Wrapping up the semester

As the semester is winding down, it is much harder for me (and I'm guessing for most of you) to stay focused. In spite of this, recently, I have been realizing that what we covered in this class actually pertains a lot to some of the other classes I'm taking. I think that I will take a lot more away from this class than I initially thought I would. This class is really relevant to what is going on in the world today, which made it interesting and useful for all majors in my opinion. I hope everyone ends their semester on a good note and thanks for a great time in this class!

Collaboration Through Wikis

Our group first started by editing the web development page of the writing technology wiki. The previous group did a nice job of giving a brief introduction of web development. They also incorporated history of web development into the wiki. There was a lot of information already present, so there was not much to add with that respect. They also split the categories into general uses and uses in the classroom. We all agreed that this was a beneficial arrangement to the page. We split the uses in the classroom category into uses for teachers and uses for students. We thought this would be useful for anyone visiting the wiki for quick ideas on how web development could be incorporated into the classroom.

Then I began editing the wiki page. The person that developed the page before had a lot of text and information on the page. I first added a picture to add to the visual appeal of the website. It breaks up the text on the website, which I thought would encourage people to read all of the text. The previous editor wrote a good introduction for the page. She also split the page into many smaller categories. These categories were about wikis, strengths for writing classes, and weaknesses for writing classes. I thought this was a good way to separate the categories.

I edited a lot of the content of these categories. I changed some of the subcategory titles so the wiki had better flow.  I also split the strengths into strengths for teachers and strengths for students, as we did on the web development page. I thought this would be useful and would interest the visitors of the page.

The previous editor also had a category for examples. I thought this was really useful to the page, so I just added a few small changes. She also gave links to sites to start your own wiki, which was also really useful for the readers.   

 Overall, I edited a lot of the content and grammar. I corrected a few spelling and grammatical errors.  I also added to the introduction in order to give a better overview of the webpage. I added more about collaboration and editing, as the previous editor did not mention them a lot. I think both of these aspects are very important to wikis, so I added more content about them. I also added more to the strength section because I think wikis can be very helpful in the classroom.

The wiki page has been edited only by two students. I think that continuing collaboration on this page will give better resources and information on how the technology can be used in the classroom. I also believe that continuing collaboration will add to the entire website. These technologies will continue to change, so having a consistent source for updates, namely the students, will be very beneficial to the content of the wiki.

Virtual Machine

My boyfriend is a Computer Science major, which means he knows a lot more about technology than I do. The other day I noticed he was running what looked like a Mac on his monitor...but he has Windows....so I was really confused. He explained to me that it is a virtual machine. Essentially, it's like running a machine within a machine. It was strange because what showed on the screen was not what I expected. It looked exactly like a Mac, but the whole background could be minimized to expose the familiar windows desktop.
I was trying to analyze the technology with some of the ideas from the articles we read, but I have no idea where to place this. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Medication Dispensing Technology

The technology that I am using for my final research project is robotic dispensing of medication in pharmacies. I specifically would like to relate it to Ihde's hermeneutic and/ or embodiment relationships. I think this could be classified as both types, but I am curious to see all of your opinions.
I also want to see how this technology has changed the way pharmacy students' education. I am curious to see how much time in class, if any, is spent on learning this technology and what the learning curve is like. It may be difficult to use at first, making it more hermeneutic. However, after learning the technology and working with it for a long time, it may become more of an embodiment relationship for the pharmacist.

Embodiment? Hermeneutic?

After this past week, I have decided that the line between Ihde's embodiment and hermeneutic relationships is not as clear to me is it seemed. Technologies have different ways of helping us interpret the world. How one person interprets the world is not necessarily the same as someone else. As I have said before, something transparent to one may be opaque to another. For me, I think that these embodiment and hermeneutic relationships work together in order to help us best understand things around us. I think that it depends on the point of view of the person/people involved in the interpretation. Even the simple eyeglass example from class can be seen as a hermeneutic relationship for someone that has never worn glasses before. It is not a transparent technology for them at first and there is a time for adjustment. Although this is only one example, I think that the embodiment/hermeneutic relationship applies to many, more complicated scenarios.

Welp,see ya later!

This blog is going to be a little off topic, I guess you could say. After a long week, I can finally start to think about packing for spring break! So exciting! I will be going to Orlando, Fl from Sunday to Sunday with my best friend from home. We're staying with her awesome aunt (for free) so that is another plus! This cold weather isn't helping my itch to go either. I am curious to know what you all will be doing over break. And, even though this post has nothing to do with class really, I guess I have been incorporating technology into my preparation for SB '09. Checking the weather on a regular basis since Monday has given me a new appreciation for internet weather forecasts....hopefully they are correct!

I'm Perplexed

After looking at Lexia to Perplexia and reading the articles for this week, I discovered how much I don't understand about technology. I thought I knew how to work a computer. Actually, I thought I was pretty good at it. But now, I see that I was totally wrong.
Going through Lexia to Perplexia made me almost dizzy because there was so much going on. It was like combing English with a foreign language. It just goes to show the complexity of seemingly transparent technologies, such as the computer. I don't see a computer as a complex machine. I see it as a way to check my email, to access the web, to type papers, etc. I don't know about all of you...but I was definitely left perplexed!

Texting too far?

I found this article about a new trend called 'Sexting.' It is a growing trend with younger teens and it involves sending nude or semi-nude photos. I knew that texting, especially among teens, was growing in popularity...but I didn't realize it was to this extent. I know that it is not EVERY teen that is doing this, but even so, I was still pretty surprised.
I didn't have texting until fall of my sophomore year. Now, my best friends little brother, who is 16, said he sent about 3,000 texts one month. Even though many of us probably noticed this trend in young teens, I'm sure we never thought about it in depth. What will the lead to?
I know I'm scared of having anything that could possibly be incriminating on my facebook profile. The threats and stories of bosses and managers not hiring people because of their facebook photos is enough for me to play it safe. So, I am curious to see if this 'sexting' will affect any of these feelings of fear of getting caught. If some teens can get away with sending nude photos on their cell phone, will they be oblivious to the possible, more serious consequences?

iFart vs. Pull My Finger

Sounds a little bit strange, I know. But I came across this blog that talks about the battle between 2 iphone fart applications. Apparently iFart came out first and when you touch the screen, it makes a farting noise. It is one of the top selling iphone applications, so naturally, another company came out with a similar application called Pull My Finger.
This really caught my eye...I had NO idea these even existed! I thinks it's pretty funny....but I'm not sure if I would like my phone making farting noises. I'm also not sure if this really relates to the cyborg discussions we've had in class this past week, but I thought it was interesting that rather than technology modifying our bodies, we have modified the technology to mimic our bodies. Perhaps this has some relation to the environment in which we all take in and therefore, according to Clark, contributes to us all as cyborgs. I'm curious to know what you all think about this!
The fact that there are 2 companies debating over a trademark phrase (pull my finger) seemed pretty outrageous to me. Could you imagine talking about flatulence in a court room, without laughing? I know I couldn't.

The Madison Ipod Culture

I remember the first time I got to Madison. I remember my first day of classes. I remember seeing everyone walking around listening to their ipods and wondering if I had missed the memo. I had an mp3 player, but it was no ipod. I almost felt too embarrassed to listen to music on the way to class. And it was all just because it wasn't an ipod.

Now, of course I have an ipod. I didn't realize what a big part of the Madison campus culture is through the ipod. No matter where you go, you can be sure to see people plugged in and tuned out. What I thought was interesting is the amount of people at the lab that I work in that listen to music while working. Has the workplace gotten sooooo bad that nobody wants to talk to their coworkers anymore? Well, that's what I thought at first anyway. But now, I also listen to my ipod at work. Ironic? Yes, but for me, it's all part of fitting into the culture.

In continuation...

Continuing the conversation from class on Wednesday, I just wanted to add a little bit about the paradigm shifting idea. I think that it is true that these shifts take place no matter what we are talking about. Some examples include art, music, technology and science. However, I think that the major difference is the time frame when these shifts take place. Art, music, and technology have undergone different phases very quickly. Genres pass even as quickly as decades and these changes are typically well defined.
On the other hand, science has been the paradigm that is shifted only once in a while and only in a certain area after extensive research. We as scientists pick and chose what we want to focus on and we find a way to prove it to everyone else. New findings are many times based on previous successes and failures. Therefore, the paradigm shift in science is much more vague and lengthy than that of music or art. It is much less defined which makes it all the more interesting to the curious.

Online classes....in elementary school?

Okay,I guess it's not as extreme as that...but as I was watching TV this afternoon, there was a commercial for a virtual learning program. I thought this was interesting and related well to the things we discussed today, so I checked out the website. You can read over some of the curriculum for the different grades (K-5 and 6-12) if you would like, but basically I got the impression that the students take online along with some off-line classes but also have the opportunity to interact with other kids through extracurricular activities and fieldtrips.

Online classes are becoming increasingly popular, especially in college and sometimes even high school. It was surprising that the commercial showed younger kids participating in the program. The website explains how they will be well prepared for their post-secondary education. It sounds like the programs use a variety of different technologies for different types of learning, which I think can be really beneficial for kids, especially in their futures. They also emphasized that the kids (in the commercial) were interacting with other students and meeting them through fieldtrips. I think marketing the social aspect of the virtual learning program is important because I'm sure the parents fear that a program such as this can take away from the child's social skills, which could be potentially harmful for their future.

Overall, I think the program sounds really cool... but looking back at high school and even to middle school, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much as seeing my classmates everyday!

Welcome!

This is my first time blogging and oddly enough, it is for a class. I have had no experience with blogs even though sometimes I wish I would have used this tool as a way to document my study abroad experience. I usually am not one to share a lot of my thoughts with people I don't know. I am excited to be able to use blogging as a new and different way to share ideas with my English 201 classmates!