsessed with mobile phones, teenagers and adults all over the world are also cosumed by cell phones. Most people would think that teenagers are the age group in which uses cell phones the most, and while this might be true, adults too are occupied by cell phones. For example, look at most businesses, when you cannot reach a co-worker and you need to reach them you result to the next possible solution, calling them on their cell phone.
"Through SMS teens hate, gossip, mediate, and express longing, even when the writer lacks the courage for a call or in situations where other communication channels are inapporpriate. The text message is the backdoor of communication." (P 16) This quote points out the obsessions many teenagers have with text messanging. There is the threat that if teenagers continue to communicate in only these means, will they face problems when it comes to communicating face to face?

My First Blog

My name is Jennifer Quirk and this is my first blog. As a matter of fact this is my first online class, so I am a little nervous. I am having a hard time understanding how to do most of it but my nice roommate showed me how to create my own blog so here it is. This is just a sample one that I am creating for Power 209. Byeee :)