Scratch

I really enjoyed our work in scratch over the past week and thought it was very nifty. I found some of the commands rather basic and limiting for what I wanted to do but as I learned the program more and more I learned that some of the things I wanted to do could be done. I understand that the program is just a basic for animation but still it was a cool expansion on the gif work that we had done earlier. I also even got a comment on my .gif from a friend in Oklahoma who happened to stumble across my page and said "So that's how you draw Mona Lisa". It was mindblowing that the day I had put it up my friend and somehow found it and viewed it when only hours earlier I had just made it for fun in class.

Web page

Making the webpage for the class was very interesting and I enjoyed learning the little bit about coding and the basics on uploading to the web. I actually got to the level where I was helping my classmates upload and fix their coding issues which really surprised me. I don't know if I will use it in the future but it is definitely a good skill to have and many marketing jobs require "basic coding" so I think I am starting to cover that requirement for the future job market. I also thought it was cool that our professors asked us what we wanted to learn in the subject instead of what they were in the mood to teach!

Guest Speaker

I missed the speaker we had, Mr. Berry due to travel obligations but I heard all about him form my class mates and they filled me in on his discussions and presentation. It was interesting to hear from them exactly what they got out of the presentation as well as the vicious cycle of computer viruses versus computer protection. It was also cool to finally get a break from school with thanksgiving. It has been insanely busy in all of my classes and I'm glad I got some time off to do work on my annotated bibliography and spend some time with my family.

Discussion on Internet for Social Change

I am really enjoying our discussions on the internet and how it is affecting different social areas across the globe. I was given the internet in Russia, and my article and research was all about how the Russian government is starting to police their internet and take out content that they deem "undesirable". The concept to me is very Eastern and would not work in America as well. We pride ourselves on the concept that all information should be available to us, that is part of what free speech is all about. Some of the other concepts that we discussed were very interesting and I enjoyed the video between Westboro Baptist and Anonymous. I can't wait for more discussion!

Cloud Computing

This week start with Dr. Wilkes giving a great lecture on cloud computing, its advantages, its disadvantages and how it really is the thing of the future. Mr. Greer of Easyfish marketing even discussed with me how his company is entirely cloud based and how he has employees all over the U.S. and that they work together on local projects but very few people work entirely out of his main office in history. I think that this will be how more and more business work in the future. The process will continue to become more and more efficient and it will benefit the American family because parents will be home with their kids more often. The only issue that I can see with this is that possibly people would be more distracted by how comfortable and easy their home is to relax, creating a less professional work environment. It was also cool to see how many companies that I know were using cloud computing for things that I do daily without me even thinking about it.

Crowdsourcing and its uses.

I really enjoyed this week because of all of the discussions about Crowdsourcing. I had never actually heard of the concept of crowdsourcing but it is brilliant. I enjoyed seeing all of the different uses at Carnegie Mellon and how it was being used as a free concept to solve what would have cost millions and millions of dollars. Also, it was neat to see how the games were actually quite fun. I threw my name in the pot to be chosen for the duolingo.com private beta in a few weeks. The activity I made with Zoe and the rest of our group also worked out surprisingly well.

Marketing Visitor and end of presentations.

I got to present our book and that seemed to go over very well! Even Dee Parks was getting in on the conversation, and we had some really great discussions! Overall I did not really like our book but the concepts were good. Also, we had a digital marketing visitor who presented his company and how they worked. I LOVED THIS. He discussed all of the different things he did and all of the different companies that his company works for. This is right up my alley since I am a marketing visitor. I emailed Mr. Greer later that day and he said that they might be able to set me up with a internship!!