Tuesday 9/30

Blog Post of the Day:

What is an infographic? If you don't know, go look it up. Read about it and then in your own words tell me what an infographic is. What do infographics do? How do they work? What makes a really good infographic?

Infographics are visual ways to represent information. They typically do not involve very much reading, and are appealing to the eye. Infographics are used to relay information in a way that catches the eye and attention of the reader. Good infographics look good and get peoples' attention. 

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Monday 9/29

Blog Post of the Day:

Tell me about your Homecoming weekend! If you didn't participate in the Homecoming festivities, what did you do? Share pics!

On Friday I went to the homecoming game, but I left at half-time because the game was a slaughtering and I had to wake up early the next morning. On Saturday morning I was up at 5 in the morning and on my way to Rim Rock for a cross country meet. This course is famous for its large hills, and was ranked in the top 10 for hardest cross country courses in the nation. The race ended at 2 and we were home by 3:30. Once I got home I relaxed for a bit before getting ready for homecoming. My group went to California Pizza Kitchen before going to the dance. It was fun until a kid dislocated his knee and required an ambulance to carry him out on a stretcher (is that necessary?). Then we went back to Lindsay Davis's house and played Cards Against Humanity. 

Wednesday 9/24

Blog Post of the Day:

Imagine Mr. Bacon has asked you to suggest one way of improving Blue Valley High School to make it a better place for students. Think about the changes that are needed at your school. Pick one change you feel would really make a difference and explain what it is and why you'd make the change.

I think that we should change the way that transcripts are obtained. As of now, students have to request to see their transcripts through their counselor, and sending transcripts to colleges is just as big of a hassle. It would be nice if a student could access his or her transcript from any place and at any time. This would help them monitor their progress and figure out how they stand academically. I do not know if there are regulations on this sort of thing, but it should be changed. 

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Tuesday 9/23

Blog Post of the Day:

What are your favorite apps on your phone or tablet? Why?

I have many different categories of apps on my phone. Some are games, some are tools, others are media, and there are others too. The game I play the most is Flappy Golf. It is fun because it is very challenging, and there many different levels so that you can play for a long time. My favorite media app is my Reddit app. It always provides me with good-quality entertainment and a case of the giggles. My favorite tool on my phone is my Google Drive app. It lets me transfer my phone's content to my computer as well as store documents and images I might need later.       

Monday 9/22

Blog Post of the Day:

What is email? When do you use email in your own personal life? List reasons and ways that people use email. What do you know about "email etiquette"?

Email is electronic messaging. It is not quite as quick as instant messaging or texting, but is typically more formal. Files can also be sent over email that can not be sent over other forms of communication. In my daily life, my email is typically only used by companies to send me spam. Facebook tells me I got poked again, twitter tells me I got one favorite on my tweet, and groupon sends me new deals (which sometimes are actually interesting). Email etiquette is when formal emails are sent between you and an important person. Those emails are formatted almost like letters, as if the recipient was your pen pal. You must articulate professionally and use big words to sound fancy. 

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Friday 9/19

Blog Post of the Day:

Now that you've been in Emerging Technology for several weeks... what do you think? Do you think the web tools (Drive, Evernote, Bubbl, etc.) are helpful to you? Do you think they will be helpful throughout high school or even college? Explain.

I have enjoyed the curriculum thus far in this class. The blogging part of this class is the most new to me. I also do not know how the blogging will help me much in the future, but that's okay. As for the rest of the web tools that we have used so far, a lot of them I was at least partially familiar with before the class. I was especially familiar with Google Drive and the document creators that went with it, and I used them fairly regularly. Evernote is a great tool that I had known about but had not dove into until this class. Those types of tools will be helpful in the future. I have already used it for other projects.

Wednesday 9/17

Blog Post of the Day:

Do you enjoy writing? When do you enjoy it? What kind of writing do you enjoy? Why do you think the ability to write is so important no matter what kind of writing it is? Give an example that you enjoyed writing or hated writing. Why?

Do I enjoy writing? Not really. The only time I enjoy writing is when I get to completely make things up, and can be as creative as I want. Even then, it is still not my most favorite thing to do. I consider myself more of a math and science type guy. That being said, I don't consider myself a bad writer. I have done well in previous English classes, and grammar comes naturally to me. Writing skills are important because often times your first means of communication with a business or individual you want to associate with might be through an email or letter. It is important to get a good impression across, which is hard to do with poor writing skills. I do not like writing long essays (APELA). My hand develops cramps. Thanks for reading this.

Tuesday 9/16

Blog Post of the Day:

Reflect on this quote. Give an example of a time in your life that this might have been the case.

Any quote that is from the man on a hunna dolla bill is important enough to be analyzed. What Ben is saying here is that when you do not plan for a future task, you will not be successful in that task. This takes me back to sophomore year. AP European History was my first AP class ever. When the AP exam rolled around that May, I realized that I was unprepared for the test. I ended up with a 3. Junior year I was enrolled in two more AP tests, and with proper preparation I got 4s on both of them. I prepared better, so my performance was more successful.

Monday 9/15

Blog Post of the Day:
What did you do this weekend? Share pictures if you have them!

From the class conversation earlier today, I gathered that you are a huge Destiny fan. So while I did other things, like take the ACT, watch football, and stain a chair, this is going to be about my Destiny experiences over the weekend. First things first. My character is a warlock, and he is level 11 now. He was a level 9 before the weekend, but due to some missions on the moon, I was able to earn some XP. I got some sweet new weapons, and now I can deal 96 damage with my scout rifle. The world needs saving.

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Friday 9/12

Blog Post of the Day:

What is the importance of research? Why do you need to know how to research? What have you learned in high school about researching topics and finding quality resources? Have you had a helpful teacher that has taught you to research? Explain.

Research is important for educating oneself about a topic. How can one expect to learn about something well enough to create rational opinions that can be presented to others without research? Research extends beyond just the background knowledge, and delves into some more advanced stuff. To research well, one must be sure to obtain information from a variety of sources, this reduces the chance of having bias in your research. I once had a teacher named Ms. Edwards who taught me how to research. She explained that wikipedia does not constitute as a reliable source for in depth research. To this day, I still use wikipedia. The end.

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Global Issue Selection

For my global issue in Emerging Technology I have chosen water shortage. I have begun researching the issue and you can find my research questions here.

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Wednesday 9/10

Blog Post of the Day:

This is a very tricky question to answer. Not because I do not have the foresight to predict what life will be like in 60 years, but because children won't exist in 60 years. By that time, robots will have taken over. The only humans left will be those who survived the robot revolution and have been turned into slaves. Kids can't survive the robot revolution. They're just kids. I would be grinding out my final days in robot factories creating more oppressors against my will. That's just life though.

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Tuesday 9/9

Blog Post of the Day:

Tell me about the global issue you selected. What do you already know about the issue? What are you looking forward to learning about it? Explain.

The global issue I selected was the world's water shortage. As our population continues to grow exponentially, problems have arisen surrounding who gets access to the world's water. Less than 2% of Earth's water is usable for consumption, bathing, agriculture, and other things. Today, there are already problems with poorer countries not having access to appropriate amounts of usable water. Even in America, states like California have had to begin regulating water usage. As population grows, more water will be needed to support it, but where we will get this water I don't know. I picked this topic because it is a very serious issue that for some reason nobody seems to talk about. We can take long showers and flush the toilet and drink straight from the tap whenever we please. We take water for granted and it is very possible that within our lifetimes we will not have this luxury. 

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Monday 9/8

Blog Post of the Day:
What did you do this weekend? Share pictures if you have them!

This weekend I went up to Omaha with my family. For father's day (long, long ago), we bought my dad tickets to the History of the Eagles concert. The Eagles have been his favorite band for a long time. While we were in Omaha, we also went to the Omaha Zoo. My sister's boyfriend lives in Omaha so we allowed him to point us out to the best restaurants and hangouts downtown. We went to a really good Italian place and I got pasta with chicken and pesto.

Friday 9/5

Blog Post of the Day:

Imaginary Report Card:

Finding incredible deals on Groupon: A+
Keeping up with tech news: A
Making my own food: Ramen
Writing my own grades: A+
Using spoons to eat cereal: A+
Starwhal: A-

Wednesday 9/3

Blog Post of the Day:

Yesterday I asked you to "think differently" and push yourself to be uncommon with your PSA project using Google Slides. Why do you think I asked you to do that? What is the point? Why not just use bullets and headers? Explain

     There are two main reasons that I believe you asked us to diverge from a typical PowerPoint format. The first one is that this is a technology class, and we should be pushed outside our limits to learn how to use programs like Google Slides to their full extent. We should strive to master each and every function of these programs so that we can create whatever type of project we want. Anyone can make a series of slides with a couple of words and maybe a few pictures. Secondly, while there is nothing wrong with that type of approach, it is not suitable for every type of project. A PSA is meant to be emotional and attention-grabbing, and to do that, bullets and headers just don't cut it. Presentations like these cannot bore the audience if they are going to be successful in getting their message across. 

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Smoking PSA

Tuesday 9/2

Blog Post of the Day:
Tell me all about your Labor Day weekend. What did you do? Include photos!

     I had a very busy Labor Day weekend. It started on Friday night when I went to the Goo Goo Dolls concert; Chris Daughtry opened for them. I have listened to the Goo Goo Dolls ever since I was little because my dad always listened to them when I was a kid. The concert was amazing. On Saturday I went to Worlds of Fun with my girlfriend and a couple of her friends from a camp that she goes to. Besides riding plenty of roller coasters and sitting in the wave pool, we played a bunch of games. It was dollar day, so most of the games were only $1 to play. I failed the first couple game but heroically redeemed myself and won like 3 games in a row. I even popped 4 balloons with 3 darts. Winning two prizes at one game? Yes. Sunday and Monday I went down to the lake and chilled out with my friends Jack Snow and Dane Holland. 

Pictures will come. But the WiFi at the school hates children so I am unable to post them at this moment.