Yolo everyone. It’s been a really long time since my last blog post.

Partner’s Screenshot                                                                 My Screenshot

Definition of filter bubble: It is a result of personalized in which a website algorithm selectively considers researcher’s favortism by his or her habits.

Each country is selective toward the information on internet because some knowledge might be politically, diplomatically, and domestically insulting to itself.(In Taiwan google engine, you will rarely see news about that “Taiwan is not a country” unless the keywords you type are meant to find that kind of information!) That is the “biggest picture” I understand in this filter bubble project.

Taiwan Flag by Connie Ma via Flickr CC BY 2.0

That is what you search for Taiwan… 

OK, I am getting kind of patriotic and political, sorry about that…

Anyways, why should we be concerned with Filter Bubble?

As mentioned before, there is some sort of bias in searching engine, and bias eliminates some crucial information. Therefore, when doing an academic research or other things, it is highly possible that some useful websites will be blocked from a country’s searching engine. (Ex: Learning physics with Khan Academy blocked…) I believe that filter bubble is an unnecessary blockade that disables people, especially people from different communities, to understand one another’s local customs because it limits limits one’s research to a really small range. The creation of internet is to let people be connected with the world, not to narrow our minds within a small space without even realizing its occurrence. As the Ted Talk said, we are a global citizen, hence we have the obligation to recognize new people, to learn new perspectives, and to be open-minded.

Globalized by Melissa Marques via Flickr CC BY 2.0

We are a part of world, not a part of computing algorithm. 

 Comparison with My Distant Partner’s Results

My first research and my partner’s first research had similar results.(First two websites happened to be identical, and my partner’s third result, Wikipedia, was also in my top ten lists) Despite using different engine and having different searching behaviors, my partner and I had pretty much same searching results. (Probably because we are similar!)

I would say that personal habits do affect the searching result,(my partner’s third result is different than mine) but sometimes it does not really matter.

Conclusion

Despite saying all these negative things about filter bubble, it does have advantage- the algorithm at least chooses information that a researcher prefers to have. The bias created by filter bubble is the bias that a researcher either accepts or prefers. On the other hand, filter bubble is also dangerous because it happens without permission(The system automatically selects things for a researcher), which might make one less connected with current affairs and possibly become close-minded. There are two sides to a coin!

(By the way, I did not take the screenshot of searching results using different country codes because it is pretty much the same.)

Finally, special thanks to my distant partner 10000 miles away!

My Thoughts

I think you, Lauren Erwin, did a really great job reflecting yourself and showing your personalities as your magazine is mostly made up of “horses.” I have read all the posts you have on Flipboard, and all of them are interesting facts about horses, which indeed shows your passion toward horse riding. As you probably know, we do not have an environment for that kind of activity in Taiwan, which is pathetic… By reading your Flipboard, I can tell that you are valiant and adventurous as horsing has certain possibility of danger and injuries. YES, YOUR FLIPBOARD IS WAY MORE DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER ONES!!!

My Suggestion

I think that instead of just emphasizing your passion toward horses, it is possible to show your other traits, such as you favourite subject and food so that readers will know you better. If you would put little more information that reflects yourself as an individual, your Flipboard will be perfect!!

Comparison

I will say that your Flipboard is so different from mine, in fact we do not even share a similar interest. (such a sad fact) Anyways, I consider myself as a balanced individual since I am fascinated by a variety of topics but am not extremely passionate toward any of them. (Probably baseball…) You, however, have displayed your enthusiasm in animals, especially horses.

By the way, I have ridden horse in Glenorchy, Queenstown, and it was arguably one of the best memories in my life!

A picture of your favorite…

Horse by Moyan Brenn via Flickr CC BY 2.0 

Yolo everyone... So yes, this is the summative assessment for blog unit, "what has 
changed me as a writer?"

Introduction

After writing several decent blog posts, I have learned to communicate with readers well, and understood to use some conversational sentences, tones, and mood to make my blog more appealing. A variety of technological manipulations makes my posts more formative and effective, which includes proper citation, image usage, personal introduction, and cautious awareness.

“Technology and Art” by Ars Electronica via Flickr CC BY 2.0

Perfect use of technology in a post is congruent to a perfect post.

Attribution

Before the unit started, I was incapable of correctly citing the sources where I had gotten the from; however, the presentation from other groups regarding creative commons gave me the general understanding of it. Being a risk taker, I encourage myself to use a lot of pictures to convey a relaxing mood, and try to properly attribute to the author of the selected image. I have shown gradual improvement since the beginning. The skills of attribution allow me to further select appropriate images and put it in the blog without infringing the original author, or being accused of illegal spread…(It is totally possible)

Anyways, you can see the improvements and my rapid progress!

Images 

Due to my profession in bibliographic citation, I now have the ability to use a lot of pictures to decorate my blog post, [to let the audience be interested in my blog:)]  Images enhance my blog post to another level as it attracts the attention of the readers, and by placing images where necessary, it presents a totally new perspective, that pictures are more powerful than words! Correct attributions and benevolent use of images, despite being two different things, are closely related to one another. 

By the way, the screencasting video by Mr. Williamson regarding attributions help me so much!! 

Biography

The third factor that changes me as a writer is the creation of my personal biography and favorable background. These two things, seemingly purposeless, reflect my personalities and present readers “my true self.” [Yes, this was the first editing for my blog when I just came to 9th grade:)] This skill is extremely important since without personal biography, I am basically anonymous and is considered invisible on the KAS blog. The selected background and profile picture decorate my blog enormously.

In addition, before someone clicks into the posts I wrote, the person will see my interesting background first!

“Baseball” by Sigckgc via Flickr CC BY 2.0

It is me; it is important.

Awareness

The use of highlights for some important words and conversational tones shows my awareness on the audience. A strong awareness on the readers is so magical that they might feel as if I were having a conversation with them; in actuality, I just am just writing colloquially? The emphasis of awareness also makes me a better writer. I started to apply this skill since Mr. Williamson has been constantly talking about “having a conversation with your audience instead of writing tiresome two-thousand words.”

Conclusion

So, going back to the original question, “what has the blog unit changed me as a writer?”  Personally, this unit has changed my attitude toward the blog. At first, I thought blog was usually boring due to its paucity of animations, and was basically another form of an assignment; therefore, the posts in eighth grade were extremely dull. I think the biggest change is the use of attractive sources such as images and backgrounds, which enhance the interests of readers. These all bring strong awareness to the audience. In short, I am now professional at writing blog posts because of the practical application of images with correct attributions, biography on entertaining facts, and awareness on words, which make me closer to an independent/great writer.

“Writer Block” by Incessant Flux via Flickr CC By 2.0

I am officially way more better than that, believe it or not…

Yolo brakowaski, it’s me again…

(Due to some technical issues regarding uploading, our work was late for 9 hours.)

Introduction: 

In the video Joshua, Nicholas, and I created, we focused on the importance of academics. We taught the audience the ways to have decent grades, and the advantages of having great academic performance. The coldhearted truth was stated in the video, that grades basically determines an individual’s future since it is a crucial reference or implication of his/her ability. It is certainly important that students should be come a balanced individual, but striving for excellence in academics is actually the dominating factor for one’s career, as it differentiates people into separate categories.

This is so true….

Photo Credit: Gabrie Coletti via Flickr cc

Reflection: 

I think that I did a lot of work in this section since I basically edited the entire video individually. (it is impossible to share the Imovie video to others to edit.) I had created a document where my teammates and I jogged down all ideas, then we had a short original filming that was effective in showing our major topic, grades. Overall, we had great time management as we split the amount of work everyday equally. Joshua and Nicholas were in charge of the short filming, and I made the video, which shows the division of work. (Though making the video took most time.) For this unit, collaboration was perfectly presented.

In addition, in our short movie, I have also shown a lot of skills, including advanced editing, detailed information, simple sentences, and correct attributions. We have done every single part properly with high efficiency. We always had a lot of work done everyday with quality, which was the thing that I was proud of. However, there were still minor mistakes that we could improve on- independence. It seemed like all of us were too dependent on others and waiting for the division of labor that no one wanted to do too much. I think, at least for myself, should present selflessness and carried the more work since I could learn a plethora of things from engagement in group activities.

In short, despite the collaboration, I hoped that I could do more for my future advantages in my academic career; responsibility is the key!

Finally, let’s relax!

Photo Credit: Taken by author via camera

Yolo Everyone,

Why will students cheat? It is an inquiry the presentation mainly focuses on.

This presentation helps others understand that honesty is a basic thing that everyone should be able to achieve, but majorities fail to be academically honest due to the overwhelming pressure or simply their laziness. It is an astonishing fact that 86% of high schoolers have cheated, and cheating is extremely ubiquitous that it seems unsurprising and legitimate to be academically dishonest despite the heavy consequences and its violation on the school’s policies.

Everyone wants to succeed, but each person chooses different ways; apparently, a plethora of people decide to use illicit methods. Sometimes, illegal ways are more effective to having a better result, but the process of learning, one of the most important parts in education, is skipped. Therefore, in my opinion, I think cheating is not a good way to make a student competitive.

When I was presenting, I was not really confident, resulting in silent voice and fast-talking speed. Although I had eye contacts with the audience while presenting, my speaking was not really fluent; there were still paucity of stops in my presentation. Another mistake was that I forgot to add the creative commons for every single image, which might be considered a form of academic dishonesty. However, our presentation was organized and informative, which provided a plethora of information to the audience. Overall, I think I did an acceptable job with a lot of things to improve on next time!

Sports can be shown in various different ways. These images are all categorized as sports, but their aspects and objectives are completely unique from one another.

Photo Credit: SD Dirk via Compfight cc

“Physics works, but the bat is not alive.”

Logan Forsythe broken bat. Dirk, SD. Via flickr cc dirkhansen

Photo Credit: Taken by Author

“Elegance on a battlefield is within the brightness and the darkness.”

A picture taken by the author (No need for MLA format)

“These are the REAL high heels.”

Leah. Dooley, Melissa. Via flickr cc mkdooley

These photos, despite categorized as sports, show difference in beauty, kinetics, aesthetics, perspectives, and objectives. For the “Logan Forsythe Broken Bat,” it shows the perfect correlation of power and sciences; however, for the “Chinese Go” picture taken by myself, it represents the wonderful combination between rivalries, specifically black and white stones, and the brain competition between enemies. Thus, it emphasizes on intelligence and strategies rather than intensity.

Photo Credit: asiteducation via Compfight cc

Yolo everyone.

Internet allows us to exchange information, and we are able to communicate regardless of distance via community websites. Internet is an important creation that not only makes our life easier, but affects our local customs since people will be sharing a lot of international news or information on it. However, despite its convenience, internet is too penetrable and accessible for every single citizen, which creates confusion, unsafeness, and lack of privacy. Digital security is a crucial concept in which users should have a decent understanding on it. It is strongly unrecommended that private information be put on network; although the internet marks it “private,” it is still hackable by simple duplicity. Speaking of myself, I am a contributor of the digital society, but I rarely post things on it due to the problem of digital security. Nonetheless, I use community websites to absorb information and trade things, which boost the velocity of global interaction.

Personally, I think the real society is similar to the digital world because it is just a reflection of current humanity. People post things that happen in the world, so digital presence changes when new events occur in the community. I think the only difference is that digital society is more convenient and the real society actually makes people feel “real.” Because of its convenience, digital security becomes more important, but that results in paucity of privacy.

The creation of Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, and other famous websites are so dominating and crucial for the functionality of this society. Millions and millions of people rely on the use of internet, which shows the equal importance between the real world and the digital world. It seems that being a digital citizen has recently become a requirement of being an individual.

Lastly, speaking of the rules of digital citizenships, these are the most crucial ones- do not spend too much time using social media or watching videos because that might kill the promising future of an individual; do not use inappropriate language or share unnecessary information, and most importantly, do not bully anyone!

Link to other blogs

Jasper Ko

Stockton Quinn

Hello everyone!!

I watch and play baseball every single week; however, I have a lot of bad experiences with it- that I have been hit by a fastball right in my head, that I was hit by a bat, that I broke my arm when throwing. Despite all these miserable incidents I have with baseball, I still love it undoubtably. Possibly, it is because the god who created me made me love baseball in any circumstances, while most importantly, family affection is the key to developing or cultivating my interests.

Another interest of mine is Weiqi, or Chinese Go, which I have been learning for ten years. Weiqi is a two-people game that each competitor needs to get as many territory as possible.(though it is way more harder and complicated than just conquering more territory.) Weiqi lets me encounter a lot of difficult situations and leads me to the right way. Nonetheless, in actuality, I am always frustrated with it due to the failures it has given me: being defeated crushingly. These frustrations allow me to face the the most difficult situations fearlessly, dauntlessly, and eventually solve them with logical understandings from mathematics.

Speaking of mathematics, it is the subject that I cherish and like the most. My dad has told me that s strong foundation of mathematics leads to success in both educations and extra activities. So anyways, he taught me math since I was five, and I believe that math is really crucial for my career.

Apart from these major interests, I like to watch Japanese cartoons, such as “Crayon Shin Chan” and “Case Closed,” play chess, play board games and poker cards, and play Yugioh cards. By the way, I love Taiwanese food to death!!