Do Now

Seeing the commercials of the abused animals and hungry people make me think about how good my life is compared to theirs. Many people in second world countries don't have enough food and starve. Seeing people help them these people by giving them food and building schools for their children to get an education inspire me to help in some way to make our world a better place. Some people live lavish lives, while others live in dirt. While the rich people have a say in almost everything, these people don't have a say in anything. This is similar to abused animals, they don't really have a say in anything, and it is sad how we can relate animals to people on their conditions. We shouldn't be able to compared a person's life conditions to that of an animal.
My life goals can fulfill my own needs as well as helping the community. I could do this by having a good job, making money, and donating some of my money to charity to help others. Hopefully some of this money could go to helping people in second world countries as well as people in my community. In addition to giving money, I could also go out of my way to help the people by giving them the food myself, or helping build the schools, building, or even water wells.

Blog - Post Assesment

Vesta Wood Fired Pizza is located at 64 Hoboken Rd, East Rutherford, NJ 07073. Right off of Route 17, and down the street from Hackensack St. Their location provides accessibly to anyone who wants to reach them. Their specialty is wood fired pizza, which attracts people from miles away. Personally my favorite dishes from the restaurant are their Margarita Pizza, and Pepperoni Pizza. If I ever feel like having non-expensive wood fired pizza I know where to go. If you want to make a reservation their number is 201-939-6012.

The name Vesta was chosen because it is the Roman virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family. They have traditional Italian dishes that are designed to make you feel comfortable, while stile serving quality food. Vesta Wood Fired Pizza also caters for events. They will suit the menu to you occasion, taste, and budget needs. Whether you want to have Vesta catering for an event, or just eat out for the night with your family, they will have great food and prices that won't break your bank.

If Vesta were to close, I would go to Tina Louise at 403 Hackensack Street Carlstadt, NJ 07072. To make a reservation their number is 201-933-7133. My favorite dish at Tina Louise is the Beef and Broccoli, which is not on the menu but available if you ask. The restaurant is very small, but their food is amazing. The amazing food and atmosphere in Tina Louise make it automatically my second favorite restaurant.      

RSS Discussion Questions

1. Why did you select the sites you subscribed to?

I selected the sites that I subscribed to because the topics interested me. Some feeds include CNN World News and Food.com chocolate recipes. I subscribed to them so that I can know what is happening out in the world, and to have different chocolate recipes, because I love chocolate. 

2. Was it easy to find feeds and to subscribe to them?

It was easy to find and subscribe to the sites, because all you have to do is go the the website find the RSS feed and paste it into your reader. In my case I used Digg Reader which is very simple and easy to use. 

3. Which sites were your favorites?

My favorite sites were OneDirection.net, thebeautydepartment.com, and TMZ.com. 

4. What else can you use RSS feeds for?

You can use RSS feeds to save time, find information easier, and look at everything in the same place.

5. How likely are you to continue to use RSS feeds in the future?

I am very likely to use RSS feeds in the future, not only for personal use but to use for school projects and anything else school related.

You Can Buy Girl Scout Cookies Online

Through a national platform called Digital Cookie, Girl Scout Cookies will be sold online. The organization now believes that the girls can learn valuable skills by selling their cookies on the internet. They hope that it will help them learn and be grounded in technology, as-well as learning valuable interpersonal skills. Girl Scouts will continue the traditional way of sales, along with selling them online. The organization also wanted to level out the playing field for all of the 2.3 million Girl Scouts. They didn't want some scouts and parents using advanced Web skills to gain an edge over their peers. The online sales are expected to launch on December 12th. The traditional cookie season begins in January. 

To see the original article click here.

Do Now 12/2

If I were a teacher I would add gardening class to the curriculum. This class would meet year round during the school day. During the spring and the fall, the class would go outside to garden as well as learning about gardening and plants. While during the winter they would only be inside learning about gardening and plants. Vegetables would also be a main learning topic, in the hopes that students would want to grow vegetables at home and be healthier. 

To be more in depth, students during the spring and fall would learn about gardening techniques, where different plants need to be planted to thrive, and more. After learning the subject, the class would then go outside and try what they have learned. During the winter, the class would still learn all about plants, but not have as many opportunities to try what they learn themselves. However, little planters could be used in the class room for demonstrations all year round when the weather is not adapt for going outside. The class would be very interactive and welcoming to every student. Although the teacher would make sure that the students don't get to loud.

Web 2.0 Wiki Research

1. How can a wiki be used a current class on your schedule (not this course)? Pick a class and be specific how the class could create and use a Wiki on a regular basis.

Wiki's can be used in many situations, including my biology class. They can be used for group projects and study groups, by allowing the students in the group to combine their knowledge and study for an upcoming test, or write a script for a puppet show project. 

2. What are the benefits of using a wiki in class?

The benefits of using a wiki are vast. During class, students can work together on class work, get notes from their teachers, and share information in general with each other.

3. How can we create a wiki in this class, what would be contribute to it and how would be utilize it on an on-going basis?

We could create a wiki in this class by using a wiki website, and contribute knowledge on the current topic, help others with problems that they are having with the assignment, and share different ideas, for example giving answers and opinions on Do Now question.

4. What experience do you have using or creating wikis?

I do not have any experience past this class creating wikis, but from the information that I now know about wikis, it seems that creating a wiki would be easy to do. I have however used wikis before, including Wikipedia, and Wikianswers. 

Tech article 11/14

Cardboard Bicycle

Engineer Izhar Gafni learned how to fold cardboard into the strongest shapes possible, including honeycombs and bird nests. The spokes, rims, and frame are made from cardboard; old car tires are used as puncture-proof wheels, a car's timing belt as a chain; and formed plastic bottles are made into pedal cranks. The prototype weighs 28 pounds, and can support a rider almost 20 times its weight. He intends to make four models, two for adults and two for children; rechargeable electric motors are optional. He hopes to sell them for $30 each, and build them for $12 each. If advertising were to be on each bike, then people in developing countries could ride them for free. 

To read the original article click here.

Weekend

Over the long weekend I slept in late everyday. This extra sleep was refreshing from the shorter amount of sleep that I normally get on school days. When I finally woke up, I spent time reading and spending time with my family. On Friday night, I went to the Grand Lux Cafe, in the Garden State Plaza, with my grandma, mom, dad, and sister. 

Tech Article 10/24

Detecting Your Emotions Through Your Typing Style

A new computer program may pave the way for the day that computers are smarter than humans, using the concept "the singularity". Researchers tested the program to identify nine emotional states: joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, shame, guilt, neutral, and tired (so far). Machines could be more effective and friendly if it could change its behavior according to the emotions detected. This would also be helpful with online teaching, being able to change the lesson style based on their emotional state, and online counseling sessions.
Click here for the Live Science article.

Tech Article 10/17

Space Elevator

Have you ever wanted to go into space? Advanced technology now is saying that in around 2030, we will have space elevators. A diamond nanothread cable, which is almost a hundred times stronger than a steel cable. The cable would be about 2.5 inches thick, and could lift the equivalent of three International Space Stations per day into orbit. Think of the cable as a diamond necklace, strung with the tiniest possible diamonds.

 Click here to see the original CNN article.

Tech Article 10/10

Navy "Drone" Boats

 

The United States Navy is testing "drone" boats to be used in the field. They detect a vessel that is a threat to the Navy Ship, and five of these boats swarm the vessel to confront it. They are controlled by Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS). Some of these unmanned boats are cruising on the James River in Virginia, setting up a protective screen on a Navy research ship. They are like guard dogs, and put our sailors of harms way.

To read to CNN article click here.

Tech Article 10/3

FireChat

In Hong Kong during protests, cell towers get overloaded with traffic or the government decides to flip the switch. With thousands of people on the street, internet is useless. Demonstrators have turned to FireChat, which allows phones to connect to other users within 250 feet. When more people join the range, it extends farther allowing more people to join the chat. Open Garden is the company behind FireChat, and has said that they are trying to fix the problems with the app. These include the local authorities being about to poke around. They are trying to fix this with private messaging and encryption. Open Garden advocates for, "freedom of speech and access to information."

Do Now 9/29

An editorial is a newspaper article written by or on behalf of an editor that gives an opinion of a topical issue. A Wikipedia editorial was written by Bruce 
Maiman. Many students have been warned away from Wikipedia from their teachers, due to the thought that there may be incorrect information. Students have been told that since the information could be edited or added by anyone, that the information may be false. This may not have been the writer's intent, as they may not know the correct information and believe that they are correct. 

When writing papers, teachers have not allowed students in the past to use Wikipedia as a source.  In fact, some teachers have even used bold and all capital letters to get the point across. Once many people believed Wikipedia to not be trusted, but now many people are warming up to using this informative and interactive information website. 

After reading this article I'm sure that many people's views on using information from Wikipedia have changed. According to the article, as many as 500 classes have been assigned to edit or even create a new article on the site. Many students are happy when their articles are edited by other, as shown by the thrilled student instead of some who might take this negatively. Students doing assignments on Wikipedia learn to value peer reviewing and enjoy positive critiques given to them and giving valuable information to others.

Tech Article 9/26

• Even when your unconscious, your beating heart creates small vibrations, invisible to the human eye.
• The FINDER can detect this small movement through up to 40 ft of debris.
• This can be especially helpful during major disasters, when trying to find survivors.
•  It was created by James Lux, at JPL.

Tech Article 9/19

• iOS 8 is here and is the biggest iOS release yet.
• Unfortunately, you it takes up 1GB of storage,but you need at least 5GB of storage to complete the download over air.
• The more people that are are downloading iOS 8 at the same time, the longer the wait.
• If you want to make the wait shorter, connect your device to your computer.
• Make sure you have the lastest version of iTunes and finally download iOS 8
• It will still take a long time, yet not as much time as if you were to download it without connected to your computer.

click here for more information

Web 2.0: Multimedia Blog Posting

Mr. Colarusso is a science teacher at Wood-Ridge High School.  This year I have him for Biology Honors, seventh period.  When the class first started, I expected to learn throughout the year about life, as biology is the study of life. To this date, we have not learned the most information, as school has just begun.  Yet, we have reviewed several topics, including the scientific method briefly.  We do this to ensure that everyone knows what do do and hasn't forgotten information from previous years.

The grading policy for this class is, 40% tests, 15% quizzes, 25% lab reports, research papers, and projects, 10% informal assessments, and 10% homework and participation.  For this class their are multiple things that I find interesting. I like how we can keep our textbooks at home and how everyday we either have to read a section or do the packet pages for the previous section we have read. Some may not like this, as it is more homework, but I find that it gives you a better understanding of the topic and you are more able to join into discussions help on the work we were supposed to do the night before.

Technology is used during this class often.  School has only been going on for a few weeks and I can recall at least two times that he has used the projector. We have done an online plant growth experiment and have used the projector to look at a picture of an owl.  We made observations of this picture concluding may things about the owl and its surroundings.

Mr. Colarusso's webpage
Biology Honors Syllabus

Introduction to Biology

Educational Technology and Copyright Law

• When you make something of your own, for example a drawing or a story you wrote, it is automatically copyrighted to you.
• You have four exclusive rights for a copyright.
• If you need to use a picture for example for school use the image is almost always fair use.
• The copyright law states what the guidelines of what can and cannot be used for copyrighted images.
• Almost all images are fair use, except for licensed images.
• Make sure to give credit to the creator of the images. 

link

Tech Article 9/12

China iPhone 6 Delay

• For the US and many markets, the iPhone 6 will come out on September 19, 2014.
• China will have to wait until the end of the year (possibly December).
• China is the world’s biggest smartphone market.
• Apple made a mistake of adding China onto the list of countries where the iPhone would be released on September 26th. Apple edited this overnight and removed China from the Asian shipping list.
• Apple said that, "China is a key market for us and we will get there as soon as possible".
• Although a release date has not been officially announced, Chinese carriers are already taking thousands of pre-orders.

link