English 1010 Journal

2006-12-08T19:51:00.000-08:00

My Last and Final Journal

This semester I learned that there is more to writing then five paragraph persuasive essays. I learned that it is important to know and understand both sides of an issue with out just trying to discredit the side you disagree with. I learned to start thinking a little deeper about the subjects that I choose to my write papers on. I learned that grammar does count and that trying to compact too many details into a paper can just make it a mess and confuse your reader. I also learned how to use scholarly journal in my research.

One thing that I wish we could have spent more time on is correcting sentences from our own papers. The day in class we spent doing this helped me a lot more than when Mrs. Smith just gave us some grammar rules. I think our writing would have improved more and quicker because then we could have seen how these rule worked in our own writing.

Another thing that I wish we could have spent more time doing is going over example of what our papers were supposed to look like formatting and all. And yes, I did read all of the examples in the book and they were pretty helpful. However, I felt like a lot of the articles that we read were just a ways beyond most of our writing abilities, and differed too much from what we were supposed to turn in. So a lot of times the article s we read didn’t really help me get any bearings of how I was supposed to write. The articles we read made me think but I don’t think much of that translated into my writing.

I wish we would have spent a little less time talking about scholarly article we read because I didn’t feel like they were helping my writing. The articles made me and my peers think more deeply about things that we normally wouldn’t have taken the time to think about and we had some good class conversations. However, I just think we could have spent more time doing other things that would have been more beneficial.

I do think that this class has helped to make me a better writer just because I’m more aware of wear my weaknesses are, so I know where I need to put forth extra effort.

I also realized that I was frequently sacrificing sentence fluency in order to include lots of details that a reader didn’t need to understand my point. I believe that in this area I have improved considerably because my paper flows more easily from one thought to the next.

My grammar as also improved though I still know I have a ways to go.

This class has helped me a little in my other classes when I write papers. But, I still need more time then I would like to apply what I have learned in this class to other paper. I just not very good about using my new skill right of the start.

2006-12-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

Journal 15

When it comes to the peer review I don’t know what to think? At the start of the semester it really seemed pointless I mean I kind of felt like we were wasting time. We would get into our groups of three or four but half the time no body could correct your paper or really say what they thought. I don’t know if this was because we didn’t know enough to fix someone’s paper and give them suggestion on how to improve it, or if it was simply because we were scared to offend someone. But either way the first few times we did the peer review I really didn’t fell like I got much out of it.
Another thing that I think hurt the peer reviews was the work sheets style outlines we were using them. I think a lot of people just answered the questions from the outline like they were filling out a work sheet instead of trying to help each other write a better paper
However, our more recent peer reviews have been much more helpful to me especially the most recent one for paper five. This time we didn’t have to follow an outline and answer specific questions and it seemed like people were a lot more welling to comet on and correct others paper. I really don’t know if this had anything to do with the out line or if was just from practicing peer reviews that caused us to finally get it right, but it seemed like we were a lot more productive.
I liked this peer review a lot more because when my sentences got to wordy and I didn’t notice it or couldn’t think off better way to say it people pointed it out to me and gave me suggestions as to how to fix it. I often try and give to much detail or I repeat myself so it was nice having people crossing things out that weren’t necessary. I also love the fact that they fixed some of my grammar. I don’t know what it is about conventions but they seem to make more sense to me when I see them in my own work. Just because I know why they are their.
Despite the success that I felt paper fives peer review had I have to give some credit to Chad. I have been making the kid help me with my grammar. For paper four I sat down with him and had Chad proof read my paper but I just didn’t let him make the corrections and go. He had to explain to me why it was wrong the it was and why I needed this mark or that mark to make it correct. That’s probably been the most helpful peer review I have experienced thus far. So yes I do believe the my peers input has made me a better writer. However, I’m really not sure if I was all that helpful because I was always kind of cautious about fixing someone else’s paper because English is not my best subject as you might have figured out. Despite this I do think I provided a few helpful comments but not much more then that.

2006-11-24T20:15:00.002-08:00

JOURNAL14

As you many of you might know I have been doing research on factors that effect students learning. I have read over six scholarly articles but this is not the full extent of my research. I recently had the opportunity to volunteer at Riverton Elementary School where I helped the first graders with their sight words. As result of the experience I gained from my volunteer work, I have been able to observe and develop my own ideas on factors that effect students learning.
In both my own observations and in the writings of multiple scholarly articles a number of factors were mentioned repeatedly as effecting students learning. Some of theses factors are: parental involvement, homework, culture, and etc. During the course of my volunteer work I notice some students had only passed of one section of sight word while others had passed off more then six. This was occurring despite the fact that I was spending more time helping the struggling students. This made me decide that there is number of factor that has substantial influence on student learning abilities out side of school jurisdiction
As I thought of such possible factors I decided that parental involvement had to be major contributing factor. Despite my reflections I decided to try and confirm by belief. However I soon encountered some difficulties in trying to prove that parental involvement effects student learning. The difficulty I encountered was doing to the fact that none the school was not allowed to disclose any of students personal info including anything like parent teacher conference info. So I asked if could look at which students were completing their homework in order to measure parental involvement. I was able to use homework as means of measuring parental involvement because almost all of the first graders homework requires a parent’s supervision and their signature in order to get credit.
Luckily the school saw no harm in me having this information. So I was to observe how parental involvement was affecting student’s progress. The result of which was that student who where completing their homework were progressing quicker then their peers who were not.

2006-11-24T20:15:00.001-08:00

2006-11-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

JOURNAL13

As you many of you might know I have been doing research on factors that effect students learning. I have read over six scholarly articles but this is not the full extent of my research. I recently had the opportunity to volunteer at Riverton Elementary School where I helped the first graders with their sight words. As result of the experience I gained from my volunteer work, I have been able to observe and develop my own ideas on factors that effect students learning.
In both my own observations and in the writings of multiple scholarly articles a number of factors were mentioned repeatedly as effecting students learning. Some of theses factors are: parental involvement, homework, culture, and etc. During the course of my volunteer work I notice some students had only passed of one section of sight word while others had passed off more then six. This was occurring despite the fact that I was spending more time helping the struggling students. This made me decide that there is number of factor that has substantial influence on student learning abilities out side of school jurisdiction
As I thought of such possible factors I decided that parental involvement had to be major contributing factor. Despite my reflections I decided to try and confirm by belief. However I soon encountered some difficulties in trying to prove that parental involvement effects student learning. The difficulty I encountered was doing to the fact that none the school was not allowed to disclose any of students personal info including anything like parent teacher conference info. So I asked if could look at which students were completing their homework in order to measure parental involvement. I was able to use homework as means of measuring parental involvement because almost all of the first graders homework requires a parent’s supervision and their signature in order to get credit.
Luckily the school saw no harm in me having this information. So I was to observe how parental involvement was affecting student’s progress. The result of which was that student who where completing their homework were progressing quicker then their peers who were not.

2006-11-17T22:33:00.000-08:00

Journal 13

Last time our class met we talked about the article “Teaching as an Amusing Activity.”
This article talks about how television and education have been combined. The article goes on to say why this is bad. He uses “Sesame Street” as an example. The article says “We know that “Sesame Street” encourages children to love school only if school is like “Sesame Street.” It undermines the basic traditions of schooling including: social interaction, attendance, rules of public decorum, and learning taking priority over fun.
During the course of our discussion I felt like I was being misunderstood. No I do not completely disagree with the author. In fact, I found myself frequently agreeing and acknowledging his points. It seemed like I was only able to say what I disagreed with - - I guess from know on I should start with what I agree with and then move to my disagreements.
However from reading this article I found myself at odds with it due to two articles I had previously read for my research. One article talked about the millennial generation. The millennial generation is simply everyone born after 1992. This article talked about how this generation has been raised in completely different environment in comparison with their predecessors. They have been raised with all sorts of electronic entertainment such as: ipods, DVDs, cell phones, and text messages. While this article admits that these students do have attention problems he also recognizes their strengths. The author of this article didn’t think that all of these technologies were bad. He simply believed that this generation was a new breed of students and that it was the educator responsibility to find ways to reach them. While I do believe this to a degree I also believe that student must have o good attitude to learn or it will be impossible to teach them with fun or strenuous teaching methods.
The other article I reed was about homework design. The author of this article suggested that homework should involve both parental involvement and student’s interest. The author said by doing this it will increase student work quality, and students are also more likely to retain the knowledge gained from the homework do to its correlation with their own interests. I also believe this to be true. However I can see the author’s point of view form “Teaching as an Amusing activity.” He made me realize that their must be limits to this approach of homework design. It can not become like many educational TV programs where a good story line is developed and then the curriculum is built around it. The curriculum must take priority.

2006-11-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

Journal 12

During the course of this weak I worked on researching scholarly journals for my annotative bibliography. One of the articles that I found titled Homework in The 21st Century: The Antiquated and Ineffectual Implementation of a Time Honored Education Strategy discussed the effectiveness of using homework to enforce educational goals. This article gave a number of reasons why homework is both effective and ineffective.
The author Joseph Simplicio said that one of the major reasons homework was ineffective was because of student’s procrastination. He explained that most students don’t do their homework until late at night or just before class starts. As result, students rush through their homework assignment and gain little knowledge that the exercise was designed to help them acquire.
But why do students procrastinate doing their homework is it simply because they are lazy? While I’m sure this does explain why a number of student’s procrastinate. I do not believe that it is the primary reason students procrastinate. I believe that many students simply don’t have much choice but to procrastinate doing their homework do to their involvement with: family, friends, extra curricular activities, and work. I know first hand that trying to accomplish everything a good student is supposed to can be difficult. When I was in high school I played lacrosse. This meant that from January to the first of June I was at practice form 3:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. Monday through Friday. During this period of time I would leave my house a little after 7:00 A.M. and I wouldn’t get home until about 8:00. Before my mom allowed me to move through the house freely I was required to take a shower because apparently I possessed an unpleasant aroma. After purging myself of any unpleasant odder I would eat dinner. By now it was already past nine and I rarely had the desire to do my homework so I would watch TV instead. When I finally did get around to doing my homework it was usually about 10:00 P.M. and I hardly ever finished before I went to bed. As a result of my hour of procrastination I would spend much of the next school day doing my homework in other classes in order turn it on time.
Joseph Simplicio gives another example of why math homework is ineffective.
“The flaw here is that if a student does not comprehend a basic understanding of how to solve these problems, assigning more examples of the problem will not be an effective teaching tool. If a student cannot do one of the problems, she most certainly cannot do twenty of them.” I happen to agree with the author on this point once again do to my own experience. When I was taking 1050 and 1060 I was frequently confused even though I went to class everyday. I found doing my homework frustrating because I made little progress do to no lack of effort. I frequently just found myself copying the answers out of my solution manual. I would then try to figure out what the book had done to solve the problem. However when I was unable to complete my homework it helped me to recognize where I was struggling and then I could ask the teacher questions that improved my understanding.

2006-11-03T19:22:00.000-08:00

Journal 11

This weak we got into a conversation about why are attitude as students is the way it is when it comes to class assignments. This conversation got started when Chad Jardine asked if he could use information that he got from an interview he had with a military requirement officers for one of his sources for the annotative bibliography. Mrs. Smith answered with a no and then asked how come we always tried to negotiate our assignment. The class tried to answer the question but it didn’t seem like we came up with a really good reason and maybe that’s because there is multiply reasons why we as students posses this attitude.
I think the biggest reason simply is we are lazy. Now I really don’t like the idea of calling myself and my peers lazy. However when you get right down to it that’s what it seems to be. I mean for me personally I really do not enjoy reading scholarly journals in fact for the most part I hat reading them and I’ll bet a number of my peers feel the same way about them. My basic opinion of scholarly journal is that it is just piece of writing that some egotistical college professor wrote, in an attempt to use his vocabulary to prove how smart he or she is. But I also recognize that not all scholarly journals are like what I have just described. Despite this knowledge I still just look at scholarly journals as necessary evil I must make use of in order to pass this course. And as a result of this attitude I would prefer to read as few scholarly articles as possible.
Another factor that I think contributes to our desire to negotiate the terms of the assignment down is the simple fact that we would rather spend our time doing something else. I mean of the top my head I can think of at least a dozen things I would rather spend my time doing then writing a research paper. In some cases our selfish desire for entertainment is not the only factor that causes us to want to negotiate the terms of the assignment. I mean some student might a have a very limited amount of time between work and just going to class, so they are simply trying to compact the assignment so that they can fit it into their schedule. It’s a weird phenomenon students pay all of this money to go to college but in a lot of causes the students really don’t seem to want to be there.
The third contributing factor that I can see that make us act this way is habit. Like Edmundson said we approach college with a consumer’s attitude. We don’t seem to only use this attitude when it comes to picking colleges or universities to attend; we also use it in our classes. We do this by tying to negotiate our assignments in order to get the best deal. But what makes us think we can do this? The simple fact is we found that we are often successful especially those of use who have just graduated high school.

2006-10-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

JOURNAL 10

So far I have failed to do any type of research do to the fact that I have been preoccupied with a paper from another class. However despite this challenge I have thought of some possible topics that I could right my research paper on. My main two topics are what contributes to the effectiveness of a students learning and are political parties undermining how the founder designed our government to run.
I thought of the first subject while I was doing some volunteer work at Riverton Elementary school; where I was helping students with their reading skills. It quickly became apparent to me that multiple factor both with in and with out the schools boundaries effect how well the students were learning the curriculum. So as I investigated I found a number of reason the effected the students educations but I was unable to peruse any of them in depth. Consequently I now want to know more about these factors to see if there is a realistic way to improve these conditions in order to help student’s educations.
I came up with the subject of political parties undermining the way our founding fathers intended the government to work from all of the campaign advertisements I have heard. The campaign advertisement that inspired this idea the most was the one that goes off about how one candidate is the wrong person for the job and will corrupt congress just because he is a democrat. I personal think that this is stupid because it seems to me that the greatest factor in determining who people will vote for is there political party. Which I find ridicules because I think that people should vote for someone because of where they stand on the issues not where their party claims to stand. Another odd thing that I have found about the whole political party thing is that are first and arguably our greatest president George Washington never belonged to a political party.
So in conclusion I’m still undecided on what I will right paper four about. I do not know weather I will research the factor that contribute to the effectiveness of education, or if I research the corrupting influence of political parties on the government. So wish me luck and I will see you Monday

2006-10-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

JOURNAL 9

In this journal I will be writing about a kind of side not that was covered in our English class about poverty and other struggles. What I am talking about is the Shorris Earl essay titled On The Uses of a Liberal Education As a Weapon In The Hands of The Restless Poor. In this Essay Shorris talks about the level of poverty most of here students were in. In order for a number of students to attend the course their bus fair had to be paid round trip for every day of class. In addition, a snack or meal was provided at the begging of each course session. Shorris goes on to explain in more detail some of the individuals problematic situations that were enrolled in the program. But when Shorris tried to get funding for his program he feel short of being able to pay for all of the expenses so he decided to pay for it with his own money. Shores program went on to have great success. Many of the students who graduated the course received college credit and went on to attend regular colleges and universities. One was even fired for trying to start a union at her work. On the whole Shores program seems to have affected the students involved with it for the better.
This story strengthened and even helped enlighten some of my personal beliefs. You see some time ago I believed that regardless of a person’s circumstance no matter how unfortunate if that person worked hard they could get out of that situation. More recent years have shown me how wrong I was. Due to a recent family accident my eyes were opened to number of horrible situations where innocent people were suffering from some horrible medical conditions. Some were there from horrific accidents, others were just stricken with illness and some were there from savage attacks by there fellow men.
It was during this time period that I learned how quickly medical bills can build up into an insurmountable amount of money for the victim and even their family combined. Now I know some skeptics are saying ya right someone’s insurance would pay for that. Well I have a sad truth my friend insurance companies will only pay the minimum that they are required to. I mean as far as the insurance companies are concerned if you’re in stable condition and breathing then every thing else is a cosmetic or superficial surgery.
So just about the only hope these people have is if some good Samaritan comes along and helps the victim with their medical bills. I personally believe that our government needs to do more in helping people in these kinds of situations. Now I am not saying that the government should pay for someone who just wants a liposuction or a nose job. But I do not believe that someone who has had the misfortune of getting sick or being seriously injured in an accident should have to lose everything they own in order to pay their medical bills. I think that they should be able to get what ever procedure they need preformed in order to restore themselves to their former figure or life with out becoming homeless. But for now people like this must rely on the acts of good Samaritan to lend them the help they need.
Now when I read the Shorris article he seemed like he was acting as good Samaritan by providing people with a way to escape poverty and ignorance. This article made me realize that I really had no clue about true poverty. It also made realize that some people are born into such unfortunate situations that no matter how hard they work they will never be able to escape their circumstances with out some help. An example of this is some people can’t escape from a bad neighborhood just because they can’t afford a bus ticket, and even if they do how are they going to get a job with out a place to live.

2006-10-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

JOURNAL 8

The article that I used to compare with my scholarly journal was titled Multimedia for Hispanic Deaf. Which was about using multimedia to educate deaf Hispanic students in the US as you might have already guessed from the title. My scholarly journal talked about using multimedia to talk about childhood bed wetting.
I noticed a number of differences of how these to pieces of writing differed.
The most obvious difference that I noticed was how the author of article Multimedia for Hispanic Deaf really seemed focused of convincing me that using multimedia was highly effective in teaching the deaf Hispanic students. The author did this by being very positive about the whole project she never mentioned negatives or draw backs to the program. She never even mentions any thing that could be used as negative such as the cost to manufacture the program. Where as in the bed wetting journal the authors point mainly seemed to be giving me the information that was uncovered by the program that was run to study multimedia in educating children about bed wetting. The author did this by pointing out the problems with the project like how the test results were never compared to traditional forms educating children about bed wetting so there was no way to compare how effective it was.
I also noticed a definite change in tone of voice so to speak between the two you could tell the author of Multimedia for Hispanic Deaf was defiantly righting for a more general audience she never really used any unfamiliar lingo of any kind and her facts and information was written more plainly and with less detail or specifics. But the on the other hand the journal on bed wetting used a number of custom vocabulary words which made it more geared towards a more educated community. The author also went into greater detail about the multimedia project and how it worked and gave more information on the data that was collected.
In the article I read the author never seemed to ask any type of question. The whole article was just about how they were using multimedia to help a group of students in the US who had special needs. The article talked about how the multimedia program was created and it gave some details about the thought that went into the program, and gave some examples of the useful tools the program provided to help the deaf Hispanic students like and English and Spanish translation both in text and in sign language. The article also gave example of students that were using the multimedia program with great success but that was pretty much the extent of the article,
I think the author’s purpose in writing the article was to point out how multimedia can be used as an effective means of teachings when other methods of teaching are failing. I also thought that this article went a long way in showing how customizable of an educational tool multimedia can be for students. This article left me feeling that the multimedia program that was designed for the deaf Hispanic student was well worth the time and effort it took to create it. It also left me with a feeling of sympathy for the deaf students and made me wonder if our public education has the tools necessary to be able to effectively educate all of its students effectively regardless of ability. I think my response about multimedia being effective customizable educational tool was the desired response. But I don’t think my feelings of sympathy and my questioning of the public education system was intended by author.

2006-10-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

JOURNAL 7

In this journal entry I will be responding to the article The Damnation of Canyon by Edward Abbey. In this article Edward talks about the former beauty of the Glen Canyon and the Colorado River which once rain fluidly through it. He also manipulates facts to his own personal view in order to neutralize the positive effects of Lake Powell. He uses these tools to try and persuade people to join him in his cause to try and get Lake Powell drained so that the former glory of Glen Canyon can restored.
I strongly disagree with Edward on his belief that Lake Powell should be drained to restore Glen Canyon back to its natural state for a number of reasons. One being that one of his major reasons for draining lake Powell is flawed What I am talking is about is when the Edward talks about all of archeological ruins that have been submersed under the water that can no longer bee seen. He acts as if we just drain Lake Powell that all of these ancient ruins will still just be perfectly preserved as if they were never submerged for decades But this is obviously not the case after being submerged in the depth of Lake Powell many of the ruins have been destroyed or severely damaged leaving little chance that a new arch logical find would be made in the drained Glen Canyon. Another fact to consider was before Lake Powell was built extensive Archeological sweeps were made through Glen Canyon to search for important finds.
Dear Edward also said that the lake was only accessible to people who cold afford a motor boat this simply is not true for a number of reasons. One being I have personally seen a considerable number of kayakers in all part of the lake including Good Hope Bay which is more then a hour boat ride from the nearest marina. He also acted as if the only option to stay at Lake Powell is in hotel room. But let’s think about this for second Lake Powell is national park right, and what do most people do in national parks? The answer is camp and Lake Powell is no different people are allowed to camp on the beaches all over Lake Powell using tents and house boats. There are also a considerable number of camp sites that are accessible by motor home.
And my final reason for disagreeing with him is the fact that his number one reason for draining Lake Powell was sentimental. Edward admitted to be what I consider a tree huger and he talked about how lake Powell so ugly compared t the Glen Canyon in its natural state. I could not disagree with Edward more on this subject. Edward openly admitted that he was bias so I will do the same I am an avid wakeboard I have been making Three to four trips a year to Lake Powell since I was a 9 years old. From my experiences there I have had the opportunity to see Lake Powell at its best. Edward painted a picture of a lake floating with garbage but this is not the case. Lake Powell has some of the clearest blue water to be seen in all of Utah. And the sunsets over the glassy water of Lake Powell are absolutely breath taking. Because Lake Powell has such beautiful scenery and has more cost line then the east coast its no wonder that it has become renowned as Mecca for wakeboarding and other water sports.

2006-09-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

College a Buyers Market

In this journal entry I want to express my views on colleges catering to students desires. What I’m addressing is the fact that colleges have become more of a buyers market. In class we read an article in which the author recalled what his college experience was like. He remarked at how he had to request information from a college or university and the information mainly consisted of reputations and the prestige of the school and its staff. But currently colleges and universities seem to send out information packets or what some might call advertisement packages every couple of weeks to perspective students. The author went on to talk about how he college professor had to cater to his student’s interests and desires. The author expressed his frustration and to degree disgust for the way colleges and universities operate today.
I seem to have some what of disagreement with this professor's point of view for a number of reasons. One of my biggest reasons for disagreeing with him is that I believe you get a lot of college level professors who lose track of trying to educate students and it seems that they often lose track of what the real world is like. I think that too many professors get so all high and mighty on themselves that they think they are the ultimate authority on the subject. And some of these more eccentric professors over kill their curriculum or fail to really teach students anything. In the past students didn’t have very much choice on changing a class because of displeasing professor but know student have more of choice when it comes to choosing there professors due to the buyers market situation of colleges and universities.
Another place were I disagree with the professor is where I felt like he was saying that he shouldn’t have to change his teaching techniques to get to students. While I do not believe that it’s a professor’s job to entertain students or bend to his students every whim. But I do believe that it is the job of a professor to teach his students. I mean if a teacher is just getting up and repeating what the books says he’s really not teaching the students anything the book is. I believe that teacher should be looking for way to break through to students to help them learn. In this world there are all kinds of people ranging in diversity so it’s pretty ridiculous to think that all students can learn the same way. So why should a professor only teach using only one type of method. So I do believe that a teacher should cater to students a little bit. If teacher isn’t helping to improve the understanding of his students that what is he or she getting paid for. But I also realize that students have just as much or more of responsibility to learning the material a professor has provided.
The greatest draw back to colleges existing as a buyer market is that of the students. I mean from what I understand it is much easier today to change a class for almost any reason. But a lot of students don’t use this opportunity for their educational benefit. Instead they make use of this opportunity as a way to do a little work as possible and still get a degree. Many just take the easy way regardless of what they are learning or not learning. Many students have chosen to use this opportunity poorly. But ultimately I still don’t believe that colleges catering to students is a mistake.

2006-09-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Scholarly Article

The article that I read was about the use of multimedia programs to communicate medical information to patients particularly children. The authors main question or focus was could a computer based multimedia program be developed that could be used to provide children who suffer from nocturnal enuresis or most commonly known as bed wetting with the necessary information about enuresis.
He incorporates his research by writing about the program he set up over a period of eighteen months. He used hospitals enuresis clinics to conduct the project or experiment in. He also used the advice of professionals to create the criteria and design of program. Exciting literature was used to assist in the creation of a computer based multimedia program to teach children who suffer form enuresis about the condition. He even incorporated the impute from a test group of children, and their parents to fine-tune the program. At the end of the article he gave a brief description of the result obtained from a questionnaire that children answered after completing the program to see if they were actually absorbing the desired information. The results showed an increase in the understanding of all the clinic attendees who used the program
He goes into some detail about the advantages of the program compared with traditional forms used to inform patients. One of which happened to be one of the reasons that made him decide to create the project which was the fact the today children grow up with computers and are quiet acquainted with using them and many enjoy it as fun activity so it just mad sense to him to incorporate it into an informative program. He also talked about how it had a feature that verbalized the literature for young children who lacked reading skills or the motivation necessary to absorb the information from literature alone.
Some question I had after reading this article were. Was the use of a multimedia program more effective in informing patients then other forms of information available to patients? Because I mean if it isn’t it seem to me like a waste of time. And all he said regarding that manner was that it had not been compared to other methods yet. It also made me wonder if multimedia programs could be used to increase adults understanding of more serious elements compared to other forms of information that is provided. Another question that popped into my head was if multimedia can be used to educate patients couldn’t also be used to teach doctors about this information.

2006-09-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

Cody Wells

Picking a Major

As of right now I have not decided on a major, but the two majors that interest me the most are multimedia and business. I am attracted to the multimedia field because it is so open. When I say open I mean there is such a wide variety of things that you can choose too do with this major. You can work with: editting and filming video, producing logos, graphics, video games, and editing pictures. But most likely you will have to have an emphasis in one of these general areas of study. I am most attracted to the video aspect of multimedia just because I am a movie lover of all sorts. However I am most interested in producing extreme action sports videos. I have grown up watching pro wakeboard movies and in more recent years I have begun filming and editing my own. I also have had the opportunity to meet with one of the owners of Godfrey Entertainment. Godfrey Entertainment is the company that films and produces Travis Pastrana’s movies like the Travis and the Nitro Circus series. Shawn one of the owners of Godfrey gave me a better understandin of what the industry was really like, he also gave me a lot of pointers on filming and developing my movies and how to make them different then other films that were already out there.
The multimedia major’s general area of study falls between computer science and communications. This is because a general saying in the multimedia field goes something like this; Multimedia is communicating any message through the use of information technology. So this means you must have a good understanding of communication but you must also have the technical skills required to operate advanced multimedia programs Like: Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro, and Encore. In the field of multimedia many scholars are asking how can we make the messages that are being communicated through multimedia more effective? How can we create better teaching methods using multimedia? If decide to major in the field of multimedia some question I would hope to uncover the answer for would be: How can I create entertaining multimedia works that have a clear message? Can inter active multimedia works be created that could be used as alternative teaching methods including children with learning disabilities?
But on the other hand I am interested in majoring in business because I like the idea of owning my own business and being my own boss. This senses of freedom to be able to pursue my vision has great deal of appeal to me. I also like the aspect of sales because I really enjoy talking to people about products that I like. When I was in high school I worked at Zummiez and I learned that I was pretty good salesmen and I enjoyed it so a business major just kind of makes sense to me.
To get a business major your general area of study is business. As you pursue this major you will have to take a number of business courses that will focus on different aspects of the modern business world. Business majors will take classes that focus on thing like: employee management, marketing, and international business.
I think the reason that so many business courses are required for a business major is because the modern business world is such a complex system that it requires a considerable amount of study to be able to understand it. Many scholars in this field are currently asking questions like: Can a global economy really work in our conflicted world? This is where a product is manufactured in the place or country where it can most efficiently be produced and then it is exported. When will the economy fully recover from the events of 9/11? If I enter into the field of business some questions that I hope to revile are: Can small and local business play a larger role in the global economy instead of relying on large corporation? Should business be required to fulfill some social responsibilities?

2006-09-08T14:45:00.000-07:00

What are we Sacrificing for a Higher Standard of Living?

Cody Wells

When I graduated this summer I was thinking about how much fun I was going to have with my friends. But I quickly found myself a full time job as a metal trades working forty eight hours a weak or more so I could pay for college and other expenses. This left me with little time to hang out with my friends, but even when I did find time to hang out with them they often had to work. And now my chance to fulfill my dreams of going on a senior road trip and having a summer full of memories has passed. And now many of my friends have moved away and my opportunity to make memories with them is lost. But at the same time I now have the money to pay for an apartment and I was able to pay my college tuition. These events in my life have left me wondering, do we sacrifice too much for our future and our high standard of living?
On one hand this high standard of living seems to have a large number of benefits. Americans enjoy higher levels of income, which allows them to have more spending power. This then boosts the U.S. economy. And as a result of our industrious economy, a highly developed infrastructure has been created. This infrastructure provides things like roads, plumbing, and other basic utilities to almost every part of the country. Many of these things are often inaccessible in others areas of the world. Also, because Americans are willing to sacrifice their time to achieve this higher standard of living, America has become a leader in new industries throughout the world. But is being the leader in new industries worth the social sacrifices?
America does have one of the highest standards of living in the world, but look at what is required to obtain it. Many mothers and fathers across our nation have to work two jobs just to meet their cost of living. And as a result of these parents having to spend such a large amount of their time at work, children often are growing up estranged from one parent, or even both, because they never see them. This higher standard of living seems to be taking away more simple benefits like spending time with family and friends. The pressure to be more academically inclined is also growing. Many college students sacrifice their social lives so they can achieve high marks in their classes.
This question is important to the social fabric and stability of our economy. It applies to the vary values of American citizens. As we strive to achieve this higher standard of living we as a people are sacrificing a number of social responsibilities and activities. At the same time, as we move into the future we seem to put more emphasis on success measured by our standard of living. So should we as a people take any precautions to protect our social lives? Or should the needs of our economy set the level of our societal involvement? If we fail to find a solution to this dilemma we could lose the social values that have created this nation and its prosperity.

2006-08-31T22:33:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I was eating my lunch in the company trailer with about five of my coworkers, when a conversation broke out between three of my coworkers. They were talking about all the legal and illegal immigrants coming from Mexico. They were talking about how the government has been catering to the Mexican immigrants by printing everything in English and Spanish. They also said that we were loosing our American culture because the U.S. caters to Mexican immigrants so much that they really don’t have to blend into are culture anymore because they don’t need to be fluent in English to get jobs or to function in daily society. As a result my coworkers believe that they never embrace American values and traditions. They were also angry because everybody say’s that the illegal immigrants are just taking jobs that nobody wants. But they claimed that illegal immigrants were being hired in their trade even though there is a waiting period to get into the apprentice ship program.
As I listened to this conversation I thought of a number of questions I had about this situation. Are we loosing our American culture by catering too much to immigrants? Do immigrants have any obligation to learn English and embrace American culture? Should the ability too speak English be a requirement to live in the U.S.? Do Spanish speaking immigrants really have different values then average Americans? What can be done to assimilate Mexican immigrants into American culture?
How can the U.S. government be catering to Mexican immigrants by printing everything in English and Spanish if the U.S. has no official language. Should the U.S. designate an official language? If the U.S. did designate an official language how would it be chosen. Would it be picked by what the majority of U.S. citizens speak or should it be the language in which the constitution was written in. Does the U.S. have a moral responsibility to print everything in English and Spanish? Why does the U.S. qualify illegal immigrants for free health care?
What jobs are Mexican immigrants really taking and how does it effect are economy? Should the U.S. create stricter laws against the employment of illegal immigrants? Is the U.S. exploiting the illegal Mexican immigrant work force? Should the use pass law to help protect its illegal immigrant work force? Would the deporting of the current illegal immigrant work force hurt our economy? Is the inability of American and illegal immigrants to communicate be a safety hazard in many lines of work.
How are so many illegal immigrants getting into the U.S.? Will the U.S.’s building a wall on the U.S. Mexican border really help to reduce the number of illegal immigrants entering into the U.S.? Should the government take any course of action against the illegal immigrant that are currently living in the U.S.?