The Exciting 1101 Class Blog!

(Kate Zephyrhawke) Here’s a place for you to express yourself! When you find yourself tingling with anticipation and counting the hours until class meets again, you can dialogue with your classmates right here. I’ll have both classes use this same space– that way you’ll have to consider your audience when you write (i.e., how you may come across to people who have not had the pleasure of experiencing your charming personality in person). Remember to include your name and a picture (follow this model) so it will be easy to keep track of who’s who.

Ryan Brooks – Project 3

I have to say that, when this project was first assigned, I was a little bit reluctant to spend any time at all labeling or critiquing our generation. While it is important to remain informed about the problems regarding our generation, it does not seem beneficial to dwell on such problems. I am certainly not one of the people being talked about in these articles about our generation and I am sure that everyone else seeking a higher education is not one of them either; however, because I have no choice in the matter, I will engulf myself with the topic and consider how are generation compares to previous ones. I would like to start by saying that, just because our generation occupies most of its free time with social networking, it does not mean that we are any less informed than previous generations.
Even if this generation is more ignorant than past generations, the blame cannot be placed on technology. If anything has crushed my curiosity and desire to learn, it is the public school system. So much emphasis is currently being placed on grades, rather than learning new things, and this has transformed education into a menial task comprised of 12-13 years of insignificant achievements. Why is it that classroom activity is focused on passing standardized tests? Why do school districts insist that teachers adhere to strict teaching guidelines that strip any originality from the art of teaching? It is because older generations have failed to consider the true underlying goals of education, to provoke learning, the gaining of experience, and the discovering personal identity. It seems that our elder generations who conduct the school systems shift the blame from themselves, where it truly lies, to the scapegoat that is technology.

Zdenka Bacvic – Project #3

After reading Nicholas Carr article “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, and after few hours of researching the topic, I realized how this project is going to be different then projects #1 and #2. The reason I say that is because I feel like I belong to more then one generation. If the date of birth is what establishes which generation I belong, then it is generation X but I recognized so many attributes that are characteristic for generation Y and Z (Google generation) in my behavior and personality. Therefore I am approaching this assignment with excitement I didn’t feel for the previous two. There have been a lot of situations in which I acted the way that I never fully understood. The way the human brain reacts especially in today’s fast paced environment is a motivating subject to explore, and I think that it might answer some questions I have.

Sandy Szymanski- Project #3

So this week I have been researching a lot on the Google Generation. It seems that I find a lot of negativity towards this generation. Everything is based on the internet these days, and less is focused on actual print readings. For some of the cases, I agree that the Google Generation is negative. People use the internet for important things sometimes, but they could use it to their advantage much more. Distractions from the internet have a lot to do with the Google generations. We could be using the internet for something useful, but facebook or other ways of communication get in the way. Communication between people has become more active during this generations and an example would be people constantly texting.

In my paper I think I am going to compare and contrasts the Google Generation to the Baby Boomer Generation. Both generations have interesting ideas and they seem to be different. I’m hoping find some similarities as well. I think this project is going to come easier to us once we converse a little more in class about what exactly needs to be included. During class I hope we discuss others peoples opinions and ideas about the project, so everyone can get a better feel for the project. The annotated bibliography gave me trouble last time, so I think I need to spend more time on that part. I hope I can get this part done easier than last time. Since I have experiences from project one, I assume I will be able to complete the task with less of a problem.

Alexis (Ali) Cooper~ Generation Project thoughts

So after reading through some of the reccomended readings and discussing the project in class, I am feeling much better about it. I still have some questions, but those can easily be answered in class. What I am not looking forward to is the annotated bibliography. My question is, do we write a totally separate 1,200 – 1,500 words with this criteria (from the project page):

Your paper should include:

* specific cultural artifacts, such as technologies, and or historical events, like 9/11, that could have helped to define the generation under discussion.
* either a new term or a critique of an old term based on a combination of primary and secondary evidence.
* a one-page reflection that examines the strengths and weaknesses of this new or existing label (please note that your instructor is looking for a careful critique and not a justification of you term).

or are the annotated bibliographies we have to write included in the length of the paper?

I guess my concern is how exactly the paper should look when it is done. Perhaps if there were a few sample student texts it would ease my concerns.

Ji Digiacomo – projects

So we finally got our grades back and I’m not too happy about my grades. I wasn’t too disappointed because I wasn’t expecting much from it. First project, I had lots of troubles with because I didn’t know how to work the Refworks and was just BORING. Second project, was interesting to work with but it wasn’t easy. Second project was more work and more research. It was very time consuming. I thought I understood the concept of project two after a long conference with professor Zephyrhawke, but I guess I didn’t have enough information on historical eras. I hope I do better on coming up project. I think this will be the last project to pretty much bring up my grades in this class.
I’ve read through project three requirements and in my opinion, project three and two are very similar. This project is also reflecting to historical eras. So there will be lots of research and reading to do which I should be doing now!!

Gina Baker—Project 3

This week I’m researching the Google generation for project three. I’ve found a lot of information, and most of it isn’t positive. The majority of the articles I’ve read agree that the massive amounts of time young people are spending on the internet results in very little time spent reading print such as books or newspapers. And when teens are online, they usually aren’t learning or reading the news. Because of this, young people in America are growing increasingly apathetic to reading and are often unaware of what is happening around the world.
The world’s increased obsession with social networking, whether it be by email, cell phone, or Facebook, has gone too far. We are so consumed with constantly connecting with our “friends” through social networking that things that should be priorities, such as studying (for students, at least) and spending time with people face-to-face, only get a couple of minutes at the end of the day. And even then, chances are we don’t give those things our full attention because we’re waiting for that text message or for that person to get on Facebook chat.
I know this is certainly not true for every person born in the Google generation; I and most of my classmates enjoy reading and we keep informed about the news. But I also know most Google generation high school and college students spend most of their time online or on their cell phones and read as little as they can to get through their schoolwork.
So how can this be reversed? It’s absolutely necessary for those of us who do see a problem with this to “be the change”. We can’t control others’ actions, but we can control our own. Don’t stop reading, and don’t stop learning.

Fernando Celis — Project 3 Draft 1

After discussing the Google generation in class, I have a better idea about what to write in this project. There are many things that people say about our generation, some are true and others apply to a small part of our generation. As I look for sources, I’m beginning to find books written by people defending the Google generation, as well as books written by people pointing out all the problems in this generation. For this project, I want to look at each point of view and draw conclusions about the generation. Mainly what I want to do in this project is to be as objective as possible and find out why people labeled these generations in such a way.

My problem in project 2 was that I went off topic and wrote about marketing instead of the social context. In this project, I’ll try my best to stay on topic and not deviate away from what the assignment asks. From what I found so far I don’t think it’ll be hard to stay on topic, but it all seems so very interesting that I might find myself writing about one subject more than another. However, I will do my best to try to prevent this from occurring.

Dakota Kuehn — Google Generation

In class we discussed the “google generation” and how the genereation we live in is different than the generation that our parents lived in. After watching the “On the loss of our wisdom” video, it made me realize that our generation “the google generation/generation y” is lazy and only does what we are told to do. We hardly ever go above what is directed toward us.

Patterson, Ashley – TED Video and Articles

In class we watched a video off of TED talking about the “Google Generation.” I did not respond well to the video, maybe because I am biased. Along with the video we spent a good amount of time reading and skimming articles which also were about the “Google Generation” and how it has made us, current high school and college students, “dumb.” I was offended by some of the remarks in the articles and found them to be insulting. I read regularly, I watch very little television, finish my school work, I am interested in art and mythology, and I read the news paper instead of the online news websites. I am wondering whether these articles are taking data from high school students, which only one third continue onto college, or just college students, I believe it is the first of the two. I wish that these articles would state clearly which of the two that they have polled so that the college students, who are the minority, get “lumped in” with the two thirds of students we went to high school with.

Patterson, Ashley – Project 2

I am rather upset about this assignment. I was led to believe that I had done what was required of me and so I felt really well about the Project. When I got the grade back, to my surprise, it was not what I was expecting. On my rubric there is a note saying that this was not what the assignment that was given yet when I had my session with the professor, she told me that I had a very good paper and that it was what she was looking for. I am very confused and upset why I got this grade on my paper. I used many sources and was somewhat rewarded for that but the professor still wrote that they did not support my topic. I would have very much appreciated if the professor had told me my mistakes in out session and not when the paper was finally graded. I am hoping that next time that the professor reviews my paper that she will give me better feedback and point me in the right direction on how to make my paper better.