Saturday, April 28, 2012
Reading Quest 3
1. Learning to think in a Digital World
The author talks about how we are going into a digital world, and that we are thinking less and less about reading literary things and more about online things. She also talks about the digital age is Socrates nightmare,because he believed in the spoken word. She is worried that the digital age will reshape our brains and our relationship with reading, knowledge, and learning will be changed forever. I believe that she is being a little over dramatic, because what we are doing online is in essence...reading. I have gained tons of knowledge from reading up stuff online, and I actually prefer reading things online rather than in a book. I have read stories online and it felt just the same in my mind than if I were to be reading a book, I think we process things the same thing, whether it be written on paper or posted online.
2. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
This chapter talks about digital natives, meaning, people who were born in the digital era and are naturally accepting of all things digital, whereas digital immigrants are those we have to learn and adapt to his new culture of the digital age. The author explores ways that educators can appeal to today's students and that its ridiculous for them to use old methods for new technologically advanced students, he talks about turning things into video games, which he believes would get a better respond out of students, he says if kids can name 101 Pokemon and know the characteristics and history of them, they should be able to name countries and characteristics, there just needs to be a better way to teach the material and put it in a more interactive and enjoyable way to the students.
3. Usability of Websites for Teenagers
This article talks about studies to determine how a design and look and feel of a website appeals to the new digital era teenage generation. The study was to take a poll with teenagers from USA and Australia and to ask what their favorite sites were and why. The results didn't show a huge difference between the countries, except for the fact that Australia is in love with sports and they all went to sports websites for the most part. The test confirmed that teens enjoy cool and colorful effects as long as it didn't interfere with the material they were looking for, so color and effects were not the deciding factor if a teen liked the site. It found that teens dislike slow and hard to navigate websites, it also found that students dont like to read long text material online or read small fonts.
4. Do they Really Think Differently?
This article discusses that, the prior belief, that our brain structure doesn't change, morph, and evolve was an incorrect statement, there is pretty strong evidence that your thinking patterns change depending on your life experiences, also the process and strategies of thought were thought to be the same for everyone, which is also not the case. Teachers complain that the new digital age gas short attention spans, which may not actually be the case, the digital agers crave interactivity and enjoyment in what they do. So it might not be that they aren't able to focus, its that they dont want to focus. The digital natives are wanting new approaches to teaching methods, which is why new methods of digital game based methods are becoming so prevalent. Basically, digital immigrants need to stop holding onto the past and learn the new technology and adapt to this new generation.
The author talks about how we are going into a digital world, and that we are thinking less and less about reading literary things and more about online things. She also talks about the digital age is Socrates nightmare,because he believed in the spoken word. She is worried that the digital age will reshape our brains and our relationship with reading, knowledge, and learning will be changed forever. I believe that she is being a little over dramatic, because what we are doing online is in essence...reading. I have gained tons of knowledge from reading up stuff online, and I actually prefer reading things online rather than in a book. I have read stories online and it felt just the same in my mind than if I were to be reading a book, I think we process things the same thing, whether it be written on paper or posted online.
2. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
This chapter talks about digital natives, meaning, people who were born in the digital era and are naturally accepting of all things digital, whereas digital immigrants are those we have to learn and adapt to his new culture of the digital age. The author explores ways that educators can appeal to today's students and that its ridiculous for them to use old methods for new technologically advanced students, he talks about turning things into video games, which he believes would get a better respond out of students, he says if kids can name 101 Pokemon and know the characteristics and history of them, they should be able to name countries and characteristics, there just needs to be a better way to teach the material and put it in a more interactive and enjoyable way to the students.
3. Usability of Websites for Teenagers
This article talks about studies to determine how a design and look and feel of a website appeals to the new digital era teenage generation. The study was to take a poll with teenagers from USA and Australia and to ask what their favorite sites were and why. The results didn't show a huge difference between the countries, except for the fact that Australia is in love with sports and they all went to sports websites for the most part. The test confirmed that teens enjoy cool and colorful effects as long as it didn't interfere with the material they were looking for, so color and effects were not the deciding factor if a teen liked the site. It found that teens dislike slow and hard to navigate websites, it also found that students dont like to read long text material online or read small fonts.
4. Do they Really Think Differently?
This article discusses that, the prior belief, that our brain structure doesn't change, morph, and evolve was an incorrect statement, there is pretty strong evidence that your thinking patterns change depending on your life experiences, also the process and strategies of thought were thought to be the same for everyone, which is also not the case. Teachers complain that the new digital age gas short attention spans, which may not actually be the case, the digital agers crave interactivity and enjoyment in what they do. So it might not be that they aren't able to focus, its that they dont want to focus. The digital natives are wanting new approaches to teaching methods, which is why new methods of digital game based methods are becoming so prevalent. Basically, digital immigrants need to stop holding onto the past and learn the new technology and adapt to this new generation.
Unpopular culture
One thing in Popular Culture that I think has become a problem are Jelly Bracelets. While it may seem funny that I decided to do it on Jelly Bracelets, there are some very unflattering things going on with them. Jelly bracelets were originally just for fashionable purposes. You could twist them together and then put them on your wrist and it would give a fashionable jewelery look. Then it graduated into bigger gel bands, where they could stand for giving awareness to a certain charity or to give awareness to diseases like AIDS and diabetes.
Of course though, in our sex crazed society they changed the rules on these bands, and now according to the colors of jelly bracelets you wear means you are willing to do a sexual act. For example black=intercourse, blue=oral, gold=all of the above. There is a site dedicated to what each band means, and if you wanted to do that with the person all you would have to do is break the bracelet. If a girl is wearing these it is basically putting yourself out there to be taken advantage of by men, and you might not even know the meaning, but there is a underground meaning to these bracelets now. Sex Bracelets
It really is sad when society can take something that was so innocent, and even was used to bring awareness to certain causes was corrupted by our society to mean sex. Sex is overtaking our entire pop culture, its in everything, in the most popular shows on television, not saying sex is a bad thing, but with the rising in STD's and teenage pregnancy being ever prevalent in pop culture, where girls are getting pregnant at 16 just for a shot to be on a t.v. reality show, its ridiculous.
Lovemarks
One thing I find that I actually do really have a lovemark with is Starbucks.
Starbucks is a coffee chain originating in Seattle, Washington. The first store opened up in 1996 and its specialty was making espresso,blended,latte,cappucino's along with sandwiches, bagels, oatmeal, salads etc.. Coffee to me, represents success. I remember watching Smallville, and Chloe, was a journalist for the school newspaper and always had a cup of coffee in her hand, in one of those nice starbucksy type cups. A cup of Starbucks coffee symbolizes business and success, at least in the media. In Devil Wears Prada, the editor of the big wig magazine always had her starbucks coffee in the morning fetched by her assistants. Starbucks is a very successful company and every time I think of Starbucks I get a sense of wealth, its probably because the cups of coffee are so expensive and if you buy one everyday you must come from some sort of money. I love the environment of a Starbucks, there are lounge seating so you can sit and socialize, there are days where I would just go into Starbucks and bust out a game of Monopoly and play with some friends, they have light coffee house music playing. Even in movies, the characters just meet at Starbucks to have their meetings with friends to gossip with eachother about something that happened in the week, like in Sex and the City.
I have always wanted to be a Barista and Starbucks just looks fun. Another thing I love about Starbucks is that it took a stand for Marriage Equality against NOM (National Organization for Marriage) and is a huge LGBT advocate.Starbucks Supports HRC for Marriage Equality, so it makes me feel good when I know where my money is going when I buy a cup of coffee. Its also pretty fun when your favorite Barista knows your drink order before you even get to the counter.
One thing I can say is that I am never bored at Starbucks, even if im not feeling that particular drink they have a very fancy sounding menu with some very interesting drink titles. I often ask what the barista's favorite drink is and try it for myself.
Starbucks has very fond memories for me, because I usually get it with friends either in the morning or afternoon, I think it is a healthierish alternative to drinking alcohol with friends "meeting someone for coffee" has a lot more class and elegance. You can even do your homework in a Starbucks cafe, the environment is relaxing.
I learned alot about coffee from watching Starbucks employees make my drinks, such as knowing the difference between a cappuccino and a Latte and what an espresso actually is.
The brand of Starbucks will definitely be a lovemark with me for awhile, it has a comfortable environment, good tasting coffee, interesting concoctions, and is a LGBT advocate so you know your money is going to a cause that you believe in.
Book Versus Movie
I have decided to do the book versus movie on "'The Hunger Games" mostly because it just came out and it is very fresh on my mind because I have enjoyed both the movie and the book. There are a few things in the book that didnt happen in the movie, I however, loved the movie and the things left out by movie to me personally aren't very huge and didnt make me not enjoy the movie unlike several other die hard hunger gamers.
1. You don't get to see alot of Katniss's district where she lives, you dont get a sense of the people there and the place she really comes from in the movie, in the book you know she has a relationship with some of the people in the town and she trades the meat from the hunts she goes on with people.
2. She doesnt trade for the mockinjay pin, she buys it and tries to give it to her sister but her sister says "NO ITS YOURS IT WILL PROTECT YOU", (this wasnt that huge of a change but people were up in arms.)
3. Commentary from Caeser Flickerman (the Host) describing the games and some of the events that are about to take place, happened in the movie, NOT in the book. I for one, loved this, because the Hunger Games is essentially a post apocalyptic world reality t.v. competition show like Survivor, and the host is always giving a commentary on what happened or what will go down next time on the episode. So to see this, it definitely gave it a more reality t.v. feel which is basically the whole idea of the first book.
4. They didnt really show how close Gale and Katniss were in the movie, they were best friends for a long time, and they have hunted together for awhile, and Gale gets really upset that Katniss and Peeta got together in the book, and in the movie it was just a slight look of shame from Gale.
5. The eyes of the hounds at the end that hunt the reaming survivors were supposed to be the eyes of the tributes that had fallen, and in the movie they were just normal hounds and nothing was ever said about their eyes.
Overall, the movie cut out things that werent very important to the story and added things that I genuinely enjoyed and thought made it better than the book, to me I liked the movie more than the book, I always like seeing it, it was the same with me for Lord of The Rings. Unforunately, you will always have those people that say the movie ruined the book, but thats for OCD people. :)
I personally liked the movie over the book. Because when I was reading the book, I didn't really get the feel of what the capitol citizens were like, and what the cornucopia looked like, and other things didnt make much sense visually as to what they look like. Honestly, I was like "They are gonna have a cornucopia like from when the pilgrims meet the indians, and sure enough thats what it was, except it was huge and metal. Seeing it visually helped me understand the wackiness, and to to believe what I was actually reading.
Differences between book and movie
Pop Music Website Analysis
I decided to look at Lady Gaga's website for this analysis. Lady Gaga has taken the world by storm extremely quickly. She is most known for outlandish costumes and over the top personality on stage as well as controversial political views and unfiltered dialogue. The first page of the Lady Gaga official site says is called Haus, which is what she calls her whole show "The Haus of Gaga" This first page has her twitter feed, which is very smart of her. Tons of people are fascinated with her and want to know what is going on with her almost every second, which her twitter feed gives you a glimpse of what she is doing and she is pretty personable with her fans on there and shows pictures of her behind the scenes quite often. Next tab is info, telling all the information about Gaga from magazines and if she was nominated for any awards, a thing called "gaga" vision which is a documentary she did on herself behind the scenes on touring, and a link called pictures which has all the pictures of Gaga, from all of her album covers, to her on television shows such as american idol, etc..picture stills of her in concert, and pictures of her at red carpet events and award shows.
Next tabs under info has her music, her bio, her videos, and basically all the information about Gaga that is currently available. Next tab is Events which tells you where she will be going, which you can see if you look she is currently in tour overseas doing Korea and Hong Kong. Next tab is Shop which has all merchandise she has out, which is quite a bit, there are pages and pages of the stuff. Next tab is lyrics, pretty self explanatory, and then chat, which is quite interesting, all her fans can just join the chat and talk all things Gaga. I was honestly expecting the site to be a little more than it is, its mostly black and white, it does look elegant and classy but nothing that you would expect out of gaga, its basically one of her album covers in the background which is black and white, the font is very bland and bold. One thing that is really good is that it doesn't look really cluttered and its easy to navigate and easy to read all the information is easy to sort through.
While the personality and craziness of Gaga in person doesn't reflect how her website is, the website is still very informative, easy to navigate and shows all the aspects and everything one would need to know about the pop diva of Gaga. From her twitter page if you dont follow her, to gagavision, to her tour dates, to all the pictures she has taken and found worthy of posting on her page, and finally her store where you can take Gaga anywhere with you. :)
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