There And Back Again... A Digiciv Tale

"If I take one more step, it'll be the furthest from [my] home[screen] I've ever been."          - Samwise Gamgee
 
Wow! I am in constant amazement. The entire semester has flown by already. Looking back, I feel like I have learned a ton!

The overarching lesson I feel like I have learned this semester is how to be a contributing digital citizen. For so many years now, I have been just a passive “taker” of information and have not really done anything substantial to contribute to the online discussion and culture. I feel like this class has empowered with the skill set and the confidence necessary to become a contributing digital citizen.

Why I Chose To Make A Mormon Messages Video

The reason I wanted to do this project is fairly simple. I wanted to create media that would help people to feel the Spirit. In our digital age, with decreased attention spans, people are less likely to read an entire conference talk, especially if they are not members of the church. The reason I am so excited about this project it provides a way to us help people consume and connect in the way they might not have otherwise been able to.

I felt like this project would be a great opportunity to become a digital member missionary.

Mormon Messages – Connecting With Others

One of things I enjoyed about making our Mormon Messages Video is the chance that it has allowed us to connect with others.

First of all, we were able to meet a ton of fantastic families and kids that provided us with great material to use. By the time we were finished interviewing the kids, we had built a great friendship and connections with the families. Those families are now more interested in Mormon Messages videos and are excited to see our final product.

Documenting Our Adventures - The Making of the Film

This is our quest. Here are some photos of us doing the editing for our video!

Consume - Google Documents

So I realized I had one Consume digital civ lab left to do, so I thought I'd do some research on Google Documents (Docs). Google Documents are an efficient way of collaborating and consuming information. Google Docs use the principle of cloud computing. Instead of saving data locally on your hard drive, Google Docs saves the information on Google servers.

There are several advantages to cloud computing. Here are just a few:

1) You can access your information anywhere in the world providing that you have internet access
2) Cloud computing allows several people to make edits to the document in real-time.

The following are screenshots of how to create a Google Doc:

Lessons learned from making a Mormon Messages video - Filming

This is the first time I have ever made a documentary style film. Throughout the course of making the video I have learned ton of lessons in filming. I thought I ‘d share a few of those lessons, coupled with some funny experiences with our film shoots.

Photo from Jing Qu (Flickr)

Try to film as much as you can – Always be filming! Some of the best comments and/or shots we filmed were from kids during unplanned and unscripted moments. The little girl saying, “Can I take a break?” and my niece stretching and then playing with tongue both came during unexpected moments. By filming as much as you can, you are more likely to capture the best moments, the moments that truly capture the personality and character of the kids.

CONSUME - Searching!

So I was looking through my blog posts and I saw that I had done multiple digital literacy labs on Create and Connect, however, to my horror, I realized I had neglected to fully cover Consume. So without adieu, here are two of digital literacy Consume labs focused two subjects which I discovered
to be pretty insightful and fascinating.

Searching!

Using a search engine is by the far the most popular and, can be, one of the most effective means of finding and accessing information on the internet. With unbelievable amounts of information available to us, it’s important for all us budding digital citizens to know how to search efficiently and effectively.

For this digital literacy lab I took at look at searching in general. The following are a few methods of searching that, when used properly, can save the searcher tons of time:  

The Final Event – A Special Thanks

A special thanks to all those who came to support us in our final project showcase!! It was a blast and I felt like it was a huge success. Thank you for all your love and support!

I want to thank my group for all the hard work and effort they put into the project. They have been a fantastic group, and making this video has been a great experience!

Also, I would like to thank my sisters. It turns out that four of my seven sisters helped in some way in our project. Whether it being interviewing their kids or kids in their ward, helping play with kids, or helping give advice in editing, they have all been there patiently and lovingly helping us.

Lastly, I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Burton and Dr. Zappala for all their efforts in organizing, planning, and doing substantial amounts of heavy lifting in order to get the class and event going! This class has been a great learning and growing experience for me! I feel much more equipped and enabled to become a contributing digital citizen.

Final Project Showcase!

For our Digital Civilization class, our culminating activity isn't the final examination; it's a public showcase, a special event for which we are now all anxiously preparing. We call it "Digital Revolution: Upgrading Education for Digital Civilization. See event preview

It should be super exciting! Our group just finished our Mormon Messages Video and we are really happy with how it turned out. It'll be both fun and educational! I hope to see you there!

Here are the details:

Mormon Messages – A Real-time Adventure

So I am excited to share my adventure and journey that has been designing, filming, and editing a Mormon Messages video for our class final project. I am going to provide a further narrative of the process and I thought it’d be good to start off with some numbers for our group project:

One of the little boys we interviewed

220 – miles driven to perform all interviews

15 – number of kids interviewed

19 – numbers of spent filming and traveling to film

25 – number of hours spent editing

6 – average hours of sleep (David) last week

It’s been an awesome, yet challenging experience at the same time. We have been mountains of technical and hardware glitches which have slowed down our progress. However, we are determined and will succeed! (We also feel like there has been quite a bit of Divine help helping us to overcome the numerous obstacles we have confronted).

We are in the process of doing the final edit right now and it has been an adventure. I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going!

Blog Nominations!

CONSUME!!! BOOLEAN SEARCHES - Jeffrey did an excellent digital literacy post on Boolean Searching post because he explains very simply, verbally, and visually how Boolean searches work and how they can help you to better consume information. I liked this post because I feel like it can help you to significantly improve the way you consume material and can help you to become a more effective self-directed learner.

Master (Almost) Any Software with Lynda.com – In this Alex’s post, he does a great job of explaining what is and how to use Lynda.com. Alex does a screenshot-by-screenshot tutorial to show you how to use Lynda.com. I feel like this post is extremely useful as it can help increase your skillset in all of the self-directed learning digital literacy areas (Consume, Create, Connect).

Hindsight – 20/20 Foresight – This is a powerful, yet commical, post by Kristi about the Digital Revolution. She talks about how, what were normal days to the people of the time, now stand as history-changing days for us (e.g., Germany invading Poland, the invention of the cell phone). I feel like this post does a good job explain the impact of digital culture and the digital revolution.

Web 2.0 and User Generated Content

I loved the quote,  'I have always imagined the information space as something to which everyone has immediate and intuitive access, and not just to browse, but to create.' Tim Berners-Lee, 1999, from our readings.

The process of doing our group's final project of a Mormon Messages video has definately been a process of creation.

A screen shot taken in Final Cut pro of an interview with my niece

Additionally, in the readings, I loved the quote,  "Today’s generation are pressing ‘record’ on their video cameras and hitting their mouse keys. With a few clicks of the mouse a user can upload a video or photo from their digital camera and into their own media space, tag it with suitable keywords and make the content available to their friends or the world in general." This is exactly what our group is doing.

It has been exciting. We have been able to create near professional-quality video with the digital tools that are available to us. We have used an HD camera to conduct several interviews with different kids. Later we used Final Cut Pro in the Multi Media Lab in the campus library to begin editing the video.

The ease of the creating of video (e.g., the developement of cheap hardware and software) is similar to the development of the laser office printer and a desktop word processor that Paul Anderson mentions. Both series of developments have allowed former spectators to now be part of the creative process and conversation. I love it!

CREATE - Darwin's Adventures

For this digital literacy lab I learned how to create and created an online comic book. It was fun! I found that there are several websites available to do this. I used one called Pixton.com. I think Pixton was the most advanced (you could do the most things on it) comic book website I found.  

Final Project - Our Plan of Attack

For our group’s final project we are creating a Mormon Messages video. After much thought, planning, and discussion we have decided to create a video in which we interview little kids (ages 3-8) about their families.

We want to do interviews similar to the style of Out of the Mouth of Babes, however we want to ask them questions like,

• Why do you love your family?
• How does your family show that they love you?
• How does your mom/dad show that they love you?

A Logic Named Joe

Source: Hackaday.com

I really enjoyed “A Logic Named Joe” by Murray Leinster. It is a short story written by Murray Leinster in 1946. The story is based in the future about a “logic” (i.e., computer) that changed the world very quickly. In Leinster’s futuristic tale, Leinster correct predicts many of the technological advances that would come in the future.

I found a blog post by Mark Bernstein, who is the chief scientist Eastgate Systems, Inc.  Bernstein lists out several of the things that Leinster got right:

The Medium is the Message, Mess Age, Massage, Mass Age?

I found a great blog post on Marshall McLuhan by Maki, a senior studying psychology at Lawerence University. She provides a great summary of McLuhan and of his famous paradox, “The Medium of the Message.” She does a great job explaining what that means.

On her blog I found a link to a review of The Medium is the Message by Mark Federman entitled, “What is the Meaning of The Medium is the Message?” Federman in his essay review (which p.s. has a creative commons license which I thought was cool) makes some really interesting points. These are some of the points that I enjoyed:

Member Missionary Work

As I have been doing research for our Mormon Messages final project, I been exploring different videos that members of the church have made. I came across this video that I actually saw for first time while on my mission.

The video shows and talks about what it means to be a member missionary. I think it's really well done. It's called, "Small and Simple Things"



Continued below...

The 'Wheat of Nations'

I think by far, innovations the occurred in the 20th century are among my favorites. I think that’s because it’s easier to quantify their impact and typically their results are seen on a global scale in a relatively short amount of time. One such example of 20th century innovation that changed the world occurred in agriculture.

In 1900 farmers made up 38 percent of the U.S. labor force; by the end of the century they represented less than 3 percent. With machines doing most of the work, millions of farmers and farm laborers had to look elsewhere for a living—a displacement that helped fuel booms in the manufacturing and service industries, especially after World War II. It also fueled a dramatic shift in the entire culture, as metropolitan and suburban America began to replace the rural way of life. Source.

Social Media and Rants

I think social media is one of the premier places we experience rants. I think this is due, in part, to the fact that in social media your audience typically consists of people who understand well your humor, background, and personality.

This was a rant from one of my friends last week on Facebook that I thought was funny, as well as making a good point.
 

Review of “Blogging is for lovers”

I really enjoyed this assignment. I found that reviewing Jake’s blog was a very fun and entertaining experience. He has done a great job and I feel like he was done well at meeting the learning objectives. Probably the thing that stuck out to me the most while reviewing his blog is the fact that Jake has done a great job of including interesting experiences from his own personal life into the subjects and analysis of his blog posts (My favorites examples of are his posts on sharing the gospel and evolution).

Reflections - Part 2

Source: Flickr Creative Commons, McD22

For my digital civilization class, we are supposed do a reflective post to evaluate how we have met the different learning outcomes of the class. My goal with this post is hopefully to share some specifics ways in which I have approached and hopefully met those learning objectives.

More thoughts on Final Project

As I have been doing research for our group's final project of creating a Mormon Messages video, I have come across different sources of media that members of the LDS church have created.

One source of media is a series of online documentaries called, "fit for the kingdom (Documentaries about Mormons)". These short documentaries are awesome, and I feel like they were the precursor to that "I am Mormon" PR campaign put on by the Church.

My sister was actually involved in this project. This is a documentary she created about a member family living out in New Jersey:

http://fitforthekingdom.byu.edu/?page=watch&piece=lisa

Psychology and Race

I found a very powerful video of high school student who re-performs a famous psychological study by Dr. Kenneth Clark. Dr. Clark was an African-American psychologist who, in the 1940s, conducted famous experiments using dolls to study childrens' attitudes on race.



Dr. Clark testified as an expert witness in Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) and later became the first African-American president of the American Psychological Association.

From what I was able to find, I think that Dr. Clark’s “doll” experiments are among the first attempts to use psychological research as a means of promoting social change.

CREATE! - Garage Band and Ernie's Song

For this digital literacy lab I decided to explore the many of powers of Garage Band. Garage Band is an audio media creation tool on Macs and is super easy to use.

I decided, with the help of roommate, to record a song for the girl I am dating. This song is from Sesame Street and Ernie originally sings it. I like it, because besides serving other serenading purposes, the song has subtle romantic, frontier, and even atomic age themes.

Let me know what you think!

So, I haven’t shared it yet with my girlfriend; however, I did share it in the digital literacy labs share session after class today. The song was well received and I think the people liked it. I think they were amazed with how easily you can create fun sounding audio media.You should try it out, it's fun!

Lyrics:

Well, I'd like to visit the moon

On a rocket ship high in the air

Yes, I'd like to visit the moon

But I don't think I'd like to live there

Though I'd like to look down at the earth from above

I would miss all the places and people I love

So although I might like it for one afternoon

I don't want to live on the moon

I'd like to travel under the sea

I could meet all the fish everywhere

Yes, I'd travel under the sea

But I don't think I'd like to live there

I might stay for a day there if I had my wish

But there's not much to do when your friends are all fish

And an oyster and clam aren't real family

So I don't want to live in the sea

I'd like to visit the jungle, hear the lions roar

Go back in time and meet a dinosaur

There's so many strange places I'd like to be

But none of them permanently

So if I should visit the moon

Well, I'll dance on a moonbeam and then

I will make a wish on a star

And I'll wish I was home once again

Though I'd like to look down at the earth from above

I would miss all the places and people I love

So although I may go I'll be coming home soon

'Cause I don't want to live on the moon

No, I don't want to live on the moon

Carrying a big stick – ideas of the atomic age

The political concept of “Speak softly and carry a big stick” took root during the presidency Theodore Roosevelt and ultimately helped to shape the US’s foreign policy. This was true both in the early nineteen hundreds and also in the mid-to-late nineteen hundreds when the focus of the nuclear-arms race evolved to essentially become “Forget about the speaking part, just carry the biggest stick.”

If we analyze the Big Stick ideology, the atomic age, and especially the ensuing nuclear-arms race, we find traces of ideological themes from previous generations and centuries. Many of the ideals of the atomic age and nuclear arms race found root from earlier imperialist movements. For example, in Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, Machiavelli declares,

“Hence it comes that all armed prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed prophets have been destroyed.”

“From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved”.

Who’s Who is the world of Keynesian Economics

I am currently in a Managerial Economics class where we are learning all about how the government influences the money supply, interest rates, and government expenditures. With our discussion of Keynesian economics, there have been a lot of technical names and terms thrown around. In order to understand Keynesian Economics, similar to a play, one must understand who the main characters are.

The goal of this post to help explain who few of the main characters/ideas are in Keynesian economics and what their role is:

Federal Reserve - The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 and essentially is a bank for banks. The Federal Reserve is a USA’s central bank and they determine/control the amount of money that is present in the economy. They also help determine interest rates. (This is important because when the Fed, being a bank for banks, lowers their interest rates, the easier and cheaper for banks to borrow from and the government and in turn lend to you).

The Mormon Messages Project

For our final project our group is going to create a Mormon Messages video for the LDS church’s International Video contest. From the contest website, the stated purpose of the contest is the following,

The purpose of this video contest is to give more members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints an opportunity to strengthen their testimonies as they share their talents with worldwide members and to "join the conversation" in sharing the gospel with the world.

Our group is excited about the idea of creating a Mormon Messages video because we will be able to use many of digital literacy tools we have learned this semester in order to better consume, create, share (i.e., connect) with others inspiring and motivational content. In essence, we want to use our newly acquired digital skill sets to be able to “join in the conversation”

Suggested themes for the video are as follows:

•  A gospel principle
•  My life as a Mormon 
•  Mormon life in general
•  Mormon music video
•  Homefront Ads
•  Humanitarian projects
•  Kids´ view of the gospel
•  Service
•  Mormon youth
•  Strength of youth

We are still in the process of deciding what theme we would like to do. We would love any suggestions or ideas you may have!

Doctors of the American Frontier

I was in library in the HBLL doing research for a blog post and found this awesome book completely by accident while taking a break. It’s called Doctors of the American Frontier by Richard Dunlop. It was published in 1965 and provides really interesting insight into what frontier life was like for many people living on the American frontier during the 19th century.

I feel like often times there is a romantic ideal of what discovering the frontier was like.

                                                                   *Source: FatWallet.com
However, Dunlops paints a very vivid picture to the contrary,

Technology: the New American Frontier

This is quote from one of our Fredrick Jackson Turner readings about America and the Frontier,

“From the conditions of frontier life came intellectual traits of profound importance. The works of travelers along each frontier from colonial days onward describe certain common traits, and these traits have, while softening down, still persisted as survivals in the place of their origin, even when a higher social organization succeeded. The result is that to the frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics. That coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with freedom these are traits of the frontier, or traits called out elsewhere because of the existence of the frontier.” (italics added)

Mormon Messages Project Beta Website

Hey all,

This is the beta version of our website. It is still a work in progress, but it will be fully complete by tomorrow. :)

https://sites.google.com/site/mormonmessagesfinalproject/authenticity

The Psychology of Business

Consistent with the growth and development of modern psychology, there has also been a growth and development in books and resources designed to help business people better understand and use psychology in order to improve interpersonal and business relationships (which has been great for me as an accounting major).

One of the first and classic self-help books is How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Carnegie, who was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, has long been considered the father of the self-help movement in business.

 

Modernism and stream-of-consciousness

A few concepts of Dr. Burton’s post on Modernism stuck out me in particular. One of the idea that interested me the most was the idea of stream-of-consciousness writing. I decided to do some research and found some examples of stream-of-consciousness writing in William Faulkner’s The Sound and Fury.

A quick background on the book

The Sound and the Fury is about the decline of a once noble Southern family that ultimately falls prey to vices that are commonly viewed as causing problems in the reconstructed South (e.g., vice, avarice, racism).

Poetry and Romanticism

FROM nature doth emotion come, and moods
Of calmness equally are Nature’s gift:
This is her glory; these two attributes
Are sister horns that constitute her strength.
Hence Genius, born to thrive by interchange
Of peace and excitation, finds in her
His best and purest Friend, from her receives
That energy by which he seeks the truth,
From her that happy stillness of the mind
Which fits him to receive it, when unsought.

Mormonism and the Family

For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (i.e., Mormons) the family plays a major role both in everyday life and as an integral part of Mormon theology. “Family: a Proclamation to the World” states that, the family is the “fundamental unit in society” and that “the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”

At least two ideological paradigms (e.g. Romanticism and the Enlightenment) are represented in the Mormon concept of the family.

Romanticism

The romantic period was an artistic movement where the ideals of beauty, nature, imagination, idealization of the past were emphasized. According to the Bible and Book of Mormon, the first earthly family, Adam and Eve, began their journey in nature in a beautiful garden (the Garden of Eden) in an idealized state.

Connect: Oliver Twist and Prezi

So, as it turns out… Prezis are awesome. The final product that you get is, in today’s vernacular, “pretty sweet”. My first Prezi took me a while (a couple of hours) to build, as I was learning how to navigate and use the software.

I ended up teaching my roommates about Oliver Twist using my Prezi presentation. The first thing they noted was how much more engaging the Prezi software is. I think they also enjoyed how presentation was divided into a plot and two theme sections.

One of my roommates commented how he thought it is was neat to use cutting-edge technology to talk about themes and topics of the past. Additionally, I found that knowing my Prezi inside and out helped me give an effective presentation as I was better able to anticipate what was coming next and also better respond to questions and insights.

Create, Connect: Prezi for Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist –THIS JUST IN!

In a surprise landslide victory, Oliver Twist gained enough votes in both the House and the Senate to become our group’s next official read. Politicians are hesitant to comment on why such a book, which has been a classic for so many years, has only now surfaced as a bi-partisan favorite. The answer is, as I will unfold, a very simple one.

It all started with a Google doc. My fellow group members and I thought we would take advantage of free cloud computing and decided to take our brainstorming/decision making to the internet (i.e. a series of tubes).

After months of intense partisan debate, meeting together a few days later in class, and consulting with a technical expert and national poet laureate (Dr. Burton), we came to the conclusion that not only was reading Oliver Twist the ethical decision, but it was generally the right thing to do.

Key media outlets have questioned what the potential ramifications of such a decision could be. All the White House’s official Press Secretary has been quoted to say is that a critical read and review of Oliver Twist would lead to an “intense and vibrant analysis of the one of the most provocative and life-changing periods of my great-great-great-great grandfather’s time: The Industrial Revolution.”

A Book List

So this is Dave’s awesome-booklist-of-love:

1) 1776 – This is a book by David McCollough about the founding year of the United States, focusing on George Washington, the amateur army, and other struggles for independence year. It's a national best-seller. (Democracy and the Social Contract)

2) The Jungle – This book by Upton Sinclair is an exposé on the deplorable sanitary conditions of meatpacking plants of America in the early 20th century. A classic! (From what I hear) (The Industrial Revolution)

3) Oliver Twist – This is a novel by Charles Dickens about a young orphan in industrial England. Another classic. (The Industrial Revolution).

Stay tune for our group's final choice…

Reflections

I must confess, after essentially living in the Tanner building for the last two and half years, it’s been a refreshing and eye-opening experience to come out of my accounting “cocoon” and take part in a fascinating digital civilization class. It’s been intriguing and stretching for me. I feel like my major (accounting) has helped prepared to better under concepts from this class (especially the computing concepts). However, there are some many topics that I have been very unfamiliar with (e.g., digital culture concepts). I have enjoyed expanding my horizons and learning concepts that I have enriched my perspectives on my major and life.

CONNECT- Searching Blogs

For my digital literacy lab I decided to explore the blogosphere by learning tools designed for searching blogs. The main tool I focused on was IceRocket. Ice Rocket allows users to search for blogs across the internet by content, author, language, and date. (The date feature is really nice).

I had two really interesting experiences while using IceRocket that I want to share:

The Auzzie:

What do School Teachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have In Common?

Freakonomics: A Review

                                    

One of the best books that I have read about understanding economics, capitalism, and people’s incentives is Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Freakonomics uses unusual and memorable examples to illustrate economic principles.

One principle that I believe that the book illustrates particularly well is that how people respond to incentives. One of the interesting questions posed in the book is, “What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?” The answer is: they both have incentives to cheat.
 

IceRocket, Laissez Faire, and Uncle Sam

For this blog post, I decided to use IceRocket to find other blogs related to the ideas and history of the Royal Society of London and the Enlightenment.

One of my favorite blogs I found was a blog from Australia that posed an interesting question. The blog essentially asked, “How did the way that nations/countries publicly funded their intellectual movements affect the way that those intellectual movements progressed?”

Of Algorithms, Atheism, and Francis Bacon

Using MIT’s OpenCourseWare I was able to find some amazing essays written by Francis Bacon. Reflecting on our class conversation about the New Scientific Method, I felt like there was room to say that people started to replace religion with skepticism and empiricism in their “algorithm” of finding and identifying truth.

Accounting and Open Government

As an accounting major, the idea of open government is a fascinating one. In recent years, the U.S. government has passed landmark legislation to ensure the openness and transparency of businesses within the US. However, as USAToday reported earlier this week, the US Government is currently asking to be exempt from new legislation demanding a similar type of transparency in how they (the government) police businesses.

Connect – Online Digital Imagery

ETSY.com is an example of a website that allows people to connect with and find local artists. The website allows users to buy and sell various crafts/works of art, to post community art updates, and to comment on an ongoing art forum.

Perhaps one of the coolest features of ETSY.com is the ability to search artist and works found locally within their own community. To achieve this, you go to the ETSY.com homepage => then click to the Shop Local tab. Doing so enables you to search your city/zip code to find local artists.

Maddy, one of our group members, is an illustration major and a very talented artist. To highlight the extensive reach that ETSY.com can have, she commented that she has sold some her art via ETSY.com to people in New York and other cities because those people were able to search by classification and find artists that they liked.

I feel like the development of online websites where people can connect and find great works of art is similar to the development and expansion of printing. With these two developments, the influence of peoples’ ideas (or artistic works) can now travel both near and far. Additionally, Maddy commented that finding art and artists in other countries have helped to significantly influence her art and the type of artist that she would like to be.

To check out more of Maddy’s art, check out her art Blog http://ididnotdrawthis.blogspot.com/

An Apology!!

I recently wrote a blog post entitled "Gutenburg and the Drudge Report." In the post I attempted to draw a parrell between the development of the printing press and how that changed who guarded the "knowledge kingdom."

In my comparison I used a news aggregation website to illustrate the fact that the internet news aggregation websites have changed the traditional "knowledge kingdoms" once kept solely by newspapers.

However, I made a grevious error. The news aggregation website I referenced was one that had heard about but was one that didn't know very much about. After doing some initial research, the website appeared to be good. However, as two people commented on my blog after the fact, some of the news links are less than wholesome/uplifting or even appropiate in some cases. For this I apologize tremendously!!! I had no idea and I am so sorry and embarrased by that!

This experience has taught me a valuable lesson about thoroughly during due diligence before you post something that could be offensive and ultimately embarrassing. I thank you again for patience and the great comments which brought it to my attention.

A Whole New World.

So besides considering a favorite Disney character of mine or someone who has incredible falsetto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-CS2v8wcc) the phrase a New World and also new Worldviews has got me thinking...

Throughout our lecture I couldn’t help but think about my favorite P-word I eever learned in a beginning computer class: Paradigm. Paradigms, like tech-tonic plates, tend to shift. A paradigm is defined as an example that serves as a pattern or model for something, especially one that forms the basis of a methodology or theory. For example, society longed believed that the sun revolved around the earth (a geocentric view). That paradigm, or way of thinking, changed or shifted when it was discovered and proven that the earth actually revolves around the sun (a helio-centric view).

The rate at which paradigms shift now is astronomical. Luxuries of the past have become everyday commodities. It may now sound very strange to my kids when I’ll tell them that I didn’t have a cell-phone until I was 21.

The rapid development of technology has caused many paradigms to shift: from education, science, communication, to how we perceive and learn about the world. Wikipedia enumerates a few such changes. I feel the key to success in navigating the magic carpet of changes we constantly experience is to be willing to open to new ideas, products, and ways of doing things.

Welcome!

Hey all, welcome to the first post! My name is Dave and the name of my blog is spanish for the red head (el pelirojo). The URL (la isla me ecanta) means I love the island in Spanish. I served an LDS mission in the Canary Islands, Spain and it was beautiful and I am excited for the new class!

This pic is from an accounting study abroad I did this summer in London.