Tech Tool Evaluation

Tech Tools

• Evernote
• YouTube Quiz

Evernote

What I liked

1. You can save anything (texts, videos, pictures, audio)
2. You can have access to it from anywhere (computers, iPods, iPads, cellphones, tablets)
3. Keeps everything synced.

Drawbacks/What could be improved

1. Syncing without internet connection.
2. Limited space.
3. Problems with fonts.

How I could use it

1. Having all my notes in one place and ready for class.

YouTube Quiz


What I liked

1. Complements my videos by making them more interactive.
2. If I'm watching videos to study something it can help review.
3. Helps the audience catch the main ideas of the video.

Drawbacks/What could be improved

1. It doesn't show the one watching the video whether the answer was right or wrong.
2. Maybe adding more features to it  to make it more dynamic.
3. Finding another way to show it rather than annotations because the color isn't really nice.

How I could use it

1. Making my videos more interactive.

How Do Search Engines Work

What I know
 There are way to many search engines like Yahoo!, Google, Bing, Ask etc. and there are also themed search engines like for example some are related to medicine, business,etc.

What I want to learn

• How do they work?
• How do they gather information?

Links

• http://www.searchengineguide.com/gallianno-cosme/how-do-search-engines-work.php
• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-do-internet-search-en
• http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/may01/liddy.htm

What I learned

• Major elements of search engines: Crawlers/Spiders, Index & Software.

• Steps:
• Steps 1-3: Preprocessing 
• Step 4: Identify elements to index
• Step 5: Deleting stop words
• Step 6: Term Stemming
• Step 7: Extract index entries
• Step 8: Term weight assignment
• Step 9: Create index

• Crawlers read pages and follows the links on them.

• Crawlers: Googlebot (Google), Slurp (Yahoo!),  MSNBot (MSN Search)

• Crawlers go through all the webpages on the big index (database)

• Website owners can avoid having their websites being crawled daily by using a robot.txt.file.

• A software program called crawler is used to collect web pages. It retrieves extract words to be later stored with their corresponding website link in a index file.

• The users' inquiries are matched with the index file.

• To reduce search time, a data structured called tree is used. It duplicates the index list on computers in the search engine.

• Search engines use ranking methods like term-frequency-inverse document-frequency (TFIDF) to prioritize the results of a user's search.

• Another method is the link analysis, which is the Google uses. This method consists identifying if a webpage is an authority or a hub.

• To be able to hold billions of webpages and have access to them in matter of seconds, search engines construct data centers all over the world.

Summary

 I have to confess, I am a daily Google user. I have always found it amusing how fast search engines give us precise results, but I never really researched or ever wonder how complex their process is. It's nice to find out more about something you may use/see everyday without thinking it has a big story behind. 

Questions

1. Which is the best search engine?  (or is it Google I suppose?)

College Exploration on Naviance

Universities	Berkeley	Penn State	University of Hawaii at Manoa	University of Wisconsin-Madison
Location	Berkeley, California	University Park, Pennsylvania	Honolulu, Hawaii	Madison, Wisconsin
Ethnicity/Diversity	High	Typical	High	Typical
School Type	Traditional College/University	Traditional College/University	Traditional College/University	Traditional College/University
Getting In	3/18       I      21%	12/19     I      76%	1/1            I         67%	2/6         I       66%
College Towns	No	Yes	No	Yes
Gender Mix	Coed	Coed	Coed	Coed
Religious Affiliation	None	None	None	None

Greek Life                Yes                          Yes                          Yes                              Yes
Average GPA           3.88                         3.56                         3.4                               3.6



GPA 1st Quarter: 3.7

• University of California at Berkeley - 3.88
• Pennsylvania State University - 3.56
• University of Hawaii at Manoa - 3.4
• University of Wisconsin - 3.6

What I learned
  At the beginning, I really had a perfect fairytale in my mind going to an Ivy League college. Now, after doing a little research and listening to what Ms. Shawn  had to say I looked for other colleges. I didn't include my personal list because that was to far fetched... the four universities on my chart are completely different to what I was thinking before. I am a good and dedicated student but I also want my life out of school so I'm not focusing on Ivy League now.

Google Day 4

Goals

1. Continue to learn how to create my own furniture.
2. Watch more video tutorials.
3. Apply what I learned on Google SketchUp.

Links

• Tutorials: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/es/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html

Evidence

Today I finished making my own table.

I made its legs and front...

Later I added some details like making the front being in an arc shape and two drawers.

 I wanted to continue watching video tutorials for advanced techniques in SketchUp, but I had trouble with the video for building furniture and also with SketchUp and I had to start over several times.

Next Class

• Prepare my presentation.

Google Day 3

Goals

1. Continue adding details to the interior of the house
2. Watch more video tutorials
3. Apply what I learned on Google SketchUp
4. Learn how to add furniture to my room
5. Learn how to create my own furniture

Links

• Tutorials: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/es/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html

Evidence

Today, I finished the details of the room I started last class. I painted the walls and floor. At the end I also added some furniture from the 3D Warehouse.

When I finished I started making a small table. Right now I only have the top of it.

For the next Google Day

• Finish my own piece of furniture
• Start preparing my project

Google Day 2

Goals

1. Watch video tutorials to create detailed buildings.
2. Apply what I learned on my previous house or making a new one.
3. Add details to the interior of the house.

Links

http://www.sketchup.com/intl/es/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZwJntmJxi78#!

Evidence

 Today I learned how to be more detailed with my buildings. I learned how to enter exact dimensions for the rooms, be more detailed with the roof, windows and doors. 

When I finished learning about some of the details for the exterior of the house, I continued with the interior, adding details to the windows on the inside and some parts of the wall pop out.

For the next Google Day

• Continue with the details of the interior of the house.

What animal lives in the Yangtze River and is represented by its own rare Xingyiquan form?

http://www.tcmabta.co.uk/whatweteach/xingyi.html
 Yangtze River Alligator

Search Stories

Link

https://searchstories-intl.appspot.com/en-us/creator/

Purpose

This tech tool is used to make a little story based on Google searches. It can be about anything you like and with images, map, web searches, news, blog searches, product searches or books.

How to use it

1. Type in the searches that you want to appear in you video story.
2. Select the type of results (images,maps,web searches,etc.) that will represent your story. Click Next.
3. Select and preview the background music you want for your video from the different genres (Family, Country & Western, Sci-Fi, etc.) Click Next.
4. Preview your video story and make your final changes.
5. Give your story a title.
6. Add a description if you like.
7. Click on "Upload to YouTube" to submit your story.
8. Sing in to your YouTube account

Example

I typed the searches that I wanted on my video and selected the kind of results I wanted.

I selected the first option in the genre "Family".

I previewed my video story and I liked it.

I gave it a tittle and submitted my video, but I had some trouble with uploading to YouTube. So you can't see my video.

How can students use it

 Students can use this tech tool to make little stories about anything they want. It can be useful for a class when your looking for a creative way to show your peers a new idea or tell them a story.

Digital Nation

1. I agree with how technology is slowly separating families by having each member in  different worlds while being in the same house because everyone is doing their things and even communicate by technology with each other, when they are in THE SAME HOUSE (even I do it).
2. I agree with the fact that many people think they are the greatest multitaskers because they might be doing lots of things but are they really processing/understanding what they're doing? Ex. You're in history class and using your phone, are you understanding what everyone else is discussing in class?
3. I agree with the fact that we can't avoid texting while driving because I might not drive but I know how tempting it is when you feel your phone buzzing or hear it beeping. It's just inevitable to just reach for it an answer a text.
4. I agree with the program Koreans have to show kids since little on how to use computers responsibly because the earlier they are taught how to use them correctly the more we will be able to stop people from using technology for the wrong reason/purposes.
5. I agree with involving technology in our education because now it's not only a new and different  way to learn, it's fun, creative and it gives us more options to learn.
6. I agree with the fact that technology is also educationally interrupting us because you can use to technology to learn but people also use it like a  "shortcut". Ex. You're assigned to read as book and instead of reading you look up for summaries on the internet... TADAA BOOK DONE
7. I don't agree with what a girl said on the video "I'm on my laptop 24/7 and I think it's great because we have to embrace technology " YES we are surrounded with technology BUT not because we are surrounded by it, do we have to stick to it and not do anything else.
8. I agree that video games can "change our lives" because the surrealism and the effects attract us. It's a fantastic world and since we find that unusual, we play it. 
9. I disagree with how people get so obsessed with video games because I find it exagerating. How can a person spend more than 10 HOURS a week playing a video game? It is just a WASTE OF TIME.
10. I agree with how technology can and is used right now for beneficial reasons. Ex. Post-traumatic war soldiers use programs to help the trauma go away, etc. 
11. I agree with how the use of cellphones have become vital for us because we just can't stop using them and it has come to a point where we actually stop having real conversations. It is simply not right.
12.  I know that the video game market can be beneficial in terms of income to companies but I do not agree with how the video games those companies make just make us lose our lives completely, wasting it.
13. I disagree with what a woman said that our abuse of technology is not the reason why we are failing in some aspects because IT IS distracting us and IT IS giving us more options to "shortcut" life
14. I agree that technology is powerful because it opens to us the doors of new opportunities and discoveries.
15. I agree that everyone should be aware of the technology surrounding us because it is what is happening now and it is what will happen in a distant future.
16. On terms of communication, I agree that technology can help us communicate with those who are far BUT
17. I disagree on how people exaggerate this use because they come to a point in which technology is the only way they communicate and stop having face to face interactions/conversations.
18. I agree that by the things you do with technology you can also meet new people online BUT 
19. I disagree on how they keep their relationship online. The person on the other side can have the wrong purposes by talking to you and your identity can become exposed to other people.
20. I agree on having rescue camps for people who abuse internet because those kind of things can save a person's life quality, having a healthier life and spending his/her time on something else that is WORTH IT.

How do I know which career would be best for me?

Links:
http://www.helpguide.org/life/finding_career.htm
http://www.bppe.ca.gov/forms_pubs/career.shtml
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2010/12/06/how-to-choose-a-career-thats-best-for-you

Summary:
   To find the career that best fits you, there are several factors you should count. Among those factors, you find: yours skills, interests, expectations. First, think about what do like to do or what comes easy for you. When you identify that, you can get involved in activities or classes to help you develop that skills and/or put it in practice. You can also do career test to get an idea of what you're really good at. You might not like what your results suggest but maybe it will make you think about what you're really good at and help you look/research about careers that require those skills that you have.
    If you discover that you are interested in a certain area, then you can start looking for jobs that have to do with it. You can also ask people that have certain jobs that catch your attention, and find out more about those jobs. Also think about what jobs are going to be in demand and promise you a great future.

Question:
What careers are or will be in demand?

Proxies

I don't know anything about this topic, but I have heard of proxies.

What I want to learn:
What are proxies?
Why are they useful or not?

Links:
http://www.optimum7.com/internet-marketing/technology/what-are-proxies.html
http://www.techterms.com/definition/proxyserver
http://proxy-services-review.toptenreviews.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-proxy-services.html

What I learned:

• Protect your information.
• Allows you to view websites and their information without them receiving your information.
• They work  for security purposes but they can also be used to block access to websites.
• There are several types of proxies: Catching Proxy Server, Web Proxy, Anonymizing Proxy Server and Hostile Proxy.
• Catching Proxy Server- Speeds up user's request.
• Web Proxy- Filters content.
• Anonymizing Proxy Server- Anonymous web surfing 
• Hostile Proxy- Captures information about webpages and forms users fill/visits.
• You can't really know if the proxy server is really protecting your information or just collecting it until your identity is compromised.

Summary:
     Proxies can help me protect my information while I'm web surfing, but there's really no way to know if it really is working or not. There are several types of proxies with different purposes. If in a future, I choose to open a company I can also use proxy servers to block access to my employees to some websites. Also when I'm older and have my kids, I can use proxy servers to control what sites they go to and block contents.

Questions:
Is there a way to get around proxies? (hack them)

Google Day 1

1. Download Google SketchUp.
2. Watch the video tutorials.
3. Apply what I saw on the videos on the program.

SketchUp New Users Tutorials: http://www.sketchup.com/intl/es/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html

First Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPkv9tRuO-c&feature=player_embedded
This video showed some of the basics of Google SketchUp. It taught you how to use some tools like zoom, drag, orbit, push and pull (makes things 3D) and how to draw simple things (lines, rectangles, circles, etc) with accuracy.

Today I didn't see myself feeling so accomplished :)
I just saw ONE video and I DID A HOUSE IN GOOGLE SKETCHUP!!!!  Next class I would like to learn how to make it look more realistic. The second tutorial video for new users shows how to do this, how to add more details to your house.
Second Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS11K5PgHkc&feature=player_embedded

Google 20%

For this project, I would like to learn how to use Google SketchUp. With Google SketchUp you can design 3D models, and that is what I want to do. There are several tutorials and self-paced tutorials that can help me achieve this.
Tutorials http://www.sketchup.com/intl/es/training/videos.html
              http://www.brighthub.com/internet/google/topics/sketchup.aspx
Tips http://www.dyers.org/blog/archives/2007/11/15/10-tips-to-get-you-started-with-google-sketchup/
Some suggestions for new users are:

• Customizing your toolbar: When you download the program the toolbar has some of the tools you need but not all of them so it's suggested yo include the following to your toolbar:
• Large Tool Set
• Standard
• Layers
• Views
• Face Style
• Google
• Shadows
•  Learning to use layers.
•  Keep some tools available: Materials, Components and Layers.
•  Read the User's Guide before diving into Sketchup world.
•  Learn the shortcuts. (on the tutorial links)

For the final project/presentation I would like to show my partners and Ms. Shawn that I learned by making a 3D model of a building myself. To make it a bit more challenging, it would be a model of our school or at least a part of it, time permitting.

Link

C/C website