Week 8

Working collaboratively online has allowed online learning to be taken to the next step. Over the years I have taken many online classes and working together with other students online has brought the classes together even though the students can’t be seen face to face with each other. I think working collaboratively can be both a good and bad thing. When you have good heard-working class mates then of course it is a good thing because everything goes smoothly and presents nicely. On the other hand, it can also be a negative thing when you end up with group members who don’t put forth their part of participation to the project. I have also been in situations like the class presentation where the entire class contributes to the entire assignment.

During high school I took many online classes through what we called NCVPS, or North Carolina Virtual Public Schools. For a couple of the class vocabulary was a weekly thing. The teachers would arrange a document with tables for the students to fill up. Each vocabulary word was listed on the left, and to the right there were places for us to define the word, use it in a sentence, and other things contributing to the word itself. As for me and my classmates we were to pick out a certain number of words and contribute to the assignment. The good thing was, was when we contributed to our part, we were not penalized for the empty slots or the students who didn’t do it. During my first semester here at LR, I was first introduced to Google Drive. In this class the teacher always depended on us to use Google Drive for almost every assignment we had. I think collaborative learning can be a great advancement with online learning. Although, it is nice to see people think for themselves with their assignments, contributing to an assignment collaboratively lets each of the students get to know the other class mates a little better. We can also learn from each other based on how the other students contribute their work to the assignment.

Working collaborative learning can be seen eve in the public school system. My mom is a teacher and a lot of them times the principal or whoever sends it out will put out a document for all the faculty to contribute to and resubmit so everyone can see the contribution to the file. Even in their server they can all work collaboratively in the files pertaining to their student’s information. It is something that can be used in very beneficially so not all the work is left to one person.

Week 7

I think photo editing can be both a good thing and a bad thing. There are times when it can be beneficial and other times it can be deceiving and/or hurtful. Photo editing is appropriate when it comes to touching up photos for a good reason like acne or a visible scar. I don’t find photo editing appropriate when others find it funny to crop people into ugly situations or mean photos. It’s also not appropriate and untruthful when magazines photo edit actresses and actors to look even better than they already do. Sometimes, they are editing, painted, and tightened so much They edit photos to make these people look absolutely flawless which does effect society in a negative way by giving us an unrealistic idea of what a man or woman is supposed to look like. Photo editing has improved so much to where we do actually believe what we see because the people all over the magazine covers have been altered and cropped their whole life by computers which sends the message of “perfection” to the rest of the world. Even when you have family portraits made by professional photographers they give you the option to do touch ups to your photos to give them a more enhanced look so they say. When we had pictures made for our church directory, they air brushed our faces so much you would think we had Botox injected into every line and wrinkle on our faces possible.

 

I chose this photo from http://static2.stuff.co.nz/1256856973/337/3015337.jpg because it clearly shows on the right what photo editing in photo shop can do to a photo of a person. They have basically performed plastic surgery over a computer. They gave this woman a completely different look and made her look 10 to 20 years younger and they even gave her a little bit of a haircut. If they were to publish this photo publically, then it would be a bold faced lie. The woman on the right is not even the same woman as the one on the left anymore. I chose this photo because it is a perfect example of just how untruthful photo shopping can be to the human eye. If we were to just see the photo on the left we would think that is how she originally looks, which is then once again not true. It goes along with blog perfectly because I claimed earlier in my post that photo editing can be deceiving and untruthful when magazines alter a person’s look just to make them look as if they are flawless and perfect.

 

Week 6

Sometimes technology and I do not get along at all, but there are also times in which it could be my best friend. This past year has been one of the worst years I could have possibly had with an experience with technology. You would think buying a new computer for college would be a good thing…wrong! The computer I am actually on right now is on its third hard drive in less than 6 months. After a huge battle with Geek Squad through Best Buy, Acer, and every other company we came in contact with, the computer is finally fixed, (for now).

For college, I bought an Acer Aspire R7 so I could get the feel of a tablet and a laptop for college. When you buy a brand new computer of course you’re not going to think so many problems could come out of it. It came with Windows 8 already on the computer, but shortly after using it a new update for Windows 8.1 come out on the market for us Windows 8 users to upgrade too. So, like every other computer update, I follow instructions and load it on to my computer. Biggest mistake ever! Instead of the “black screen of death” mine was purple and would not allow me to log on through the new Windows 8.1 to get to my home screen. My best friend’s brother works for Geek Squad and he was able behind Windows 8.1 and save all of my homework I had due that week including all my photos and other documents. I was so thankful but then again there went my computer for a good 2-3 weeks so it could be sent off to be fixed by Acer.

Next time around, it was not Windows 8.1 that screwed everything up, the motherboard in the computer went bad. Every time I unplugged my computer it would shut off and delete everything I was working on. Sometimes the screen would just cut off for a while then randomly come back on. It was a complete mess, but back to Geek Squad we went. After another 2-3 weeks of being shipped off to Acer, I finally had my computer back.

Third time is the charm don’t you think, but really now it’s fixed. After the hard drive once again went bad in this computer, we were done with dealing with Geek Squad. Acer received a call from us and was more than happy to help us out. Little did we know, Acer had no record of Best Buy ever sending them my computer to be fixed. They said that the Geek Squad may have said they were sending it back to Acer but just sent them place where they replaced it with a used hard drive. I was furious, but they apologized for all the trouble with the computer and extended my warranty for it. I was very pleased with their service but very disappointed in their quality of computer. I am using it for now, but hopefully will be upgrading to a Mac soon. I am just thankful that this computer actually works now with its brand new hard drive and hasn’t given me any trouble since. (Knock on wood!)