Final Project: Teaser

Check out this teaser for the DigiCiv Documentary we are making. Let me know what you think.

Web 2.0 The machine is Us/ing us

This is a video that Dr. Zappala showed in class a while ago but when i was researching more about the subject of Web 2.0 i found it again. i thought it was a really great representation of what we are talking about here.
what i found most fascinating about the concept of Web 2.0 is that the web has become much more than just a way of "getting information".  instead the web has exploded into a user directed method of creating  information. i'll go through the six points from Jim O'Reilly's article and explain more of my thoughts:

great article on facebook profiles:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/11/24/facebook.profile.shots.netiquette/index.html?hpt=C2

The Media, Printing press, and the internet

After reading the assigned readings on media theory i thought i wanted to compare the printing press and the TV and their effects on society and culture. but my research took me elsewhere. after a little research online i found a sweet online conversation about the printing press verses the internet. The conversation reminded me much of our own class. i thought this would be an excellent opportunity to connect but then the conversation was closed without any way of adding to the conversation. but these people seem like they would be good to connect into our class. so if you figure out how to connect them in let me know!

Final Project update

So i am updating everyone real quick. we are done with the filming of all the students and the professors. we had a few problems with the rental cameras from the library but we pushed on. now my responsibility is to begin editing the raw footage to start to create a coherent storyline. Maggie and Dalton are now hard at work to create a prezi that will sum up both the structure of the class and the historical content of the class. we plan on making a screen cast video of the prezi and inserting it into the video. the gears are in motion. things are going great. i'll keep you posted.

Highways: transporting our economy

The engineering marvel of the twentieth century that i spent more time learning about was the highway system of the United States. It was a fascinating learning experience. prior to the development of the interstate artery system the united states relied most heavily on train transportation for any shipping and transportation. The roads at the start of the twentieth century were poorly made at best. the lack of proper pavement and care for the roads made transport via roads very costly, in terms of time and other resources. the article stated: "it was cheaper to ship fruit by rail from California to an urban market in the East than to deliver it by wagon from a farm 15 miles away". Economically speaking this is couldn't continue.
The united states involvement in WWI ushered rapid change in the highway system. The military transported a lot of things via trucks along roads and trashed the existing roads. as a result the standard of thickness for concrete increased.

Blog Review of "Hot Chocolate News"

I found this assignment to evaluate a classmates blog quite fun. I rarely take the time to really dive deep into a single classmates thoughts and blogs but this has proved to be a great exercise. I found that I really learned a lot about Megan as I read into her blog. And I found that overall she has done a great job of meeting the course objectives and learning outcomes.

Reflective blog post number 2

I am excited at the opportunity to once again reflect upon my experience thus far in this class. Since the last reflective blog post I feel I have really hit my stride as a student of digital literacy. Obviously I have not totally mastered all of the tools necessary but I feel like my learning algorithm has been properly adjusted so that I can get the most out of this class for the remaining few weeks. I will now report on how well I have met the three learning outcomes (namely, historical content, computing concepts and digital culture, and self-directed learning) in the duration at hand.

Einstein and the nuclear bomb

When i read about and researched the Nuclear bomb and its capabilities chills ran down my spine. i am truly in awe at the destructive power of this weapon. I would say with reasonable certainty that it is on of the top three most important scientific developments of the 20th century and maybe altered the course of civilization more than anything else from that century. but what i want to focus on for a moment, because i do not have to much time is the important role Einstein played in the development of the Nuclear bomb.

Please share your blog post excerpts!

as a means of crowd sourcing could some of you please help us out by linking us to blog posts that you think would help us to highlight your feelings towards the class. or that highlight the effectiveness of the learning outcomes of the class. a good place to start may be your last reflective blog post. thank you!

Keynes: The great debate

As an economics major i was very excited to see the topic for class tomorrow. However as a budding young economist i have not yet developed deep rooted opinions on how a national economy should be dealt with and how public policy should be taken care of. I have learned in the past however about Keynesian Economics and that John Keynes is considered the most important economic mind since Adam Smith. After reading the assigned excerpts for the day i wanted to get some opinions on said economic theories. i found two politically charged blogs that were violently against the Keynesian economics. Here's why:

Kurt Gödel: a logical thinker

Having talked about the turing machine and uncomputable problems to some extent in class i became much more interested in the beginnings of the modern computing era as we know it. one of the contributors to this movement towards computing is Kurt Godel. There were no readings assigned for him so i wanted to understand better his contribution to this time period. I found a biography describing briefly his life and his studies on logics. but this on only left me with more questions like: what did he do in the field of Logic mathematics?

Final Project update:

I booked a camera for thursday-saturday. this way we can begin filming asap. we can get some shots of class in progress and schedule a time to interview the teachers. Professors Burton and Zappala if you read this please respond with a time that would work for you either thursday afternoon or friday that we could come and interview you. if neither work then we can find another time. Teammates, lets get together in the next few days to get an overall layout of the project and set some interview questions.

Freudian psychology

I have often heard references to Freudian psychology and things like the oedipus complex and whatnot but i have never really studied freud in any detail. i was glad to have the opportunity to study in greater depth the father of so many psychological breakthroughs. Beneath is a video about one aspect of His studies that i focused on: The Id, Ego, and Superego. It is old and cheesy but explains the principle really well.