Final Draft of my E-Portfolio

This is my final draft, enjoy :)

http://snizare.googlepages.com/

Extra Credit #5: Free Digital Material

I do not agree with the limitations proposed by the lawsuit against YouTube. I have really enjoyed what the online community has had to offer in terms of “free” digital material. I think that it is lawful for a person to post up short clips of copyrighted material because it helps spread information. For example, by putting up songs online, a band can hope to expand their audience. Whereas normally a consumer would be turned off by the fact that they need to pay $15 just to listen to a band for the first time, free online content makes it possible to listen to new bands without a large cost. Similarly, I think that free video material can also enjoy similar benefits. Short clips posted from major movie productions could incite viewers to buy the movie or investigate more about what the product is about. This could actually work to increase their audience and help them increase profits as well. It can also serve as a basis for inspiration: a movie producer may gain a valuable insight from a short clip posted on YouTube that they would normally not have access to due to copyright issues. I think that this is far more valuable than the monetary loss that would be felt by producers. The spread of information has enormous potential benefits to society as a whole. However, the only cost of free digital material is monetary: certain companies won’t necessarily be making as much money because viewers can access their content for free. This may lead in a lesser value placed on intellectual property because producers would be less inclined to create a feature film that costs them a lot of money. This could be a big downside, however, because it could create a snowball effect and eventually producers may not feel like they are being subsidized enough to create a film or clip, and we may loose out on digital content in the future.

Extra Credit #2: Social Networking and Education

I think that if social networks are used as an extension, not replacement, of the class room they have the potential for an enormous benefit in terms of education quality. It’s obvious that social networks have the potential to make long distances separating people seemingly insignificant when all one has to do to interact with other people is log onto the web.
Yes, I will concede that there are certain issues to be concerned about: such as online identity misconceptions as well as the online community as a way of replacing the classroom. I do think that there are a certain number of emotionally challenged individuals who seek to create an online identity that is much different from their real personality, however, this is no reason to shun social networks and ban them from the educational community. Also, I think that the online community should not act as a replacement for real life situations, because although audio and video are helping to make it seem more realistic and interactive, it still is missing real life elements that are crucial to certain learning experiences. An example can be seen with Drivers ED. Although many adolescents choose to familiarize themselves with the rules of the road via an online course, the bulk of learning stems from getting hands on experience behind the wheel which I think is necessary to learning to drive a car. Most kids are not able to complete their written permit test and safely drive a car in traffic situations immediately thereafter.
That said, I definitely think that social networks do have a potential to add to the quality of education. Much about education is in meeting new people that have new perspectives that add to your own. It’s all about finding that one particular insight that’s necessary to make that one particular idea “click” in your mind. It used to be the case that a student is limited to learning in the class room. However, with the advent of social networks, it could be possible for a student to interact with a variety of different peers from around the world and gain valuable insight.
I also do think that the idea of online communities that work to inform parents of what their kids are up to is a great idea. If children were to update their blogs with homework assignments and projects, their parents could actually get to see first hand what their kids are learning about and how they are progressing as a student. Also, students could have blogs that could be viewed by educational institutions themselves. This could have multiple benefits: one particular institution could have a collection of blogs with statistics, samples of work, etc, in order to show potential students what the learning environment and expectations are at that particular school. Another potential benefit is that students could embark on research projects that would other wise be impossible. For example, if an economics student in the US is trying to learn more about how the micro-credit market is impacting the Mexican economy, there is very little amounts of resources that are available in the US. It’s necessary to travel to Mexico in order to gain first hand experience and interview people that are directly affected. However, if there existed a social network specific to international economic issues, then a student could conduct online interviews and surveys. This would make the project/research proposal much more feasible. Furthermore, the thought of online social networking as a way to build up online communicating skills is a great idea especially with the advent of online businesses. It’s going to become an increasingly necessary and important skill to be able to communicate with others over the World Wide Web. People who are not used to virtual etiquette, syntax, style, etc, will have a hard time adapting when they need to make an online sales pitch. They may be unsure if sarcasm or other emotions can effectively be communicated through the Web.

Extra Credit #3: Benefits of Technology with regards to Education

I think that it is going to be very difficult to quantify the benefits of utilizing advanced technology in the classroom. As was stated by the moderator, we can surely say that there is improvement in certain areas (such as proficiency with an IPod), but it is hard to determine what kind of net benefit we as a society will notice. There are definitely some areas of education, which can lead to an improvement that society will notice. For example, if everybody learns to about the physics of driving, the road will be a much safer place and there would be fewer accidents. This could potentially be quantified in terms of the number of lives saved, however, it’s very difficult to create an accurate experiment with control groups etc. Even if we could create a base unit, such as money itself, as a means of measuring success (Example: students who use technology make $15 thousand dollars more in their annual salary as compared to students who don’t), it is still tough to quantify the benefits because of the different ways students choose to use technology. For example, some students may utilize the Internet as a research database such that they can sift through loads of information much quicker than they would if they were limited to a library. In this sense we can consider the Internet to be a form of a cognitive enhancement, it allows humans to process and access information more efficiently, more specifically it is a kind of collaborative intelligence (bits and pieces of information uploaded by individuals that creates a consortium of information). I can personally say that this particular technology has made my life much easier and more productive when it comes to scholarly research. Tools such as Google Scholar have made academic searches on the web possible, and as a result I don’t need to manually sift through a bunch of hard-copy textbooks. Instead, search engines make this process much quicker. I would not have been able to access the same kinds of information, let alone in a similar time frame, if I had been limited to strictly libraries. Thus: to me technology has added a lot to the quality of education. However, the Internet doesn’t necessarily guarantee success for a student. They could choose to utilize the Internet as a means to plagiarizing, in which case there would be very little educational benefit. Also, it has been suggested that the advent of the television and the internet has induced a learning disorder, ADD/ADHD, among many young children. I personally think that this is true because commercials and TV shows are designed to communicate a lot of information in a very short period of time in order to hold viewer's attention. A lot of children expect to have their attention captivated by very fast paced, flashy, interesting images displayed on a screen. When they come into the classroom where it takes time to read an entire novel and then learn about its significance, their minds are unable to adapt to the different learning pace. In this sense, technology would also act as a learning inhibitor and make existing institutions less efficient than they are today. It definitely appears that different students can utilize different technologies in a variety of different ways, and it makes it very difficult to make a generalization such as, “technology does add a lot to the quality of most education”. I think that the ways in which a student views technology is kind of subjective: it could be a potentially useful tool under the right circumstances.

Extra Credit #4: How various college classes overlap

The various college classes that I am taking definitely have a lot of overlap. In my opinion, this makes studying much more interesting because as a student I am encouraged to apply what I have learned to other fields of academia. It can be said that classes within the same major can be considered similar. Such as English 1a and English 34: when writing my e-portfolio, I need to be mindful of the diction I am using, which creates a distinguishing tone. This is important because I need to be mindful of my tone when addressing different types of audience. There are also other important writing elements such as concision and clarity that are also important when writing an E-Portfolio. This may be expected, because both classes deal with the English language. However, English 34 isn’t really an English class in my opinion, but more of a technological class that is dealing with a very particular aspect of the online community and social networking. It has a lot to do with the modern world. In class, I would say that we have not devoted a lot of time to learning about the English language, which definitely isn’t a bad thing, but have rather focused our interests to a much different aspect of communication. Across subjects, we can still find a similar pattern especially when discussing English. This is in part because the spoken and written language is critical to any profession, regardless of whether it’s discussion centers around History, science, philosophy, or mathematics. Knowing how to write and talk is something that has proven to be valuable in all of my classes. With regards to another set of subjects, such as math and economics, there is also a very clear relationship. The fact that there are prerequisites for upper division Economics classes is indicative that a clear understanding of mathematics is essential to interpreting highfalutin economic issues that utilize complex formulas. I use basic mathematic formula’s when solving science and economic problems. I also tend to use economic reasoning a lot when arguing about certain topics that may relate to History, philosophy, and science (bioethics). By doing so I feel that I can strengthen my argument because it brings in another rational perspective and may lead to an insight. Aside from specific mechanics such as I have mentioned, all courses definitely teach me to be more diligent when managing my time and resources, more introspective when analyzing issues or themes, and to persevere from start to finish no matter what kind of an assignment or project it is. This is probably in part because all courses at Foothill are similar in the sense that they all have written homework assignments, tests, and some kind of class room element in which students are expected to participate. All of these skills seem like they will be useful later on in life, and I am definitely glad that they are being consistently reinforced in every subject area.

Rough Draft of my E-Portfolio

This is the link to my e-portfolio. It's a rough draft that shows the basic layout and the kinds of artifacts I will be posting. I used Google pages because it is free, very quick and easy to use, and I do not feel that the application is in any way limiting!

http://snizare.googlepages.com/home

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Extra Credit #1: Mission / Purpose of the Honors Institute

I think that the answer to this question is circumstantial depending on which institution we are referring to specifically. If the question is directed towards the idea of an Honors Institute in general, then I think that the purpose is to provide a prestigious environment in which diligent, motivated students can separate themselves from the general student body and foster a more conducive intellectual environment. In and of itself, the Honors Institution is a distinct program that is practically separate from the educational institution to which it is loosely attached. Students that wish to become a part of such an institution are attempting to pursue a more rigorous path to intellectual enlightenment and in doing so they simultaneously distinguish themselves from the rest of their peers by creating their own environment. Honors Institutions, because of their advanced nature relative to the institution to which they are attached, are always intended to act as a catalyst for maturation and success in the future. However, if the question is directed towards Foothill (or other Community Colleges, for that matter) the purpose is more geared towards transferring to a prestigious university like UCLA. This is because by definition community college is designed to educate local students and aid them in their journey to a four year institution. Although they are a great tool for learning (possibly more valuable than Ivy League Schools), and despite their numerous other advantages (small classes, cheaper tuition, closer to home, etc), community colleges were designed for the purpose of transferring. That said, the Honors Institution at Foothill, as an extension of the existing educational institution (which is already geared towards completing General Education and transferring to another institution) is a more refined, efficient, and reliable way of obtaining the same result (admission into UCLA). The Honors classes are rigorous for the purpose of being recognized by Berkeley and LA, not so much as they are designed to cater to the Foothill student population. Graduating the Honors Program involves taking a variety of different classes while at the same time maintaining a respectable grade point average. If the purpose of Honors Institutions was purely for learning, then we would not be assigning numerical values (GPA’s) to particular levels of cognitive function (GPA’s are not a good way to gauge how much a student has learned, they really just measure how well they have pleased their teachers (which is not necessarily an indicator of how diligent they were)). A better approach might be to have a teacher evaluate students work through constructive comments and focus on individual improvement (subjective and relates to the individual) rather than on GPA (intended to be objective and a universal measure).