Creating a Story that tells itself!

The past couple weeks we have been working on our final projects in class. We decided to do a project on the app called Storify. It is a web based app that lets you gather information on any topic you choose using a variety of websites. For example; Google, Facebook, Tumblr, Youtube and Twitter are among the top sites for searching the criteria. It Is very user friendly and I think it is an innovative tool to use in editing articles or even for class presentations.
  Storify, we found out through trial and error, that many users can be named "editors" and can simultaneously edit any project on any ones own personal Storify account. The fact that you can literally drag in any information found on any site is pretty awesome. On the final page it shows just a block of information, but if you are interested in learning more than you can click on the link and it opens up the entire article. I am pretty excited to present this project in class because we are going to be using Storify itself to present the project and let our classmates look at it on their computers at the same time and allows them to follow our presentation while we talk. Don't want to reveal anything else about our project so you'll have to be in class to enjoy it!

Hey your're by me, how's it going?

With social media expanding as much as it has been lately, of course they are going to make apps that help people connect where they are. iPhone's and smartphones alike have the capability to track where you are and the fun places you go to by using the GPS service on your phone. Foursquare is an app that I was recently introduced to in class this week and has been really fun to use. I have been using the "check-in" app on Facebook and have been content with it. I always thought it was missing a little something interactive to make the experience more fun for users and now foursquare allows you to become mayor of places and lets you know who is around you and also the ability to chat.

I love the idea of all of these apps that are allowing you to use the location services to meet and stay connected to people around you. The one thing that really bugs me though is the thought that there are some creepers around and are not always as genuine as we'd all hope. Many people can see where you are being checked in to or see that you are there and come find you. The right place at the right time can now be canceled out by the mere fact that they saw you on Facebook checked in or on Foursquare checked in to the Northpark mall.

Are you even listening!?

It is very hard to concentrate in a classroom that allows you to have your laptop out and even have a cell phone on the table. It's a given that you should always be listening and not texting your friends or chatting online, but students tend to veer off and get distracted when using other mediums besides the traditional lecture and note taking class. 

      I for one am a product of this technological mixture. Having my iPhone on me and my lap top open is very distracting, but I consider myself to be a great multi-tasker and being a waiter for 3 years now helps me hone in on that ability. I'm not saying I close the professor out completely because I really do listen and think about what the discussion is about. I think that people can do multiple things at a time and be successful at getting those tasks accomplished. Noted, you'll forget small specific details at times, but for the most part the broad topic or task is done. Having a good attention to detail is a very good character trait to master. The professor from the article Attention Literacy wrote, "it's that I want my students to learn that attention is a skill that must be learned, shaped, practiced; this skill must evolve if we are to evolve." Why don't teachers enforce attention a little more? why don't they try and work with the students to get them more engaged in the discussion? An article i read talks about President Obama's note on how distracting social media is in the classroom. That professor found a way to use these attention hogs as a positive tool. 

fact or fiction in these 'Edit Wars'?

     

        Wikipedia has grown to be one of the most used source of information on the web. It has credible information and hey its free! Some professors are hesitant in letting us students use this as a source in academia, but nowadays Wikipedia is the way to go. I know you can go in and edit anything you want and add your own little blurb about any given topic. So I gave it a try and was sorely mistaken by the removal of my one line of text within hours of posting it. I guess there are some editors who revise this content regularly and remove unnecessary information.
    
          One example of a vandalism gone badly and taken a little serious is the Wikipedia biography controversy where an elderly man by the name John_Seigenthaler was hoaxed on by someone editing his page and saying that he was part of the assassination plots of multiple people when in reality he was their friend. This brewed a lot of controversy and helped with the security situation that Wikipedia faces.

      Although the goal is to let anyone edit articles, controversial pages are subject to various levels of protection that restrict editing to confirmed users. Pages are often protected temporarily to thwart vandalism and so-called "edit wars." This article showed me that measures are taken to avoid misleading information. I always wondered why people were allowed to edit stuff when they themselves aren't credible enough to edit the site. apparently you can become an edit member of Wikipedia and have access to fully edit articles. I still think that the information is somewhat skewed, but "though scholarly work suggests that vandalism is generally short-lived" which eases my mind on using this site for papers and research in school.