S3 Tool Review

I will make a review on Susumu's tool Worldmapper.

To use this social software, all you need to know is where to type in the type of world map you would like to look for; it is very easy. This software is extremely interesting because there are so many different kinds of maps. It is useful when writing a report or making a presentation, and because it uses vivid colors, it goes into the audiences eyes and creates a large impact. Not only is it useful for schoolwork, it is entertaining to use during free time as well. Moreover, it can be used academically and non-academically. It is also useful because you do not need to sign up for it; anyone can look for a map at any time without entering an email or password or typing in personal information.

Nov. 6: S3 Tool Review

I will make a review on Yukie's tool Gradefix.

There are no particular skills needed in order to use this tool; it is fairly easy if you simply follow the directions. Gradefix allows people to finish assignments and tasks on time by reminding them in advance and apparently it is known to raise the grade of students. Of course people need to actually do the work in order to have good results. People who do not like to hold schedule books all the time or people who always forget due dates would find Gradefix to be extremely convenient. I think it would be the most convenient if we were able to sign up with our cellular phone addresses and if the due date reminder mails would come to our cellular phones. As said above, many business people may stop carrying paper schedule books and use these mechanical technologies instead, which would have an enormous effect on the digital industry.

S3 Session

My application Digg http://digg.com/

Review of Tool
Reliability
1. This application makes it clear who posted the actual information, but like youtube or any public community site, people sign up with nicknames and there is no section to create a detailed profile, so we cannot be 100% sure who the person is. However, it is possible to visit the persons' page and see which articles the person "dug" or "buried," his/her Friends list, and his/her "favourite" list.

2. Anyone is able to change the information that can be accessed. When you become part of the Digg community, you can limit your profile to only the people in your Friends list. Everyone also has the power to "bury" things which will kick them off the system (if you and many others think it is inappropriate, off-topic, or any of that sort).

3. There is no way of telling if the information is "correct" but if, for example, you are looking at a news page, there must be another article about that news somewhere on the net. Therefore, if you are not sure if the information is correct, you can look it up on google or some search engine to see if there is another article on the same subject.

4. As I mentioned above on #3, the information on the Digg could be related to other websites about the same topic.

5. The website is always up to date. As you can see on the page, people "digg" and "bury" submissions everyday from morning to night. There is a section called Top 10 articles, and this section seldom has the same topic as number one. When there is a new submission of a video or news or anything, it goes on to the front page of Digg and there will be a sign which says how many minutes ago the article was submitted.



Presentation Outline

1. Explaining my tool digg
-Why did I choose it?
-What exactly is it?
-When do people access it?
-How convenient is it?

2. Teaching my tool digg
-4 main features : discover, select, share, discuss
・Discover
submitting favorite sites, becoming "popular," visiting Upcoming section
・Select
digging (contribution to popularity) and burying (kicking off inappropriate things)
・Share
building a network with other people
・Discuss
sharing opinions by leaving messages and comments

3. Concluding my presentation
-SCICU Key Questions
・The main skills needed to use this social software
・The affordances (what the service make possible, what it impedes)
・How it can be used to network professionally and connect users to learning resources
・What learned skills may promote development as effective learner in digital age

Agre Reading and Questions

1. The central problem for citizens in democracies is how to participate meaningfully in a society of hundreds and millions of people. With so many people, it is difficult for every single citizen to think that their opinions or votes would make a difference in society. Some theorists mention "civil society" which mediates between individuals and the state: they say that rather than national legislation, a single citizens opinion would most likely have a bigger effect on policy positions of their profession, party, church, union, political club, and etc.

2. Citizens need the skills for building social capital and participating in the collective production and circulation of political arguments. It is essential for all citizens to be able to associate themselves with the political issues.

3. To describe the process that citizens use to promote their concerns about an issue in society, the author uses the word "issue entrepreneurship."

4. This skill includes 4 steps: the process of identifying issues that are coming to prominence, researching and analyzing them, staking out public positions on them, and building social networks of other citizens who have associated themselves with related issues as well.

Questions on this section:
1. Is the average citizen aware of these skills? Are they interested in having a voice in society?
2. Does a citizen have the right to have a voice in society, or is it their duty?

Lesson 6

What do you currently do when a teacher asks you to collaborate with other students on a project? What do you now if you want to show someone else what you have done? What do you do if you need to work on it at the same time?

When a teacher tells me to collaborate with other students on a class project, I would first of all talk with my classmates about the main purpose of the project is. Then we would probably talk for a while about all the facts that we can think of in order to deepen each others understanding about the topic. At the end of the class we would exchange cell phone mail addresses and e-mail addresses. When I want to show other people what I have done, I would e-mail my work to everyone in the group and ask for feedback. When we are all finished with our individual things and need to get together to work on the project at the same time, I would most likely reserve the studying room in the Osmar Library. If we are just talking, we could try the Shin-D building as well. I would do my best to get together on campus, because it would be somewhat inconvenient to get together off campus.


Things used for collaboration, Stumbling blocks (# of Responses)
MSN messenger :difficult to express idea (3), much slower than face-to-face (1)
Computer E-mail: becomes very messy (1)
Wiki: only individual things, no discussion (1)
Regular meeting: difficult to schedule time to meet (2), fall behind when meeting is missed (2)
Library study room: missed meeting result in decrease of voice (1), ppl don't come to meetings and show up on the presentation day (3)

Explain

The Google Document and Spreadsheet program was not very difficult to use and it was very useful because I could create a document online and publish it from the Google doc page. In order to use this program successfully, I needed to learn how to create a readable chart. I had troubles in the "what data?" section because I did not know how to write the range of data (eg. B7:I7). The chart kept changing shapes, all becoming the same color, or it showed the image "no data." However, when it was all done, it was true that a chart has much more impact when talking about statistical data.

Lesson 5: Think, Explore, Explain

It is convenient to be able to post sites publicly on your own site. People who come to your web page may have interest in what you have posted, and I thought that adding the clip to the E-portfolio gave the page a little more variety. Of course it may be useful to post important news articles to bring the issue into peoples' minds. Adding your favorite sites and web pages is especially useful when working with other people on schoolwork.

On a daily basis, I visit Hotmail and Yamata to check my e-mail, Mixi and Funki to look at people's diaries, Facebook to look at pictures of my friends who live abroad. Sometimes I look at my high school homepage to see if anything is updated, and I also often check the W3.

Readings: Kahn & Kellner

Brief Summary
The internet continues to serve as an active and essential space where humans can share and spread the ideas of things such as identity, culture, and social practices. With plenty of benefits, the internet seems to be the optimum tool for communication; however, it is said that the info-tech has been shown to retard face-to-face relationships, threaten traditional conceptions, and extend structures of Western imperialism and advanced capitalism. We can say that there are a number of conflicts that can be created with over-dependency on the virtual world of communication. These include a number of political issues of access to information, capitalist globalization, imperialist war, and other forms of oppression. The article gives several examples in order to explain these issues: the terrorist attacks of September 11, Bush administration and its doctrine of preemptive war, blog and wikis (and so called “google bombing”) and so on.

Reaction
I had never heard of “google bombing” and I was shocked to read that such a method could be used by bloggers. This is the thing with the internet: we need to remember that it is merely a machine and a piece of technology.

Lesson 4: Think, Explore, Explain

There are no special skills needed in using Delicious because if you simply bookmark the pages you want, you can access them whenever you wish to.
Currently, I save my favourite webpages or the pages which I use everyday to my "favourites." I also sometimes write the URL on a post-it note and stick it on my screen, I write it down on my schedule book which I carry everyday, or I keep the data in my cellular phone. If it is so important I need to use it both at school and at home, I would use the latter ways to keep the URL handy.

Sept 30th: Barabasi Questions 2

1. The principle of six degrees of separation suggests that everyone on this planet is separated by only six other people. In other words, our society can be easily navigated by different kinds of social links, which would create a network of about 6 billion nodes where any pair are on average 6 links from each other.

2. World Wide Web was invented by Berners-Lee around 1990; this is the pre-internet society. It was a virtual network in which Webpages consisted of much information such as news, movies, gossips, maps, etc. However, people today have discovered that it is not the overall size of the Web, or the number of Webpages created, that is important; what is more crucials seems to be the distance between any two pages.

3. Compared to the six degrees of separation in people of the society, scientists estimate that the diameter of the Web was close to about 19; nineteen degrees of separation. Six and nineteen seem to be drastically different, but what matters most is that huge networks collapse and display separation far shorter than the number of nodes they have.

4. Examples of separation ranges include our society, the WWW, and the Internet. First of all, our society, which has a network of six billion nodes, has a separation of six. The Web, which close to a billion nodes, has a separtion of nineteen. The Internet, a network of hundreds and thousands of routers, has a separation of ten.

5. Research suggests that fundamentally, as more links are added, there is a higher possibility of the distance between the nodes to collapse. The origin of the small separation can be explained as the logarithmic term presented in a mathematic formula; the logarithm shrinks the huge network and creates a small world around us.

6. I think that my connections to the society could be divided into more than 5: university, high school, elementary school, my old gymnastics club, family, etc. What is more, it can be divided even more inside those networks. For example, my university connections can be divided into my ultimate team, section mates, division friends, and etc. Personally, whether I like it or not, the connections with my bukatsudo is the strongest right now because I spend so much time with them.

Lesson 3 Think, Explore, Explain

1. I thought that even if you had the search engine add-on in your software, it it more efficient if you learn how to search for the exact information you would like to look for. I have the Google tool bar on my Firefox, but when I want to look for information about, for example, results about the world championships results of rhythmic gymnastics in Padra, Greece I need to type in such long words; perhaps if I knew that the only words I really need to type in is "worlds rhythmic 2007" than I would be able to find the information quicker.

2. Add-on extensions on Firefox software allows us to easily go to the sites we need to use everyday without having to type the URL every time. What I also like about Firefox than the usual Internet Explorer is that every time I change to a completely different URL, the pages that I was using before are still in there as tabs. Therefore I won't need to go back and forth so many times or to open another browser.

3. Firefox has the same functions as Internet Explorer and in addition as a few different functions as well, which some people may find more convenient than Explorer. Therefore we can say that Firefox can be used professionally for companies and businesses.

4. If you are able to use both Internet Explorer and Firefox, it is convenient when you are using a different computer with only one of them. What's more, if one of the software closes down for any kind of reason, you always have another choice if you had both on your computer.

Lesson 2- Think, Explore, Ezplain

1. Think- I think that it is good for everyone, including people who are not students, to have an e-portfolio. Keeping track of your own work and research is never a bad thing but rather allows us to look back; it may become useful in the future. It is something a company may be looking for when applying for a job as well.

2. Explore-A disadvantage of having a traditional resume includes the fact that a traditional resume it is not possible to put every single thing on it. The traditional resume is usually paper and you can only “fill in” the spaces with what is asked for. A disadvantage of a e-portfolio is that after all, the computer is a machine. We rely on the internet and computer a lot, so if anything happens to the internet, we will not be able to use it.

3. Explain-It is essential for us to learn and make use of the new technology of the century. It is predictable that the internet will become the major communication system, it will most likely be a disadvantage to not be able to use it.

When I was unbelievably thin.

I did rhythmic gymnastics for 10 years.

Summertime Pictures!

Here is a picture of when I went to Squamish in Canada during summer vacation. I used to horseback ride with my friends when I was in elementary school.

Here is a picture of some cute little boys running around in the waterpark. I went to Stanley Park in Vancouver and cycled for about 4 hours. The sea was beautiful and so was the weather!

Sept. 18th: Barabasi Questions

1. One element critical to Paul’s success in spreading the Christian message was the fact that he decided it was necessary to get rid of having strict rules and barriers to becoming a Christian; this includes softening food rules and abolishing circumcision. Another element that lead Paul to success was that he walked all across the world in order to spread Christianity. He used his own knowledge of the social network of that century and went around to the largest communities in order to spread his beliefs effectively.
2. I would think this could happen again. This was the first century and clearly, it took a lot more time and effort to spread the word of Christianity. However, these days there are many ways of communicating ideas: books, letters, media, and of course transportation is also a key factor that enables us to travel to places that people of the first century would have never even imagined in going to in an unbelievable amount of time.
3. New kinds of maps made of our interconnectivity include things such as trade/ownership maps, internet maps, ecosystem maps, gene maps, and so on.
4. The “real surprise” is that these new maps have a common blueprint, and laws govern the structure and evolution of all the social networks around us.
5. The author defines the nature of the most scientific research in the 20th century as reductionism. People assumed that it was necessary for them to understand the nature’s individual components before grasping nature as a whole. However the problem that we run into this century is that there is more than one way of putting nature’s puzzle together; in other words, comprehending individual parts does not necessarily lead us to comprehending the whole. Nature seems to be much more complex than that, because we now have discovered that everything is connected and interacting with each other, and nothing exists individually.
6. Barabasi predicts that the new science of networks will be the focus of scientific research in the coming era. In other words, it will be essential for people to move away from the idea of reductionism and start thinking of society as a complex social network in which everything is linked with everything. In my opinion, I feel that it is important to be able to view things both individually and as a whole.