Recreational Reflection

As the first semester of my Digital Multimedia and Global Citizenship comes to a close, the big, scary midterm creeps up to the front door of next week. We have a two or more page reflection on the Passion Project and our progress due by Wednesday of next week. Most of the class is freaking out right now, worried about the long hours of work they will have to put in over the next week to finish the paper WHILE they study and prepare for other course midterms as well. However, due to my extra effort during my Community Pitch, I will be able to breeze through this seemingly excruciating essay. 

About 3 weeks ago, the Dig Cit class presented our passion project to the community in our Community Pitch event one day after school. I took this event very seriously, as a chance for me to gather all my work and thought for my Passion Project. My project board was so very detailed, with over three or four pages of information on things like my progress, my mentor, my plan, my future, and my goals for my passion project. 

At the time, I did not realize how helpful all that work would be. But now, I nearly have my reflection finished and I have only spend 30 minutes editing it and pulling the material together. I am so glad that I worked harder earlier in the year so that I would have more time for studying for other exams now. 

Public Announcement!

         The past two weeks in my Digital Multimedia and Global Citizenship class we have created PSAs (Public Service Announcements) to present to our school. Each group of three or four students was given a different "hot" topic that is controversial today. My group was responsible with informing the school on the importance of your "Digital Footprint". 

A Digital Footprint is your unique set of digital activities, actions, and communications that leave a data trace on the internet or on a computer or other digital device. It can include things like Facebook updates, search histories, or even video downloads. Every time you like, comment, or edit anything online, it is recorded and can be traced back to you. Sounds kind of scary, right? Imagine, future employers or college admission officials having access to all of your tweets! Would you change what you post? 

The idea behind my group's PSA is to make high school student think twice about what they put out online. One bad Instagram picture can really ruin your reputation and effect your ability to succeed in the future. We want everyone to be careful while logged in.  

The Coming Conference

Imagine a Conference Room, filled with nearly 5000 of the most brilliant high school students from around the state. I see myself up on a stage with so many pairs of eyes staring at me, waiting from me to start my presentation, to open my mouth, to "impress" them with my technology skills. I see my friends on the front row, my peers, rooting for me, but nervous at the same time. I see myself nervous. I feel the pressure closing in from around the room, making the air thick and my skin crawl. I notice the beads of sweat on my palms, shaking just like my hands. I fear the silence of me, of the crowd, of my presentation. I know it is time to go out and show it all. 

But I am not scared. I am prepared. I have rehearsed my presentation. I am truly passionate about technology and know what to say, what not to say, and how to convince my audience that LNC inspires its students. I am not scared, NO. I am excited! I get to show off, to prove to the world, and possible future employers that I have what it takes. I know my stuff. I have be diligent for years with my school work. I have the record to show it. I am not scared of this platform. I am not scared of this Conference. I am excited. 

Yesterday, I applied to be a representative of my Dig Cit class for a Technology Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. It will be held on March 2nd - 4th, and I will be presenting about my passion project and how the Dig Cit class has shaped me into a model online presence for the school and my peers. I cannot wait for this leadership opportunity. It will be an eye opening experience, one I will not be able to just breeze through. I am prepared to put in the time and create a presentation that will knock the socks off any educational Admin at the conference. I will update you all further if I get the position as the student spokesperson. 

Video Advice

This past week, my Dig Cit class interviewed a graduate of our school, Kevin Beaty, who is out in the work force and battling real world problems involving jobs and internships out of college. He was a real go getter and I saw a lot of my qualities and characteristics in him. He works in the film industry, an area I am not very interested in, but I did relate to his video journalism. Although he originally majored in Photography, Kevin recognized the importance of being multifaceted, and he explored the career opportunities of video production. 

I related to this because in my passion project, I am creating videos that will guide students through iPad repair. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time for Kevin to answer all my questions about video production. However, I did get a good sense of the time and effort that is required to put together videos. I also found a new respect for professionalism, and now understand the necessity for the videos to be appealing and interesting to my target audience, my peers and faculty. 

To speak further on my passion project, I am excited to work on my Quarter 2 deliverables. My soccer season is over, freeing up a lot of after school to work one on one with my mentor. I will come back next week with more updates!

The Big Pitch

Yesterday after school, my Dig Cit class had our community pitch, where we present our Passion Project to members of the community and school in order to receive feedback. It was an amazing turnout, as there were at least 50 people who attended! Every student in the class set up a both that community members could walk right up to and learn the ins and outs of that person's passion project. Thank you so much to those of you who did come out to support me and my classmates. 

My presentation consisted of about a 2 minutes explanation of my passion and how I planned on creating my website. My poster board was very detailed, highlighting both my website as well as my blog. Further, I talked about my involvement in the tech II class that really spurred on my passion. I enjoyed answering question from community members and seeing the smile on their face when they realized how helpful my project soon would be. 

My mentor, "Mr. Brian" also made an appearance! I actually used him in my presentation and he looked very happy to be involved in my project. Overall, the night was a complete success with everyone very happy about the ambitions of the Dig Cit class. Thank you all again if you came out to support me and my peers.

Creativity

     I am so glad that I used the "Time to Innovate" project in relation to my Passion Project. I was able to kill two birds with one stone, as they say. I created an interactive keynote presentation that walks users through the problems that students might encounter with their iPads. It starts with a satirical use of an into slide to break the tension, stating that by continuing to the next slide, the user was "embarking on a journey". By tapping on the button with that text, the keynote moves to the next slide. 

The next slide lists all the problems that could be encountered by students throughout the year as they use, update and play around with their iPads. The title of the slide says, "Are you having trouble with..." and then the slide lists wifi connectivity, using iCloud, glitchy screens, trouble sending or receiving emails, Accessing Self-Service, or watching videos as issues. Beside it are two buttons: maybe and nope. Selecting maybe directs you to the next slide to continue the journey, while nope guides you to a slide that says you lying because everyone has some part of their iPad they are having difficulty with! 

The keynote will be set up next to my poster board during my Community pitch and will be available for people to explore. I am sure that it will be a hit, or as much as a keynote can be. I am glad that I do not have to create another visual for my project and I am very excited for the pitch next Thursday!

Creating a Dynasty

I have learned a lot this week while working through some kinks with my Passion Project. Unexpectedly, most of those lesson came through me trying to explain the benefits of my project to other people, especially on college applications. I have mentioned my Passion Project at least once on every college app I have turned in so far, as well as on many of my scholarship forms. The idea of a student using school issued technology to benefit his peers and the school's administration is great material for essays.

However, I realized that my passion project would not be up and fully running until the end of the year, when most of the students are turning in their iPads. For my project to be useful to the school, a new, like-minded student would need to take the project over and continue to improve on it through the rest of his years at High School once I have graduated. This was a bit of an eye opener for me, and as the week progressed, I started to look for a fellow student with characteristics like mine who would be able to continue my vision with the website. 

I found such a student in my Technology Assistant II class. He is a Junior, but yet he knows far more than me about technology. He is fantastic with computer coding, which is evident with his 3D printing, and also teaches me daily more about the iPads that I am suppose to be the expert on. He is the perfect candidate to carry on my website. 

The Social Media Question

Social Media is a very debated topic, with most people being extremists to one side or the other. Social Media can be considered any form of social communication on the internet between large amounts of people. The most common platforms of Social Media are Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. In truth, their are advantages and disadvantages to Social Media despite where you stand on the topic. 

Ever since Alexander Bell invented and popularized the cell phone in the 1870's, mass communication has become an idea widely accepted into everyday life. The ability to communicate instantly with anyone around the world is very beneficial and increases the awareness of those who take advantage of Social Media. It broadens our worldview and keeps us informed with major events occurring around the world. 

However, this is the danger of bullying using this new system of communication. Using Social Media, bullies can hide behind hidden names and post hurtful material without any repercussions. It is hard to walk the fine line between being active on Social MEdia to enjot its benefits while still protecting yourself from other users. 

I will let my readers decide whether they believe if Social Media is more beneficial or destructive.

Meet Mr. Brian

In the past few days, I have really stepped up my work ethic on my Passion Project. I have been actively attacking my deliverables for first quarter, especially my website. Thanks to the guidance from my teacher, I decided to use Weebly for my website. I will post the videos and troubleshooting walkthroughs there instead of trying to jump on my school's webpage or onto the 2016 group on Schoology. This way, I can create my own interactive space that I can reuse over and over again, make changes to at any time, and furthermore, show to future employers to prove my skill with computer coding and computer design.  

In the next week, I plan on creating a list of all the problems that occur regularly to students that I could show how to fix. Some of the problems are: pairing your keyboard with your iPad, connecting to the internet/home wifi, reseting an iPad, creating an Adobe cloud account, backing up files to iCloud, backing up files to Schoology, protecting passwords using the Keychain app, setting up extra email accounts on the iPad, and many others. 

I have already discussed my project with my mentor, we will call him Mr. Chester Brian (my two favorite first names...). Mr. Brian is in full support of my project and enthusiastically agreed to be my mentor. He is the technology director at my school and believes that my passion project will actually make is job easier, since his fellow teachers will be able to use my site to solve their problems rather than calling Mr. Brian down to fix them. Overall, I like the direction my passion project is going and I cannot wait for my Weebly site to be up and running. 

Professional Turmoil

This previous Friday, my Digital Multimedia and Global Citizenship class ran the Professional Development at my school, where the teachers are shown tools they can use in their class to make it more interactive with students. It was ironic that my class was presenting, because essentially, the students taught the teachers how to teach! Overall, it was a great experience and I learned a lot of skills in presenting. Furthermore, my class got very positive feedback from the teachers that we presented too. 

For my part of the presentation, I taught my teachers how to use a website called Stoodle. Stoodle is an interactive whiteboard that can be accessed and changed from any device that has access to internet connection. It has tools like drawing, erasing, using different colors, basic shapes, a "moving an object" tool, and many of the functions that would be needed in presenting. The teachers enjoyed my website a little too much, as they goofed off, much like I would in their class, and just drew whatever they wanted rather than the material that I, the teacher, suggested they draw. It was interesting to see a classroom from the side of the teacher, where I am cramming knowledge and notes into the heads of students who don't want to be there and don't care to learn.

From this experience, I believed I learned more than the teachers did. Although they gave great feedback after our presentations, the teachers interaction with the apps and websites presented to them was minimal, as they showed little interest in using their new tools in their classroom. I, on the other hand, developed an appreciation for the student who sits quietly, takes notes, and completes the assignments given. In the future, I will strive to be more like this student, and less like the teachers that I taught. Its a hard job, being a teacher, and I don't want to be any more of the problem they have to deal with between 7:45am and 2:45pm. 

Introspection

Within the last week, my family and I hired an expert writer to help me write my college essays. As a senior who is looking at some top level schools (Georgia Tech, NC State, USC), my college essays need to be precise, purposeful, and very effective at selling me as a student. To be completely honest, many of the applications I need to fill out scare me and the idea of completing four early action applications, 3 essay required scholarships, and juggling varsity soccer and homework makes my palms sweaty. I knew that if I did not get on top of the workload early and have help, I would not meet my many early deadlines. 

As my personal essay consultant picked my brain about my leadership, service, and passion, I really opened up to her, allowing her to see deep emotions within me that most people never get to see, emotions that I don't really understand why I have or what causes them. The essay help doubled as a counseling session for me, where I learned more about myself and my actual motivations towards sports or academics. 

When I spoke about my hard work in school, I realized that I work so hard in order to make sure I achieve more than my brother and to make my parents proud of me. Personally, I though I always spent extra time studying so that I can be prepared for college, when actually, I just want to overwork my brother. Simple questions brought about the most profound of responses and really exposed an emotional side of me that I had never explored before. 

I find it very interesting how God works through other people in our life to help us stay on track and reveal things about ourselves he had no idea of before. I cannot wait to get the report back from my essay helper and to start those college applications!!! 

The possibilities of Twitter Chats

If I could be a moderator of any twitter chat, I would definitely choose a chat in which participants tweeted about new technology inventions. I would expect them to post links to probably CNN pages or other news stations where people in the chat could go and look at the inventions, then come back to the chat and comment on them. I think the chat would have exploded this week due to all the new apple product releases. I believe that the chat would be both educational and very funny! 

This twitter chat would give me advise on how to formulate my web page for my passion project. Seeing as the majority of people in this chat will have probably worked closely with software at some point in their life or at least be interested in it like I am, they would be a great resource base for me to pose questions too. 

I think twitter is a very effective form of communication because of the multidimensional forms of conversation that can occur and the number of people that can be reached, as well as influenced, by what is said. Since you can be present in twitter chats without actually participating, there is no way of knowing how many people are reading the tweets that go out on the hashtag. This reminds us that we need to be diligent with what we do and what we say online, because you never know who is listening.   

Decisions

After the Shark Tank presentations, I learned that my passion project is somewhat unique compared to other passion projects of my peers. While I focus on an idea that would teach me about my future career (computer science), my peers have selected more service based projects that involve direct contact with people less fortunate (the homeless or kids in third world countries) or people who are under-respected (feminism, gay marriage). I am starting to worry that I have come up with a passion project that is not congruent to the aim of the course I am taking. 

As I have talked about in previous posts, my passion project is to create a web page that will walk my fellow students through how to troubleshoot problems on their school-issued iPads. I believe that my webpage will help students get the most out of their education as well as teach them basic technology skills that will be needed in college. However, most of the students who attend my school are well privileged and do not necessarily need service to better their lives. 

I do think that my passion project will be a benefit to the school, but should I focus my efforts in a different direction in an attempt to help those who may be in more need of my help? 

I am very passionate about my original idea, but I also want to help others as much as possible. Do you, the readers of my blog, think I should stick to my original passion project or create a new, more helpful one that may impact more needy people? 

  

My Passion

For my Passion Project, I have decided to partner with my school in order to create a webpage that student can go to at any time of the day that will show them how to fix iPad issues themselves. The webpage will either go up on my school's website, or I will create a group on Schoology, our schools communication system. I will post instructions to this page that will guide students through troubleshooting problems on the iPad. If all goes well with the coding of the webpage, I will attempt to embed videos to the page as well to give students a visual on the troubleshooting. 

Today, I presented my idea to my peers in my Dig Cit class, and they gave me great feedback. They told me to create a flowchart to help diagnose the iPad problems, which will help guide students to the right video or correct instructions that will solve their problem. I am excited to work with the amazing staff at my school to develop my passion project.

Helping Yourself

At my school, I am taking a new, experimental class called Digital Multimedia and Global Citizenship (Dig Cit for short). The class centers around a Passion Project, in which students discover their passion and act on it in a way that is a benefit to the community or the world as a whole. Yesterday in class, to help each student discover their passion, we created a "heartbreak map" that shows our passions and what breaks our hearts about each passion. 

After completing my heartbreak map added below, I realized the out of my four passions listed (technology, soccer, music, and service), technology was clearly the most important me, as I had many more "heartbreaks" on that topic. 

I have been interested in computers and computer code ever since I learned to write programs on my graphing calculator in 6th grade. Since then, I have been constantly expanding my knowledge and experience in the computer science field (hoping to major in it in college) by attending Computer Engineering camps and iD Tech C++ Programming Camps at North Carolina State University over my past two summers. 

I also take a class called Technology Assistant in which I help troubleshoot iPad problems that students have with their school-issued iPads. Through my experiences in this class, I realized that I truly enjoy assisting students with software and hardware problems centered around network connections and damaged iPads. 

Obviously, I have a strong passion for technology. So strong that I want others to be interested as well. Everyday, I go home and spin stories to my parents of the unique and intricate problems I troubleshooted that day in "Tech class". I really want others to understand and care about how technology works at the same level that I do. Therefore, it really frustrates me when fellow students have an iPad problem, but do not attempt to fix it or bring the problem to the technology teacher or a Tech Assistant student. They just have apathy to fix the problem or would rather use a dysfunctional iPad rather than spending the 20 minutes it would take a tech student to diagnose and fix the problem.  

When a student ignores their problem, not only does their school work productivity decrease, but the reputation of the Technology department of the school decreases. The student body will start to distrust the technology program if there are a lot of students walking the halls and classrooms with defective iPads. 

Technology is my past and will be my future. I want to learn it, use it, and celebrate it throughout my life, including my high school career. Therefore, it really breaks my heart when students are too lazy to help themselves to the free tech support available in school, at all times of the day, filled with knowledgable people willing and passionate about fixing their problem.