Foreign Language App

This article shows an app for the smartphone that instantly translates a language for you. All you have to do is aim the camera at a word or phrase and the phone will automatically translate it for you. There is a video demonstration of the app in the article. There are some people who think that we are becoming too dependent on smartphones and a lot of people won't bother taking a foreign language anymore because there is an app that translates for you. I disagree with this. There are a lot of people who are dependent onsmartphones but this app won't stop people from taking foreign language. This app can come in handy when translating words or phrases, but how is it going to help when you have to talk to another person. It can't translate what everyone else is saying. So even though there is an app that can translate stuff for you, there will still be a bunch of people who want to take a foreign language because they want to be able to speak to a native fluently without having to rely on another source for help. Other than this, I think the app is extremely useful!

-Akash Patel

Open Zine

I haven't blogged at all this past week and this is due to the fact that we have been working on a magazine this week. I can just say right now that my magazine is short and horrible. I feel like I have spent most of this week being frustrated and wasting time. The first day went alright. I got my cover page done and I got some information for my first page. The next day is where everything went downhill. I couldn't log in for 30 mins! I only have 45 mins to work on my magazine and I spent more than half of it just trying to log in. After I logged in, it said I didn't have any magazines. I know I didn't publish it, but why wasn't it showing up on my works in progress section. So I started to work on another magazine and when class ended I saved it and hit save later. After I saved this one, my old one came back up in my works in progress. At this point I was ready to flip a table over, but I let it go and I was ready to work on it the next day. After I finished a page, I realized that you can only have a cover and ONE page. What kind of magazine has one page!? After all of my frustration I decided to give up because now my weeks worth of work is just a waste. I published my first one just so everyone can see what I have been working on, but I think I'm done with that site because I can't take the frustration. Back to blogging for me.

Magazine: http://www.openzine.com/aspx/Zine.aspx?IssueID=15544

-Akash Patel

Passion

Our assignment for this week is to find a passion and promote it. I found this to be extremely difficult. I picked video games for a topic because it's my way to have fun ans stay connected with my friends even when we're physically far apart. The best thing about video games is that it's a way you can meet new people and communicate with people all around the world. After thinking of this topic, it took me a while to figure out how to promote this. I came across Game Battles, which a site dedicated to competitive gaming. This is a great way to challenge players that you have never met before. There are thousands of people on this site and there are also thousands of teams that you can challenge. You can join a team of people that is a thousand miles away. This is how I'm going to promote my passion because I really don't know what else I could do for a passion. It isn't easy to find ONE passion and it definitely isn't easy promoting it, but this assignment sounds interesting and I can't wait to see where it goes.

-Akash Patel

Doing What We're Told

All teachers tell their students what to do, but only a few teachers have a reason why.Every student has to do specific things in their class in order to pass. Some of it seems pointless. I know that every student wonders why they have to do things in a class that are completely useless. Some people are graded on how much they talk in class. I think this is horrible. Some students don't have anything to throw out into a classroom. I know that when I'm in a class that I do not like, I don't talk much because I don't like talking about things I'm not interested in. This goes back to my previous posts. We should just take classes that interest us rather than taking classes that seem useless to us.

-Akash Patel

Laptops and IPads for next year

Laptops and IPads sound great for next year. They can help get information faster and it can help students be more organized. All notes and files for each class can be organized into specific folders so nothing would ever be lost. The only problem could be server problems. At BHS we have had numerous times where our server would just crash and we were left with no riverdeep folders all day. This could happen while we have laptops. Also, the number of people connected to the wifi network could slow it down significantly. However, we do have wifi ports all over the school and I think we are ready to handle any problem we face. This is a great idea and it would be great for students.

-Akash Patel

Useful Classroom Tool

I think wallwisher is the most useful tool out of all of the ones listed on ever web 2.0 tool list because it can benefit both teachers and students. Many students forget test dates and deadlines and other important dates so if the teacher had a wallwisher, they could post all of this important information on the wall for everyone to see. Any questions about subject material could also be asked and posted on the wall for everyone to see. Wallwisher can be great just for reminders but it can also be a learning experience because some people will ask questions that you wouldn't even think about asking. The wallwisher can also be useful for teachers. I know a bunch of teachers who can't remember important dates so this tool can be used to keep teachers on the right track. Overall, I would have to say this is the most useful tool for any teacher to use because it can help the class be more organized.

-Akash Patel

"Pencil Ban" - What's Next

I have heard some crazy things in my lifetime but banning pencils has to be the craziest thing I have ever heard. This teacher seems misguided in what he's trying to prevent. I'm not trashing his prefession or abilities in any way. I am just saying that banning pencils seems a little bizarre. Pencils can be used as weapons, but so can a lot of other things. A classroom can be deadly if you actually look at it. Pencils are the least of the worries when it comes to danger. Everyone needs a pencil, especially a person who loves to write in their free time. If someone bans pencils, they ban a writer's ability to follow their hearts and passion. The goal of a school is to help students follow their passions to a successful career. Aren't they stopping writers from doing this by banning pencils? I think the teachers just got a little carried away with this. I mean what's next, banning costumes on Halloween because they "might cause us danger" or because the accessories "can be used as weapons." Or should we start eating without forks, knives, and spoons because they can cause serious damage in a restaurant. School without pencils is like a eating soup with a knife. It just seems silly to ban pencils in a school to me.

-Akash Patel

"Why Does School Have To Be So Boring?" Response

Why exactly does school have to be boring? School is just the same thing over and over again. We listen to teachers, take notes and then take a test on the material we "learn." After the test, most students forget what they learned because they feel like they're done with it. I don't think anyone is really learning. I just think they memorize things long enough to pass the class. So what does the honor roll mean? It just means a student is able to memorize well. There are students that don't make honor roll but they are able to do well in the classes that apply to their future careers. There might be a class that a student does not need in the future and that's the reason they can't make honor roll. Honor roll just means you're good at knowing what the school wants you to know. If you miss the honor roll by a few grades, you are good at what you are passionate about. If you don't make honor roll by a long shot, you aren't trying to do well in any of the classes. We need to start learning. And if we want to do this we have to follow what we're passionate about.

Why Does School Have To Be So Boring? - Link

-Akash Patel

"Should we be good at school" response

Schools have always been taught the same way, but why is it that we can't remember half the stuff we learned throughout our school career? I can't remember anything that I learned in elementary school or middle school right now. Why are schools still teaching us this way if almost all of us can't remember anything from previous years? I think blogging and social media can help with learning because they supply us with resources for certain subjects.This article addresses this problem. I think we should be taught in a new way. We need to be able to learn something in a way that is memorable. If something crazy happens, I know I'll remember it in the future because something bizarre will always stay stuck in my head. When we are able to to make learning fun and exciting, we wont have to worry about students forgetting how to do things. Students will definitely remember how to do a problem if there is something fun about it. Even in calculus we made finding derivatives somewhat fun by making catchy phrases. If calculus can be fun, anything can be fun. Learning isn't supposed to be about knowing things for a short period of time. It's about getting some sort of information and keeping for as long as you live. If you forget how to do something after such a short period of time, you didn't actually learn it. All we have to do is change this boring way of schooling and learning.

Link to blog 4 edu article: http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/

-Akash Patel

AP Statistics

AP statistics is something we have never seen at this school. I think it would be a great class. There are a lot of people who don't take AP Calculus because they think it will be too hard so they tak regular Statistics and regular Calculus. Statistics is too easy for some students and they want to take a class that is a little more challenging for them. AP statistics would be a great class for the people who don't want to take AP Calculus or the people who just want another challenging math course. Mr. McNeill found an ebook that shows what AP Statistics would be like. This book looks pretty interesting and I recommend checking it out because this class would be a great addition to our school.

-Akash Patel

"10 iPad Apps for the Classroom" Response

Having a iPad for classes would also make class easier for the students here. This article shos the useful apps that a student could use in a classroom. The one that really caught my eye was the calculator. This specific calculator included the trigonometry functions and their inverses. I have seen many students who use calculators without these functions because they don't want to throw money down for an expensive ti-84 or 89. This calculator will definitely be useful for students taking calculus or pre-calculus. The science apps were also very useful. The english reader app would make looking at books easier for all the students. Also, the note taking app will definitely help students keep track of notes rather than losing them in their notebooks. I definitely think we should have iPads in the school because it would make the lives of our students easier and it would help them stay organized.

-Akash Patel

"History of the Jetpack"

This was one of my favorite things to look at so far in this class. The jetpack has been something that has amazed me all throughout my childhood. Toy Story was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. The fact that Buzz had a jetpack made me want one. (Even though he couldn't actually fly until he got the rocket strapped to his back at the end of the first movie.) Toy story was actually listed in the "Visual history of the jetpack." It amazed me that we have been able to make a jetpack so early. Older versions of the jetpack have been modified to the modern version. This one can let a person fly for thirty mins! There are still going to be field tests on this jetpack but it is still amazing how we have the ability to fly the way we have always dreamed of. I highly recommend checking this out.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2030642_2209302_last,00.html

-Akash Patel

"Morning, Friends. Who Can I Help Today?" Response

I like the concept of helping other people and doing it out of kindness rather than for fame. This person in the article was helping whoever he could. He would always put this same message up every morning on Twitter and help out whoever he needed to. I thought that was amazinng. There are really people out there who need help with things or who really need someone to talk to. Having the option to get help from a random person who is willing to listen and throw out support is just awesome. I know if I ever needed help with something, someone like this would come in handy. This is similar to the man who gave out his phone number on youtube. There were people constantly calling him to talk about their problems. People just need others to listen so if there is someone online who is ready to listen and help, a lot of people will jump at the opportunity to talk to them.

Link: Morning, Friends. Who Can I Help Today?

-Akash Patel

'The Objective of Education Is Learning, Not Teaching' Response

I completely agree with this article. I know that I forget a lot of things that I learned in school. Every year I have to review what I learned before in order to pass the class they I am currently in. Then there's the things that I know without even trying. Growing up, video games have been something I have been passionate about. I can answer a lot of questions about games and game consoles and I can keep a conversation going about game without even trying but when somebody tries to talk about a school subject, I have to think about the right thing to say. We should focus more on coming up with ways to teach students in a way that they will remember the material rather than throwing it at them and making them remember it for a year. This is a great article and I recommend checking it out.

Link: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2032

-Akash Patel

"Blogger's Cafe" Response

I think the blogger cafe is a great idea because it gives bloggers a place to just talk and throw out ideas. There are many blogs out there that have great ideas, but people don't realize it. By copnnecting a group of bloggers, we have the option to see the thoughts and opinions of different people who share similar passions. So far this idea seems great. I would love to participate in a group discussion where bloggers get to share ideas and just talk for fun. There are chances that a person could get embarasses as this post pointed out, but we as bloggers should be respectful of other people's posts because we wouldn't want anyone laughing at our posts and saying horrible things about them. Trashing someone's post is like trashing somebody's entire train of thought. As long as everyone stays respectful, this cafe would be great.

Link: http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2010/11/november-bloggers-cafe-update.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thenerdyteacher%2FIZyg+%28The+Nerdy+Teacher%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

-Akash Patel

Why do I have to study [Fill in the Blank]?

Link: http://learningandlaptops.blogspot.com/2010/11/why-do-i-have-to-study-fill-in-blank.html

"Why do I have to study [Fill in the Blank]?" Response

This article was fairly interesting because I too think some classes are pointless to take. I think we should all be forced to take all these classes earlier so we get a feel for what we want but when we reach high school we should be able to pick our own classes. This way we can do what we want to prepare for our future careers. Some people don't need english or spanish or history for their future job. Other people really need these classes. I want to go into computer science and game design because I am a video game nerd. I would love to be able to do some programming and design for the games I love to play. I just think I would need an english class for programming because in most games, there is slang and grammatically incorrect phrases. Some people think history is useless but I think we could use history to make a game that reflects some history in it. Growing up, I always thought Genghis Khan was an amazing ruler. His violent ways aren't something I support but his tactics to conquer were amazing. A game that gives you a choice on whether you want to be good or bad gives you more options. That's how a game called Fable works. It gives you a character and a story line but you choose the paths that you take in your journey. History can easily be incorporated into programming. There are many classes that people don't need so I think students should be able to pick the classes that apply to their future career. But if there are people who don't know what they want to be, they should be given some options by the school so they can find their passion.

-Akash Patel

Classroom Ideas

Next year everyone will have laptops but how will everyone be seated. I think it should change everyday. I like how our web 2.0 class does it. We have the freedom to take a laptop and sit anywhere we want in the library. We have also sayt in the lobby and done work. I just think we should be able to do work wherever we want because we can all stay connected through the laptops.

-Akash Patel

Long Period Today

We were supposed to spend class today working on any little project we wanted to so I spent time on my web site. I ended up adding a wiki to the page to make it easier for everyone to get their thoughts up. The only thing is that you have to sign up to use the wiki. It's all free but it can be a hassle. The website is basically for a group of friends and it's how we stay connected and up to date with our plans. Here is the link to the website: http://www.theadrenalinearmy.webs.com/ If anyone has any other tips or ideas please let me know!

-Akash Patel

"Same Thing?" Response

I think having laptops and hand-helds would make learning a lot easier. When someone has trouble with a subject, they can look up tips and tutorials online. This makes learning so much easier. I know that when i don't get something in class, I go home and look up how to do it online because it just makes everything easier. Every teacher wonders why their students don't get a topic that they find easy. It's because learning it isn't always fun. If there are fun ways to learn online, why don't we use them? Having laptops in class would be a great idea.

-Akash Patel

Live Binder

There have been many times where I've had a bunch of documents that were all over the place. This website is basically an online binder that helps you organize different documents. It's a lot better than just organizing everything into separate folders because everything is right in front of you. All you have to do is organize everything into tabs and then everything is a click away. This was something new that I thought would help some of the students who might need help with organization.

Link: http://livebinders.com/

-Akash Patel

Divergent Thinking

I think divergent thinking is extremely important. Everyone learns differently. I said this in a post earlier. Why are we all taught the same way? This video brought up something new too. it said that people in the same age group don't necessarily learn the same way. Some people learn more easily than others even if they are of the same age group. People shouldn't be forced to follow a schedule or service. They should be able to learn at a pace that suits them. I took a VHS course. I was given due dates and deadlines but they weren't fixed. I was able to pass in the work when it was completed. This made it easier for me to learn because I could take my time and learn at a steady pace. There were other students in the class that were both ahead of me or behind me. it didn't matter because by the end of the year, we all learned the same thing. It was just spaced out differently. The best part about this was that even with the differences in learning time, we were all able to learn what w needed to for the AP exam. I just think we should be able to learn at a pace thats suits us rather than a pace that everyone else learns at.

-Akash Patel

EasyBib

Many high school students need to use a citation maker to make a bibliography for their papers and projects. However, different teachers require different styles of citing. This site was very useful for every class I could think of. I needed all of these different styles in the past and I really wish I had this tool earlier. This is definitely the most useful tool out of the list of we 2.0 tools.

-Akash Patel

"Joel Burns Tells Gay Teens It Gets Better" Response

This school lost many students to bullying and harassment. We are lucky here at Burlington because we haven't lost any students at all to bullying or harassment. This video was extremely sad. Dozens of kids were just killing themselves because they couldn't take the pain everyone was giving them. Those lives could have been saved if people would realize how much words can hurt. Just because you can brush away harsh words doesn't mean everyone else can. Some people can only take so little. Everyone needs to know how much words hurt because even one harsh word can cause a death. We can save the lives of many students if we just think before we speak.

-Akash Patel

Bullying and Harassment

The presentation yesterday about bullying problems was pretty interesting. I though I would blog about it because a lot of people didn't really care to listen. I noticed a lot of people texting a random answer to the poll to try to get it to "win." They wanted the worst answer to be the winner. Truthfully, I think only a few people out of the entire junior and senior class that was there yesterday would actually get up and do something if they saw someone bullying another. It is hard to make a statement. It's not easy to get up and say something about bullying, but it is important. People need to get up and say something about harassment and bullying. We can't let it happen. In many cases, bullying and harassment leads to the loss of an innocent life. People don't need to die. If you see someone getting bullied, speak up because you could be the one who saves someone's life.

-Akash Patel

My Voki

Get a Voki now!

What I Did in Class Today

I have a math quiz next period on discontinuities so I spent most of my class time looking up how to do them. Mrs. Saxe's page has a bunch of worksheets and notes and page numbers where I can find practice roblems and helpful hints. If anyone needs help with any math problems, she's got the math page to help answer them. She makes even the hardest math problems look easy. There wasn't a lot of PLN building this period, but I got what I needed to pass this quiz next period!

Mrs. Saxe's page: www.burlington.mec.edu/~saxe

-Akash Patel

Students' Struggle With Self-Directed Learning

Students have many classes in a day. Some of them are just looking for a break so when they are presented with free time to work, they usually use the time to just take a break. There are people who enjoy Self-Directed learning because they can space out their own work. However, there are other people who won't do their work until they are told they have to do it for a certain reason. I don't think everyone struggles with self-directed learing. I just think they want a break from the hard work they have to put into other classes. When a student has a choice between work and play, most of them will choose play. This is why it'so hard for some students to stay focused during this class. They have an opportunity to play games so they are going to take it.

-Akash Patel

"Kids’ privacy safeguards in social networks are lacking, survey says" response

Privacy is important, but technology is way more powerful now than it was before. We are able to connect with many different people. Privacy isn't really a problem unless a person abuses the power of technology. It all depends on how a device or tool is used. If you do the right thing with your information online, you don't have to worry about privacy problems, but if you say horrible things and act out of hand, your private information could be used against you. Everything comes down to personal behavior. If you behave properly, you shouldn't have a problem with your privacy, but if you misbehave, you're bound to have problems.

Link: http://seerpress.com/kids%E2%80%99-privacy-safeguards-in-social-networks-are-lacking-survey-says/9400/

-Akash Patel

"A Web 2.0 Class: Students Learn 21st Century Skills, Collaboration, and Digital Citizenship" Response

This article was fun to read. It is great to see how everyone is recognizing the connections we make with other students. I think everyone should connect with a student from somewhere else other than their home town. It's fun to meet new people who live in a different society. Learning about different people and their homes is always interesting and fun. I personally loved the shout out in this article and I like the fact that this class is being recognized. Web 2.0 is a fun class and everyone needs to try it out. Builing a PLN starts off slow, but as time goes on, it starts to get really fun.

Link to article: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/web-20-21st-century-skills-collaboration-digital-citizenship

-Akash Patel

How to get more followers and pageviews.

Getting followers and page views is something that might make a person's mind go crazy. I looked around online and everyone seemed to fall into peer pressure. A lot of answers said to write about what the people like. There has to be some people out there who likes what you like. Don't write about something that you have no interest in just to get followers. When you write about what you like, your posts will come out more interesting and more people will want to view them. Stay focused on what you like and if you really want to spread the qord, use the online tools! Put the link to your blog up on facebook, twitter, myspace or whatever you want. Word gets around quickly about everything. How do you think rumors get around? Your blog will catch the eye of somebody put there and they can help spread the word too. My rule of life is "Patience is the key." Don't get angry about anything, just give the blog some time.

-Akash Patel

What's your learning style?

Find out your learning style! - This site seemed reallly interesting. It's true that we all learn differently, so why are we all taught the same way? Is it fair that a person who does well by hearing and not seeing does good on a test because the teacher lectured all class while the student who does well by seeing not hearing does horrible? Everyone is different so we can't all be taught the same way. This site was cool because it shows your way of learning and how you should plan your study routine.

-Akash Patel

Twitter

Twitter is a fun tool. It can just be confusing at times and it can be hard to follow. It is a very useful tool and it is anexcellent way of displaying your thoughts and starting group conversations. Most people prefer facebook over twitter because everyone could start a "group" and start discussions in a group. This, in my opinion, is better than twitter but I still find twitter useful at times.

-Akash Patel

BHS Library

There are some things in this library that can really make a person want to punch holes in the wall. The main problem is the library sign in. There used to be one laptop with a form that the students had to fill out to get in. This took forever because there were many students who needed the library to use its information and resources to complete work. We now have two laptops with a simpler form. which makes it kindo of faster but not really. Another thing that makes me mad is the fact that the mac lab is closed. We have all of these brand new macs and the lab is always closed. I remember seeing a sign that said VHS class in session in front of the lab. I took VHS! I know what VHS is. It's not like a real class is happening where you see a teacher in a classroom and you take notes. You get a list of things that need to be accomplished by the end of the week and most of it is book work that takes about an hour. I took AP Computer Science in VHS so if it only takes me an hour to complete AP work, the honors students shouldnt be having any problems completing the work. After I finished my work I would treat VHS period like a study. I guarantee you that these students are done with their work by the middle of the week. There is no reason to close the mac lab for VHS, because there are students who really need those computers.

-Akash Patel

"American schools lax on cheating" Response

Cheating is definitely a problem. But I don't think people think about why a person would want to cheat. People don't realize what some tests are. A lot of them are just memorizing. Nobody will learn from memorizing everything. Some tests that we take involve us memorizing the answers on a review sheet or memorizing a list of terms. These are the tests people cheat on. When it comes to applying concepts to problems, there is almost no way of cheating because you have to come up with the answer yourself. Many students don't want to spend hours trying to memorize a giant list of things so they simply make a cheat sheet with everything on it. It saves time for them but they don't think of the consequences. The article does support its argument of why cheating is bad and wrong, but it doesn't try to explain the reason for everyone's cheating. So I will. Memorizing Tests = cheating 95% of the time. Non-memorizing tests = no cheating.

-Akash Patel

A Better Way of Communicating

Everyone always talks about Skype and how it is so great to be able to call a person through the internet, but I personally don't use skype. I use a tool known as ooVoo. It is almost exactly like skype except for the fact that with ooVoo you can do a six way video call instead of the one to one call with Skype. You do have to make an account but it is all free and definitely better than Skype.

-Akash Patel

What Exactly is a PLN?

I've been looking at a bunch of different sites, trying to figure out what a PLN is exactly. I noticed billions of different answers because a PLN can't really be defined. It stands for PERSONAL Learning Network so a PLN is your PERSONAL way of learning. This can be done in many different ways. Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, Skype and many other online tools can help you connect with other people and set up a network where you can all share ideas. It's all about figuring out a common interest and working with each other. When you find a network that interests you, you can discover new ways of learning. A PLN is special in that it is different for everyone. You just have to figure out how you learn.

-Akash Patel

Contact Info

Just though I would throw some of my contact info out there:

wickedcheesy7@gmail.com

AIM: WickedCheesy7

You can basically guess my username for everything.

-Akash Patel

My Website

My website is making some progress. I just started making it yesterday and it has come a long way. I won't post the link to it just yet because it looks kinda cheesy, but I'm wicked cheesy so no surprise there. I spent a lot of my class time working on this site and hopefully I'll get it done soon. Its basically a site made to show the stupid things me and friends do to have fun. If there's anything that anyone would like to add to the site, just let me know. I need some suggestions so help me out guys.

-Akash Patel

Class Today

At the beginning of class, I checked out my blog and saw that Julia from Van Meter commented on it so I went back and commented on her blog. Then I looked at some of the other blogs in the class and noticed that a lot of them haven't been updated recently. After looking at the class blogs I went to check out my other blogs. I spent a lot of time on this one blog about a video game. I posted a link to it on our facebook page. I also spent some time on my website www.theadrenalinearmy.webs.com. It's a site I made for our video gaming group in case there is an upcoming tournament in town. There isn't much on there yet, but I just made it recently. That was basically my class for today.

-Akash Patel

Halo Blog

Just a couple weeks ago a new game came out called Halo Reach. This game has been amazing. It is a fun game for the Xbox 360 that anyone who likes gaming would enjoy. This site has a bunch of information and blogs on it. I have been following it even before the game came out to keep track of the game. It is www.bungie.net. Bungie is Halo's creator. They have amazing games and they care a lot about the community so some of the things in the game were created from the ideas on the site forums/blogs. I recommend this site to all gamers and Halo fans.

-Akash Patel

Note: The most recent blog post is in the forums section and its about glitches in the game so far.

The Student PLN Connect

Link: http://thestudentplnconnect.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Miller's post was a fun one to read. It is cool too see students connect and communicate with people that are thousands of miles away. As I started to go further int her writing, I wanted to connect with more people too. So i went on and checked out the blogs of these Van Meter students.I checked out all of the blog and commented on Marcus' and Julia's blog. I hope they succeed with their PLN and I hope to stay connected because it is a lot of fun to connect with other students.

-Akash Patel

"School for Hackers" Response

This was a fun article to read. Being able to build robots that do all sorts of things has always fascinated me. These robots that these kids in Detroit are building can saw things inhalf, deal cards for a gameof blackjack, and even sort bottles into bins based on what they are made of. I wish I had oppurtunities like these. We do have a robotics club, but the robots we build only play a variation of soccer. It would be amazing if we had the materials to make robots that could race each other or even fight each other. Something other than our ordinary soccer robot would be fun. These kids have an amazing oppurtunity and it would be amazing to be able to do activities such as these.

-Akash Patel

PLN

The idea of a personal learning network is pretty cool. Having a bunch of followers who share ideas and opinions over a blog is awesome. I am very interesting in video gaming and setting up a blog about video games and tournaments would help find more team members who share the same passion. There is actually a tournament registration in a few days and using a blog and spreading the word about this blog in the next few days could help me find a few more teammates. Using a PLN is very smart and it is an amazing tool for sharing things.

-Akash Patel

Google Reader

Interesting class today. We focused on using Google Reader to follow blogs we are intersted in. This was useful becase now all of the blogs that I follow are right in front of me and they are organized by the date posted. Google Reader was definitely worth learning about.

-Akash Patel

Comments on Facebook Video

This video was absolutely ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with Facebook. Its how the people act on it that get them into trouble. Bullying, in my opinion, occurs because one person insults another person by saying or doing something to anger them. Most people on Facebook feel invincible and say whatever they want because they think they won't get punished through a screen. However, everything a person writes gets permanently saved on the internet and if someone writes something about another person, they will most likely see it. People who feel invincible and write things carelessly need to know that it could get them hurt. I am not supporting bullying in any way. I am just saying that people need to watch what they say on Facebook before they hurt someone and in the end hurt themselves. Facebook isn't a place where people go to find someone to bully. Its a place where people get to connect.

-Akash Patel

Angela Maiers Wiki and Web 2.0 Smackdown

Angela Maiers Wiki was very convenient. Wiki's are a cool tool that help with discussing and posting new ideas. All of Angels's comments very organized and easy to find and I thought that was the best part about her site. The web 2.0 Smackdown has a name that everyone feels the need to follow. The various tools and links on this site were very interesting to look at. Some of it is stuff that we already know and is boring to read, but there's stuff there that a lot of people don't know about so I do recommend checking it out.

-Akash Patel

Angela Maiers Wiki: http://learning-now.wikispaces.com/

Web 2.0 Smackdown: http://www.edubloggercon.com/EBC+East+2010+Smackdown 

Thoughts on the 140 Conference

This conference was very interesting. I liked the idea that the technology upgrades are not just technical, but cultural. It's interesting to think of an advancement in our school as a cultural change because most people don't view it this way. Schools have been run the same way for a long time and it really is our culture, but changing it won't be easy. Getting the latest technological gadgets is easy, but changing culture is hard.

-Akash Patel

Emerging Ed Tech Response

This turned out to be an interesting article. Number three was kind of insane. It says to use one picture for everthing. However if you are only using one picture you really aren't expressing yourself. But if you use a different picture for different section, you can express your attitude to this section. Same thing with number five. When using one tone, you aren't expressing more than one part of yourself. I think it's more important to express your true feelings.

-Akash Patel

Initial Thoughts on Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is an interesting class. I never really used twitter before I took this class and I never blogged at all so this is all new to me. There have been many new sites that I have never seen before such as delicious and it is interesting to see these new sites. It has been a fun class so far and hopefully it goes on to be a fun learning experience.


-Akash Patel