Guest Blogger - Lindsey Shirley

Facebook has swept through and changed the social networking world like a wave washing over the seashore. It has washed up on everyone from the bored student in class trying to talk to friends, to the overactive status positing adult trying to reconnect with high school friends, to the grandmother in Massachusetts trying to keep in contact with her grandkids down south. Attention to all current facebook users: a new kind of wave has just swept up on shore. Facebook is now going beyond the social networkers and is spreading to new group of people: businesses and non-profit causes. Facebook is now being called a “highly effective business tool” and it is even being said that asking for followers on Facebook is taking the place of running commercials on television. The features that attracted millions of people to the fun aspect of facebook are now being used to attract customers to an organization’s page and spread important information. The accessibility of Facebook to the everyday person is the strongest aspect of being able to use Facebook as a new floor for marketing and connecting with customers.

Facebook should be given more respect than being called to old time-waster and an outlet for nosey busybodies. Facebook can be utilized in a more productive, business like matter. Facebook is now being welcomed into the business world as a more influential, people-reaching, attention-getting site

Facebook is creating a positive influence on adults and teens as they are trying to attract the innumerable customers and advocates that are said to be crawling on the Facebook network daily. The new use of Facebook is encouraging people to speak out as open supporters of their favorite charity or promoters of their own business because they feel that through a wildly popular site such as Facebook, they are reaching more people. Businesses and organizations are required to have a topnotch page that makes you want to click on their name and see what they are up to. As a result of the new business Facebook trend washing through, most of us are newbies to becoming an online humanitarian, entrepreneur or club leader; we are reassured by the fact that we are spreading our message and cause to literally hundreds of people on a daily basis!

Essentially, Facebook is a way to expand an organization’s or our own personal digital footprint. The ability to use Facebook outside the social realm should be welcomed with open arms into the business and marketing society. What could be a better way to reach someone than to use a site on which almost everyone you know has a page?

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/

Guest Blogger - Will Parker: Military Training and Technology

Today's trending topic is brought to you by Will Parker...

“Military Training Hollywood Style”

This kind of training that our military is receiving is as good and real as it gets. There are car bombs, bullets flying by, RPG’S, wounded soldiers screaming, broken glass and metal pieces everywhere, and you would think this is only in the movies. The new training for the military these days is called Strategic Operations, which is a small program, developed to make a scenario for the soldiers as if they were in a real battle. Hollywood-influenced military trainers use video, 3-D and mechanical simulations. But Strategic Operations brings advanced special effects, actors, and sets that can be moved quickly if needed, to create training grounds so real that troops feel stress and can come up with ways to get by it. The main goal for this program is so that the soldiers aren’t shocked by anything and feel as if they were just in another simulation.
Strategic Operations prides itself on hyper-realism to perfect what it calls "stress inoculation," the process of preparing troops for the horrors and surprises of wartime. The company creates incredibly life-like training environments, from objective-based scenarios such as boarding a cargo ship via helicopter, to environments like "Mojave Viper," Strategic Operations' massive desert grounds, which replicates an entire Middle Eastern city with a population of 50,000 or more. Strategic Operations has dozens of locations like these throughout the country, and has 80 full-time employees. In 2009, its revenues doubled due to strong military demand for its products and services ( Carr). This advance training has had outstanding results from our soldiers In the field and they mention how they feel a lot more safe and ready for battle than they have ever been before. This kind of training is relatively small but because of the impact its having, its starting to grow.

Here’s some links with videos and information.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1696703/how-the-military-trains-soldiers-using-hollywood-effects-amputated-actors-robots-laser-explo
http://www.okcteaparty.org/support-our-military/hollywood-magic-helps-military-training/

Guest Teacher: Sydney Smartt - How to use the MyHomework App on a Mac.

Ever had trouble keeping track of a paper agenda or just see it as a hassle? Well there is now a solution to your problem! The MyHomework app on the Macbook is just like an agenda but it's digital. This way  you'll never lose track of it! It's simple, easy to use, and it is also available on your iphone! You simply put in your classes and each time you're given a new homework assignment, you enter it into MyHomework. This app notifys you when assignments are due and let's you know if you have a late assignment. This app is great for staying organized!

I made a screencast to show you just how easy and helpful it can be.
Learn how to use the MyHomework app!

If you would like to read a review on this app then, click here!

Let me know what you think.

Guest Blogger - Erin Anderson: Crowdsourcing

Erin will be leading the class in a "Trending Topic" discussion about crowdsourcing. Below is her blog post review of the subject.

Crowdsourcing: to outsource work to an unspecified group of people, typically by making an appeal to the general public on the internet.
In my opinion, crowdsourcing is a clever advancement in advertising. It allows consumers to become involved in choices the company will make. Allowing consumers to become involved in a company's process creates interest in the company.

Crowdsourcing also creates an increased revenue. Generally, when people are involved in something, they become interested. For example, when Mountain Dew introduced the Dewmocracy campaign increased sales of the product. This result is very common after a crowdsourcing campaign. Dewmocracy

American Idol was also discussed in crowdsourcing. Thirty-three million people watch American Idol every week and three-forths of those viewers contribute to the voting. How many of those viewers do you think would still stay true to the show if they weren't able to vote? A lot of the viewers watch that show are intrigued by the fact that they are allowed to participate in the decision making.

A huge topic in the blogging community is how to use crowdsourcing effectively. Effective Crowdsourcing is a website I found on how use crowdsourcing to benefit your company or cause most.
The first thing it says to ask is will the crowd care. This means, if you are selling a toy for children, you should not ask adults to participate in your voting process. This crowd will not care about a child's toy. The second and third things to consider are crowdsourcing requires time and needs structure. People must be hired and plans must be made for the way you will get your ideas out. People want to know what they are contributing to or voting on. The forth and most important when you have started your campaign would be to enforce the rules. In 2007, Pepsi became overwhelmed with votes from the same people. They needed to enforce the rule of one vote per person.

Guest Blog: Recommendation Engines by Katherine Hamil

Today's trending topic workshop is brought to you by Katherine Hamil. Said topic? Recommendation Engines and us.

"You might like this..." - a common sight for all of us using Facebook, Amazon, Pandora, or Netflix. Many of us are so used to these recommendations that we look right past them. Or do we? Here's an interesting article detailing the different types of recommendation engines and discussing the possible ramifications of their usage on our near future.

I myself am torn about their ubiquitous nature. While they are helpful in many ways, especially when it comes to helping us wade through the vast amounts of information available to us, they are also a bit limiting (literally). The free spirit in me bristles against anyone suggesting what I might like...especially a computer.

Guest Blogger: Hannah Kelly - Technology in Society Today

Hannah Kelly brought us today's "Trending Topic". Below is her blog post about the subject.

Initially I was intrigued when I saw the article: “How Steve Jobs Stole Christmas
- -Apple Products Top Of Every Kid’s Wish List”. I automatically assumed the article would be referring to the increase of Apple products on children’s wish lists. While this may be the case, as I read closer I soon discovered that the amount of children surveyed for this article was a very small number of people out of a very large population. This made me think about how attracted we are as a society, to the title of things---the big headlines that grab our attention. And hey! If they are catchy we tend to “read on.” The way the information was portrayed was definitely tilted, due to the fact that when I read this article, it felt like I was reading an article based on a survey of a larger amount of people. And did you notice that the headline stated that Apple products were att the top of every kid’s wish list? This is misleading advertising!


Even though this article surveyed a small sample size, it did raise the question of the influence of technology on our daily lives. Younger and younger children are utilizing the technology that was not even conceived of a few years ago. Connections across time and space are made regularly now through texting, video conferencing, virtual chat rooms and support groups. It occurs to me that while technology can certainly cause many problems such as increased incidence of motor vehicle accidents while texting during driving, it is not the technology itself that is the problem. Technology is not inherently bad, rather our relationship with the technology poses the problem. After reading this article I began to examine my own relationship with technology and I realized the huge impact it has had. My cell phone is always, and I mean always easily accessed when I want it to be. And I am spending more and more time communicating via facebook and texting than I am with one on one in person conversations. Take a second and evaluate the impact technology has had on your life, it might surprise you. http://passioncomputing.com.au/articles/the-social-impact-of-technology.aspx

Your Shortcut to Shortcuts

Our school just began a new era - DLE. The Digital Learning Environment. Instead of carrying bookbags loaded with heavy binders and cumbersome textbooks, all junior high and high school students on our campus are now fully armed and loaded with their own Macbooks and itouches. It's a move in the right direction, for sure, but it's not been without its challenges. (One being the fact that they still carry around their bookbags loaded with stuff!)

Moving from a PC to a Mac takes a bit of an adjustment, even for the most savvy of computer users. I know that I've been guilty of assuming that all of the kids know way more than they do when it comes to simple usage.

So, I thought it might be helpful to post the simple tips and techniques that I'm learning on the off chance that some of my students could use a tutorial as well. First order of business? Shortcuts. A must have for any self-respecting computer user.

If you are a Mac newbie or just in need of a refresher, this is a wonderful reference to get you flying around in no time. Check out Dan Rodney's List of Shortcuts.

Calling All Screencasters!

We're embarking on a project to learn about screencasts for the next couple of weeks. Step one is to figure out just what they are.

Screencasts are (usually) short videos which record whatever is happening on the computer screen, alongside a voice narration of that action. They are wonderful teaching tools and can be pretty darn entertaining when done well.

Here's a nice example from Tom at the Rapid eLearner Blog - a great resource for all things digital.



Face it - we all learn better when we can SEE how to do something rather than simply read about it. (Case in point).

I plan on showing this to the kids as an example of how a complicated process can be taught to even the most novice of novices via a screencast. We'll learn how to create images in Powerpoint while introducing ourselves to the screencasting tool. Then I'll turn them loose to see what they can come up with. I'll post the best ones here before we move on to Step Two: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.