1st Blog Post Response

First Blog Post

Henry the fourth part 1 is one of William Shakespeare's less common plays.   After “googling” (yes googling is now recognized as a verb see http://goo.gl/LSWXI)  the plays name, I have found several different resources which will hopefully understand a shakespeare play for once in my life.  Unlike Hamlet, which parallels The Lion King,  Henry The Fourth Part 1 does not have a movie modeled after the play.  Doing one of the less known plays is going to provide me with a challenge.  Information and shortcuts won’t be available for this play unlike some other Shakespeare plays.  This will prepare me more for what researching is going to be like in university.

Although I’d prefer to be learning about the same play as the rest of the class, there are some positive’s that come from doing a play independently.  If our class was doing the same play I could ask classmates for some information which potentially could be false.  By doing a play by myself I will have to research all the information myself and if a mistake is made than it would be no ones fault but my own.   Doing this independently might help me in the future such as, if  I was asked to pick an uncommon shakespeare play in university, I would already have studied Henry the fourth part 1 before.  

Researching Henry the fourth part one is going to be much more difficult than researching one of the more common plays such as Hamlet or Romeo and Juliette.  Resources such as spark notes will have much more information and script analysis on the more common plays because... well they’re more common.  They get assigned to everyone in high school.  Between songs I decided to do a quick search on youtube for Henry the fourth part 1.  To my pleasant surprise I discovered that several groups have their performance on the play on youtube.     Unfortunately however I couldn’t locate any analysis or 60 second summaries such as this one for hamlet.

Overall after reading the summary from spark notes, I’m happy that Henry the fourth part 1 seems at lease half entertaining.  Throughout high school I’ve always hated class whenever the Shakespeare unit came around, and I couldn’t understand anything.  This particular class is different because alternatives learning methods are allowed and encouraged.  Thanks Mr. Chesser your the man.  

2nd blog post response

Shakespeare Second Blog Post

Wikipedia is known universally throughout the education world to have unreliable or misleading information.  Personally I believe that wikipedia is a great place to find reliable information but, it should not be referenced directly to wikipedia.  Instead the information should be referenced to the list of references at the bottom on any wikipedia page respectively.   When I brought up King henry IV part 1  on wikipedia’s page I found no inaccurate information on the main character’s of the play.  I did however find some misleading information.

Wikipedia states that the character of King Henry the Fourth was based on the historical king of England, was referred to as “bolingbroke (sometimes spelt Bullingbrook)” Both of these statements are true however neither show any character development.  Wikipedia also states that the king is referred to as “Lancaster” by Glendower however Glendower only does this once in the play. 1

Another problem that is misleading is that Wikipedia doesn’t differentiate any of the different characters’s importance.  One who is reading the page would have no idea that the main characters are Prince Harry, King Henry and Falstaff.2   Overall I find that the information on Wikipedia’s page is more or less accurate, however the quality of information could be improved greatly.  In fact their whole character portion of the page could be improved by creating a small character analysis section of main characters.

Finally,  I would just like to point out that not a single reference is to be found in the entire character section of the wikipedia page.  Although the information is mainly true I had to research it and make sure myself that it was all valid.  Wikipedia could improve their site by adding more references, thus verifying the legitimately of the information.

References
1.http://shakespeare.mit.edu/1henryiv/full.html
2.http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/henry4pt1/canalysis.html
3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV,_Part_1

Wednesday March 21st Response

Wednesday March 21st, 2011 -  Response 

Being a millennial child, I was born during a big technological revolution and was raised using technology for almost everything.  Although these technologies seem second nature to me, they are harder for the older generations to grasp.  Google has been my homepage for as long as I can remember, google has helped me to get the basics on searching the internet.  Now experimenting with new search engines and google + I feel that I can pick words that will return better results and choose through results to get the information I was looking for.  Frequently us millennial's discover tricks in technology without a manual or instruction (such as in my case googles calculator and easydictionary)  With my knowledge in technology I feel like I could easily adapt to upcoming and future technologies.  I’d rate my net search skills 9/10

Traditionally my family has always run off of PC computers and have always had the Microsoft office suite for many reasons but in particular we liked how compatible it was with school computers. (both my parents are teachers)  Recently however my mom and I switched over to the world of apple where we now have the iworks suite and like the ease of the software.  It’s almost like all buttons are just where they should be, and for now I’ll be sticking to apple.  ** For a time my uncle gave us a computer that ran off of the linux operating system where I discovered the open office suite.  Having experience with MS office as well as many of it’s alternatives I feel like my office suite skills are up to date with todays standards. I’d rate my office suite skills 9/1-

In our technologically advanced world, ease of you is a priority for many software programs or even hardware.  Interactive help tutorials are becoming more frequent with software.  I feel like I can figure out many programs by myself and rarely find myself with a problem.  If however I do find a program I usually use search engines for the answer rather than the help menu’s and that seems to be working out A-OK.  I’d rate my self learning help skills 9/10.

Typing .... right.  Well in elementary school I was always stuck in typing classes but my form was never the “proper” way to do it, however I still pump out over fifty decent words a minute.  So yeah.. that’s not great but it’s not awful! This could always be improved but it would be like teaching an old dog a new trick.  I’d rate my typing skills a 7/10

Social media protection and security... oh no.  I understand how to use social networking sites like facebook, twitter, tumblr, flikr all of those however some of the material that I have on my networks is the not type of material I’d like to my mother to see.  When applying for jobs after university I plan to have separate accounts for business and leisure to prevent potential problems.  I’d rate my social media skills a 6/10

Netiquette.  Hmm... the short form of “net etiquette”  I feel like I know the do’s and don’ts or unwritten rules of facebook.  Doing things like “liking” randoms pictures or comments are generally unacceptable.  Writing professional emails hasn’t really applied to me yet but by following the same form as a professional letter I should be able to get by decently.  I’d rate my netiquette a 6/10

Because I am on a mac there is a lot of built in security software that stops viruses and malware however I realize that it is not perfect.  The browser I use (google Chrome) has a phishing filter and will also notify me is a spam/phishing site is expected and warns me to proceed with caution.  Many of my online profiles are not hidden and this is a major security breach and has potential for identity theft.  I realize this isn’t cool but I’m lazy and probably won’t end up changing it.  Security and safety skilles ... 6/10

Hardware basics and troubleshooting.  I’m decent with troubleshooting the various problems that have been happening to me throughout my life.  Usually I’m stuck fixing all the problems with printers and wifi and personally have had to reload/jailbreak/unlock my friends iphones and ipods.  So I must be doing something right.  Lately however I haven’t been keeping up with how new hardware and software works internally and don’t think that I could fix problems without help... but there’s always a tutorial for everything.  I’d rate the hardware basics and troubleshooting a 7.5/10

Backup Data.  I literally back up every single thing on my computers with a 750GB hard drive at least weekly unless something happens.  I’d rate my “data backup skills” a 9/10 because there’s always need for improvement.  

Check out Seagates wireless hard drive, it’s kinda cool

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/external-hard-drive/goflex-satellite

With the appstore now for mac finding applications for literally anything is easy to find using their menu’s.  Chances are some of these app’s will interact with other apple products like your iphone, ipod or ipad, apple tv or other apple products... Using many different apple devices at home I can almost always find an application to solve any problem.... have the time they’re even free!  I really do find that “there’s an app for that” for everything.  My only problem however is that sometime’s there is a compatibility issue with information from PC’s to Mac’s  and that kinda sucks.   I’d rate my finding apps and software skills a 8/10 for the soul reason that sometime’s compatibility throughout platforms creates way more work than necessary. 

Copyright and Citing sources.  Usually I just google “cite generator” and use one of the many easy citation generators found online.  I’d rate my skill for this a 2/10 because I can somewhat find the information however I’d rate my problem solving skills 8/10

That first Assignment....

I feel like the numbers went all weird when I copy and pasted it ... hmm 

Webquest on a Personal Learning Network

1. To keep the concept simple, a personal learning network could be defined as “the entire collection of people with whom you engage and exchange information usually online”¹   

1. To be a good PLN there are a number of things or elements that are necessary or at least recommended.  However personally there are three key aspects that must be met if my PLN is to be affective.  

a) Connectivity is the biggest aspect for me,  without having the my phone to check Social networking sites or my laptop to check blogs, wiki’s etc I wouldn’t stay updated in my personal learning network.  

1. Along with connectivity there must be a genuine reason and interest to want to learn.  For me to learn I would need a genuine interest (or reason leaving me no option) in the knowledge or I wouldn’t learn.  This is the same concept as alcoholics going to rehab;  until they have a problem with their lifestyle they wont change.  
2. Relevant information.  Obviously a PLN about shakespeare won’t help me with my workout intensity.  UNLESS you’re name’s Mr. Chesser, but he’s weird.

1. Post Secondary I’m applying for my HBA at Ivey.  It’s going to be a very competitive learning environment and even the slightest advantage could be the difference in a future career.  Having knowledge on topics such as various stock market trends,  up and coming technologies and renewable energy sources would give me that edge on my classmates in two ways.  The first advantage being the knowledge of those topics that my classmates won’t have.  The second advantage however may be even more useful than the knowledge itself.  Having experience accessing different personal learning networks on various topics sets me ahead because now I can use my time more efficiently than my fellow classmate who is unfamiliar with a PLN

1. Employers are already starting to make the change from the traditional paper portfolio’s to online portfolio’s.   Obviously there are managers who prefer the classic method however the majority now prefer the online method for multiple reasons. 

1. one of these reasons for online portfolio’s is that whoever controls the application process can check these applications from there own home.  Essentially it’s just easy, everyone likes easy, so do modern employers!
2. Online documents are much easier to scan for copyright’s.  In certain industries such as media copyrighted files could be a huge threat.  The old style of paper portfolio’s wouldn’t have the same ability.  (Ex.  Photographer prints off a picture, now there are no records of it’s source.  However if the photograph was submitted online, software could be used to scan the internet for replicas)  
3. Organization.  Online software will organize the employers file’s so much better than a filing cabinet ever could.  The search function is a great tool to filter out certain applicants.  Above all else online portfolio’s eliminate the need for the ugly cabinet in the first place!

1. To be honest my online portfolio is not employer friendly, especially if I was going to be applying to any professional career.  Generally my post’s are okay but their are certain picture’s that I wouldn’t like my employer seeing.  Some method’s could include, locking my facebook profile, changing my twitter name or restricting followers.  However other good privacy measures include not signing up for too many sites, keeping virus software up to date, using secure passwords and reading the T&C’s (the things that no one ever reads because obviously they agree.....)