Tech Tool Evaluation

Tool # 1
Web White Board
The web white board is an app that you can download to do sketches or drawings, there is also an online page for free.

Things I like...

1. It has the option of text so you just click where you want the text, type and it appears.
2. I like that you can post it or share it on Reddit, Facebook or Twitter. 
3. I like that it is an app so you can also use it on a smartphone or tablet. Or you also have the choice to use it online for free.

Things I dislike...

1. It has very few color choices. 
2. You can do less things on the online free version than on the app.
3. That you can not add pictures or fill in with color a shape etc.

Things I can use it for...

1. I can use it to make sketches or drawings and share them with my friends
2. I can also use it as a board to make brain storms or other things.

Tool # 2

Creaza Education 

Things I like..

1. I like that you can create different things like movies, audio things, cartoons, mind maps and other things.
2. I like that it has thematic things that you can use to make creative things. I like that you can use it for educative purposes and also for fun.
3. I like that you are able to share your work and give comments and suggestions. But if they are inappropriate creaza monitors will delete them.
4. I like that you can also use it on  an iPad.

Things I dislike...

1. I dislike that creaza has the right to deny your continued access with no notification and not necessarily with a reason.
2. It seems quite complex
3. That the Demo version is extremely limited

Things I can use it for...

1. Creating movies or cartoons for school purposes. 
2. Making mind maps for a class or to organize any ideas.
3. Creating sound things or movies etc. for fun.

Viruses

What I know...

I do not know much about viruses, yet I know that it is important to keep your computer clean from viruses. They can make your computer slower, or erase your documents and other things you have on them

Questions...

1. What is a computer virus?

2. How do you get a virus on your computer? How do they spread?

3. How much damage can they make?

4. What are some ways to predict or know if your computer has a virus?

5. How can they be prevented?

6. How can you remove or get rid of viruses?

What I learned...

• A computer virus is a program that is inserted or introduced into a computer, most times this happens without the owners consent. 
• Computer viruses are usually spread through the internet, although they can also spread through disks, through a USB, or from machine to machine. Some ways they spread through the internet are, through illegal music or movie downloads, and clicking on ads, also through infected emails.
• Viruses can cause different types of damages to the computer. Some are not very bad and only make messages appear on the computer screen  although others can make damage as big as wiping out the computers memory or data base.Some also make the computer slower. They can also damage your software, or send some of your information through the internet to other outside sources. People can use them to hack your computer.
• Some things that might happen to your computer if it has a virus are; it will be slower, it will freeze or crash suddenly, new programs will not install, internet access may be blocked, visual changes are changed unexpectedly, files will be deleted unexpectedly or there will be trouble opening them, false warnings of viruses or suspicious messages will appear on the screen, there will be trouble printing files etc. If these things happen your computer may have a virus. 
• You can protect or prevent getting viruses by not opening suspicious emails, scanning your computer for viruses regularly, creating a strong password or pass phrase and never sharing it, backing up important data, install updates of the software you use, never responding to spams, reading all warnings carefully, never click ads on the internet, never use sharing programs to download things onto your computer, don not click OK or cancel on suspicious warnings, etc.
• You can do three things, first you can preform a system restore, although it can cause you to lose files or data it does not require you to download anything so it is safe. You can scan, be sure not to use many scanning programs at once because it can make it less effective, one good antivirus scanning program will be enough, yet none are 100% accurate, but they are good enough. You can clean install, it is 100% accurate, you can back up your files before doing this and that way you will not lose any.

Some useful links are...

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/computer+virus?s=t

http://oregonstate.edu/helpdocs/book/export/html/172

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/3-ways-to-get-rid-of-viruses-spyware-and-malware/

How this relates to my life...

I own a computer and a lot of my information I keep in there. I would not want a virus to be inserted into my computer making it slower, or deleting my files. I also would not like it if other people had access to my files.  It is very important for me to be informed about what I can do to prevent getting a computer virus, what they are, what they do, and how to get rid of them just in case. This will help me be sure that my files are safe and that my computer will not just suddenly crash.

Another question...

1. Are there different types of computer viruses? 

2. What types are there?

3. What damage does each type do?

 

Google Day 5

Today I worked only in creating

College Exploration On Naviance

Two colleges that interest me are The Royal Academy of Music, and Australian Institute of Music, also The New York Academy Of Art, and San Francisco School of Art.
New ones that interest me are; Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Webber International University. Lincoln University and Vanderbuilt University.

	Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising	Webber International University	Lincoln University	Vanderbuilt University
Cost	$26,197	$19,670	$9,220	$41,332
Location	Los Angeles, California	Babson Park, Florida	Oakland, California	Nashville, Tennessee
GPA	? Not Available	2.87	? Not Available	3.49
Graduation Rate	100%	100%	100%	91%
Public or Private	Private	Private	Private	Private
GLBT-Friendly / Gender Mix	? / GM-100%	? / GM-100%	? / GM-100%	Yes / 100%
Organizations	Academic Clubs, Business  Honors/Academic, International, Newspaper, Substance Abuse Support.	Academic Clubs, Business  Honors/Academic, International, Newspaper, Sports/Intramurals, Student Gov.	International, Literary Magazine, Newspaper,Student Gov.	All

My Average GPA was 3.6
Needed to enter these colleges; 2.87 and 3.49
I am above the two averages so to get into these schools I need to keep up the same effort or make a bigger effort to maintain my GPA.

Google Day 4

Today I edited photos, I learned to give them different effects like overlapping pictures. To do this I used Smugmug, Pixlr, and Photoshop. These are the pictures I edited.

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Google Day 3

   My Pictures...

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This class I spent most time editing photos and the rest selecting the photos.I edited them using smugmug. My results are above. Next class I will also spend it editing pictures.

Google Day 2

This class I am going to research about the difference between professional photo editing and editing pictures for fun. I will find some pages or applications for professional editing, and more for regular photo editing for fun. Also I will edit a couple pictures and upload them.

Professional photo editing is all about enhancing the color of the picture. In professional photo editing, the details are very important. The biggest difference is that in programs that edit for fun the effects are basic; black and white, sepia, and changing the background. While in professional editing you can edit the colors, the quality, the shadows, and also the basic things like black and white and sepia.

some softwares for professional photographers
Links for Photo editing sites
Apps

professional editing software
-Corel PaintShop Pro
-Photo Ninja
-Photoshop Lightroom 4
-Capture NX2

fun photo editing
-Loonapix photo editor
-3deffects
-befunky
-Fun Photo box

Others
-Photobucket
-Smugmug
-Photoshop CS6

Next time I will like to be able to edit more photos and research three professional photo editors, their names and one of the pictures they have edited.

Before

After

Stixy

Stixy

Stixy is a site that is used to create "stixy board". A stixy board is like a bulettin board that you can create online. In your stixy board you can upload pictures and documents; you can also paste notes. You may keep your stixy board private or share it with others.

To create a stixy board you have to create an account/ sign up on stixy. Then you are ready to start. There is a bar with buttons in the bottom of the page. They have logos one is for notes, the second one for pictures, the third one for documents and the last one says todo. To upload anything, you drag and drop the picture of the button into the white space in the page. Then in the right side of the page there will appear a bar with different things so you can edit what you put. If it is notes you may edit the background color of the paper, the font of the letters, the size etc. The last button that says todo is to make comments or remainders on a calendar. On the left side of the screen there is a list of all the stixy blogs you've created. Once one board is created and saved you can always go back and edit it, and if you share it you can decide if you want to let the others edit it as well if they wish to do so.

View of Stixy

Students might use this to make posts of important dates and remainders. Also they could use it to post documents and pictures and share them. They can share information or notes with others. Another thing that they could use it for is to do group projects.

Finished Stixy Board

DIGITAL NATION

1. I agree with the fact that we are all connected to the internet all the time, or at least most of it. I agree because it is like this for me, when I am at home I am on my computer, on the TV, or on my i pod; at school I am on my phone or on my i pod or i pad. 
2. I agree with the fact that we live in a digital world, because we are all connected through the internet, for example on Facebook, through e-mail, and on twitter.
3. I agree with what they say about us all being in a same place but in different worlds because I have had that experience where we are all sitting down in the living room some  on their computers, others on their phones and the rest on their i pads, even if they are just playing Sudoku or cards game. Sometimes I ask myself, why can't we all just play cards together with real cards? I mean that is what we are doing but we are doing it alone against the computer. 
4. I agree with what they say that over half my life is connected to a digital world. That we all have a "digital life", I think that this is true because I live it I have a digital life on tumblr,on twitter on Facebook. 
5. I agree with what they say about how students try but they try in a way that is not effective because they are getting distracted. I get distracted very easily with things on the internet and my work does not turn out as well done as before, it is now done with less effort, because I just want to finish it and go online. When this happens my grades drop.
6. I agree with what they say about how some things cannot be done while doing something else. I believe that you can be multitasking with things that are simple or automatic but when something requires a lot of concentration or it is very hard because you do not put all your effort into what you need to do, somethings require full attention on them. 
7. I disagree with what they say about how multitasking is impossible. I think that it is possible, yet not as easy or effective, also that it is only possible to do fully with things that are easy.
8. I agree with what they say when they say multitasking are slower and do not do such a good performance because I have been in the place where I think that I can do many things at a time but end up not finishing anything. 
9. I agree with what they say about how multitasking is not as effective. I believe that to do everything as best as you can you have to put your full concentration on it, but if you are doing more than one thing then it is impossible to put your full concentration in both things. I think that to do hings faster and better you have to do each thing at a time. When you put you put full concentration into something it does not only turn out better, but it is done faster, if you do this, you may do more things and done in a better way. I believe this because I have lived this experience, when I try to do multitasking the final result is worse and sometimes I am not able to finish anything, but when I do everything at a time the final result is better, and I am able to do more things, better, in less time.
10. I disagree on the way how they look the research of the brain because I think that when we do some things our brain capability is bigger like when reading, so we do not need to do so much of an effort, that is why it turns out smaller, and when doing research in Google our brain capability decreases so we have to do a bigger effort and that is why it turns out bigger.  
11. I agree that spending time online that is addicting. I agree because when I am online it is very hard for me to get off line when I have to do something else because I have fun online and i do not want to go of. Sometimes I try to finish everything as fast as I can or I try to do many things at a time, so I can have more time online, but at the end I am not able to do anything well done.
12. I agree with what they say about how people stop communicating with their parents and other people that are in their lives, because we spend more time talking to people online who are not in our lives, or doing things online, some that are useless, but all we want to do is go back to doing them, so even when we are not online we are thinking about those things.
13. I also agree with what they say about how using to much technology may affect you in medical ways. An excess in use of computers may leave you blind or hearing to much music with headphones may affect your hearing. I agree because doctors always say this and I know people who have been affected negatively in their health because they spent to much time with headphones, or looking at the computer for too long for an really long time.
14. I agree that kids should be taught how to use technology responsibly when they are young because if not they will get addicted, and this can affect them medically and it might also affect their relationships, and education.
15. I agree with that there is a very big difference between people who grew up with technology and the ones who grew up without them because for us who grew up with technology we are more fluent in it, we explore it, going online and navigating online is natural to us, while some adults or most have more trouble on it, also because we are constantly online and adults online are not.
16. I agree with that having technology in schools is good, but also partly bad, it is good because we learn in the way that we should we need to learn to use technology because this is how the world runs today in the 21st century. It is also bad because we are distracted more easily with online games and different things.
17. I agree that teaching students to multitask is important because the world is evolving and in the future and in the present the world runs so fast that we need to adapt to it. 
18. I agree that students are not as academical anymore because of distractions because I believe that the temptation to use the internet and other thing that are actually fun will distract students from their academical things and they will not do an effort to do those well done.
19. I agree that the world has evolved but the education is not.
20. I agree that basic skills are worse than they were before because now there are things like sparks notes and we do not have to read the books, or spellchecker and we do not check our spelling, sometimes we do not even bother learning it.
21. I agree that they should still learn the basic skills like communication and other things, but the thing we need to do is learn it differently, in a way
22. I agree that everyone struggles with distraction
23. I agree that as a culture we learned to adapt to the new changes, but we 
24. I agree that we should embrace technology, because it is reality it is how the world runs now I just think that we should learn to embrace technology in a good way, and in ways that are good for us.
25. I also agree that we need to appreciate technology because it gives us many opportunities, and without it we would not be able to do it. 
26. I disagree with what they say that virtual worlds bring us together. I think this is true, they bring the world together because everyone is connected, but it is also false because we spend less time with the people that are real, that we know, and that we care about, we might be in the same room but we do not talk and we are all in our own little world doing different things online, there is no interaction between us.

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

1. Some links are...

• Team Technology 
• Careers Out There
• What Career Is Right For Me
• Bureau For Private Postsecondary Education

To know which career is right for you, you can take a self-assessment or a career test. Ask yourself what your skills and weaknesses, and what are your ambitions. Think about what your hobbies are, and what you do on your free time. Also think which are the subjects you enjoy most at school and in which do you do your best. Research about different topics that interest you and what careers there are about the topic or that have to do with it. Find out universities that teach that career and more information about the classes and the career. Ask someone that studied the career(s) you are starting to get interested in. Maybe you can take a class on that subject to make sure you are really passionate about it, and that it really grabs your attention. Another thing that you can ask yourself is; What type of life do you want to live? or; What are you willing to sacrifice? For example if you want to have a family and you want to work as an important business person, you might have to travel a lot; are you willing to sacrifice the time with your family. Or if you want to be an actor/actress are you willing to sacrifice your privacy?

How do I find out which university is better for the career I chose?

The Cloud

• I do not know anything about this topic yet.
• My questions are...

1. What is "The Cloud"? The cloud is an internet connection.It is an online storage for applications, data and files.
2. What does it work for?  It is a place in the internet where you have the opportunity to access any applications, files or data that you save there. You are able to access them from any device whenever you want to, and wherever you are. 
3. Where do I use it? Cloud is used everyday by most people. For example some applications that use cloud are: email, calendars,photo sharing and website creation tools, another example is Facebook.

Computers and Technology

What Is Cloud Computing And How Do I Use It

1. Cloud is an online storage for your applications, data and files.
2. With cloud you can access whatever you stored there from any devise.
3. I use cloud everyday for example in email and Facebook
4. 
   
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This connects to my life because there are everyday uses for it. For example Facebook and Email. Also wih cloud I may access my information whenever I need it.

What is another thing where we use Cloud in a daily basis?

Google Day 1

Goals Of the Day
1. Today I want to research about what photo editing means
2. Then I want to know what are the different ways to edit pictures
3. I want to discover different sites to edit and the one most people use

1. Photo editing is basically anything that can be done to a photo when manipulating it.

2. Image editing includes everything that can be done to a photo whether it is in a darkroom or in a computer. It includes; re sizing, rotating or flipping, retouching, color and contrast (black and white, different colors, sepia, etc.), overlapping or combining photos, zooming, text manipulation, background change, etc.
Photo Editing Types
Photo Editing Types 2

3.Some sites are:

• FotoFlexer
• Pixlr
• Befunky
• Tuxpi
• PhotoFun
• FunPhotoBox
• Thumba
• BigHugeLabs
• Dr.Pic
• PictureResizing
• Rsizr
• Pixenate
• PhotoFunia
• Citrify
• PicGhost
• LivePhotoEditor
• AnyMaking
• Picozu
• EnThread

Now a days most people use Pixlr. 

Next class I would like to learn the difference between professional picture editing and editing for fun. I want to research some pages where you can do professional editing. Also I want to start testing the different pages.

Google 20%

For my Google 20% project I would like to do photo editing. I will research about the different types of photo editing. I would like to create pictures with different types of edits. For some I would like to learn how to enhance the light, make the colors brighter or softer. Also I would like to do some that are black and white, or sepia. Another thing I would like to do would be photo shop.

For my final project presentation I will create a blog of pictures that I have edited. I will edit pictures with different effects, and post them in the blog. I might add the original pictures too, and that way I will show the difference between them. Also I will put the pages that I used to edit the pictures, and some research about photo editing.

Link

C/C class website