Guest Blogger - Mavin Gunter

Robotic surgery is making its way into hospitals! They call it the Da Vinci Robotic Surgery System. This new technology only requires one surgeon to move the robotic arms in the room during surgery, and uses a high-resolution camera to help find where to place incisions. The camera works better than a human’s naked eye. The four small robotic arms help make surgery less invasive. With this new technology taking off people are trying to take it to the next step. They want to start using these new computer consoles all over the world to perform operations from miles and miles away. This new step towards the future can be described as Telesurgery. Imagine your doctor all the way in Washington while you are in Georgia, and him performing a surgery on you from so far away. This technology has its many advantages for people. Some advantages would be finding the best surgeries for you and not having to leave your hometown for it, possibly cheaper health care, and the surgery itself from the robotic arms is less traumatizing. For the actual robotic surgery, the robot only needs about a three-centimeter incision to work. This can mean less scarring and faster recovery. While robotic surgery has its advantages there are a few set backs that come along with the robotic surgery. These set backs are time, cost of equipment, and if people are willing to put their lives in the hands of a robot. The timing is nearly twice the amount a normal surgery done by a doctor would take, and newer technology means millions of dollars spent on parts. The most important part to getting the robotic surgery throughout the hospitals is having the people’s trust that the machine can perform surgery, without life-threatening mistakes occurring. Therefore my question is, would you put your life in the hands of a robot?
http://www.howstuffworks.com/robotic-surgery1.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NZLpWrJGgk

Because Cats are Always Funny

When people ask me why I like teaching high school, my answer varies depending on the day. Sometimes I love it because I get to stretch young minds, introduce difficult concepts, or be a mentor through a difficult crisis. Most days, it's because I get to laugh every single day.

Kids are so creative and funny. Don't believe me? Check out this video and tell me you didn't at least crack a smile:

Guest Blogger - Danielle Moss

Everyone knows about it and most everyone has it, I’m talking about Bieber Fever. He was only 13 when he first came to Atlanta to meet recording artist Usher and now he is in the running for having the most views on YouTube. It all started after his first talent show appearance when his mother, Pattie Mallette, posted his second place worthy performance on YouTube. She only posted it so that distant family members could see how good he actually is. Well, by chance, music producer Scooter Braun, who works with Usher’s recording label, was searching for another singer but accidentally clicked on Bieber’s video and was very impressed by what he saw. He then contacted the place where Justin was performing, who contacted his school, which contacted his mother and from there it was history. He signed with Raymond Braun media group, which helped him sign with Island Records in 2008, and by July 2008 his single “One Time” was number 12 on Canada’s Hot 100. He’s not the only artist that was a YouTube sensation. He is in company with other artists like Soulja Boy, Mia Rose, and Arnel Pineda the lead singer from Journey.
If only it was that simple for every artist that put their video on YouTube hoping to be successful, but its not! Justin’s career happened by chance and now he is one of the most viewed artists on YouTube next to Lady Gaga. There are millions of artists that post to YouTube everyday but not that many are as lucky as Bieber was. Artist such as Grayson Chance, who inspired Ellen Degeneres to start her own label and sign Grayson herself, and Meghan Tonjes who uses household objects as instruments are on the rise as the next Justin Bieber’s. Solo artists are not the only ones who are doing big things with their talent. Groups like Pomplamousse, who started out as two separate solo artists joined together to make one amazing group, and apparently the new power couple of YouTube and the R&B group Ahmir, who record their own music and then make their own music videos, are both taking YouTube by storm. All of these artists, who have at least 1 million views, are making themselves known and wanting to be the next Justin Bieber. Do you know who will be the next great artist?

Digital Storytelling

This week, we're starting to look into a new art form: digital storytelling. It's just what it sounds like - the use of digital mediums to tell meaningful stories. Here's just about the best example I've come across. It's called "Grand Canyon". Double click on the post if you are having trouble opening it.

Twitter Time: Azim Damani

Today's guest post is from Azim Damani -

For my Communications project, I want to help the class learn how to use Twitter effectively. Almost everybody in class has a Facebook but Twitter is a little more rare. I have been using Twitter for a year now, and I have found it extremely useful. There are so many people to follow from celebrities to companies that provide coupons and nice deals. I follow a musical artist named Jay Electronica and he tweets every time he has a secret concert so his fans can attend. Without Twitter, it would be difficult for somebody to find out about such concerts.

There are also Twitter accounts that update sports scores for certain teams and anything that happens in relation to that team. Sports reporters and news outlets use Twitter to reach the fans and find out what the fans want to hear about. They tweet out breaking news and everything newsworthy. Many celebrities also retweet some of their fans resulting in increased traffic on the fans’ accounts and sometimes even more followers.

I think Twitter is a great tool to use when you know how to use it well. The activity for my presentation is for you to go home and make a Twitter account if you don’t have one already. After that, find 5 people that you want to follow(if you already have an account, find 5 new people) and follow them. You must follow at least 1 celebrity and 1 news outlet.

Tools of the Trade: Auto-Tune Your Voice by Celine Talley

This year, GACs decided to join the digital age. The use of technology in the school skyrocketed, and our technology knowledge had to grow as well. Creativity is key in school, and the more you can do with your Macbook, the more successful and creative you can be. Every year at least one teacher assigns a project where you have to sing and create a song. You always get the bland talk singing, because no one is truly comfortable with his or her singing voice, but with Garageband’s auto tune you can be. When you learn how to auto tune your voice, your creativity can show through, and suddenly your generic project turned into something a little more high quality. Auto-tuning your voice with Garageband is simple, just follow the screencast, and you should be a pro in no time. Also, once you learn it, you can apply it to other projects, like keynote presentation or anything else you want to take from boring to entertaining. So take this newly learned information, and get creative. 

Here is a link to one of the best auto-tuning groups. They took the average everyday news, added auto-tuning, and made it funny. They are also the creators of the Antoine Dodson "Bed Intruder Song."

http://www.youtube.com/show/autotunethenews?pl=77D122FA6AE9B04D

Tools of the Trade: Google Docs by Haley Hodoval

Ever wonder if it was possible for two people to edit something simultaneously or get feedback about a presentation within minutes? Congrats, Google has now solved your problems. Google has created a program that can do all of that and much more called Google Docs. Google Docs is a very useful "Tool of the Trade," especially when it comes to school work.

For example, if one uploads a document to Google Docs they can edit it from any computer that has access to Google Docs (Basically any computer that has internet access.) This means that one doesn't have to waste space on their computer and can store all sorts of work on Google Docs. However, the best part is that one can share it with other people by either giving them the option to edit it or to view it. In fact, without Google Docs, we could not have completed a series of activites in our class, including signing up for this project. Google Docs can allow multiple people at a time to edit a document, presentation, or spreadsheet.

Another useful part of Google Docs is creating a "form" or in other words a questionnaire or a survey. One can give or receive feedback about a presentation or class activity within minutes. Let me refresh your memory. Do you remember when we filled out the surveys earlier this year critiquing our fellow group members for our Made to Stick projects? That my friend is a form. To learn how to create a form, refer to the above blog post. As you can see Google Docs have played an important role in our class and can be very useful for many different school or work related activities.

Resources/Links:

http://insertcreativeblognamehereblog.blogspot.com/