Thursday, January 27, 2011

Copyright Law- Embedding a Video

I found this video on YouTube and taught it was very interesting.  This video is a bit different in that it discusses the negative effects of copyright laws.  The presenter shows numerous variations of videos made by people of songs that are extremely popular in our culture.  He attempts to explain how people are expressing and sharing their creativity with the world and that because of copyright laws, these people could be silenced.  What I found even more interesting was when he talks about a mother who uploads a video of her young baby dancing to a song onto YouTube in order to show her child's accomplishment to her own mother.  This woman is then made to take the video off because of the song owner's copyright laws.  Even though copyright laws certainly have a purpose, this video argues that they can sometimes infringe on people's everyday accomplishments and their creativity.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Week 2: Mac vs. PC

During the second week of class we were introduced to the differences between the Mac and the PC.  We were presented with information about the Mac and the advantages of working with a Mac.  There was also a marketing video that we were able to look at and the video provided a funny explanation of the advantages that the Mac had over the PC.  Also, we got an in depth introduction on how to use a Mac computer.  It explained the different parts on a Mac computer as well as comparing it to the PC, so that people who are more familiar with the PC are able to relate the new information to something.  Furthermore, we were told how to create and save files and folders on the Mac as well as additional information that is necessary for us to know in order to use the Mac effectively.

Knowing how to use Mac computers is important to me and for my major because I am an elementary education major and computers, usually Mac's, are most often used in the school setting.  Even when I was in school, elementary, middle, and high, we used Mac computers for the majority of the time.  Mac's also seem to be very compatible with the new Smart Boards that have become popular in schools.  When I volunteered last semester at an elementary school, I noticed that most of the teachers had Smart Boards and used Mac computers to access their lessons and activities that they used the Smart Board for.  Also, it is important to know how to used the computer, especially in education, because our world is becoming more modernized each day and mostly everything now is accessible online.  This is important because teachers need to keep up with the new changes and one way to do that is by researching and looking up this information online.

This article describes the pros and cons of the Mac and the PC.  It states how there has and there still is an ongoing battle between the Mac and the PC and which one is better.  The article compares the cost, selection, operating system, security, and service between the two.  What I found interesting about this article, however, is that the author avoids being biased and simply states the facts, instead of favoring one computer over the other.