photoshop images

So in this class called Intro to New Media, we have been editing pictures in photoshop to enhance them or just to make them look cooler. My portfolio has 31 images in it, but the ones that I am posting are just a few of my favorites.

Are we ready for change?

Let's face it, technology and the media is going to be changing around us. But do we really understand how much the media is changing?

Take for example Google.com. Just recently they have changed their privacy agreement. How many of us actually took the time to see what that was all about? According to Jasmin Melvin of huffingtonpost.com, Google is changing it's policy in order to make using Google more user friendly. However, this changes how data is distributed and shared with the world. It will also be collecting information on us through our Google accounts to make it better for us.

Consider also the new layout on Facebook called the Timeline. In this new layout, according to mashable.com, your whole life is put on display for the whole world to see, from birth until you last logged on. So all those posts that you thought were lost in the Facebook vortex are now going to be available for viewing once again. Are you ready to see that again?

Personally, I can see why people will see these changes as a problem. It's scary to think that websites like Google can now take what you like to search for and make it easier for you to find them without your consent. But I'll be honest when I say that I absolutely hate the new Facebook Timeline. It's not a fun layout, plus I just got used to the last one since the last update. So I'm going to hold off on the timeline for as long as I can. If you have nothing to hide, these changes aren't a problem. If not, start cleaning up your profile.

Facebook is also in the news recently for their IPO. According to Matt Silverman of mashable.com, the money that Facebook is putting into their IPO will be able to make Facebook worth $100 billion. Facebook is becoming one of the richest websites on the internet, and now it's going to profit off of the daily users of Facebook. With all this money that's coming in, where is it all going to go? Not to the users, that would just be ridiculous. I feel like we, the users of Facebook, should get some kind of benefit from all of this. Is that going to happen? Probably not, unless it's in some really small way, shape or form. 

Sources:
Google Privacy
Facebook IPO
Facebook Timeline

Apple Textbooks

We all know that Apple Inc. is one of the leading companies in new technology. Now they are trying to have even more influence in our education systems. They want to make it so we can have our textbooks be available on the iPad. So what is the reason behind this?

In the New York Times blog called Bits, there is an article about this matter called "Apple Introduces Tools to (Someday) Supplant Print Textbooks" . They talk about how Apple has created 3 programs: iBooks 2, which offers textbooks to be available to buy for your iPad, iBooks Author, which allows you to create textbooks, and iTunes U, which allows instructors to create digital curriculums and share them with the students. These programs allow digital textbooks to play audio, video and show interactive diagrams. With textbooks being so expensive, it is ideal to pay $15 for it online reather than spending $100 to print a book that could be outdated in 5 or 6 years. However, the hard part is finding money for schools to supply iPads for allow of their students, which sell in stores for around $500. Apple's only competition seems to be Amazon, who sells the Kindle e-reader, but Amazon hasn't had much luck in the education market.

Another article about this is on huffingtonpost.com called "Apple Introduces iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U App in Pish to Transform Textbooks, Education". In this article, it explains how the iPad is hoped to take the place of textbooks in the classroom. Like in the first article, it explains how each program that Apple released will enhance the learning experience. The textbook is not durable, portable, interactive, is too heavy and expensive. By having the iPad, the textbooks can be all of those things, while being lightweight.

I think the idea of having textbooks on iPads wouldn't be such a bad idea. I remember having to carry around many textbooks throughout middle school and high school it was always a pain. However, the schools might not be willing to drop a lot of money on very expensive iPads. Most schools are cutting departments because they can't afford to have it (so they claim), so why would they go out and buy iPads for every student?

We could use these tools to create the ideal interactive learning environment. The iBooks 2 app would have to be able to explain what we are learning so if we are studying at home and don't understand something, it should be able to explain it. This would be ideal because we do not live with our teachers. The rest of the apps would have to make it easier for teachers to communicate assignments with their students. For the part mentioned earlier about interactive diagrams, they would have to be engaging. Probably using bright colors or cool graphics would be best. As for the audio, it would have to keep our attention. Perhaps the voices could have accents. That would keep my attention.

Sources: Apple Introduces Tools to (Someday) Supplant Print Textbooks (nytimes.com)
     Apple Introduces iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U App In Push To Transform Textbooks, Education
   (huffingtonpost.com)