New Blog!!

I decided to start a new blog that allows me to express my feelings about the purpose of life, and the many crazy events going on in this world. I will probably not be posting anymore on this blog, as it was created for a class assignment, and I wanted to start afresh. Those interested in following my new blog can go here:

http://kevinsthoughtsonlife.blogspot.com/

Thanks for following me!

What Type of Fan Do I Want to Be...

Although I intend this post to be relevant to all, I wanted to get it out right now and say that I am a true blue BYU Cougar fan, and I love watching BYU sports. Go Cougars!

However, this post is meant to talk about sports fans everywhere.

I found myself pondering about being a fan the other day, and recognizing that sports had started to become something that drove my emotions. Wins would lead to elation, and losses would lead to despair. I would even allow the frustration of the game to fill me with bitterness and anger at times. As I pondered about this, I felt disturbed that I would allow something so trivial to begin ruling how I felt. I decided to change my attitude towards sports, and go back to just enjoying the game. This led to a realization of a choice I can make about the type of fan I want to be.

Three Types of Negative Fans

The Fair Weather Fan
This is the fan that has been talked about a lot already. No one likes a fan who is only interested in winning and who leaves as soon as the "weather" turns bad. There is no commitment, and no loyalty there. They just want to hop on the bandwagon and ride the waves of success. Most would not consider these "true" fans.

The "Blame Someone Else" Fan

This is the first of two negative fans I have become aware of as I have reflected over the past couple of weeks. These fans blame someone or something else when their team loses the game. "The referees were horrible in that game!" "It was definitely the referees who gave that game to the other team." "If the weather delay hadn't happened, then things would be different." These thoughts and statements will never change the outcome of the game, but only create feelings of resentment, depression, and anger. Feelings that take away from truly enjoying sports.

Now, I'm not saying referees are perfect, but that is a big thing to remember: REFEREES AREN'T PERFECT. When it boils down to it, a team should work to overcome bad calls, and do their best. I would argue that VERY few games were ever completely the referees fault.

The "It's All 'So-and-So's' Fault" Fan
This type of fan was extremely apparent after Saturday nights BYU vs. UofU Rivalry Game.

One of the most heated rivalries this nation has ever seen, the Holy War is always hyped up as the most important game of the year. The cold hard truth: one team will come away a loser, and the other will be a winner. Thus, when the game is all said and done, there will be some extremely disappointed fans for one team. The "It's All 'So-and-So's' Fault" Fan then begins to blame individual members on the team or the coaching staff, and argues that they should be ousted from the team:

• "Bronco Mendenhall should be fired! This team needs a new head coach!"
• "Taysom Hill is no quarterback! Give someone else a try! Put in Ammon Olsen!"
• "Robert Anae is the worst Offensive Coordinator ever! Fire him and get someone who's more capable!"
• "The offense was terrible in that game! The defense deserves a better offense!"

In the end, these fans are just looking for a scapegoat, because they do not want to put it on the team as a whole. These fans are missing a key point of football (and most sports): IT IS A TEAM SPORT! Any argument that someone should have done better is ridiculous! Of course they could have done better! But, if I argue that the offense should have played better, I could just as well argue that the DEFENSE could have played better and not allowed any points on the board. The fact is, every team has things to improve upon. If everyone were perfect in their executions, on both teams, sports games would become EXTREMELY boring to watch, and would always end up in a draw. Where is the fun and excitement in that?

This leads me to the type of fan I want to be:

The "Looking for Improvement" Fan

I would love to see my team win! But, I need to recognize that they will probably lose some games. The best perspective to keep, one that always helps a fan to stay positive even when things are going wrong, is to look for things that the team can improve on. This goes for wins and losses. I will use BYU's first three games of this season to illustrate:

1. v. Virginia: BYU lost this game. It was a tough game to watch. However, if a fan simply congratulates Virginia for beating us, and then focuses on what BYU can do to improve, the game will not be seen as a "waste." What did we learn from the Virginia game? BYU needed to work on ball handling skills. mis-snaps, dropped passes, fumbles ... all of them related to ball handling. As a fan, and as a player, the best thing to do is brush off the loss, look at the things to work on, and go to work improving as a team for the next game.
2. v. Texas: BYU won this game, and it was a lot of fun to watch. However, there were still things that needed to be worked on. It was amazing to see BYU run all over that Texas defense, but our passing game was pretty dismal. Thus, after that game, I recognized the thing to improve on was the passing game.
3. v. Utah: Sadly, we lost this one, and will have to wait three years to try to beat Utah again. The important thing to focus on is that we still have 10 more games to play, and there are things to be worked at and improved upon. With this focus in mind, the Utah loss doesn't become bitter, or a "season ender." From this game, it became clear that the team needs to work on Blue Zone Offense. We would get down into the blue zone, but couldn't capitalize on those drives. 

If the team focuses on improving, and the fans stick with them, then I think BYU can still have an awesome season! Furthermore, as I have changed my perspective about wins and losses, I find myself enjoying the game again. Losses do not end up throwing me and my whole demeanor into depression and frustration, but give me a chance to reflect on what the team can do to improve. I hope that the coaches, staff, and players can have this same mentality. If they do that, I think we have a fantastic chance of developing a great BYU team.

Lessons for Life

This earth life is all about progression. We are here to learn, to grow, and to progress. The moment we stop trying to improve ourselves, life becomes stale and stagnant. Teachers who quit trying to perfect their lessons and just "get through" the material lose the real rewards of teaching. Professionals who focus only on gaining money and not improving how they help others miss out on really making a difference in the world.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ never want us to focus on our mistakes and fall into pits of despair and hopelessness. That is what Satan wants. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to focus on the opportunity that we have to learn from our mistakes, repent, and become a better person. That is the whole purpose of life! We are here to improve ourselves as human beings, and strive to reach the goal that the Savior has set before us: "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (3 Nephi 12:48)" I hope that we can all recognize the things that we can improve on, and then work at them. Keeping this as our focus will help us all to be better people, improve our communities, and eventually improve the world we live in today.

Kevin's Life Update

For anyone interested in my blog, here's where my life has gone in the past year...

Jenny and I have continued to enjoy every minute of being married to each other, and we feel so blessed to be together.

In February, we had a beautiful baby girl, Abigail Hazel Watson, and she is now 6 months old. The time has been flying, but it has been a blast! We love being parents, and we love the smiles and laughs that we get from our daughter every time she sees us. It's such an amazing experience being a parent. I love it so much! For those out there who are afraid of marriage or having kids, don't be. It is challenging, but SOOOOO rewarding! Being married and having kids, in my humble opinion is what life is all about :) I mean, just look at our daughter...

How could you not want kids when you look at her??? I love her so much!

We also recently moved to Provo into a nice 3 bedroom apartment for only $600 a month!! It was a steal of a deal, and we are loving living here. The ward is great, and it's a perfect location for my teaching job and for Jenny going to her art classes at BYU. We love it!

And last but not least, I have just started teaching math at Centennial Middle School. It's been challenging so far, but I'm enjoying it. I hope my kids understand that I want them to really understand mathematics, and not just memorize rules and procedures. I'm not trying to torture them, I'm just trying to help them see that mathematics makes sense. :) We'll see how they feel about me as a teacher at the end of the year.

All in all, life is going well, and we are just doing our best and enjoying the journey. :)

Pregnancy Cravings

Well, it's been announced on Facebook, so it's probably OK to blog about now. *wink**wink* ;) My wife is pregnant!! We're going to have our first child sometime at the end of February! It's super exciting, but also a little nerve wracking. I've actually picked up another job to try and bring in some extra income to save so that we have enough money to pay for the baby when it gets here. We'll see how that goes. At least it's a job where I'm helping Dan Siebert with a research project here at BYU in the Mathematics Education department. I feel like I'm actually doing some work that is related to my field now. It's on my own time, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It makes me excited to do research in the future when I'm a University Professor (if that ever really does come true....)

Anyway, back to Jenny and our soon to be bundle of joy... Most women talk about having pregnancy cravings. They talk about weird foods that they start to crave that they normally wouldn't eat. That has been true for my wife. She has had some strange cravings. A craving she had back in July should have been our first clue to the fact that she was pregnant, but we didn't even pay any attention to it. We were slicing tomatoes to take for sandwich making to our Family Reunion get together up at Lagoon. While she was slicing the tomatoes, (which, by the way, she normally does not really like to eat unless it's very thin on a sandwich) she picks one up, pours salt on it, and starts munching on this THICK slice of tomato. And she sits there really happy and content. She even said, if I recall correctly, "Mmm...Tomatoes..." while she ate it. It was really weird, but we didn't even think of it as a pregnancy craving. Couple of weeks later, lo and behold, two positive pregnancy tests, and we knew that our lives were going to change very quickly. A change that we are SUPER excited for, mind you :)

Speaking of strange cravings, if you want a strange meal, have your pregnant wife cook one for you. The other night we ended up having macaroni and cheese, with a side of chocolate pudding and a glass of water. It was awesome :)

The one craving I was not prepared for was a craving not of food, but of a place. Jenny has been REALLY wanting to go to a beach. She has been craving the salty air, the sand between her toes, the warm sun. It's been crazy. Anytime she catches even the slightest whiff of a "sea breeze" smell, she groans with longing, and asks me if we can go to the beach. I've been wondering if others experience this as well when going through pregnancy...?

So...If you know of any cheap flights to California, or vacations to a beach that I could take Jenny on for a very inexpensive price, OR (this is my favorite option) if someone wants to treat us to a trip, that would be AWESOME!

Funny Moments with my Wife 2

So, this episode happened a while ago when Jenny and I were still in school and not off enjoying our summer break. But, it is hilarious, and I need to write it down somewhere so that I won't forget it, and so others can enjoy it.

Scene set up: It's late at night (around 11:00pm) and night has fallen. Jenny and I look at each other tiredly and collectively decide it is time for bed. As we are getting ready for a wonderful night of sleep, horror strikes... I realize that I have an online quiz due before midnight, and I haven't taken it yet. Jenny is so tired that she talks me into taking my laptop to the bed with me so that she can sleep by my side while I work on the quiz. We retire to the bedroom where Jenny quickly slips under the covers and falls asleep. I get comfy, open my laptop, wait for it to load, wait for the internet connection, and then log into the website where I have to take the quiz.

I didn't study much for the quiz, but I was able to make some educated guesses on all of the questions, with enough confidence that most of my answers were right. However, there was one question that I really had no idea on. I was able to eliminate two of the answers, and I was left with either B or C as the correct one. Not knowing which answer was correct, and looking to make a wild guess, I asked my wife for advice (not realizing that she was dead asleep next to me).

"Jenny, B or C?"
Jenny looked up bleary eyed at me. "Huh?"
"B or C?"
"What...??"
"B or C? Pick a letter."
"...L..."
At this, Jenny laid her head back down on her pillows and closed her eyes again. I giggled for a while about her answer, and then tried to ask her again.
"Jenny." She once again looked at me with squinted, tired eyes.
"...What...?"
"Not L. I need you to pick either B or C for my quiz. So pick a letter."
"...seven..."
After this answer she laid down again, and I just started cracking up. As I was laughing, Jenny gets up, still looking really tired, and stares at me disdainfully.
"Why are you laughing at me??"
While giggling, I spluttered out, "Because I told you to pick a letter and you told me 'seven.'"
"...Huh...???"
"Never mind, just go back to sleep. I love you." With that I kissed her goodnight.
She smiled dreamily, laid back down, and drifted right back into dreamland.

With that, I made a guess, I can't even remember which letter I picked, because I was still giggling too hard. The really interesting part about this story was when I asked her if she remembered the episode. She said all she could remember was feeling confused that night, then a little angry for some reason, and then a sense of pleasure. That was it.

Luckily, Jenny just laughs about it along with me now. I love her so much!

Funny Moments with my Wife

So, normally I try to be really considerate as a husband. I hold doors open for my wife. I tell her I love you as much as I possibly can. I get her car door for her. I try and honestly make my wife feel that she means the world to me, because she really does.

However, every once and a while I slip up and do something a little dumb, even when I don't mean to.

Jenny and I love to share things. We share stories. We share time with each other. We share books together. And we especially love to share food. One of our most favorite things to do is to go to restaurants, order two different things, and then split them so that we each get to try two different dishes. It's a tradition that started way back when we first met. We just love to share with each other.

Friday's when I work on BYU campus with my boss Karla, she buys brownies for us after we go down and get the money out of all the video game machines in the Games Center. I wanted to share the brownies we got today with my wife, so I loaded mine on a napkin and clocked out from work. I went and found my lovely wife sitting on a couch drawing a really cool picture of an Adobe/Arabian Palace thing in the desert, and showed her the treats I had brought to share with her. I sat down next to her on the couch she was on, and proceeded to bite into the 7-layer brownie bar. After I ate half of it, I gave the rest to my wife who thoroughly enjoyed it. I then began to eat some of the Mint Brownie (the brownies that BYU are famous for), and got thinking about life in general. "I wonder where I'll get a job...I wonder if I will end up teaching at a university..."

It was at that moment that I heard a pleading "Um...???" from my wife. I looked at her, and she looked back at me imploringly with big puppy-dog eyes. I tried to figure out what it was she wanted, and then looked down at the brownie I had been munching on. All I had left was a small bite of the brownie that I was actually just about to pop in my mouth. I had managed to eat almost the whole brownie without even thinking about it. Not meaning to at all, because I really did want to split it with her and share.

I gave my wife the bite and apologized. She said that she really only wanted a bite, and that she loves me. I really do have an amazing wife, and I am so glad she teaches me to laugh at mistakes.

Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration

Just taking some time today to marvel at the countless opportunities that we have with the technological tools that we possess in our day and age. I can contact people on the exact opposite side of the world in less than a minute, even instantaneously! I can publish my thoughts and feelings online to a worldwide audience if I want to. I can keep in contact with people that I have met from all over the world through tools like Facebook and E-mail. I can surf the internet from the palm of my hand! Do you ever just sit back and think about how much of a "science fiction" world we live in today? If you would have told the inventor of the internet that we would be able to surf the internet on a device no bigger than the palm of your hand 3 decades later, do you think he would have believed you?

And how is it all possible? Why do you think that so many wonderful technologies have been developed within the past 50 years? One answer is that we have the resources and some AMAZINGLY smart people who use those resources to better the world around them. But I think there is an even deeper reason to this jump in technological advancement. I truly and honestly believe that God has inspired men to develop these technologies in order to further His work here on earth. Yes, the Adversary is going to use those technologies in any way he can to his advantage (pornography, violent games and movies, etc.), but all good and all truth come from one source, and that source is our Heavenly Father. The technology we have today is a huge blessing, and it gives us so many opportunities to connect with people from around the world. It gives us the opportunity to continue friendships all over the world. And, most importantly, it gives us the opportunity to spread God's word and the love of God to all of His children on the earth today. It just boggles my mind, and it makes me so grateful for the wonderful blessings and opportunities that we have here in this digital age.

Just as a small example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has already posted the Joseph Smith movie on the internet! I was waiting for it to come out on DVD, but they have done something even more productive, and instantly more global by posting it online. This is an amazing video for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those who don't know anything about us. Watch this video, and you will see why it is not very hard to believe that Joseph Smith was a living prophet on the earth, and that he restored the fullness of the Gospel to the earth.

Plea for a Grade

I have to admit, when I have to do a reflective essay or write to the professor(s) at the end of the semester, it feels like I'm pleading for a grade. It's almost as if all I'm doing is trying to justify why the teacher should give me an A. Do I like doing this... not really. The problem with these kind of assignments is that I can be extremely rough on how I would grade myself. And, especially in this Digital Civilization class, I would have a hard time judging what grade I should receive when I compare myself to other students in the class, mostly because the posts of all the students in the class have been so different from each other.

However, reflect I must, and reflect I will do.
I did my best in this class. I spent as much time on it as I possibly could. I did the required reading for each class period. I kept up on all the blog posts we were supposed to do. I focused on my own self-directed learning and learned many tools to help me Consume, including Google Reader, IceRocket blog search, and other searches like Curriki. As I used the many different tools that I learned for Consuming, I learned how to tie in History into the world of today. I have never been able to do that in a history class before. The self-directed learning of this class was wonderful! Because of it, I actually enjoyed learning history, which has never happened before. With the assigned readings, and my own studying, I learned more about, and will be retaining more information about, the historical content of this class.
The computing concepts that we learned in class were wonderful to learn as well, because they are concepts that are important in our day and age, and that tie history to the Digital World we live in today. With the computing concepts, I have learned many new ways of creating content on the web, and many new ways of connecting through the internet.

Now, as far as the class event went, I thought it was great! I thought there were a lot of people there who benefitted from the things shared. As for my contributions...I WORKED HARD! Dr. Zappala and Dr. Burton said that I should try to do more digital literacy labs, and with my group doing Backpack 2.0, that came extremely naturally. The Wiki site was definitely spearheaded by me, and I was able to contribute to every part of the Backpack 2.0 project. (Just check out my blogs about the project updates: This one, or That One)

In all honesty, I worked really hard on this class. Out of all my classes, I devoted the most time to this class. I loved this class! I wish it was going to be offered again to give others the chance to take it. I believe that I did the very best I could. It might not have been as incredible as some of the other students, but for the time available, and the time I devoted to this class, I truly gave it my best. So, what do I think I deserve? In all honesty...

Or just an A will do :-) Thanks so much Dr. Burton and Dr. Zappala! This class was awesome.

P.S. The things I have learned in this class will continue to be useful for the rest of my life. I hope to do more research in the future on how these digital tools and the things we have learned online can be used in teaching mathematics. I also hope to keep up on this blog, because it is a wonderful way to express my ideas, and for others to learn from the things that I have learned. Happy Blogging!

Oh, and

Digital Revolution Event

This is no final project presentation. This is an event and a showcase for showing how learning in the digital world we live in today is very different. Even this event will be different. Here are three reasons why:

1. This event will be HIGH energy. Those giving the presentations only have 5 MINUTES to present their material. It makes it very fast paced, and very engaging. Each group will be presenting on a way they have used the Digital World and History to enhance their own learning in many different topics. (Plus, there will be refreshments served at the end... How can you go wrong with that?)

2. For those who might not be able to make it to our event, we will actually be broadcasting the event LIVE on JustinTV. The Event will be tomorrow, Thursday December 9, 2010, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm in room 3108 of the Jesse Knight Building on BYU campus. If you can't make it, but would still like to watch the event, go to http://justin.tv/digiciv. This should be really cool.

3. We will also be giving people the opportunity to Backchannel, or carry on a live conversation on a separate, "chatlike" projector screen. We are using Poll Everywhere to accomplish this. Those attending the event or watching the event online will be able to use their cell phone to send a text message to Poll Everywhere, which will then appear on the "chatlike" projector screen in the room we will be in. People will be able to use this service to talk to each other, ask questions, or even make simple comments. 

This event will not be just a bunch of presentations. It will be an EVENT of EVENTS to help you learn how to become more digitally literate. PLEASE COME! You won't regret it.

Final Developments in our Final Project

One of the biggest developments that has occurred over the weekend is the decision to leave the "Consume, Create, and Connect" pages open on the Backpack 2.0 Wiki site open. I was slightly reluctant to do this, but in the end, I realized this was the best way for people to collaborate on our website and add their own tools. Anyone with our website URL can go to one of these three pages, and hit the "Edit" button at the top of that page:

This is SCARY for me. It means that anyone (I don't know why they would, which makes my fear a little irrational) could come online and maliciously change the page for their own purposes! I know, it's a bit of a ridiculous fear, but it is genuinely one I have.

Now, if any of you have AMAZING digital tools that are available online, and would like to add them to our website, please visit: backpack2.wikispaces.com. Collaboratively, this could become an extremely useful website to anyone who visits it.

If you have feedback, you can E-mail me at: sparax88@gmail.com

Nominations for STELLAR Blogs

Ok, so here are my nominations, really quickly:

Historical Content: Danny Patterson http://pucksonice.blogspot.com/

• Does a great job of using his personal knowledge and tying it into the concepts we are learning about history
• Shows that he understands the historical content we are studying in each of his posts.

Computing Content: Rhett Ferrin http://imrhettferrin.blogspot.com/

• Great posts that tie in the Computing Content to the historical topics that we are studying
• Doing a great job of keeping us up to date with the Missionary final project
• Extremely informative posts that really expand my understanding as I read them

Self-Directed Learning: Jeffrey Chen http://mrbasics.blogspot.com/

• Lots of Digital Literacy Labs
• Uses the Digital Labs to relate them to the topics at hand
• Great posts about how he is learning new and exciting things on the internet

Though, in all honesty, I've enjoyed reading all the class blogs that I have over the course of this semester. We have a lot of wonderful writers in this class, and it really is hard to just pick a few. In all honesty, I would nominate all the blogs that have kept up with every blog post this semester for one of these categories.

Video Posting in Blogger

Just as another quick update concerning our group project, I figured something out that I really wanted to know how to do.

Normally, when I just want to embed a video from YouTube, I grab the embed code, and then insert it into the "Edit HTML" section of the blog editor. However, sometimes the video is too big, and actually goes outside the blog post, which always looks really tacky. I had this problem again when trying to add a post to our group's Backpack 2.0 blog website. I wanted to embed a video in one of my posts (namely my post about Dropbox) and the video was always too wide, and looked really bad on the website.
However, I did some experimentation, and found out how to shrink the movie to fit the blog! In the embed code, there is a place at the beginning that determines the height and width of the video box, AND there is a place at the end of the embed code that determines the width and the height of the box. If you go in and change those heights and widths to smaller values, you get a smaller video window.

Education 2.0 and our Digital Tool Sites

When we talk about Education 2.0, our final project falls perfectly into this topic. Education used to be going to class, reading your textbook, doing assignments, and then taking tests, with the final result being a diploma or a degree. How much does that degree really mean in our world today? Yes, it does usually give you a higher salary, but what does it have to do with your abilities? Does it mean that you are proficient in the field you studied?

The fact is, having a degree doesn't mean that you know everything in your given field. What it means, (hopefully), is that you have learned how to learn, and that you can continue your own education outside of the classroom by your own motivation. Does the schooling we receive nowadays help us accomplish that? Hopefully, but I'm afraid that there are still many classes across the country, and around the world, that are still stuck in the traditional form of classrooms.

Web 2.0: Collaboration of Billions of People

The reason why Web 2.0 is becoming such a popular phrase in our day and age is because there has never been this many users of the internet all at once since the internet was born. And that number continues to grow. It allows BILLIONS of people to collaborate on projects, connect with each other, consume information, and create all kinds of new "stuff" for people to look at, play with, and remix. The Web really hasn't changed, it's the fact that the way we are using it has been expanded, because, with BILLIONS of people, come TRILLIONS of ideas.
Hence, the reason why our group is working on creating a couple different websites where people can go to find useful tools to help them Consume, Create, and Connect in our digital world.
As I've been working on our Wiki site (Which, by the way is found here: http://backpack2.wikispaces.com/), I have started to become familiar with a bunch of tools. First of all, wikispaces has become a huge tool in bringing this all together. It is really quite an easy way to design a basic website, and I've never worked with ANY web page designing tools, so it has been a lot of fun. Second, I found a cool website that will quickly create a jpeg logo for your website or company, which I used to create our Backpack2.0 logo on the wiki site. Check out the Logo Maker at http://cooltext.com/. Third, I've never worked collaboratively on a project mostly online, and it has been a new, and interesting experience. A lot of E-mails, and a lot of work on Google Documents is bringing this all together. Hopefully this all turns out looking great for the presentations next week! :)

A Model for Future Classrooms?

For those of you who read my blog, I mostly do this for an assignment that I have in my History class (Digital Civilization, Honors 202 course at BYU.) We have been studying history from about 1400 AD to the present day, and then linking it to the effect that modern Media and the Internet have changed the world we live in now. It has been a wonderful, and challenging, class to be a part of.
I have also seen it become a model of what classrooms in the future might be like. Our teachers Dr. Gideon Burton and Dr. Daniel Zappala have focused a lot on "Self-Directed Learning". I see this as a direct result of Media Theory. The fact that electronic and mass media are so readily available at our fingertips with television and the internet is changing the very way we learn. Going to college is not the only way we learn anymore. Books are becoming less and less authoritative. The fact is, because information and ideas change so quickly in the world we live in, we need a medium that can keep up, and that is where Self-Directed learning becomes so important. WE have to take the initiative to go out there into the "mass media" that we have available to us, and be able to intelligently search for the wonderful information that is available to us on every topic.
This class has been a great model for what is available to us, and how classrooms in the future might function. As we have learned how to blog, search other blogs, use tools like Diigo, Prezi, and Slideshare, and the many other tools available out there, it has opened my eyes to the world of Education 2.0. The fact is, in today's world, YOU are responsible for your learning. It is not enough just to go to the classroom anymore.

This is one of the major reasons I am in the Digital Scholarship Wiki group. We are trying to make a user friendly website that people can go to to learn about the different tools available to them out there. Hopefully it will be beneficial to all who visit our website when we are finished.

Aviation

Do we realize how amazing flight is? Or, like many other of the technologies we have today, do we just take it for granted and even complain about it at times?
Here's a quick timeline of some of the major developments of aviation in history:
December 17th, 1903--Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully make the first powered flight with the flying machine they had built, in Dayton, Ohio. Wilbur made the best sustained flight of the day, covering 852 feet of ground in 59 seconds. (Here's a blog about a documentary on Orville and Wilbur Wright) 

World War I--As flying machines and airplanes became more feasible, the major powers in the war battled for rule of the air. Scientists from both sides of the war sought to develop faster, more maneuverable, sleeker, and more deadly flying machines. When one side would develop a better engine, the other would develop a better design. The war drove the technology of airplanes to a whole new level.

1919--Britain and France introduce a Cross-channel service, originally from London to Paris, and thus begin the development of commercial flights, and transporting humans by airplane. By 1936, Donald Douglass and his Engineers release the DC-3 (standing for Douglass Commercial) airplane that can carry up to 21 passengers.

End of World War II--In 1942, Adolf Galland of Germany flew a prototype of one of the worlds first jet engine propelled airplanes. The invention of the jet engine came too late to effect the outcome of the war, but its impact on the future of airplanes was immense.

Computers--As computers enter the scene of flight, more sophisticated airplanes and control towers develop, and commercial and private flying become widespread. Today, airplanes make the world a smaller place, giving us the ability to be on the other side of the world within 24 hours. Isn't it wonderful?

Real life application!!

So, in light of talking about passwords the other day, today I had a very unpleasant surprise. I got on my computer this morning, after a wonderful Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, and tried to log into my E-mail. What I got instead was a message from Google saying I had had some suspicious activity on my account, and that I needed to type in a phone number for them to send me a verification text message. I did this, and then the account had me change my password. When I got on my Gmail account, I found an interesting E-mail that had been attempted to be sent, that I never sent. It only had a link to a website, and I deleted it immediately, because I'm pretty sure it was something malicious. Luckily Gmail had actually stopped those E-mails from being sent, and had shut down my account. This was why my Gmail was not immediately logging in, and why my blog was down earlier this morning. What it looks like is someone hacked into my E-mail in order to send something scary to my contacts. This was very troublesome, so I took the time this morning to go through and change my passwords on many different websites. Hopefully this won't happen again. :)

It just reaffirmed to me that Dr. Zapala knows what he is talking about, and that it's a good idea to have different passwords, and to change them often. It is frightening what people can do through the internet with malicious intentions, but it is also one of the most wonderful tools we have nowadays. Just be careful out there.

The Blog of Rhett Ferrin

As part of our midterm evaluation, we are supposed to do a review of another student's blog, and I was assigned to look at Rhett's blog. All in all, he does an amazing job of accomplishing all of the course outcomes. He has amazing posts that show he really reads and understands the historical concepts that our presented in class. He definitely understands the computer concepts that we are studying in class, and ties them together with the historical concepts in his blog posts.
The most impressive part about Rhett's blog is his self-directed learning. He takes the concepts of each class period, and does an extensive amount of research on his own, to be able to post very scholarly articles on the topics at hand. He does a wonderful job of combining pictures, videos, and scholastic information to help the reader gain a great and deep understanding of specific historical concepts. Take a look at his post on Fusion Vs. Fission as an example; by the time you are done reading Rhett's posts, you have gained a greater understanding of the topic he posts about.
For improvement, I think two things could be done:
1. Rhett could do a few more digital literacy labs, and try a few different blog post types. I think this would give a little more variety to the kinds of posts that Rhett has. Although Rhett has fantastic posts, I would like to see more of a variety.
2. Rhett could also give us some more of his own thoughts. I would like to see him write a post of what he thinks and feels, as opposed to his frequent articles that focus on scholarship. His scholarly posts are wonderful, but again, I think it would be nice to see a little more variety.
As far as the course outcomes go, I think Rhett is doing an excellent job, and I think his blog is one of my favorites to read.

Reflections on life...and my Digital Civilization Class

This semester has been crazy. It's my first semester as a married student. I'm working two jobs, with a total of around 30 hours a week. I'm trying to spend time with my wife and both our families. I'm serving as the Ward Mission leader in my ward. We live in Springville, and haven't had a car, so we have been taking the bus, which takes longer than driving. And on top of all of this, I'm taking 16 credits here at BYU and trying to keep my head above water. It's been rough. But I've been doing alright.
Having said all that, this class has probably taken up the bulk of my time to do homework. I think I work on this class more than any other class I'm taking. The only one that is close behind it is my Linear Algebra class, which also takes up a considerable amount of my time. So, all in all, I have been doing my best to keep up with this class, and learn all I can, and it has been a very difficult, but wonderful experience. I really have learned a lot, and it has stretched me more digitally than any other class I have ever had.
Lately I have been trying to focus on connecting to other blogs within our class, and building off of others' ideas. I have also been trying different blog types, such as my Rant, or the fact that I have figured out how to embed videos in my blog and have been using this as a wonderful tool.
The best part has been the learning in this class. I have loved reading the assigned readings, and using them as a catapult into the digital sea of information. Understanding the historical concepts has taken on a whole new meaning, because I get to find more information on my own on each historical event, person, or period of time. The computing concepts have also been a wonderful thing to study along with the historical concepts, giving me a completely different view of history, and of todays computers. Diigo has become one of my favorite tools, giving me the ability to see what others have found on the class topics. I have also started to love Google Reader, which gives me a tool where I can see things happening all over the internet in one place. As I have grown better and better at my self-directed learning, it is becoming quite enjoyable, and I love being able to connect to things that you would never connect to in a normal class.
Although I may not be the best blogger in the class, or the most involved, I have done the best I can, and I have kept up with the reading and the blogging. It has been a wonderful class experience, and I have learned so very much.

Diigo and a Movie Review: The Atomic Age

Normally, I have been using Diigo in order to show that I am doing outside researching other than the materials that we are given to read as a class. But I thought this probably wasn't the best or only use of Diigo. I don't know how many of you actually look at the bookmarks that others in our class put on Diigo, but I found it quite wonderful to just look at the information that others had posted about the Atomic Age on Diigo recently. It led me to a great overview of a bunch of different topics in the Atomic Age. I would recommend that others use it as a tool to finding information about the topics in class.

For my blog today, I felt it would be good to do something different, and do a Movie Review of an older movie titled, "Above and Beyond" from 1952.

"Above and Beyond" is the Hollywood version of the story of Colonel Paul Tibbets, who was the pilot of the B-29 bomber that dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. (Here's a great blog about Col. Tibbets) "Above and Beyond" gives us an interesting glimpse into more of the personal life of Colonel Tibbets. Imagine being married and having a family, getting called to do a job that would take you away from your family months at a time, and you couldn't tell your wife or kids ANYTHING about what you were doing. It creates great anxiety and tension within Col. Tibbets' family, and puts a huge strain on Col. Tibbets himself. On top of all of this, Col. Tibbets also has to struggle with the fact that he will be killing THOUSANDS of people by dropping this bomb over Hiroshima. Having a family of his own, Col. Tibbets struggles greatly with realizing he will be killing families just like his own, in order to stop the war and save MILLIONS of lives. The personal story of Col. Tibbets comes to life in this film, which gives you a very different, and personal view of war. I would give the movie 7 out of 10 stars for portraying the reality of the brutality and emotional strain of war, and for the wonderful character development of Col. Tibbets and his family.

The Atomic Age, in a way, has focused more on people collectively, rather than the individual. The thing I love about this movie is that it focuses on individuals, and the interactions among them. In today's world, as a result of the Atomic Age, and of the internet, there are many times that we focus on people in general, and how PEOPLE act. However, I think it is also important that we realize that we are also all individuals, and each one of us is important. This is where our Father in Heaven, and Jesus Christ, are great models for us. They care about people collectively, but they also know, and care about, each of us INDIVIDUALLY. It is important, then, that we care about people collectively, but also care about each other individually. We need both in our lives to stay balanced.