"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