The Proof is in the Pudding

            Governor Corbett has put forward a budget that will eliminate sufficient funds from colleges, high schools, and elementary schools in the state of Pennsylvania. This is tragic towards those who have decided to further there education. They’re being punished for wanting a better life than those living in poverty. In this blog, I will show my evidence and dissect it so people can understand the current situation.

            I have five different forms of evidence that I will assess and show the results of their existence. First piece of evidence is Corbett has previously cut the budget of university’s professors. The tuition for a mass of the college institutions rose five to ten percent. State Senator, Mike Stack, said Corbett proposal was a “slap in the face to the middle class. The average family will continue to dig deeper into the pockets while wealthy corporate interests sit back and watch their bank rolls grow”.  My second batch of evidence is the budget will eliminate 30 million dollars from elementary schools. These schools are the foundation for every citizen in Pennsylvania. If you deprive those schools from getting a good education, this will make it impossible for student to excel in the higher education department. My third bit of evidence ties in with my second one. Corbett has decided to implement the Keystone Exams by the year 2017. By then, it will be required to pass these assessment exams in order to graduate High School. This is a devised trap. If you are cutting the budgets for both elementary and high schools and you’re implementing an assessment exam,  how are the students suppose to pass the exam when their lacking the proper training?  Corbett cuts will also affect those with intellectual gifts. For my forth evidence, I found that he is cutting the aid for accountability block grants that districts use to enhance educational offerings and programs that allows kids to earn college credit while in high school. This harms the gifted individuals from achieving their max potential and also forces them to pay an extra semester of tuition. Since they are not getting the credits that the programs offer, the students will now have to pay thousands of dollars more then they deserve. My fifth set of evidence is that the state grant program will be cut by five percent. This mean that Corbett is taking away the opportunities, raising the tuition, and now taking away the financial aid that some people desperately need to get into school. Sounds like he is trying to make college impossible to stay or get into. From my evidence, I am able to attack Governor Corbett’s budget proposal from many different angles, in which I can show how it will be very hurtful to the public.

            Certain evidence leads us to draw conclusions because we can analyze the good and the bad outcomes. The introduction of the evidence is important because first impressions last the longest. If you display evidence in the wrong or right way, that will enable the audience to developed their own good or bad opinion on the issue. For some people, these budget cuts do not harm their financial foundation. However, there are those who are dependent on government help to excel in this world. Therefore, different audiences will look at this situation from different view points and formulate their own opinions.

            This will be extremely hard for the citizens of Pennsylvania and I hope we can all manage through these terrible circumstances

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/Corbett-Budget-Plan-Draws-Sharp-Criticism-138883284.html

http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2012/02/governor-corbetts-budget.html

http://news.yahoo.com/governor-corbetts-education-budget-provides-flexibility-accountability-170407250.html

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/02/gov_tom_corbetts_budget_propos.html

Privacy Revised

In my previous blog, I talked about privacy online. The blog stated that the Google story that I have chosen to write my post about is called “CONFESSIONS OF A GOOGLE EMPLOYEE”. This story is about Doug Edwards, a former director of consumer marketing and brand management at Google. Edwards has written a book title “I’m Feeling Lucky: Confessions of Google Employee Number 59” and he is being interviewed based off the information within the book.

                Within the interview, Edward said that the Google Toolbar scared people because of its ability to rank a website that you’ve visited. This means that Google keeps track of the sites that you’ve visited. He also mentioned that the beginning of Gmail also scared people because users believed that Google was reading their Email in order to show them advertisement. He gave another example of Google’s tracking ability when he referred to what happens if you’ve misspelled a word in Google. If you do misspell a word, the computer will ask you if you meant another word or phrase. This can only be done if Google stores your previous searches in its memory. This relates to our classroom discussions because in one of our classroom power point slides, it said that by us signing up to websites, we are giving them information that advertisers can use to try and sell us things, develop products, and track our activity.

What I did not mention is that all search engines operate differently. Most sell top billing to advertisers. Google’s top billing is calculated according to an algorithm based on relevance, popularity, and other factors. When we use these search engines, they automatically share our information and if the process were used by jobs and other organizations, then we would have to monitor every second of our lives. If it affects our lives in a negative way, I believe the law should change.

Hears the season to be Jolly, lalalalalalalalala

Our flash mob was a true success. I had never participated in such a group activity and it was a true experience.  In this blog I will talk about the sequence of events that played in my mind as my classmates and I prepared to shock the McFarland Student Union Building.

            Thirty minutes before the event I was extremely nervous. I had never participated in a flash mob and was curious on the outcome of the event. As the McFarland Student Union Building became flooded with students, my nerves became uneasy. As we walked outside of the multipurpose room, an unexpected smile came to my face. The whistle was blown and as I made snow angles in the middle of the floor, I could only laugh as my friends watched. It is said that all communication makes statements, and I believed that our flash mob made a huge statement. It was a heartwarming experience and the snow angles represented the coming of the holiday season. Some people thought the flash mob was entertaining and were brought into the holiday spirit. Gemeinschaft is the feeling we have when we’re really together and feel a shared we-ness. The Flash mob brought to my attention that my classmates and I, for the first time, were doing something as a group. I believed that by my classmates and I doing something together, my nervousness disappeared and I was comfortable with performing. When you believe you are apart of a big group, you feel obligated to partake in-group norms. When you are an individual among a group of people you do not feel obligated to associate yourself with everyone.     I was thrilled to participate in this once in a lifetime experience. I will always remember this college experience thanks to Dr. Bock.

My F2F Experience

            When I was given this assignment, I felt joy. This gave me an opportunity to exercise my communication skills with someone that I am not accustomed to spending time with.

            I decided to complete the assignment by going to dinner by myself. As I walked into the upstairs section of Kutztown University’s South Dining Hall, I saw a girl that was eating by herself. I walked towards her timidly and said hello my name is Brandon. She told me her name was Isha. I asked her was she sitting with anyone? She said no, so I politely asked might I eat with you? She graciously said yes, so I proceeded to get my food and sit with her.  I have never seen her on campus so I asked her was she a freshman or a transfer? She said that she was a freshman and asked what year am I? I told her that I am a junior. I noticed that she spoke with an accent and I asked her what is your ethnicity? She said she is Dominican and that she lived there for most of her life. She told me that she moved to Philadelphia when she was 10 years old. I told her that I currently live in Philadelphia as well. I asked her, what is your major? She told me anthropology. I told her I was majoring in Speech Communication with a minor in Electronic Media. As the conversation continued I learned that we are both family orientated and are the same zodiac sign.  Goffman would have said that Isha saw my front stage behavior. He would have said that by us meeting face to face, she did not see my true self. He would have also said the same thing about her. Since I was not using my cell phone during our conversation, Isha seemed more interested in the conversation because she believed that I was genuinely interested in her.

            I was nervous in the beginning of the conversation but the nerves quickly went away during the conversation. Good communication skills are essential do the human beings existence and should not be taken for granted. This assignment was a well-needed experience

Twitter News

            Twitter is the new wave of information distribution and is extremely useful.

            Since most people choose to receive their news from online sites, Twitter has become a valuable source of information.  Twitter is accessible twenty -four hours a day and three hundred and sixty-five days a week. This gives it the ability to be constantly updated with news from all over the world. This information is efficient. Unlike the morning paper, we do not have to wait until the next morning to receive the news. Thanks to Twitter, breaking new can happen at any time of the day.

`           Twitter also gives raw information. Which means it is not digested and regurgitated by the media. This filters the lies and unsaid information that new stations do not wish to expose. The media puts out stories that are relevant to the population such as killings in urban areas, but they do not expose information that is overlooked such as drug seizures in suburban areas.  A video or picture from twitter can capture breaking news as it is happening. Twitter gives play-by-play updates of events such as sports, television shows, and broadcast events. Twitter can give detailed updates of a game or interview.

Twitter is a strong and explosive wave of information. It is turning into one of the biggest sources of education. Twitter is the perfect blend of resource and current trend.  Since the world is making a gradual move into a world operated by technology, Twitter will remain an essential factor for information

We are not safe

Privacy is a delicate subject because what is private is based an individual personal belief.  Through out the world of Facebook, people privacy settings are set for different options and characteristics. Which leads me to ask what if your privacy is evaded.  This is a sensitive topic because there is no way around keeping everything private. Some things like profanity and obscenity can be avoided but what about searching the Internet for information on herpes infections or your ISP knowing about you political activism, are we safe?  

I do not believe that our Facebook pages should be public to the world but on the other hand, if you do not want your Facebook to be public to the world then do not make a Facebook page. People say that once its on the web its there forever. That is the scariest statement anyone can tell someone of this generation. I wish that out information we put on the Internet could only be use by us or by us giving permission to someone else.  There is information that is acceptable to the public like your real name and the school you attend. However, pictures of you drinking obsessive amount of alcohol or doing obscene things should not be placed on the Internet. These incidents should be kept in the privacy of your phone or camera, and not on the Internet.   I do not want drug marketers and ISP’s knowing everything I do while on the Internet and in these cases I wish we could keep these things to ourselves.

In conclusion, I wish we could implement a law that puts us in more control of all things that the public can see. The topic is too broad to say specifics because a pedophile should be watched if they’re preying on teenagers but we should be allowed to look up certain information without been scrutinized. I do not believe we will ever come to an agreement on a universal privacy law but I know that as of right now our privacy is being evaded.

           

The World of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

            Imagine being able to create a perfect person with no flaws, no insecurities, and every characteristic you wish you could obtain. This is what Second Life allows you to create. It is amazing that your allowed to communicate with people around the world without revealing your true identity. I will take you through my journey of second life snf explain the headaches I went through but also my experience of a world with unlimited possibilities for interactions.

            After going through the process of making my Second Life account, I was now responsible for creating and operating my created character. If taking care of a pet is anything like operating a character on Second Life, then I will never have a pet. Moving the character was extremely difficult. I had to press the arrows repeatedly before the character would move and if I pressed it too many times then the character would move to far. Controlling the angles of the camera was a huge part of which direction the character would move. I believe that my previous knowledge on how a character in a game moves cause me to have a lack of patience with my Second Life character. Once I finally got my character to move with the slightest amount of my control, I followed the direction arrows found on the floor. These arrows led me to land marks that helped me make the Second Life experience more enjoyable. There was a landmark for teaching me how move, how to sit, how to fly, how to chat, and how to find destinations. Second Life allowed me to be a completely different person and allowed me to show other people the emotions I wanted to display. When you are face to face with someone, your natural reaction shows first instead of your revised reaction.

            In conclusion the name Second Life gives it justice. Websites similar to this allows people to live two different lifestyles and also gives others courage that they are lacking. This was interesting to witness but a headache that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. This was an eye opening assignment and extremely educational.