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Hi, so here's my first blog post. It's been a chaotic week with Labor Day, 75% B-Days, and a Pep Rally, but I've had a chance to learn a lot in computer science.
- This week we studied about privacy for quite a while. We learned about how by having more aspects of our lives be on the internet we are allowing for more aspects of our lives, those that used to be personal, to become public and easily available. Now, with social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter we share numerous anecdotes, pictures, videos, and stories from our personal lives to hundreds of people. We allow for random viewers to see how we live our lives. As I am on my Facebook account fairly regularly, this topic intrigued me greatly. I had never considered how what I post and which pictures I put on will affect me in the future. I had never bothered to consider that my Facebook page will be viewed as an overview of who I am and what my personality is. It is rather scary and unnerving to see how much of one's personal life is available for the masses to see. While, I still think that Social Media is a generally positive aspect of the Internet, I have recognized the importance of viewing these websites as the powerful and slightly dangerous resources that they are.
- One topic that we discussed in class this week, is a method of learning known as Problem Based Learning (PBL). PBL is a method of learning in which one is presented with the answer for something and has to work up to that answer by identifying different problems and questions on the way. This style, allows for group members (as this is most commonly used for team projects) to explore an issue by trying to find ways to support an answer. In class we are doing a project that uses PBL, where a student has been accused of an action and we are trying to prove that he didn't do it (the answer). In order to do this we have to find data and facts, along with the answers for new questions, that will help support the answer we are attempting to support.
- When I was reading from our online textbook: Blown to Bits, I had a little bit of trouble understanding how the internet was in its chaotic days and how the current state of the Internet was only the beginning. I just didn't understand how the Internet could possibly change, as I though it was already so organized and there were already the basic guidelines. I asked my dad about this, who studied computer science, and he referred to this period of the Internet as the "Wild West Days". He says that the Internet is currently "chaotic" because there are no laws and protocols for many internet things, and that the government has not set up strict enforcements on what can and can't be on the Internet (for the majority of countries). However, he said that if this were to change that the Internet would lose a large amount of its power and would become a controlled medium, with only limited power. After asking about this, the topic discussed in the book became much clearer.
- I was at first having a great deal of understanding PBL and its importance. However after we began our team project, the use of this style of learning makes far more sense. The project, which gives a final answer which we are to work towards, shows the importance of PBL. It allows for us to grow in the understanding of the project without the use of solely lectures and readings.
- In our lab group we are currently trying to find information and answers that relate to our project ( a boy is accused of cyber-bullying another classmate), by sifting through people's personal pages on their FakeBook pages. Our group has created a Google Doc which we use to add facts we find out in the format of a timeline. By doing this, all members of the group are able to see what other people have found and the document ensures that everyone is on the same page (literally). This use of technology has allowed for our group to be more efficient, as opposed to if we had to tell each other what piece of information we found, every step of the way.
Okay, so that was my first blog post. Till next time, I hope this comic keeps everyone entertained:
I have a weird feeling this was written by one of the Sci-Tech teachers.
