Blog Review

Blogging is defiantly something new and interesting. When I first heard that we would be doing a blog for this class I was not excited. The start of the blog was hard but after the first blog it was a little better and a little better as they went on. I was not a computer person until I started to go to college almost two years ago. So doing a blog was not fun at first but got a little better with time. Figuring out how to create and produce a blog is somewhat difficult. I did think that it was a good thing for me to do. I now know a lot more about the use of computers and I can see why people have blogs.

I think that the blogging assignments were on topics that did pertain to the class. I can see how blogging could be related to a critical thinking class. Blogging is a new age thing that the people enjoy. Blogs are a good tool for critical thinking, because of the thinking that it takes to write about a good topic. I had to take a good amount of time to think about how I would approach each blog assignment. Blogging is an art and a science. Some people use blogs to express themselves, while others use them for information. One topic that I chose for an assignment was "Is a picture really worth a thousand words". This topic was rather hard to find information on and made me think critically about the task at hand.

While taking this class I found the blog to be very helpful in many ways. I found that it taught me more about how to use a computer in many ways. I found sometime that it was a problem at times for example my fourth blog I opted to do a voice thread. This voice tread was extremely difficult to deal with. I had problems from start to finish. It started with having problems uploading pictures from my computer and then I had problems with getting the voice on the voice thread. I had to record my voice at least four or five times before it would play my voice back to me correctly.

After all of this work that I have done in the last two years, I feel that the blog is one of the best things that I had to do. I liked the blog on certain days and hated it on other days, but all in all not bad. I do not suggest the voice tread just yet, I don't think that it is ready to be used on a regular basis by a student.

voice thread

http://voicethread.com/share/1109253/

Paradise

Here is my animoto viedo! Paradise...

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Should Students be Able to Cite Wikis?

    As a student we have lots of decisions to make about what kind of resources that we can cite. On the one hand you could cite a source that is not good information or you can cite a source that has good information. I feel that if the information is creditable then there is no problem using a wiki for a resource. The problem with that is if the information is creditable. A wiki is a web site that is based on the wisdom of crowds, which means that any one person can change the information that is available.

    Web sites like Wikipedia have lots of pros and cons. Some of the things that you read on Wikipedia is good info and some other stuff is bad information. Wikipedia does have a team of editors to look over the content that is added and also adding content themselves. This is to say that they will let people edit the information, but they will review this change before they publish it. I think that when it comes to general information or something that is not very important it is okay to use a wiki. Simple information like the birth date of a famous person or the particular species of a plant is the best kind of information that you can find on Wikipedia. One of the greatest things about wikis is that they keep updating this information to keep up with current events and updated information.

    The down side to using wikis for a resource is the editing process. Anyone can come in and change a piece of information that could be wrong. This wrong change could take a while to fix and you could get the information wrong. Editors could be anyone from your own five year old child to someone who is an expert in their field. Another thing about a wiki is someone can vandalize information, either by putting in bias information or deleting important information or even erasing the entire page itself.

    So if you decide to use the information that you find on a wiki be careful to check where the information originated from. Wikis can still be used as a good source of information as long as you make sure that the information is creditable. Don't just think that anything is right always double check the information that you receive.

Which is better to reason incorrectly to a true conclusion or to reason well to a false conclusion?

Well in my opinion it is better to reason correctly and have a true conclusion. But if I had to choose just one I would want to have a strong argument and a false or probable conclusion. My main reason is for the fact that if you convince someone that your premises are true then your conclusion has to be true (in theory).

The use of true premises and a false conclusion is inductive reasoning. Because inductive reasoning is based upon probabilities, conclusions are considered to be cogent rather than true. A strong argument is very important to me, because if you can convince someone that you know what you are talking about they will most likely believe that your conclusion is right. It is not always the fact that your conclusion is false, it may be that it is possible but there is not enough evidence to support it. If your premises are obvious most people won't take their time to second guess you. But I think that a lot of that is your confidence and knowledge.

The other side of the argument is to reason incorrectly to a true conclusion. A true conclusion is a good end to an argument, but if you get there in an incorrect way your conclusion doesn't seem very strong. When in an argument it is very important to seem strong and confident about your topic. If you can't convince the other person that you have strong premises to support your strong conclusion they will have a hard time believing you.

I believe that in an argument that it doesn't matter if you have a true or a false conclusion. What matters to me is if you can back up your premises with facts and come to a conclusion, wrong or right. What matters is that you present yourself strong and confident, with the knowledge of the topic. If you don't know enough about the topic, don't start the argument and don't get involved.

 

 

 

     

Cell Phones

The new technology today has some positive and some negative effects on society. With all of the new technology today the cell phone has to be one of the best inventions ever. What did we do before the cell phone? I know that most people today are lost without theirs that includes me and everyone I know.

    One of the greatest things that the cell phone has done for us is the emergency use. If you witness an accident, you could potentially save someone's life by having that cell phone to call for help. There are 160,000 wireless emergencies calls every day. If you were involved in an accident yourself you could call and save your own life. Having a cell phone while driving can also be a bad thing because of all the people driving down the road talking and texting while they drive could be a cause of some of the accidents that we could use our cells phones to call in.

    Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed a camera and didn't have one? Well all you need now is your cell phone, because most models have a camera on them. Not only do they have just a camera but they have a memory card that you can take out and put into you're your computer and upload your pictures to the internet. Now that we have all this technology at our fingertips we tend to take advantage of all of it. I use my cell phone and my laptop to do all the things I need, like pay bills get a hold of people, play games and even do all of my school work.

    Even though we have all this technology we still have a down side to it. Some scientists say that the use of a cell phone can cause cancer. Some studies say that the absorption of electromagnetic waves produced from cell phones can cause sleep deprivation and high blood pressure as well. Other studies also suggest that the prolonged use of a cell phone by males can cause a reduced semen quality.

    No matter what the media may tell us about our cell phones, we all need them and will continue to use them as we see fit. It may be debatable to some but for me the cell phone is the best invention ever.

superbowl

How about this game?