Class Blogger Reflection

     My Class Blogger experience was pretty good. I noticed that it made me focus more in class and I definitely retained more information because I took notes and basically had to go through everything twice. I focused more on the main points that we went over in class. Most of the class time was taken by the power point and it was pretty monotonous. I basically just brushed over the topics that we covered. I feel if I went more in depth to every point that we covered in the PowerPoint that the class blogger post would have been pretty boring.. I also briefly went over the game we played in class. I could have definitely written a little more about it but I feel like I got the best parts in my post. If I were to cover ever question that we did it would have been lame. I chose two gifs for my blog post. The first one was chosen because it related to the class and I thought it was funny. I chose the second gif because I was salty about not winning the jeopardy game. Being class blogger didn’t really change my perspective of the class. If anything it just made me more alert in class because I knew I had to cover everything we were doing. Overall I think this is a positive experience and maybe now ill pay a little more attention in class even though I’m not the class blogger.

Word Count 250

Class Blogger

     We started with the class blogger from the class and everything went along smoothly. Ms. Lang addressed a few questions and then we quickly moved on.  Ms. Lang goes on to tell us that she has a dream where she says “And We’re” and we respond “Moving on” so we all played along and made her dreams come true. Ms. Lang then asked us to take our MLA handbook so we could start learning how to format and cite properly. We're told that we all need to be focused and that it is going to be “boring and terrible” but she reassured us that if we made it to the game, that we were going to have a great time. She then decided to show off her New Mexican roots and give us a little motivation by saying “Si se puede” (yes we can) for the non so-flo kids. 

     Although the MLA lesson was going to be boring, Ms.Lang recommended that we all buy a handbook because they can be extremely helpful. She even has hers from her freshman writing class.  We then moved on to the lesson and we are told the best way to learn citation is to do citation.  Next on the agenda was a super exciting MLA PowerPoint. The power point was gone through at a very fast pace. The lesson included formatting details like spacing, heading, margins, and font size. Additionally, we went over how to cite properly when given certain situations like not having an author or how to cite depending on the kind of medium you’re using. After finally getting through the PowerPoint we moved on to the game. Teams 2 and 3 were ahead of the pack most of the game and unfortunately team 5 was in the negative for most of the game. Team 2 landed on a daily double and made the rookie mistake of not wagering everything on an easy 10-point question. Unfortunately, final jeopardy got the better of most teams and team 4 came up with the W.  Their prize was ten points of extra credit and some candy. ( BIG WHOOP) :’(

Word count : 356

This is an image of a crashed airplane from San Francisco's International Airport. The picture shows how badly damaged the air craft is because of the crash. It is also trying to show exactly why the plane crashed.  The intended audience could be people wanting to know about causes of airplane crashes or even just weary travelers reading up on accidents. The intended audience most likely has some prior knowledge on flight paths and common airplane behavior because the info graphic leads to charts comparing its path to other flights. Even though anybody is really able to decipher the graphs if they really wanted to. The medium is a photograph. The genre can be considered “Accident Photography”. There isn’t a caption but there are just some letters and numbers shown on the broken plains wing. The style is very formal because its just documenting something that happened. Nothing about the photo shows any visual metaphors.

Path Of San Francisco Crash Shows Plane Was Too Low, Too Slow (INFOGRAPHIC). 2013. Photograph. By Jan Diehm. The Huffington Post, 8 July 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.

ps4 wiki

The Wikipedia article I read was about the play station 4. The article explains how it’s the new generation of consoles and  it compares it to the new Wii or Xbox ONE.  The article then goes on to give a little history about the company and then goes into specifics about the hardware on the gaming console. The article also gives details about their new gaming network and payment system and all the new features that come along with it. In the article I also read about their sales numbers and found it very interesting. 1 million PlayStations were sold in the first day in North America. In the UK it became the best selling console of all time. The one question I have after reading the article is how did the sales compare to those of the new Xbox or Wii. There is a part that talks about IGN comparing the Xbox and ps4 but it doesn’t go very in depth and doesn’t talk about the sales of the two consoles at all.

            The Wikipedia page is very updated since it’s a new console. The last edits to the page were just some small typos and I couldn’t find anything to major.  The article seems very well written and organized. I trust the page because it has over 100 sources, which really validates the article. Nothing is really being disputed in the talk page. The only real updates are when it’s being released in other countries and what the prices are going to be like. There is also more recent information being added like awards the ps4 is winning.

Key Words : Sony Computer Entertainment, eighth generation, Xbox One, Operating system, PlayStation Network, cloud based games, backwards compatibility, E3, PlayStation Plus

Links:

http://web.archive.org/web/20131113162714/http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57612107-94/sony-releases-playstation-app-for-ios-android-users/

http://www.geek.com/games/ps4-runs-modified-version-of-the-freebsd-9-0-operating-system-1559866/

word count :297

Dear Reader

Dear Reader,

            My essay is about my gaming obsession when I was younger. The purpose of my essay is to show you how it changed my development and taught me new things. I want you to be interested in what I’m writing and feel like you’re reading something that isn’t boring and impersonal.

            I decided to choose my topic about gaming because it was the only piece of technology that I could think of that really affected me personally. To plan for my essay I wrote down how gaming affected me in good and bad ways and just elaborated on it. The only decision I really had to make was how my essay was organized. At first I was mixing how gaming affected me negatively and positively in the same paragraph. I then figured out that my essay would flow much better if I separated the two completely so you can really see the difference between my two viewpoints.

            I think having my peers review my paper helped me tremendously. At first I thought I wouldn’t like this process at all. I don’t really like when people read my papers because I’m not confident in my writing skills. The first person to review my paper was one of my roommates so I felt that it could be a little bias and the feedback I got maybe could have been better from a stranger. The second time a girl I didn’t know at all read my paper. To my surprise she said she really liked my paper and gave me a lot of good feedback. Overall having my paper reviewed strengthened my paper and also gave me more confidence as a writer.

            Overall I think my paper gives you a more personal feel and you can really see how technology changed the way I grew up. My essay is easy to get through and has personal details that really bring my point across. Hopefully you feel the same.

Thanks,

               Alex Graddon          

Word Count : 330

Third Homework Assignment

When Rosen states "every technology is both an expression of a culture and a potential reformer of it." She is saying that our technology defines and molds our society at any particular time. I would have to agree with her statement. In “People Of The Screen”, Rosen makes it clear that our society is “increasingly distractible, impatient, and convenience-obsessed” (Rosen 21). In our time and age people want things at the snap of their fingers and are becoming increasingly annoyed with any inconvenience. E-books are becoming so popular just for this reason. Everything can be done with just the tip of your finger. Just because the e-books are convenient doesn’t mean every change they’re making to our society is benefiting us. I completely agree with Rosen that these new technologies are making us very distracted. Whenever I’m reading anything on a computer it is very challenging to just stay focused and not wander on to the Internet. Another point Rosen makes is that people want to be in control. The huge boom in gaming clearly shows this. Our society would much rather play a game were you have control of the outcome instead of read a book where you really have no control of what’s happening. Daley and Rosen could probably agree on certain viewpoints but I think their final decisions on digital screens and books are very different. Daley’s viewpoint becomes clear when she states “those who are truly literate in the twenty-first century will be those who learn to both read and write the multimedia language of the screen” (Daley 37). This statement implies that screens are the only viable option in our generation. Rosen would agree that these new technologies can be very helpful and convenient but at the end of the day nothing can compare to an old fashioned book. 

Word Count : 304