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