Readings: Letting Go of the Words by Janice Redish

The article goes over giving people what they need. This is a very important aspect for creating our websites for our class project. I know that I will definitely keep this in mind because a website with a lot of useless information is not worth visiting because it is cluttered and is hard to read and follow. It also goes over how people who read on the Internet now a days don't want a lot of words to actually read. I will keep this in mind when creating my website project. I already know that I only want important information on it so it is useful and relevant. This article was very helpful and I  will refer back to it if I need any help.

Website Ideas: In Class Assignment

Topic Idea: A  website that make people aware of what we are doing to sea turtles as humans and what we can do to help save their populations.

1)Who is the audience?
The audience would be anyone who is interested in saving the turtles who would like more information on what they can do to help them.

2)What is the purpose?
The purpose of the website is to make people aware of what we are doing to the sea turtles and what we can do to help the sea turtle population as a whole.

3)What is the content?
The content would be organized so that it is easy to read and to follow. The content would only be important information on sea turtles, what is happening to them, human impacts, and what we as humans can do to help save them. The content will be an easy reading level for all individuals.

4)What is the design?
The designs would be a lot of blues and greens to represent the colors of the ocean. It will have pictures of turtles and the different human impacts on the turtles.

Readings: Planning and Identity by Cynthia L. Jeney

This reading talks about identity on the web and the "televison gaze" that we have come acustomed to doing. It also talks about planning for your audience when posting on the web. Nothing about this article really stood out to me. I really have no opinions on it. I have learned things about putting things on the web but that was about it.

Website Topic Ideas

For the website assignment, I would like to do one of the following:

• Video Game
• Anime
• Novel

Readings: Style for Web Writing by Cynthia Jeney

This article talks about how to write for the web. It says that you should not use descriptive words a lot when writing for the web. In truth I really do not know what to say about this article. I understand what it is talking about and where it is coming from, but I just really don't have any comments on it.

Readings: The Principles of Design by Joshua David McClurg-Genevese

This article talks about web design and how it is used. I had no idea that wed design had so much to it. I did not even know that web design was also now considered a profession. I have a lot of friends that are currently in or have taken web design classes in high school and college. The article also talked about the different things web design needs like: balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance, and unity. I knew web pages had to look good in order to attract people, but I didn't know that they needed this much.

Readings: Multimedia Literacy by Richard Mayer

This article talks about Multimedia Literacy and how it is used. I found this an interesting article to read. It talked about science and science articles a lot and how there are words and pictures. Being a dyslexic, I prefer to learn through pictures than words, just because words are harder for me to comprehend. The article also talked about how we as people learn, which I thought was odd because if I can't get any "hands on", I'm not going to learn it at all. It's just the way brain is wired.

Reading: User Experience Guidelines

I found this interesting because it gave pictures and ideas for apps. It also goes over what can be helpful and what cannot. I will refer to this when working on my project because it has so many helpful hits and tips.

Reading: App Design Strategies

I found this interesting and useful when trying to come up with design ideas for an app. It gave a list of features that may be helpful in the app, depending on its type and I thought that this was helpful. It also told you what to do and how to do it in steps. It was very helpful and I will keep everything in mind when doing my project.

Readings: Texting And Driving Worse Than Drinking And Driving

This article goes over how bad your stop time at a stop light can be when you are sober, drunk, reading an email, and texting when driving. The worst one was texting and driving. This doesn't shock be because I know that a lot of things impair your driving and if you are looking away, obviously you are going to have a slower reaction time. I personally do not do any of these. I am terrified of dying when I drive and I take things very seriously. When my phone goes off when I'm driving I tell who ever is in my truck to read it to me and reply for me if a reply is needed. If I'm alone, I wait until I am completely stopped at a red light then tell the person I'm driving and not to bother me until I tell them they can. I then shut my phone off so it doesn't happen again. But texting isn't to blame for everything, it's the choice in doing it when driving that is killing us.

Readings: I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our language

This reading goes over how our language is changing due to how many people are texting. I personally think that this article is an old person complaining that the world is slowly changing and that they will not stand for it. I personally notice how when I write some things out I don't follow proper grammar or capitalizing and what not, it doesn't help that I'm dyslexic but what the hey. I know that our language is slowly changing and we don't need the old gripping about it. Things never stay the same and are always evolving. Just live with it.

Readings: Help! My Smartphone Is Making Me Dumb - Or Maybe Not

This article goes over how people are multitasking and how it is making us "dumb", but some of the studies in the article says that it doesn't matter, we have always been multitasking our whole lives. It also states that "super taskers" can't do a lot of things that other can do when doing only a single task. I find this to be utterly wrong. I am a "super tasker", I went through many tests to make sure because my doctor found it outstanding. I can do single tasks quicker and more efficient than those who are considered to be "non multitaskers". I believe that multitasking is a good skill to have since we need it almost everyday of our lives.

My classmate's blogs

If you are interested in reading blogs of my classmates, here are the links to them.

http://kalb483.wordpress.com/

http://nintendochad64.blog.com/

http://revkaworld.blogspot.com/

http://www.actuallyawebsite.blogspot.com/

http://stars4her.blog.com/

Readings: Donor Destiny by Emily Liebert

This story was about two women who didn't even know each other that met through one post on Facebook of a friend of theirs. Beth in New York needed a kidney transplant in order to live and Cathy wanted to help out even though she didn't know Beth. Cathy went through many tests and was the perfect match. Beth got one of Cathy's kidneys and she lived. They became good friends and constantly keep in touch. I found this a good story in how one post on Facebook could change the lives of two people. I think it is great that there are still people out there willing to help out in a time of need.

Readings: Mexico Turns to Twitter

This article goes over how social media can be helpful and harmful. It went over how people would spread news about a disaster or event, but it also said that there were peole spreading rumors and false information, causing panic and terror. I personally think that it can be helpful to spread information on things like upcoming storms that you need to take shelter for, warnings to stay away from a certain area, etc. However at the same time I know people can tell lies and spread false information and cause trouble. I guess it is up to the beholder what should be done about it.

Readings: New York Times: Facebook

This article is about Facebook and when and where it was created and by who. It talked about I.P.O. situation going on and how prices of shares keeps going down. I found it interesting that a college student was the one that created Facebook. I also thought it was interesting how at one point it was $38 a share. I didn't even know that it costed money to even do that. I personally use Facebook to keep in contact with my family who are over in another state on the other side of the country while I attend school. It is also an easy way to share photos with them since email doesn't always work. I like the fact that it is free for use to use Facebook, but if they started to charge, I'd delete my account.

Reading: About Wikipedia

About Wikipedia goes over what Wikipedia is and how you can make the best use of it. It explains how to explore Wikipedia, like using the seach box to find articles. It also goes over basic navigation like how all Wikipedia articles are linked or cross-referenced. How to use Wikipedia is also covered and the strengths, weaknesses, and article quality within Wikipedia. This can be helpful since a lot of skeptics out there saying all information is false and void. In the article quality section it goes over how anyone can post and how people can vandalize the articles, but it goes over what they do to try and prevent that.

Colbert Report: Wikiality

Colbet goes over how anyone can put any information up on Wikipedia and many people would believe it. He said that he could post on Wikipedia that Oregon is Idaho's Portugal. I already knew that you can put any information on Wikipedia, even false information. My teaches highlighted this fact many times in middle school and high school. I only use Wikipedia to get idea sources since they have sources posted on the bottom of the page. Otherwise I never use it.

Reading: A Stand Against Wikipedia by Scott Jaschik

This week we had many readings to do for class. The first one I'm going to cover is "A Stand Against Wikipedia" by Scott Jaschik. This reading talks about how teachers and professors hate it when students use Wikipedia because it is never correct information. They talked about trying to ban students from using it but in the end they say that it is up to the students how they use the information that they find for papers. Wikipedia officials say to check the information on Wikipedia with other sources. Personally I say that is the way to go when looking for information.

About Me

My name is Kayla Shape and I am a junior in college. I am majoring in Marine Biology and minoring in Writing. I am from Minnesota in the country side and I love writing fiction stories and those are the only kinds I enjoy reading. Non-fiction bores me to the point where I fall asleep. I took the class "Writing for Technologies" because I am interested in technology and what it really is and how it has evolved.