MOOC’s

Sebastian Thrun is known as the godfather of the “massive Open Online Course” (MOOC’s) which free online courses. At first Sebastain thought that MOOC’s were good for undergraduate students. He thought it was helpful and effective, but later on ended up changing his mind. He felt that MOOC’s was going to help out many people around the world who weren’t able to pay for college or get a real education. Studies later on found out that only about half the people that register for MOOC’s actually look at the lectures, 80% of MOOC’s users already had an advanced degree, and only 2%-4% of people who enrolled actually complete the courses. So Sebastian had a good idea but it just didn’t work out as he planned. He later found that out and admitted that wasn’t a good idea but it soon will be.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/12/11/are-moocs-really-a-failure/

Sebastian Thrun: MOOCs Not Effective for Undergraduate Education After All…

Aaron Swartz

Web feed developer for Rich Site summary, Reddit, Creative Commons, frameworkweb.py and sociology, civic awareness and activism, Aaron Swartz was born November 8, 1986 and lived to be 24 but committed suicide after being arrested and charged for  two counts of wire fraud, eleven violations of the Computer Fraud and and Abuse Act for systematically downloading academic journal articles from JSTOR. His penalty was 1 million dollars in fines, 35 years in prison, and supervised release. “He was an intelligent young man who found a loophole that would allow him to download a lot of documents quickly”. That is the main reason for him hacking into JSTOR. What he did never really harmed JSTOR. He just didn’t hide his tracks and he got caught.

 

The Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jun/02/aaron-swartz-hacker-genius-martyr-girlfriend-interview

Social Media VS. Traditional Media (Twitter VS. Instagram)

There are many pros and cons when it comes to social media. Focusing on Twitter and Instagram, on both twitter and Instagram you have the ability to post videos,pictures, comment on others posts, and tag people in them. On Instagram you can not private message someone. So if you want to tell someone something you have to comment it on one of your pictures which can be both a pro and a con. If someone is getting bullied then there are lots of witnesses because they have to comment on the persons picture where everyone can see. If you want to talk to someone privately you have to ask them by commenting on one of their pictures for another social media where you can private message then the other person would have to put it up for not only that person but everyone else to see, which can be a problem if someone else sees it and uses it the wrong way. Some people feel that Instagram foils the story you are trying to tell in your pictures because of the effects you are given. That it messes up the true meaning behind your picture but others feel that Instagram is showing how you feel without words which is good because some people aren’t good with words.

On twitter you can re-post/ retweet something that someone else posted and share it with the rest of the world. You can private message on Twitter but only if you both are following each other. Which goes back to having witnesses if you are getting bullied. You can follow famous people and you are verified that it is actually them so you know you aren’t following a phony celebrity. Twitter is like your own little web page where you can change the way your background looks so that when people visit your page the background is the way you made it. You are only limited to 140 characters when you write a status/tweet on Twitter and you probably might not get it all out. Both Instagram and twitter have their ups and downs but they are pretty famous social media websites that are used all over the world and are used between families, businesses, and other social medias.   

Major Uprising in Brazil

In 2013 there was a major uprising in Brazil because of the high prices in public transportation. The big riots were mainly lead by “Movimento Passe Livre” which was an organization that had been fighting for the right to free public transportation since 2005. This group of people feel that public transportation should be free so that is what they are fighting for. Not only were they trying to raise prices on public transportation  but they had just spent millions of dollars on a new football stadium and protesters felt that that money should go to places like schools and hospitals instead. It was on the news and the media which kept everyone else up with what was going on and would go out and support.

Codeacademy

STEM

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and math. Some people think that someone who take up a degree in a STEM subjects will get paid less in their career but that isn’t true. People who take up STEM subjects actually get paid more then people who don’t take up a STEM subject and there is a smaller salary gap between women and men. Most people who take up STEM end up getting more then a bachelors degree in subjects that aren’t STEM and most people who have STEM degrees don’t even end up in a STEM job. So that myth about people with STEM degrees get paid less isn’t true. It’s the total opposite.

Is there such a thing as civic duty?

Civic duty is good citizenship. To obey the laws, pay taxes, to join the military if you are needed, community service, and more. I feel like this stuff should be done. If you are a citizen of the United states you should be able to give when you have and offer when times are hard. Stand up and take a roll in something. If everyone in the U.S does something little it will all add up. You should obey the rules because they are there to keep us safe and to keep everything in order. Paying taxes actually helps us out the U.S around your neighborhood. Fighting for your country is like saying thanks so if you are needed then you should join the military. Doing community service helps you, your family, and your neighborhood to look better and safer. Civic duty is just like saying you appreciate everything. Like a thanks.

Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden Is a man who was born in North Carolina in 1983, But is now living in Russia since he fled the country after people finding out that he released top secret documents from the National Security Agency at which he worked. I think what he did was wrong because working for an agency like that you have to keep things at work. No matter what it is. When you get yourself into a job you should know what you are and aren’t supposed to do and he did something which was obviously not of the job description.