Saturday, February 21, 2009

Computers to be "oxygen of the future"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3583479.sm
According to this article, each person will not only carry 2 or 3 devices with them but rather hundreds of digital devices with them in the future, which some will be woven into our clothes and used as identification markers. These devices may even tell our washing machines what cycles to use. Predictions such as these came from Cambridge-MIT Institute's Pervasive Computing initiative (CMI). They claimed that these digital devices will act as communicators who will talk to each other and to humans wherever we may be. Based on the device that they created, unauthorized use and attack was nearly impossible. The negative side is that there was no way of escaping from the system. It would find whatever communications that was available and call. MIT's Umar Satif stated, "The computer was just trying to be helpful, but it turned into the nightmare scenario because there was no way of shutting the system down".


What ways can devices such as these benefit us? Are we really ready to let computers take over of lives this much? How would the world be if everything was control by computers?

Sunday, February 15, 2009

My Community Service Learning Experience

I truly apologize for just barely posting my blogs. I couldn't figure out my username or password until today. But here is what happened during my community service learning:

Monday, February 9, 2009 (2:00pm-5:00pm)

Today was the first day of my community service learning. It is a daycare in San Jose who serves low-income families. When I first walked into the office, I was introduced to the site supervisor, Tricia. She asked me to briefly tell her what I was volunteering for. Therefore I told her it was for a computer class. She told me that they didn’t really need help in the office so for the time being, I had to help in the classrooms but they would immediately call me once they need help in the office. She placed me in the School-Age I classroom of 1st and 2nd graders. I arrived as they were doing roll call. The children were very welcoming. They asked for my name and gave me hugs. After the roll call, they were given three choices, which were snack, homework, or reading. I helped a few children do some homework and then I assisted with cleaning the snack table after they ate. After 45 minutes, the teacher asked the children to clean up and to sit on the carpet. She informs them that they were learning about the solar system this week. She introduces the sun and the first two planets then reads them some facts. The children seemed to really be interested. After that, the teacher tells them that they had to create their own planet. She gives them a piece of paper to draw and another paper with questions asking the name of the planet, what shape it is, who lives in, and what is one cool fact about it. The children got really creative. There was one child who had chocolate instead of water and called the people that lived there chocohums. When they were done, they cleaned up and once again sat on the carpet to wait for the teacher’s instructions. The teacher then notifies them they are going to play kickball for P.E. They initially jump in excitement. The plan was for them to play outside for 20 minutes but the older children wanted to challenge them to a game of kickball so we stayed outside longer. On my last hour, Tricia told me to go inside because they needed my help. The administration assistant was writing out invoices or bills that had to go out to parents that day. I had to fold them, put them in envelopes, and then label them. Through the computer, I noticed the assistant was able to see how long each child stayed in the daycare everyday and which days they were absent. This data helped her calculate how much the parents or guardians had to pay.

I started to wonder, how would they be able to do this if there were no computers? Would they have to write everything down on paper? If that was the case, I can just imagine how much hectic it is and how many errors there would be.

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Tuesday, February 10, 2009 (2:00pm-5:00pm)

Today, I first assisted with preparing snack for the children, which were graham crackers, peanut butter, and milk. After roll call, the teacher discussed the next three planets in the solar system. When they were released, once again the children had to eat snack, do homework, or read a book. When 2:45pm came around, their drama teacher came in. The class was divided in two. One group had to do drama while the other group had to do the art activity. Today’s activity was to paper mache some balloons so they can hang it up and form a solar system. The project got really messy. I later had to join the second group of children to do drama. They were instructed to pair up and go in front of all the students then do a little act. They had to pretend that they were friends who just haven’t seen each other in a long time. I found them quite entertaining. They also had to do a freeze dance but with a little twist. There was one student that went around and tried to make everyone laugh and if they did, they would be out. The drama teacher was there until 3:45pm. Following that, they were allowed to have some free time inside since it was raining outside. There were a few children who wanted to challenge me for a little game of mancala. I did that until Tricia needed my help in the office. First she had me right down all the staff member’s birthday on a big poster board. Then she asked me to type up so announcements on the computer. One of the announcement was to inform that they were giving out free tickets to High School Musical on Ice. The other one was to announce that they were closed on Monday for President’s Day. The third one was to notify all the parents about late fees, which stated that if they were picked up later than the time on their contract, they would have to pay a fee. Without the use of a computer, I would have had write everything down, which would take me forever. Realizing how useful computers can be just makes me very thankful that they’re around.

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009 (2:30pm-5:30pm)

My third day seemed to have gone by so quick. Like the usual, I assisted with snack then sat down with the children for the roll call. Before they were released the teacher handed me some flask cards and asked that I had each child read a word, spell a word, or use a certain word in a sentence. If they got it right, they were released but if they got it wrong, they had to go in the back of the line until they got a word correct. I really thought it was a good way to have them practice their spelling. Since they didn’t finish making their solar system yesterday, they continued doing that today. As they were painting it, they kept asking me what colors to use. Of course, I had to keep referring back to the book the teacher had because I surely don’t know the colors of the planets. When they finished, the teacher asked them to clean up so they can play “Cookie Monster” outside. The object of the game was to get all the way across from one side to the other side without getting tagged. If someone was tagged, they would also become a cookie monster. Unfortunately, we had to cut P.E. short because it started to rain. Therefore, we went back inside to have more free play. I played a game of “Guess Who” with a couple of them and Candyland with a couple more. Today they needed me to help in the office earlier than usual. They had me re-label all the student’s files. I actually had to type up all the names on the computer then print them on out on stickers. When I was done, I had to stick them on the folders then organize them in alphabetical order. I think it was this task that made my day go by fast. While I was working, I asked the administrative assistant, “How do you think this daycare would function without computers?” She looked at me, laughed and simply said, “Everything would fall apart.”

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Thrusday, February 12, 2009 (1:00pm-4:00pm)

Today I came in earlier than the other days because I had to finish up with labeling a few folders. As I was I was doing it, I noticed there were a few teachers that were looking up some activities on the computer that they can do with the children. They all said they were doing their lesson plans for next week and needed some ideas on what to do. One teacher was looking up historic African American leaders because she wanted her students to honor Black History Month. The other was looking up activities on nature for the preschool children. The third teacher, who was in the classroom that I was helping out was searching for facts about dinosaurs. I was starting to really understand how computers and the internet play such a huge role in work environments. These teachers would probably have to do the old fashion way and go to the library to find books on the topics they want to teach the children. Anyway, I finished all the labeling in a little over an hour. Because they didn’t need me in the office, she told me to go back to the classroom that I was initially helping. As always, I did the usual routine of helping out with the snack and assist the children do homework. Today’s activity was to draw their favorite planet and write one thing they liked about it. I wasn’t surprised that most of the boys choose Jupiter because it’s the biggest planet and the girls choose Saturn because of its rings. For P.E. they played Capture the flag. The objective was to get the other team’s flag and run back on your side without getting tagged. If they got tagged, they had to go to “jail” and wasn’t allowed to get out until a person from their team went to free them. I think I was having a little too much fun with the game myself. I was a little sad that today was my last day. I really liked volunteering here and I especially liked the children.