PLN 18

I read “Teen beaten at party died from lacerated heart,” written by the CNN Wire Staff. 18 year-old Bobby Maurice Tillman from Georgia was stomped to death outside a home where a party was being held. The police say that if he was not stomped causing a broken rib puncturing his heart, he possibly could have survived. This matters to me, because whenever I am going to a party from now on, I want to know everyone that is going to be attending. So I know for a fact that I will be safe. This affects the world and society, because you never know who is going to be lurking out there. You just can’t assume that he is a nice guy. Bobby got beaten down by four men, Horace, Emmanuel, Quantez, and Tracen. Quote from Bobby’s mom, “My son was beaten by four cowards.” These four murderers are going to have to live for the rest of their life knowing that they murdered a poor innocent boy. This matters to education, because I believe in our schools we can teach students how to stay away and act in these situations. I believe that if we do there would be a lot less deaths in the world. If we do, people like Bobby Tillman would not die.

PLN 17

I just finished reading the “What If” post by the Fischbowl and I believe I can connect to their ideas directly. Yes I agree that a lot of kids can misuse these new technologies in order to distract them from their work. But I also believe that most of the kids are looking into the future for a future job and or career. In order to have these future dreams, we need to learn how to use the technology that we have now to our fullest extent. I think that it would be pretty sweet to know all of the stuff that you can do with your IPod or computer to corporate stuff like movies and music. This matters to the world, because a lot of kids do not get the chances to use these devices, and not only that, not even use these devices they way they want to learn them. Like the exact details. This matters to society, because the U.S in its current state right now is in a technological up rise, and I will bet you that over half the people that live in the U.S. don’t know anything about it. I believe that we need to start being even more technologically based with our students, then we will start to see the grades go up.

PLN 12

In CNN’s article, “U.S. swimmer dies during event in United Arab Emirates.” A 26 year old power-house named Fran Crippen from Pennsylvania died while competing in a 10-kilometer marathon swimming world cup. They are still under the investigation of how he had died. Even though I don’t strongly know this guy, it still affects me as a loss. It’s as if though I have lost my long-lost cousin. This matters to the world, because no matter where you are or what you’re doing, even if it is something as simple as swimming. It can still be dangerous. This replies to education, because we need to teach our kids how to stay above water, even though some people might not want to swim, water is all around us. Even though that we don’t know what happened to Crippen, it is still a huge tragedy.

PLN 11

I read "2020 Vision" by Karl Fisch. In this he talked about what the future has in hold for us and how drastically education shall be changed in the future. This matters to the world because all these changes are happening in the world and in some of the things he talked about, environmentally the world will be altered. This matters to me because I will be growing up in this world of change and I will be a part of it. When it talked of all the electronic advancements, it is scary some of the things that now seem like dreams that will be probably a reality in the future. This matters to eduducation more than anything because it talked about all the changes that teachers and students deel with. He said that by 2017 there will be no grades and the only thing recorded will be student advancement instead of performance. Free laptops and other things will be given out for free and the whole educational program we have today will be old fashioned history!

PLN 10

I read the article, "Digital photos can reveal your location, raise privacy fears” written by Mark Milian from CNN, and this matters to the world, because whoever is constantly online is at risk. Some people have figured out how to take a picture that you have posted on Facebook of your dog, and find out where you live, and where you have recently been. They do this by using something called an Exchangeable Image File Format (EIFF). It can detail whether the photographer used a flash, which digital effects were applied to a picture and when the photo was taken. EXIF can also contain the precise GPS coordinates for where a photo was taken. This matters to education, because now in school, we use the computer every day. A lot of it is also used with pictures, like what I am doing in my business technology class. It can be very dangerous. I can connect this directly to what Mrs. Smith taught us about our digital footprint. It only shows that not only teachers are looking at us, but strangers too. This connects to me, because I am on Facebook all of the time. Now that I know what can be done, I’m going to be even more careful for what I do online.

PLN 9

"Rigor Redefined" by Tony Wagner matters because it talks about two educational goals that could be conflicting with each other; what skills will students need to accomplish higher goals, and what skills do we need to be good citizens? This matters to me, because this is how the world views me as a person, and this is how I have to make a living for myself. This matters to education, because education will have to be thought of differently to meet certain goals in order to succeed in certain areas of education. This matters to the world, because I know that at least half of Arapahoe High school students are being affected by this. Which means that at least half of the world is affected b this. This article does show they care about the human race, a philanthropist in a way. This matters to the economy, because we are just digging ourselves into a deeper hole. We need to create more jobs without making the job market more specific to a certain field.

PLN8

I read “Rapper T.I. arrested on machine gun charges, misses BET show,” a CNN article. This man, Clifford Harris, otherwise known as T.I. paid his bodyguard $12,000 to go and buy him three machine guns, and two silencers. This matters to me, because I don't want some drugged up guy running around shooting off his guns. Harris was born in the projects and proved to a lot of people that you can make success coming from the projects. But he also proved that it’s not that hard going back to his old ways. Harris’s words and actions affect the world and education by being a bad role-model. A lot of kids love Harris’s work, and they idol him; but he goes and shoots a few people, it shows bad reputation, but all the kids still love him, so they want to be like him. This connects to me personally, because I have seen this before, back when I lived in Denver. I saw a guy running down the street with a gun. It really changed the way I view people now.

PLN7

After I watched "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" by Michael Wesch, I realized that the web is not making us stupid at all. We have the higher intellect creating these massive super computers. Since we are creating these computers that makes us more superior than the computers. I can now view the computer as an organizational tool to help me with homework, saving websites, blog spots I might be on, just about everything. I think that machines are making us smarter in fact, because we use these machines everyday and we see millions of things good with these machines, but when we see one bad, or something that could be changed to help us positively, we change it. After I watched "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us” by Michael Wesch, it changed my thinking in our machines we have today, and the machines we possibly could have in the future.

PLN6

I read “Car thief nabbed near Jeff co elementary school,” by the Denver Post. This story was about man who stole a black Cadillac at 5:45 in the morning. The police later spotted the man in the car outside a Jeff Co elementary school. The man got out of his car and ran. The police used their special K-9 unit and hunted him down to find him in a garage. This matters to me, because it shows how ignorant we Americans are just leaving these expensive cars out and about. And also how ignorant these people stealing these cars can be, thinking they can steal this really nice car and expect to get away with it. I just really think the world should watch out for these kinds of people, so we can be prepared so this won’t happen again.

PLN5

In Will Richardson's “Footprints in the Digital Age,” I completely agree with him, students must be taught to take care and improve their digital footprint. I could just Google myself and a lot of stuff will pop up, but now that I’m in high school I need to be careful to what I do and say on the internet. So it is very important to stay on top of school work and emails and blogs I say online. Some people could take this chance and change their digital footprint and succeed. While others look at this opportunity, but choose to be misanthropes and hate the world.

PLN4

I read "Man sought in robbery at a Public Storage facility in Denver" By Howard Pankratz of The Denver Post, and there was a tall black man who arrived at a Public Storage Facility armed and asking for money. The police have not yet identified this man, and he is still out there. This matters to me, because you never know when or where evil is going to come, even at a public storage facility. Evil is lurking around every corner.

PLN3

In this internet excerpt “Is Google Making us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, he explains how the internet is messing with the human brains. This matters to the world, because if we continue to read on these internet web pages, it would be like were a new person. As said in this excerpt by Nicholas Carr, “As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” I like this statement, because it is a very likely opinion for the future. Us humans should be more concerned for what we do in our everyday stroll, because who knows what will happen.

PLN1

 In this video“A vision of students today”  by Michael Wesch, we truly see what students are doing inside and outside of class. All kids have the learning ability and skill to get through school. But most of us are lazy and want to act “cool.” I can connect to this video, because when I get home this is mostly what I want to do; Facebook, texting, try to hang out with my friends. I keep on wanting to be cool and fun, but to do that I believe that I have to get rid of something; schoolwork. I can guarantee you that 80% of the failing grades in high school are because of lazy people. All of this technology is contributing to every single person and who that person can be. I am a smart kid along with a lot of other people. But we do not have good grades, because we choose to procrastinate, and choose to follow a path with friends and fun. But if we can dig down and choose that other path, I know we can succeed.