chanhee-spinach

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Blog Prompt 7: Personal Information Filtering

http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles

Summary:

The internet was meant to share information with the world, but instead the internet is being filtered so that the information we see is the information we want to see. An example used is a search of Egypt done by his friends that yielded two completely different results. What we choose to view, even though it may have only been the first thing we decide to click, can have a huge influence on our future search results. In order to fully utilize the internet, we must look at information that is challenging and from other points of view.

  Do you agree with the speaker? Why or why not

I agree that it is important for those that use the internet to branch out and gain information from a variety of resources. Bias is almost unavoidable when it comes to journalism, so it becomes very easy to read what we want to read. An example of this would be all the events that have unfolded (and are still unfolding) in Ferguson. My friend and I actually got into an argument a few weeks ago about what happened at Mike Brown’s shooting. It seemed that all of her resources were about how the policeman was acting in self defence, while my resources were about how unnecessary the policeman’s actions were. A part of this misunderstanding is likely due to the search results that were tailored for us.

  I don’t really think that personalized filtering is to the degree he makes it sound. He even said it is like we are back in 1915. Though our search results may be filtered, most of the information on the web is still accessible. You won’t even have to dig that far on the web to find the opposing side of a story. It only took one more scroll to find the articles that my friend was talking about (self defence argument in Mike Brown’s shooting), and that wasn’t a big effort on my part. It is true I am more likely to press on my first search result, but I also know to take in the information with a grain of salt. Also I recently found out that google has an option to turn off previous history personalization. This has made me think that there is more of an issue with mass filtering in comparison to personal filtering. Just look at these search results in two different search engines.

Censorship and corruption is a topic for another time (but this is my last post ahahha) but this demonstrates “filtering” on another level.

The speaker wants the algorithm of the search engines fixed to incorporate more “civic responsibility,” but no matter how much the algorithms are fiddled with, there will never be a perfect set of search results. I know that perfection isn’t what he implied, but it feels as if he is putting most of the responsibility on the technology. It would be better to target the users of the internet and teach them to seek out (and how to seek out) multiple perspectives for themselves.

[chanhee-spinach]

Blog Prompt #6.2 Online Reputation

How do you manage your online reputation?

Currently, I barely have an online reputation to manage at all. I have limited my social media to tumblr (not this blog but another one), and I don’t post anything personal anyways. My Gmail and Google profile are used for academic purposes, and my Skype is used for communication purposes.

A long time ago (actually only a couple months), I had a Facebook. Even back then I was very cautious of what I posted; in fact I barely posted anything at all. Facebook was mainly a means of messaging people and event reminders.

Are you aware of the privacy and security settings online? Pick and explain a measure of online security that you use to keep your content safe online.

In grade 9, I decided to google myself. BAM, the first picture in the image results was my Facebook profile picture. Kind of creepy right? I didn't want people to see pictures of 14 year old me. After that, I took the initiative to find out about the Facebook security settings in order to make sure I was not in the public eye. I updated my Facebook security settings to make my pictures and statuses visible only to my friends.

If you were an employer taking a look at your profile, what impression would your profile give off?

For this question I am going to pretend I still had my Facebook.

If an employer were to look at my profile, they would see a lot of nothing. Everything was made private, even my profile picture (so they wouldn't even know if it was the right Chanhee they were stalking). But for this question’s sake, lets say that my profile was public. I don’t post pictures of my achievements (cuz I dont have any (ಥ﹏ಥ)) but I think employers would still get a good impression of me. I was always involved in volunteering and extracurricular activities, and there were photos of that.

In reality, a quick google of my name brings up some Korean boxer? I feel the lack of a profile might be a bad impression. Perhaps they would think I was not tech savvy.

Why do you feel that each aspect of life now has its place online? Why is there a need to post everything online onto our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram accounts etc?

So much of our lives have a place online because of the convenience it provides. From the comfort of your own home you can go online to Facebook, where all your friends are online… sweet!

We want to post our lives online because other people can see it. A part of it is a way to get attention, and the other part of it is about informing other people of what is going on. If you want to know what university someone is going to, a quick glance at their profile could give you all that information and more (sometimes too much). We really never see the consequences of our actions online till they hit us, and so we continue to post our life online.

[chanhee-spinach]

Blog Prompt #6.1 Net Neutrality

How would a lack of Net Neutrality affect you? Name a few sites you use often and explain how you believe a lack of Net Neutrality would affect the online service that you use.

The whole concept of the internet is supposed to be a world wide web of information that can be accessed by everyone. Losing net neutrality is literally going to be like having the internet filtered for me.  By placing barriers or fees to certain websites, they are essentially controlling what I view on the internet. I always like to look at both sides of the story when it comes to current events, and without net neutrality there is going to be a lot more censorship.

The main website I use is Tumblr. Tumblr is a very mainstream website nowadays and I think they would strive with or without net neutrality. The have established themselves as a staple in social media, and would be able to afford the premium for better consumer service. In turn, since consumers are getting better service, tumblr would gain popularity and ultimately benefit themselves. However Tumblr is known for their opinionated posts. This may not be desired by certain internet providers but Tumblr could definitely afford the “fast lane” anyways, so it really depends on what the ISPs want to do.

For the -obscure- online games I play, they actually run without any fees or even advertisements. They mainly rely on donations or selling of in-game perks. My games would not be able to compete with more mainstream games (like League of Legends). It is very likely that internet service providers would make contracts with popular gaming sites for their own product placement. This would decline the number of people that use the less known sites, forcing them to close. That would be the worst case scenario but most likely they will not be seen as a threat but they would not be able to afford premium service either.

Do you think that ISPs are being reasonable when they advocate for no net neutrality?

I can understand the ISPs' perspectives when it comes to this situation. They want to offer better service to those that can pay for it. It actually isn't outrageous at all from their financial standpoint. Sites pay for premium service, and the ISPs get more money. However it is unreasonable to think that they could implement this new premium without consumer protest. For many small businesses, this is a “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” situation.  ISPs have to understand that they need consumer support in order to proceed with these type of decisions. It isn't their place to change something as big as this when there has been net neutrality for so long.

Are you for or against net neutrality? If you were an American citizen, and could write a comment on the FCC’s proposal for new Open Internet rules, what would you say?

Comment:

Net neutrality has allowed the web to become a place of innovation and success for businesses of all types. Lack of net neutrality will prevent new businesses from starting up. It basically eliminates competition in a way that only allows the successful to continue succeeding.

There is more to lose than the success of small businesses. If internet service providers are given the power to control what is sent through their network, the information we receive will be heavily filtered. Not only will we be receiving a ton of product placement, but how easy would be it to cover up controversies? Net neutrality is a part of the internet that must stay.

[chanhee-spinach]

Blog Prompt #5: Project 2

For my second project, I was in a group that created an EdTech presentation.

The biggest challenge with the EdTech project was due to the continuing placements that all of our group members had. I did feel that the distribution was unfair, but then again I have no idea what kind of placement commitments other people had. It really isn’t fair for me to judge them on what they did since placements were a priority over this project. Some people may have took advantage of the minimal supervision, but as stated before, I can’t really tell what other people were actually doing. To overcome this issue, we tried to delegate subject areas for each person. This helped because each individual knew what they had to finish as their part.

I definitely expected to spend less time picking resources and more time refining the presentation.  When it came down to narrowing the choices from the Edtech presentation, I expected it to be easy since people in the class had already commented on a few of them. However, many of the resources in the EdTech presentation were not very subject specific, or cost money to use. Resources with too many general uses and no incorporated curriculum would take a lot of work for the teacher to use. We wanted to keep the content free and easy-to-use, so there was way more work involved in picking and looking for new resources. We definitely had to look outside of the EdTech hashtag on twitter to find suitable resources. #aw

We didn’t expect it to be so hard to choose resources. Part of the reason why is because when the class originally looked for resources, there was no specific criteria. Thus, a lot of the resources they ended up posting were not necessarily applicable to our teachers (such as iPad technology).

I totally understand that it can’t be helped that placement teachers require us at different times, however it definitely puts the group in a sticky situation. So in that case, I think next time I would try to divide work amongst group members as soon as possible. Instead of planning to do each part together, by separating work it gives everyone a responsibility in the group. As a group member I could have took more initiative to help out my group members. I had the mentality of, “if they need help, they would ask,” but that’s not what initiative is about and I’ll make efforts to change that in the future.

Out of the EdTech resources, I would actually like to see remind used more! I was first skeptical of the usefulness of remind because I thought announcement emails were sufficient. However, my biology teacher began using remind and I changed my mind. She would notify us of field trip forms, hints to test questions, and the rare funny messages. I found that having the message sent through phone made it feel so much more important. When you see your phone light up, you unlock it straight away to see the message. It just isn’t the same when you receive an email. I really think these small reminders can help you out in the classroom, or even brighten your day.

[chanhee-spinach]

Blog Prompt #4 Placement Reflection

Did you enjoy the experience? Why or why not?

When it came to my placement, I genuinely enjoyed the experience. Actually using the probes was something I was really excited for. Seeing as I took grade 12 chemistry a year early, I never had a chance to use probeware technology. I was excited and fascinated that I could measure pH with a probe rather than litmus paper. Luckily, the probes were easy to get the hang of and I am now officially a certified probeware expert (not really).

What went well with your placement?

The part that went well, that I was pleasantly surprised with, was the communication between my teacher. I’ve heard previous IDC students talk about their never-replies-to-emails and nowhere-to-be-found teachers, and I was worried about facing that kind of situation. Thankfully, communication was never an issue because she was always available through email and at lunch. Modification of labs went great as well. A lot of the labs in the manual had useless steps or equipment. We were able to simplify a lot of these things and make it much more doable.

What difficulties did you have with your placement?

An initial problem was that our placement teacher had a free period during second period, while my partner and I were not free during that time. Fortunately her first period class was in a room with the lab tables at the back, and she allowed us to work there while she taught her lessons.

The biggest problem in the placement came from the equipment. The probes were “new,” but they had many issues. Many of them had false readings, while some did not give a reading at all. This made it difficult to have a solid plan of what was getting done since the equipment never seemed to agree with us.

Do you consider your placement a success?

I consider the placement a success. All doable and desired labs for chemistry were completed and handouts were made. Even the labs that failed allowed us to record what went wrong and what needs to be changed for future reference. I truly think that teachers will have a much easier time with using the probeware, and that is a success.

Do you think the project is useful/has value for IDC students/teachers/students of placement teachers? How could the project be improved for future IDC classes?

This project definitely offers the most value to the teachers of the science subjects. We are making it convenient for the teachers to use probeware that they might not be comfortable with. Not to mention, more students will get the opportunity to use probeware technology! We tested, modified, and created handouts for the labs that Ms.Cheung found interesting, however future IDC students could possibly do this project again for different labs or different subjects. A simple way to improve this placement in particular greatly, would be to purchase more lab equipment. Many interesting labs were skipped over due to lack of equipment, but perhaps next year they can be tested.

[chanhee-spinach]

Blog Prompt #3 Pro at Procrastination

Behind almost every task I have ever completed, there was a period of procrastination I had to overcome. Tasks that I am more prone to procrastinate include cleaning and studying. But why do I procrastinate? Why does anyone procrastinate? Well to answer this question, we look to the procrastination equation.

The procrastination equation consists of expectancy, delay, impulsiveness, and value. I have enough confidence in myself to believe I won’t fail my projects or tests. Thus expectancy is not a big part of my procrastination issue. Delay is not a big contributor either. The more time I have to finish a task, the more likely there will be days I feel like doing work. Then the more days I do work, the better my work becomes. An example would be for any written work, I may write something that makes no sense and I will only realize it when I read it days later. So then that leaves value and impulsiveness.

If I do not value the task, I will put it off. For example, my clothes lay in piles around my room. I believe that even if I organize them, they will get unorganized in a matter of days, and they aren't going to get any easier to choose in the morning. Whether or not this is true, this mindset of mine prevents me from completing this task. As for impulsiveness, I have addictions to reality TV. If there was a Survivor marathon before an exam, I would watch the Survivor marathon. 

It is hard to overcome my mindset in the value of things because I am stubborn, but I think impulsiveness is something I could learn to control. Environment is a huge factor to impulsiveness. When I am around other procrastinators or technology, I cannot do work. So where is the one place with little distractions and people doing work? No, it isn't school… It’s the library! I've always found the quiet book filled environment to be very peaceful. Nowadays I find myself going to the library once a week because it is on my way to my part-time job. It has definitely helped me catch up on work. Another way to avoid procrastination is to make lists. To check off a few mini tasks on a list offers a satisfying feeling while still being achievable. Through these methods, I hope to improve upon my procrastination problems.

Will I stop procrastinating? NO LOL I will try.

[chanhee-spinach]

Blog Prompt #2: Skills in Technology

Technology Operations & Concepts

At a dark time in my life, most of my files were named "asdfdfasd" and everything was in the default documents folder. But I have seen the light, and I have developed many of the skills under technology operations & concepts.

I am now very organized when it comes to files. They are stored in the appropriate folders, with proper names. I am also very comfortable with online publishing. I have explored the variety of tools and capabilities of Microsoft Word, such as inserting images, and creating graphs or tables. I practically know where all the functions are by heart.

Perhaps the area I can improve when it comes to technology operations and concepts, would be the hardware area. The only digital tool I frequently use would be my phone, and it is usually for playing games.

Research & Information Fluency

With a world of information at my fingertips, it is easy to say that I have used and obtained most of the skills in the research and information fluency category.

I know how to use search engines effectively to narrow down results into the information I need. Then I always check multiple sources to confirm information, which translates well into determining the validity of a source. Research is not only about the information though, I also utilize digital images to enhance my work. Last but not least, I cite all my sources with the help of my good friend BibMe.

I can definitely try to make an improvement in my note taking. I feel like my notes are very information heavy and are not centered on answering an inquiry question. Though it is good to have information, it is important to relate it back to the topic or issue at hand.

Creativity & Innovation

Let’s get this straight, I’m no Picasso when it comes to digital art, but I definitely show my creativity in other ways. I’ve always loved editing videos and creating presentations. Powerpoints, prezis, and infrograms only explore a fraction of presentation platforms out there. Using technology to showcase my work was always a strong point.

I’ve never used digital gaming or music creation for my work. These platforms are definitely doable in a simple manner such as educational jeopardy or karaoke. I will keep them in consideration for future academic projects.

Communication and Collaboration: Needs Improvement

  I need the most improvement when it comes to communication and collaboration. The only skill I have developed (or even used for that matter) is to read and navigate information. For everything else, it becomes hard to develop skills when I have limited my social media use to Skype. I do not participate in online forums either.

  This IDC class will help me improve this course as I go through my placement with my partner. Already we have used Google Docs to collaborate simultaneously with peers. In addition, most teachers have websites with forum capabilities that could be used to discuss class material. By participating in discussions and collaborative work at school, I will be able to improve upon these skills.

[chanhee-spinach]

Blog Prompt #1

How do you personally use technology to learn?

Technology is a huge part of my learning process, all the way from the initial research, to the compilation of my own thoughts and opinions. I make use of technology in a variety of manners, however the most important to me would be the visual aid that technology can provide.

Through paper and pencil, my understanding of a topic can be limited. For example, in calculus class we are learning about vector planes. When a 3D concept is drawn on 2D paper, it limits our perspective to the picture we see. I can attempt to picture the plane in my head, but it becomes difficult as the material gets more complicated. With technology, not only can I easily graph a plane, but I can move and rotate the graph to view from new perspectives. The ability to gain multiple perspectives can apply to so many more subjects, such as when examining molecules in chemistry or cells in biology. I gain a better depth of understanding by using the visuals that technology provides.  

3D Graphing Calculator!

To check out more of my personal technology usage, check my links!

Do classes that use more technology appeal to you? Is it easier for you to learn the content?

Classes that use more technology definitely appeal to me. In my experience, classes that use technology are more efficient with work. Currently all of my teachers have websites where assignments and due dates are posted. This allows me as a student to be prepared for class, and a teacher to stay on track with the material. It is also a time saver from handing out worksheets or copying down questions. The time saved translates into more time to comprehend the material (or socialize c: ).

Technology not only makes a lesson more efficient, but more effective as well. A great example of technology used effectively is from my math teacher. She prepares all her lessons via smartboard which include tools to help visualize. I found that even something as simple as color coding steps and concepts allows a better understanding of the material. Technology also forces encourages us to be participative, in this case through the use of clickers (remote to answer questions). Through these methods, I find that the content can be delivered and learnt easier.

Does it matter to you if a teacher uses technology in class? Why or why not?

Though I love the usage of technology, there are many teachers that can translate the class material through other effective methods. For example, my previous English classes rarely had technology incorporated, yet I remained engaged and learned a lot. They made great use of their voice and gestures to get their point across. It may even be better to have less technology in a subject like English, since we can visualize text to our own interpretation. In the end, technology is only there to aid the teacher, and some teachers do not need it. So although it may depend on the subject, if a teacher can effectively communicate their lesson, it does not matter whether technology is used or not.

[chanhee-spinach]

Humankind.

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Another setup shot

by:Matthew Pearce

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Brief history of nintendo handheld by Dadot [via]