PULSE movie

I am hugely addicted to Flixster (www.flixster.com) which is a site where friends can get together to compare what movies they like to one another through ratings and give reference to some they enjoy. Check it out if your a movie buff!

I came across PULSE (2006) which is a remake from the Japanese version in 2001. It rather was an eye catcher for me considering I am taking a class on technology. I saw the trailer for it and I want to see it even though I heard it has some bad ratings and such. It is supposedly about how much people rely on technology, digital ghosts coming through cell phones and other technological devices, and etc. I included the trailer of the movie in the link below:

http://movies.clevver.com/video/18879/pulse-trailer-2-56.php

Comment if you have seen this movie or what you think of it. (It probably won't be that great considering its a remake... are movies actually gettting worse? That they result to like 5 sequels or else remaking the old movies...)

TAPPED IN DISCUSSION PT 1

Hey All! Okay, I have been able to delve into Tapped In, and enjoy a discussion on Wikis! I was only able to be there for 1/2 hour to check it out and IT CONFUSED ME! I understood Alec's way of doing Wikis a lot better than how they were trying to do this. However, the group I had were awesome. Maybe I just didn't understand because my mind was elsewhere and it was hard to focus, and everyone was talking all at once, but hey I tried the discussion not only to SIT IN but also participate. At the beginning of the discussion, the head honcho asked us to introduce ourselves and then he began the presentation. It was at 5 pm on Wednesday. I forget what Alec told us to do for this Tech Task so this is all I wil write for now, until I find out the whole objective about what to write. Before, the presentation, I had a chance to talk to one of the HelpDesk people named DavidWe and he was tremendous help! I had a real good talk with him, and got the background of the Tapped In site as well as his background, etc. So, if you have not partook in a discussion yet, please do so... its quite engaging and you will not realize how much time will pass :D

Math Presentation

Hey everybody! If you haven't noticed I have not been at school due to illness. However, nonetheless I have been keeping busy with assignments and everything. I want to talk about my upcoming math presentation. We were asked to get into groups and do a hard problem and present it to the class. However, the group that was ahead of us did the same problem as us. Needless to say, we did not want to be known as "copycats". Thus, we stuck to the same problem but we are going to present our linear programming problem in a much different fashion.. thus introducing technological innovations. I am going to try post our math powerpoint presentation on this blog so bare with me. We used the Microsoft Excel program to figure out the calculations and boy was it hard considering we were confused on the one equation to punch in. The question we chose was about a father, son, and daughter going for a walk and they can walk at different speeds. Also a bike is involved where only one person can ride at a time (they can go faster on the bike). Thus, what is the fastest time that all three individuals will finish within 20 kms. That is a brief synopsis of the question, I will post the real question as well as the Excel format at a later date. But I am just so proud of this powerpoint, considering it looks so simplistic... yet it was HARD due to getting the timing and animations down pat. ***Can I actually post a powerpoint presentation with 3 slides on here please comment if you know***

LIFE!

Time to get a life! People can take on a different persona wherever they are... such as on a phone hot-line, on the internet, in person, etc. I remember back in my childhood (well even now do to a computer game version) I used to play the board game LIFE! Every time we got married, had children, etc we would have to give names to everyone. It was just a part of the game we integrated. Playing that game gave us hopes and ambitions and felt more than just any old board game. The same goes for technology... Some people feel more comfortable behind a screen or a telephone, rather than face to face confrontations, while others like human contact. Through my experiences, I have had my share of being different personas to seek out information on MSN or a chat room and it is amazing to see how people can be fooled very easily. You can never be so sure who you are talking to (ie bringing back the ideals of chat rooms and pedophiles).
On the internet there is a rather new interactive website called Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com) where people create an image of themselves to be portrayed on fantasy lands with fantasy luxuries, but not at fantasy prices. People will spend their actual hard-eared money on such luxuries as clothing, houses, islands, and even dance moves! Its insane! Sure it is all fun and games, until someone loses their actual life do to spending their money foolishly.
Alec showed us a video today on a person with cerebral palsy who uses Second Life as an escape from his actual life. He quoted: "In 'This' world I can be more myself than in real life". In the aspect of this situation, this may be a gateway to meeting people because of a lot of judgment individuals have in the world. If they met him in real life they probably would never give him the time of day, but online he is able to express himself and show his inner beauty. That is one good aspect to the internet. If you are a truthful person you are able to show your inner beauty and a side of you that others may not see if they met you face to face. For example, this may be somewhat extreme but if you saw a person with leprosy would you have a chat with them, or just wave them off and be on your merry way? So, kudos goes out to that individual who created Wheelies in his Second Life.
Alec also showed us a parody called First Life (http://www.getafirstlife.com) which makes fun of the Second Life site. Check it out if you wish...

Aboriginal links

I have found a really good site discussing Aboriginal people and learning about them through games, literature, language, and such. I wish that I knew of this site throughout my pre-internship year; however, we did not have access to computers while I was teaching in my grade 2 placement.
http://www.native-languages.org/kids.htm

Also, for those who are looking for good literature by age level or such based on Aboriginal people I found a website you can go to find resources to incorporate Aboriginal content...

http://www.oyate.org/catalog/index.html

Hope you all enjoy this! I know it will help me on my major project :D

Tech Task #7 Spanish Podcast

Hi amigos e amigas. Cómo es usted? Estoy muy bien solamente un poco enfermo. Aprendí hoy cómo utilizar podcasts. Era una cosa dura a comenzar hacia fuera con puesto que no tenía iTunes, no obstante finalmente la calculé hacia fuera. Elegí una lección de lengua del descanso para tomar café y comencé con la lección 1 hasta que relized cómo es fácil era así que me moví hasta la lección 4.

"Hi friends. How are you? I am fine but a little sick. Today I learned how to use podcasts. It was a hard thing to start out with since I did not have iTunes, however I finally figured it out. I chose a language lesson from coffee break and I started with lesson 1 until I relized how easy it was so I moved up to lesson 4."

With the help of AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation, my prior knowledge, and lesson 4 of this Spanish teaching podcast, I was able to write that above paragraph. I have been fond of Spanish since I met a friend that was from El Savador and her family has made me feel very welcomed. In my internship block I decided to add a twist of teaching Spanish within my lessons and the prek and k children LOVED IT! I had them present songs (Head and Shoulders) to their families as well as including Spanish words in the morning/afternoon messages. Lessons 1-3 teach you the basics such as hi, how are you, goodbye, where are you from, etc. I chose lesson 4 because I have prior knowledge in Spanish thus I needed more of a challenge.

Podcasts are not a bad idea for in the classroom plus they will fit any budget (free). I had troubles listening to mine due to distractions and such, but if you wanted to add a centre to your classroom that is educational you can ask the children to listen to different podcasts and write reflections. I think it could serve as a valuable tool, depending on what podcasts are chosen. For the one I chose I believe it is very educational to me in order to enhance my learning on the Spanish language. I believe teachers could benefit from using this tool in the classroom for sure! In learning another language it is best to be an auditory learner in my opinion. I can learn a language much easier if it is spoken to me so I can work on grammar and how to say it correctly. It can be tricky at times...

Here is a link to the podcast website I have found if you want to further explore the Spanish teachings.... http://coffeebreakspanish.typepad.com/coffee_break_spanish/podcast/index.html

Tech Task #6 - crossword

Today we discovered the world of Hot Potato! You can create maze quizzes, crosswords, etc from it. Today I created a crossword from JCross. I focussed on Aboriginal content since I am trying to focus my major assignment on my aboriginal unit. Thus here is the link to check it out :D Have Fun!

http://education.uregina.ca/web/wallmank/ab%20crossword.htm

Digital Depression

Technology! Digital video cameras as well as regular digital cameras are not as great as people think. Hmm, did I really get two faulty items? How coincidental lol. But seriously, I am sick of these two things not working and they are not reliable at all! I know that I have full loaded batteries in there or at least that is what it tells me, but the next time I turn it on it says its dead... what is up with that? I buy the proper batteries and whatnot but nothing seems to work. GRRR! any pointers :P

Upside to my car accident!

Its been a week since my accident and things are not getting any better! Well, I am getting another car on Tuesday but Im a little paranoid of driving. I find it difficult to sit in one position for long periods of time thus the bus is getting to be a disadvantage (plus I am still a rookie for the routes). Thus, I found out on Friday - Sunday since it was such beautiful days I would walk from south end to the north end and to downtown area to see my boyfriend. I found it quite engaging as I saw much more than I would have while driving. While driving, I noticed how much people are in a rush to get someplace. While walking I was able to experience this "north central ghetto" and how bad of a neighbourhood it is (it is not as bad as Macleans' had said); smell the fresh polluted air, watch a cop track down a man and handcuff him in the middle of the streets, along with much more. I know that I have taken my car for advantage, and I am kind of thankful for the car accident now. I really got to see the person my friend (well ex friend) is, I got to see the person I am, and I got to promote healthy living. It was really fun to walk and not worry about having to be somewhere at a specific time. Two things I found beneficial walking were my cell phone and mps player though. I would of probably collapsed without the motivation of my music playing to keep me moving (however all my music got erased from it today somehow grrr) and to keep connected with my friends on my phone was also something to keep my mind of my hurting legs lol. So, one more mark FOR technology and not against.

Tech Task 5

Hey! I really hope I did this right (if I did not please inform me) and I found an efficient telecollaborative project that will be useful for years to come. I think I understand the whole ideology around this project so I looked up google.ca and found a site on Endangered Species which is a collaborative project of information amongst other teachers. This project can be used with any elementary level but the one I will focus on is grade 1 because the core subject suggests animals are taught in science. The collaborative teachers found on this site range from kindergarten to grade 5, thus modification can be used sufficiently to suit the needs of the students.
This project provides us with information on different endangered animals, can integrate different subject areas, and give us great lesson plans for teaching this material. Check it out at: http://www.redeemer.ab.ca/hsa/project1/Endangered%20Animals/endangered_animals%20home.htm

Debit Machines

Ok its time for a technological story! Its great, no doubt about it but is it reliable when you really need it, will it be there for always, will it never break down? If you answered yes to any of those then you are living in a fantasy world ;) But, I am going to write on debit machines. What a great invention we dont have to carry around large sums of money or cheques, instead we take out our plastic card, punch in our pin and bam make our purchase or receive money. Sounds easy right? Well, how about when debit machines go down, then what happens? We are strapped for cash, we look like a goof because we cant get our purchases, how do we give back gas once we filled up? Our dependency has became ongoing as debit machines entered the world. I know myself I dont carry around a bunch of money in case I lose it (from what I experienced from the accident especially GRR). The other day I tried to make a purchase and it didn't go through because they were down. Tsk tsk tsk, just another rant about the cons of technology...

Bad Bad weekend! R.I.P. #5

Well if you all haven't heard I lost my fifth baby on Sunday night. I only had her for two years (was one of the longest ones I had since my last one only lasted 7 months or so). It was really sad, people kept saying I was in shock but I was more angered that she left me .. now I feel so lost and alone. I feel too many things are scrambled in my head as I cannot understand how stupid I was to lose her. Yes, it was a terrible weekend! I did go to Telemiracle and had fun and could not believe how much they raised I think it was over 5.5 million! That is a record! But on my way back from Saskatoon, my Cavalier caught snow on a curve and boom I lost control and ended up rolling! I was soooooo angry because its like flashbacks of my other accidents I know the same B.S. since I have became such a veteran at this kind of stuff. I was not in shock merely upset to know that I have to go through SGI, cops report, SGI again, my psychological/scared to be in a vehicle phobia, and the pain that I do to myself. However, not only do I have to think about myself but I injured two of my real good friends and all I can think about is how I could of killed them or it could of been a lot worse of a situation. Thus, now if you recall my public transit bitter story last time now you know that I am a lot more frustrated with transit. Once again I got lost.. took the wrong bus scheduled time to go to doctors so I said oh well I will go home, then I forgot to pull the bell for my stop so I ended up joyriding around Uplands! GRRR! Sorry this is not about technology but I just felt like expressing my feelings! *Moment of silence for Old Red*