Essay Vs. Blog

Traditional essays are nice for certain subjects and topics. For humanities though, I enjoyed doing the blog assignments. They were different from the traditional style of writing regular essays. I found them to be easier in some ways and harder in other areas. Overall I believe that the blog assignments were different, not much harder or easier compared to traditional essays.

Blog assignment formats did take awhile to get use to since, I have never done anything like that before. The most confusing aspect for me was I wanted to include citations with giving credit to the author in the text itself. I felt like I never truly understood what the appropriate format was hyperlinks and citations. Other than that it seemed pretty similar to traditional essays. I enjoyed writing these blog assignments a lot more than normal essays. I liked being able to pick the topic I wanted to out of the suggested ones. There were such a variety of topics that they could appeal to everyone, which was neat. The themes for the blogs were always fun and easy to write about, since we went over similar issues in that unit of the class.

For critical thinking I believe that blogs are a good way to convey ones point in a non-formal way unlike essays. There is a lot pressure associated with essays and blogs seemed to be more open. Someone could say what they wanted almost like in Facebook where you can share certain things with friends. I think that blogs are good way of also sharing ideas and thoughts among a group of people. It was a fun and new experience doing blog assignments that I enjoyed very much.

Is a Picture REALLY Worth a 1000 Words?

Pictures and images can convey all sorts of emotions. They can make someone feel sorrow or happiness within one single frame. Pictures are used in so many different ways in today’s society. Advertisements, commercials, etc. all use visuals to help display different ideas.

Pictures have different meanings behind each and every single shot or frame that is taken. From the viewers perspective it is hard to get the full meaning behind one single still frame. Many ideas can come about from pictures without knowing the true meanings.

We can be touched by pictures, but we can also have no idea what the true meaning behind them is.

For instance, at first glance this little girl looks healthy and fine. In reality though she is living and dealing with being HIV positive.

Magazines exploit celebrities through pictures every day. They can take at picture and create whatever kind of story they wish. I would have to say that a picture is not worth a thousand words. There can be so many different interpretations from one picture it is ridiculous.

Pictures are powerful statements but us as viewers who are we to say what those thousand words are and are not, that is only for the subject or artist to say. The saying “A picture is Worth a 1000 words” has been around for many decades. It is believed to be around since the 1920’s. The saying however, has changed over the years, "Chinese proverb. One picture is worth ten thousand words." The Phrase Finder website is very informational for all sorts of sayings. For instance, even before pictures were created sayings such as this one were used, "One timely deed is worth ten thousand words" - The Works of Mr. James Thomson, 1802. It does not matter if the picture is worth 10, 100, 1000, or 10,000 there can be numerous meanings for the picture.

Pictures can be seen to represent a thousand words because humans tend to be visually oriented. Seeing a picture can display an idea or thought that needs to be conveyed to the audience. However, how is anyone really sure how that message is coming across to the viewer. What one person may see within a picture someone else can interpret completely differently?

Pictures are worth a thousand words but who are we to know what those words are. People can create false meanings with pictures. Since they are only a single shot it can be warped to create a whole new meaning, idea, emotion and so forth. Images can convey strong emotions and feelings. I feel that words can speak louder than pictures to display certain ideas. With pictures there is always room for interpretation, but with words it is more black and white.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words.html

http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/letters.html

Believe

When children are little they do not need to see or have proof that Santa Claus and Superman are real, they just believe. That however, gets proven wrong when they grow up and learn the truths about things; but what about things that cannot be proven? For instance, the controversy over the mission to the moon, some think that it is an elaborate hoax while others believe in it without question. The ones who believe it to be true do not need any more evidence and proof. What they think they perceive as true is what they believe. To believe in something is to “have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so…” (Dictionary.com).

There are so many different things that people believe in without hesitation. Religion probably is the biggest thing that comes to mind. People believe in the unseen every day. God cannot be proven with science yet, but people still believe in him. That is when faith comes in to play; I myself being a Christ follower believe this is an essential part. I cannot prove that God exists, but I believe that it is and have faith that it is true. There is a website I found giving six straightforward reasons to believe that God does really exist, http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html. It is amazing how many different views to this one subject there truly are today. Not all things can be proven with science or math. The Big Bang cannot be completely proven and who is to say that God did not start the big bang. There is another article saying just this, http://www.rbc.org/questionsDetail.aspx?id=45738. Believing in things helps give us explanations to things that we do not know yet.

There are things in life that just cannot be proven yet, but people have to make decisions. Sometimes it is better to believe in something rather than nothing at all. It is hard to wrap the human mind around the concept that we cannot understand why or how we exist, therefore we compensate by making simple explanations. This is not only true in religion, but in science all things that we consider to be facts today started out as just theories until we had the ability with technology to prove them. Without out the humans ability to theorize on what we now deem the improvable we would still be living in caves and playing with rocks.

Critical Thinking Skills Taught in Primary school

Reasoning skills are something that one learns over a period of time. They are not something that can be forced upon someone. Primary school is a place to learn the basics of different subjects. The school system is already trying to push so much knowledge and curriculum onto children it is mind blowing. Primary schools have change drastically over the last couple of decades. Children nowadays are learning things that I learned in junior high school, and I am not even twenty yet. “It is strange that we expect students to learn, yet seldom teach them anything about learning." Donald Norman, 1980. I believe that critical thinking skills along with reasoning skills should be taught early on, that way they can start to develop these skills throughout their education.

Children are being forced to learn a multitude of information in such a short period of time. My mother is a special education teacher for elementary students in California and it is amazing how many practical skills these children do not have, let alone even know anything about. They do not understand how the choices and decisions they make greatly influence who they are as a person. This link goes more in depth why children should be taught critical thinking skills, http://www.freeinquiry.com/critical-thinking.html.

There are many different ways that critical thinking and reasoning could be taught in primary school. Teaching them these valuable skills early on will better prepare them for life and problems later on in their lives. Dr. Bangdiwala, from University of North Carolina, studied different ways that it could be integrated into the school systems through this article, http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/7/Bangdiwala.pdf.

I could understand why some would not want primary schools teaching reasoning and critical skills. That is would take away from the regular curriculum that they need to be taught. This should however, be part of the regular curriculum. It should because it would help the students with the other subjects as well. They would be able to understand things better and be able to question things if they were unsure. It could also be seen that it should be taught in a higher grade level. Why wait though, children are being taught algebra and chemistry so adding critical thinking into lessons would not be a big deal.

I am just learning about critical thinking and reasoning through this course. I was never taught this in primary or secondary school. If I had I would have been more prepared for this course. I think that it should be taught so children can be able to understand things and question things around them as they mature and develop. They are great and very useful skills that everyone should have in life.

Human Society and Technology

Human society has changed greatly over the years. Just tonight I was thinking how different it will be in another 50 years or so. We already have so many gadgets that some people can’t live without. Who nowadays goes anywhere without their phone. I think cell phones have changed society immensely over the last couple of years. Technology has come so far, from where cell phones barley could fit in a brief case where now they are making them the size of credit cards. I believe that technology has helped us advance but has also slowed down in the process.

Cell phones can do so many different things now as well. They can scan barcodes to find the cheapest price of something or you can just surf the web on your phone while talking to someone. It truly amazes me how many things this small little machine can do. “Technology is shaped by us and is shaping us,” according to one internet site. They have a positive and negative impact on society in my opinion. Some have become so dependent on this gadget that without it they are lost. This is a negative effect since people cannot function without their phone. It is also crazy how much these phones are costing these days. It seems like you have pay a small fortune for one and that is just the phone. Then you have to buy a plan with texting, internet, navigation and many other applications. Cell phone companies are making millions off of us.

Human society has told us that we need these phones and devices to live each day. That we cannot live without cell phones and it seems almost true. Cell phones have become a part of society. Everyone I know has a cell phone. The positive aspects of them are that you can be able to contact people when you are not home. They are good in case of emergencies and contacting people with instant letters (text messages) if you can’t talk or are not by a computer. With everything there are positives and negatives and cell phones have both.

Technology is such a remarkable thing. We have come so far over the years it is truly amazing. Form cave man creating fire to now where we have jets, computers, and so much more. It has helped us get things done and learn new things. It is also a great way a communicating; now we do not have to use carrier pigeons. With all things though there are positives and negatives that come from them, I think that technology is one of those things.

-http://www.nationalacademyofengineering.com/nae/techlithome.nsf/weblinks/KGRG- 55SQTT?OpenDocument

-http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2332338,00.asp

Hello and welcome to my blog! This is my first time blogging or ever being a part of a blog, so I am excited to start this new project.