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.