pln7

PLN 7

In Michael Wesch's video, "The Machine is Using Us," he shows people how computers have completely changed everyone in the worlds lives, which can be looked at as good or bad. Since computers and the internet have been invented, they have changed over time. They have connected people around the world, and have taught humans knowledge in an instant search. Wesch shows that the web can help you learn immediately about school work, office work, or general knowledge. It is stunning how the internet has transformed over the years, transforming not only itself but the human race. As explained in the video, when the web was just created, you had to 'html' everything if you wanted this information to be on a website. Now you can hyperlink, click the share button, or post facts on a blog without going through all the other work. Wesch brought up the idea of how many people can interact online and they create new videos, blogs, and emails everyday. He stated that "There is a blog born every half second." This means that everyday about 172,800 blogs are posted. Not only is it just blogs that are being updated exponentially, but you can update and add information on Wikipedia whenever you like, even if it is not true. These are the items I think can be bad for the internet. You never have exact proof if something you read is true or not. You may hope or think it is true, but people post false ideas all the time and try to trick you into believing them. In my opinion, "The Machine is Us/ing Us," has displayed how the web has changed our society by contributing knowledge and entertainment to humans, but with it, there has been some bad information too. The point is you can do about anything now, because of the internet.
Machines can be looked at in many different ways. Machines help very much, with the ways technology has advanced, it can help the world but also hurt it. Technology is very good for things like schools, and home security systems. Others could argue that technology is to into thee lives of modern day humans. No ones lives are the same due to the advances, either in a good way or a bad way.

pln 6

PLN6

In Amanda Ripley’s “The Case Against High-School Sports” explains how high school sports are a big deal in the United States.  Ripley provides an example by giving out  a test of critical thinking in math. is the reason why the United States ranks 31st because students are more focused on sports than they are on education.  Ripley questions the role of schools being involved with organized sports and then students focus less on academics. Ripley explains the reason why South Korea, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are ranked the highest on the test is because these countries have a strong focus on academics.  Schools that are failing in education have tried multiple ideas to get education back up on the top priorities, such as, getting rid of all sports.  Premont’s plan was a success, with 80% of students passing their classes instead of the previous year’s 50% of students passing.  Spelman College students lost weight because the fitness program benefited the full student body instead of just 80 athletes. Lots of schools need to focus students on education THEN sports. The main point of all of this is that Ripley would argue that sports take away from the learning environment. Although according to Ripley sports are bad for the learning environment, others could argue that sports help students with their academics by making them get good grades so that they can play sports. Others would argue that sports are good for spirit building, and students getting to know one another.

The author explains that she is worried about the imbalance of schools emphasis on sports and academics, where they put sports first and academics later.  Ripley cited two schools that were trying to make changes by getting rid of sports they were Premont High School in Texas and Spelman College in Georgia.  Premont shut down all sports so their students would focus more on education, and Spelman College cut sports completely and instead put $1 million into a fitness program for the students.  Schools have multiple sports, and these sports are affecting students ability to learn. Amanda Ripley’s “The Case Against High-School Sports”  elucidates that schools are edging students to play sports and not focus on education, which can create a bad future for students.  In conclusion, Sports at looked at in many different ways, some good some bad, but in the end sports are sports no matter what view you have on them.

PLN 5

PLN 5

The article “Footprints in the Digital Age” by Will Richardson impacts my life because it reminds us that everyone is ‘googleable’ and that the major change in technology is causing younger generations to understand it before their predecessors.  When people are googled, all sorts of information tidbits come up.  Many people are “googleable” but the goal is to be “googleable” in a positive way. Whether that be their facebook profile, tweets, blogs, or a newspaper article, everyone who participates in the ‘online community’ has information out there for anyone to find.  People google others for a number of reasons such as, looking for past accomplishments, finding out more about their personal life, or seeing if they can connect online.  When people have such a big part of their life out in the open, they need to make sure that that ‘big part of their life’, is one they don’t mind complete strangers or potential employers seeing.  Personally I think being googleable is very scary, because people can't find you, where you go to school, what you do, anything about you. Therefore I feel its very unsafe. In my opinion the internet is a terrible thing, at some times. I think that the internet is way to intertwined with our lives. At other times I think the internet helps a lot and makes it so that we can learn many new things.
 Even young children spend a considerable amount of time online.  They quickly to learn new changes that the educators in their lives struggle to keep up, let alone, stay ahead.  Helping students learn how to use the technology and seemingly infinite amount of information to their educational benefit is a challenge that teachers and parents now face.  Once they do, they become able to function in collaborative networks and other online groups.  Being ‘googled well’ is important and a rather simple concept, the hard part is getting yourself out there enough to show up at all in the results.  The internet is a good thing at good times and at other times its a bad thing. One could argue that if you act right, and don't post dumb things on the internet there is no reason to fear the internet, others could say that the internet is just too mixed with our lives and it is inevitable to not use the technology we have today. In conclusion, the internet has many looks and views but has greatly impacted the modern human.