Hi there.
Finally, a discussion of Born To Run! Before classes started, they made it seem like the first moth of seminar would be devoted solely to the Summer reading. I have to say that I'm glad it wasn't. I really enjoyed Born To Run but I don't think I would have liked wearing it out. Anyway, Dr. Russel was already a name with which I was familiar. I heard about Ray's Weather within the first few days of move-in from a few girls down my hall and it has definitely been my go-to weather site since then. It was interesting to see how Dr. Russel tied Born To Run in with our seminar topic. Tracking apps like FatSecret (I agree, an awful name) have really exploded over the past few years with all of the new smartphone technology especially. I remember having to keep a food/exercise journal for a week in 9th grade health class and it was absolutely awful to keep track of foods and calories and workouts by hand. Though I don't see myself using such a program any time soon, I'm glad to know that there are so many options out there in case I change my mind.
Now... Rescue time... I guess if it worked all the time it was supposed to it would have been better. However, on the short term, it took so long to set up that it was hardly worth the effort. I think it logged the proportions of time I spent fairly accurately, the times themselves seemed far off. I think that the program might be helpful for someone who works mainly on the computer, but for a student who uses their computer mainly for recreation, the software is pretty silly.
Hopefully my next post will be more timely.
Peace,
Z
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Post for Week of 9/15
Hi there friends, neighbors, acquaintances, instructors, humans and non humans, alike.
This week we read an article quite extremely different from the Frontline video we watched last week. It was nice to hear a different perspective on multitasking in the form of a scholarly opinion. I was really amazed by the attention blindness thing because I hadn't been exposed to the gorilla thing before. I am not sure I agree entirely that attention blindness is bad -- I like focusing in on work, especially when I can enter a quasi-meditative state -- but her teaching methods definitely sounded interesting and appealing. I err on the side of traditionalism when it comes to debates of the education system, but her class sounded super fun. Unfortunately what I thought about the most during the article was the book referenced, This Is Your Brain On Music. I started reading it a year or two ago and never got to finish, and I'd really like to pick it back up.
Convocation (which occupied our normal class time) was a lot less unpleasant than I'd expected. It was fascinating to watch everyone process in their Harry Potter robes. Christopher McDougall was a great speaker and I was disappointed when he stopped. The ceremony as a whole was an interesting experience, though I am thankful it was as short as it was.
Love and Peace,
Z
This week we read an article quite extremely different from the Frontline video we watched last week. It was nice to hear a different perspective on multitasking in the form of a scholarly opinion. I was really amazed by the attention blindness thing because I hadn't been exposed to the gorilla thing before. I am not sure I agree entirely that attention blindness is bad -- I like focusing in on work, especially when I can enter a quasi-meditative state -- but her teaching methods definitely sounded interesting and appealing. I err on the side of traditionalism when it comes to debates of the education system, but her class sounded super fun. Unfortunately what I thought about the most during the article was the book referenced, This Is Your Brain On Music. I started reading it a year or two ago and never got to finish, and I'd really like to pick it back up.
Convocation (which occupied our normal class time) was a lot less unpleasant than I'd expected. It was fascinating to watch everyone process in their Harry Potter robes. Christopher McDougall was a great speaker and I was disappointed when he stopped. The ceremony as a whole was an interesting experience, though I am thankful it was as short as it was.
Love and Peace,
Z
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Post for Week of 9/8
Week 3, a little late again.
The week of the Frontline video.
As with most news media, Frontline was made just as much to entice as to inform. It was difficult not to get sucked into the journey through the extremes of digital overload. I definitely had an emotional response to the video and it took me a little while to figure out exactly what the emotion was. Without a lot of thought given to the information presented, obviously the first response I had was "ALL TECHNOLOGY IS EVIL! BURN THE COMPUTERS! (and little Korean children are precious)" but that's not really the way I feel. The host spent so much time on the negatives and extremes of technology that it was hard to have an accurate and truthful response right off the bat. Now that I've had some time to mull it over, I am feeling a lot less impassioned about digital overload. While I think there are a lot of negative consequences to technology overuse/abuse, these issues don't affect a majority of people. Most people don't stay up all night playing WoW. Most people aren't performing 7 different tasks at once all day long. Technology can be a problem for interpersonal relationships as well as safety in cases of texting and driving, etc., but I think that as a whole, computers and communication devices are good things. One thing I do think is that children should have limited access to digital media. When I was a kid, I didn't have TV or video games or a computer at home to entertain myself. I think it's important for children to learn to entertain themselves by interacting with other people or using their imaginations. I had a similar experience as Dr. Wilkes observing children in front of the TV. I was babysitting a 5 year old boy, and we were tired after running around outside so we watched a movie. If I tried to talk to him while the TV was on, he would ignore me completely or perhaps didn't notice I was talking to him at all. It really irked me and made me thankful that I didn't have a TV in the house. As for teenagers, it's hard enough to monitor, let alone control what digital media they have access to. Cell phones can definitely get out of hand (no pun) in my opinion, but I don't think access to technology affects older young-folks as badly as children. Adults should be willing to accept the consequences of their use of technology. My mom loves checking the weather on her phone when we go out to eat. It bothers me and bothers my step dad even more, but if she's willing to accept the resentment, there's nothing we can do.
Until next time,
Z
The week of the Frontline video.
As with most news media, Frontline was made just as much to entice as to inform. It was difficult not to get sucked into the journey through the extremes of digital overload. I definitely had an emotional response to the video and it took me a little while to figure out exactly what the emotion was. Without a lot of thought given to the information presented, obviously the first response I had was "ALL TECHNOLOGY IS EVIL! BURN THE COMPUTERS! (and little Korean children are precious)" but that's not really the way I feel. The host spent so much time on the negatives and extremes of technology that it was hard to have an accurate and truthful response right off the bat. Now that I've had some time to mull it over, I am feeling a lot less impassioned about digital overload. While I think there are a lot of negative consequences to technology overuse/abuse, these issues don't affect a majority of people. Most people don't stay up all night playing WoW. Most people aren't performing 7 different tasks at once all day long. Technology can be a problem for interpersonal relationships as well as safety in cases of texting and driving, etc., but I think that as a whole, computers and communication devices are good things. One thing I do think is that children should have limited access to digital media. When I was a kid, I didn't have TV or video games or a computer at home to entertain myself. I think it's important for children to learn to entertain themselves by interacting with other people or using their imaginations. I had a similar experience as Dr. Wilkes observing children in front of the TV. I was babysitting a 5 year old boy, and we were tired after running around outside so we watched a movie. If I tried to talk to him while the TV was on, he would ignore me completely or perhaps didn't notice I was talking to him at all. It really irked me and made me thankful that I didn't have a TV in the house. As for teenagers, it's hard enough to monitor, let alone control what digital media they have access to. Cell phones can definitely get out of hand (no pun) in my opinion, but I don't think access to technology affects older young-folks as badly as children. Adults should be willing to accept the consequences of their use of technology. My mom loves checking the weather on her phone when we go out to eat. It bothers me and bothers my step dad even more, but if she's willing to accept the resentment, there's nothing we can do.
Until next time,
Z
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Post for Week of 9/1
Hello everyone.
This is a late post for last week, the second week of this blog.
Class last week was a little different from usual because we only met once in CAP and we did... unconventional... things when we were there. I'm glad that there were activities to expound upon the reading about networking. While I understood the excerpt and why it was written in the style in which it was written, I didn't really feel like the material sunk in until we delved into it in class. The activity with the bowling pins was really interesting and remarkably fun (I'm a nerd... what can I say?). I liked how it felt to get the hang of it, especially after struggling at the beginning. It's cool that something as complex as computers can boil down to something resembling a children's game. I was not as successful with the colored paper activity, though I'm sure I could get the hang of it with practice.
Thursdays class was extremely helpful, and has gotten me pretty excited for our annotated bibliography projects. I used to help in the library at the school where my mom taught and am always amazed by the resources available in libraries. I expect to feel much more confident doing research in general after our special class and look forward to using the library in the next four years.
Until next time,
Z
This is a late post for last week, the second week of this blog.
Class last week was a little different from usual because we only met once in CAP and we did... unconventional... things when we were there. I'm glad that there were activities to expound upon the reading about networking. While I understood the excerpt and why it was written in the style in which it was written, I didn't really feel like the material sunk in until we delved into it in class. The activity with the bowling pins was really interesting and remarkably fun (I'm a nerd... what can I say?). I liked how it felt to get the hang of it, especially after struggling at the beginning. It's cool that something as complex as computers can boil down to something resembling a children's game. I was not as successful with the colored paper activity, though I'm sure I could get the hang of it with practice.
Thursdays class was extremely helpful, and has gotten me pretty excited for our annotated bibliography projects. I used to help in the library at the school where my mom taught and am always amazed by the resources available in libraries. I expect to feel much more confident doing research in general after our special class and look forward to using the library in the next four years.
Until next time,
Z
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