Khan Academy Review

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A lot of websites can help people out when studying. I recently reviewed Quizlet and gave it a good review. I would still recommend that but, there is one other helpful website I would put ahead of it. That website is, Khan Academy.

What I like about Khan Academy is that it is a very diverse tool to use. There are many different ways to use Khan Academy. You can watch videos that can help you and you can do practice problems afterward. There are also multiple different things you can study on there too.

Subjects include math, science, computing, history, and economics. They branch off into subcategories and include multiple different sub-subjects. I have used Khan Academy before and I found it very useful. The videos can range anywhere from three to ten minutes. They go very in-depth and I found them very useful. I also like how they give mini achievements as you go through the different lessons. It really makes you feel like you are learning a lot more.

One other benefit is that you can access it anywhere. It’s very convenient to your needs. You don’t have to go anywhere to practice your assignments. This is unrelated to college students but, if you wanted to start your kid off young around the age of five or so, it is a great way to start them. The lessons can be very elementary for young kids.

There are a few downsides to Khan Academy. There are a lot of subjects but, they don’t have every single subject. I have also recently noticed that it has been slow in some cases while using the website. It could be just a slight glitch on the website that day but, I still would recommend it.

Overall, I would recommend the use of Khan Acamedy. There are definitely more ups than down. I liked to use it in high school and I still found it to be useful. If you want to study for finals in a certain subject then I would highly recommend the use of Khan Acamedy.

 

Video Games and Violence, Do they correlate? Part 2

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The age-old question “Do video games lead to violence” springs to life again. I have previously discussed this question before but not as in-depth as I could have gone. I covered the basics of what surrounds this topic, but the questions still linger. Now, I will go more in depth, I will survey multiple studies, gather the evidence and come to a conclusion that video games do not directly cause acts of violence, instead, they cause more aggression.

Before I get into the specifics of the data, I will go over some key terms that will help clear up any misunderstandings. Aggression is hostile or violent behavior or attitudes toward another. Aggression is used in a bunch of research and is very relevant to this topic because it is being compared and contrasted with violence. Violence is behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. A video game is a game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a television screen or other display screen.

The first thing to discuss is why are video games the main point of discussion? Somebody can make the argument that watching violent television programs can have the same effect? A very well constructed scholarly review by Jodi L. Whitaker and Brad J. Bushman titled A REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES  is going to be our best friend when it comes to figuring out these answers. In their review, they state “people learn better when they are actively involved” (Bushman 1035). An example I’d like to bring is would you rather watch a basketball training video and that be it or actually do the exercises in the training video? LeBron James didn’t become great by watching Michael Jordan, he put the work in to be successful. In this scenario, at a young age or even any age in general, by playing the video game you are controlling the person that is doing the shooting, fighting or killing. Not only do you get put into the perspective of the person in the game, in some cases you get rewarded for doing certain actions. In the same review, they say “It is well known that rewarding behavior increases its frequency” (Bushman 1036). The theory behind this is if you tell people that what you are doing is good and that you are on the right track, then more people will do it. You don’t get rewarded for what someone else does on a television show. Also, in the article, they state “Experimental studies have shown that playing violent games directly causes players to behave more aggressively” (Bushman 1037). Long-term effects of built-up aggression lead to physical and verbal fights with others. People also have more aggressive thoughts as well. They aren’t the only ones to think that way too.

The APA (American Psychological Association) also has their own review. Their main object in their review was to let the public know of the effects of violent video games on children. They state that these video games increase aggression and have a negative impact on prosocial behavior. They also agree with Bushman in his review of the fact that playing the violent video game is bad because they are interactive unlike television shows or movies. The APA also writes an article about how violent video games are more harmful than violent movies and television because they are interactive.

PBS has also commented on this topic in their own post. They discussed how scientists went about studying this topic. Similarly to other studies, they had kids play violent video games for a few minutes and then see if their behavior changes. They also tested to see if the kids had more aggressive thoughts by showing “the word “explo_e” as explode rather than explore” (Keim). This is an interesting theory. As I read through that part of the article, the first word I thought of was explore. Of course, I was calm at the time of reading so I decided that I would play a violent video game a day later and see if anything changed. Even after playing the violent game I still thought of the word explore. That may be because I had that thought of the word explore previously but I thought I would see what I thought a day later. Anyways the results from the 130,000 people studied is that they saw an increase in aggressive thoughts and feelings. Who was the person who did these tests? Our boy, Brad Bushman. Here is a plot twist though, “To Bushman, video games aren’t likely to be the sole source of violence, but an amplifier” (Keim).

You see these studies done by him and you think that he must think these games cause violence. These studies were done and they proved that these games cause increased in aggression. That doesn’t answer the question if they cause acts of violence though. In an article by Ohio State arts and sciences department, Bushman talks more about this topic. Some background on Bushman, he has been studying this topic for about 30 years now and has conducted more than 50 studies on violent media effects. In 2010 he conducted a study across the world with others to determine what the effects of violent video games had on people. The results of testing more than 130,000 people show an increase in aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and physiological arousal. That means increased heart rate and blood pressure.

Clearly while going through this you definitely see that these games cause increased aggression. However, playing one game isn’t going to make you violent. I love the analogy that Bushman comes up with comparing violent video games to smoking. Bushman says that “A single cigarette won’t cause lung cancer, but smoking over weeks or months or years greatly increases the risk. In the same way, repeated exposure to violent video games may have a cumulative effect on aggression.” I absolutely love this comparison because, think about it, it is true. For the purpose of testing, they only play for a bit. If they played for a while it would most likely have a greater effect on them just like smoking would. In fact, Chris Furguson would even go as far to say these games help reduce violence.

In a CNN article, Chris Ferguson is a professor of psychology at Stetson University. He goes as far to say that these violent video games cause less violence. Furguson says that “you keep them off the streets and out of trouble” (Scutti). That is an interesting proposal but one that I could understand. If they keep playing these games they wouldn’t think to cause acts of violence because they would be entertained by the game. He even says that these testing methods are outdated and that new studies with better methods failed to find a correlation between acts of violence and increased aggression. Wow, bold statement. I mean I do understand why he would say that. You would have to test over a long period of time but, the results do show increased aggression in this kids. With increased aggression at a young age, that increases their chances of becoming violent adults.

So there it is a summary of some scholarly studies and some thoughts of some professors on this topic. So, what should be the takeaway? The takeaway is that these games do cause you to become more aggressive and do not directly cause a person to make a violent act in society.

To wrap this up I thought I would give my perspective on this situation. I personally feel like these games can definitely make you more aggressive but, that is if they make you upset. I’ve been playing violent video games since I was 12 and I do not consider myself aggressive, nor do my friends and family. Have I gotten upset with these games? Absolutely. However, I play other games like Madden and FIFA and those upset me sometimes too. I’m not doubting the research, I just think to put the blame solely on violent video games isn’t completely fair. Do they cause people to be more aggressive? The studies prove that. I feel that if parents monitor their kids’ behavior and don’t let things get out of hand, then everything should be fine.

 

References

http://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=wlulr

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/violent-video-games.pdf

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games.aspx

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/what-science-knows-about-video-games-and-violence/

https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/ascent/2013/autumn/do-violent-video-games-fuel-violence

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/health/video-games-and-violence/index.html

My Digital Activity

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During the semester we had to participate in different digital activities. These activities varied from googling yourself, making a twitter account or creating a blog. So I decided to make an interactive digital activity on quizlet.

Recently we talked about tipping points in my First Year Seminar class and I think the class and I found it very interesting. Some of the tipping points included driverless cars and AI decision making. What I thought I would do is create a quizlet based on those tipping points testing everyone’s knowledge on when we are expected to have this technology.

I realize the end of the semester is coming around but, I feel that doing this is a great way to test your memory.  Also, I feel like the class really involved in discussions so, they may appreciate this digital activity.

I could also see this being beneficial after this semester too. These tipping points are points of a lot of discussion outside of college. Having a knowledge of these tipping points and when they are projected to occur could help in a conversation. All you have to do to participate in this activity is follow the link I provided and give it a shot!

I also think that this activity will also expand your use of your own digital world. I’ve been using quizlet since 7th grade and I always found it useful. Adding quizlet to your supply of online tools, then what are you waiting for?

Even if you don’t want to do my quiz, Quizlet has plenty of other question sets that you can go through and do. If you so desire, you can even make your own for this upcoming finals week. The best part is that Quizlet is free! There is an option to pay but it is not necessary if you just want to make flashcards.

I hope you check out my quiz at https://quizlet.com/250633140/fys142-tipping-points-flash-cards/?new. I would love to know what you got on my test. I highly recommend that you check out Quizlet because it is a very useful tool to use!

 

Converse Vs Walmart. So What Happened?

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A court case that happened 3 years ago? Why bring it up now? It is because I felt like it. So, why did this come about in the first place? Converse sued them because they were selling copycat shoes in their stores. Walmart says that the toe caps, toe bumpers, and stripes are their own so, they cannot sue them. Sounds like a Judge Judy case, let’s continue.

The website footwearnews.com does a good job of breaking it down.  Not only did Converse sue Walmart but, they sued other 30 other retailers as well. They got off the hook but Walmart is still fighting back. They say that they wanted to keep their every day low prices. Converse has been around for 109 years. It seems to me like a lot of brands rip off their shoes often. To add on to this adventure, they want stores to stop selling the knock-off brands as well. This is making this situation even more interesting.

The reason Converse is so upset is that this fake knock-off is putting a bad taste on the real Chuck Taylors. The solution was to have Nike buy them out for 309 million dollars. They then saw various NBA players wear their shoes such as Lou Williams and Kyle Korver. Not too long after, they came out with a new Chuck Taylor to help boost their sales. It is called the Chuck Taylor All Star. Not only that but, they also entered the skateboarding market as well. They made their own skateboarding shoe as well.

One final reason why Converse was so ticked off by this was that this certain shoe was their first real success back in 1917. They were custom for basketball all start and his name was, believe it or not, Chuck Taylor.

After all of this conflict, Converse comes out on top and is the news undisputed WWE champion, whoops, that is the wrong category. The point is, Converse won the case and now Walmart cannot sell the rip off shoes in their stores anymore. That is until someone else tries to rip off some other shoe of theirs.

 

Wait, We Break Copyright Laws?

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Well, not really but there is more to it than you think. For those of you that don’t know, copyright is the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something. In this particular post, the examples have to do with photos and articles.

I am going to out on a limb and say that you most likely have a Twitter account or a Facebook account. I will also go out on a limb and say that at some point you shared an article that you found interesting and shared it on one of your social media accounts. Did you ever think that you could be at fault for copyright infringement? Probably not, and you should be fine because the person who originally posted the article or photo will be the one at fault. This seems like this happens a lot, why don’t we hear more about these copyright infringements? In the article titled Does Sharing A Link To Online Content Amount To Copyright Infringement?  Justin Goldman, who works for Getty Images, took a photo of Tom Brady and other parties tweeted it out without giving him proper credit. Another example would be The Washington Post and just about every other news source uses President Trump’s tweets. It seems pretty simple, give the person or publisher credit and you don’t have to worry about them coming after you. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has some different views on this subject. They ruled that if you use sharing links with copyrights for profit may infringe copyright laws. Basically, they are saying that the person who publishes the work better make sure that it is done legally or else they could be at risk of copyright infringement.

The drama doesn’t end here. Now we have a photographer going after somebody big and that somebody is CBS. In the article Photographer Sues CBS for Copyright Infringement, CBS Sues Back we have photographer Jon Tannen telling writer Alex Gleitman to take down his post including Tannen’s photo even though Gleitman says he gives him credit. He then decided to sue CBS and CBS countersued him for $150,000 for being a hypocrite for using copyrighted still frame without permission. This is one of those situations where you look and just hope they stop because you are embarrassed for them.

My thoughts on all of this are why don’t people give credit where credit is due? If people did that, we wouldn’t have these problems. Also, why don’t you just check to make sure what you are doing is legal. Is it too much to ask? Maybe so but, my dad always said, any job worth doing, is worth doing well. Don’t steal that or I will sue you.

You’re Not as Private on The Internet as You Think

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So we are in November and Christmas is creeping up on us. You have to start to shopping for Christmas presents. You go to buy that new video game and you see an ad on the right side of the screen. It’s an advertisement for a new type of clothing. That’s cool and all but have you ever thought that the advertisement is spying on you? That’s right, an article written by Jennifer Langston-Washington called “Anyone can track you with $1,000 of online ads” tells us that like the article title, anyone can track you if they pay $1,000 for ads. An example given in the article was that your boss spying on you doing your working hours. With that being said, if your boss cared enough to spend $1,000 on an advertisement to see what you are doing, they could.  In fact, a research team went out to see if they could do it and they did. They discovered that “that an individual ad purchaser can, under certain circumstances, see when a person visits a predetermined sensitive location.” (Langston-Washington, Jennifer) Well, what is considered a “sensitive location”? An example is a hospital someone might be in or if someone has their location turned on, on their phone. They also found that they could see what apps people were using. It’s amazing that they don’t even have to click on the advertisement to enable the tracking, it happens which is pretty scary.
 
Discussing the various ways people can spy on you with ads is already scary enough. How about cybersecurity failures? “The Decade of Security and Privacy”  by Danielle Sabrina, she talks about these various threats. Do Target and Equifax remind you of anything? How about the fact that they lost our credit card information to cyber thieves? Obviously, Targets scenario was no one close to as severe as Equifax because you can switch your credit card. With Equifax, they lost over 145 million Americans social security numbers, bank account numbers and more important private things. If I could summarize all of that in two simple words, those words would be ‘not good’. At least we can that the government is taking some steps by spending $90 billion in cybersecurity efforts.
 
Is there anything we can about this? Are we screwed and we are going to have to sit back and hope that we do not get hacked? No need for trepidation, for we have Blockchain! Basically, Blockchain is using different computers and networks to safely secure your private information.  Blockchain is a technology, not a company. Most notably in the article, FortKnoxster is the company that uses this technology. Their goal according to their CTO Mickey Joe Nathan Johnnyson (cool name by the way) wants to make sure that their customers “have a secure place to store their information” and “want to make sure no one is listening in or tapping into the lines of communication.” They want to end all of this spying that anyone can do with $1,000 advertisements. Who honestly cares enough to spend $1,000 to spy on someone? I mean it is outlandish but, people still do it anyways. At least now we are in pretty safe hands.

Net Neutrality and You

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What is net neutrality and what does it mean to you? Net Neutrality is the regulation that says that Internet Service Providers (ISP) must treat all data the same. Basically, this means that web sites can not charge you extra for a faster experience on their website or a little benefits like that. Now that Trump is in charge he said he promised to shake things up.

In 2015 the FCC voted to regulate broadband internet. This has allowed them to enforce Net Neutrality just like any other public service. With Trump coming into power, he and his administration will look to turn Net Neutrality back into an information service. Well what does this mean? ISPs would manage their customers data differently. The government would not be involved anymore and it would be up to trade groups and industries to determine what is fair and unfair. In addition to this, “Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire at the end of 2017 and along with it the federal government’s ability to spy on the communications of foreigners outside of the U.S.” (Greenemeier, Larry) Trump also wants to increase cyber security. This is what Trump planned to do in his first 100 days. An article after he officially became president helps summarize what has happened since then.

Recent activities favors the internet companies over customers. The U.S. Senate voted last week to allow internet service providers to sell data about their customers’ online activities to advertisers. (Ali, Christopher) Last week was late March 2017 which is when the article was written. It used to be about what is best for society. Now, it is what is best for business. Today a few companies own the media market. Companies like Comcast and Time Warner make a majority of the money and while the public does not get to see some of that money. In addition to all of this, we need to worry about apps as well. There was an investigation about phone companies not having mobile data with apps like Spotify. Another point that we should all know is that the U.S.A has a budget of 445 million dollars for public broadcasting. That means that it relates to about $1.35 per person. Other countries? Germany spends $143 a person and Norway spends $180 per person. This means that broadcasting will not get the exposure it needs in the U.S.

This seem like a disaster if Trump decides to go through with less regulations on net neutrality. Companies could have the power to make us pay for things we did not have to previously. We can not have few companies run the market or else we will see a decrease in what we are able to say. Just to quick paraphrase Nicholas Johnson. He said that “no matter what your first reform is, your second reform should be about media. His point is we need our voice to be heard so that our wishes can be fulfilled. I like his thought process because believe it or not, it makes sense.

Video Games and Violence: Do the two correlate?

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Video games have come a long way since the first game invented back in 1958 called ‘Tennis for Two’. Now we have 4k graphic compatible games and multiple game consoles. There are many genres of games ranging from adventure to sports. One genre causes more discussion then the rest. That genre is violent video games like first person shooters and fighting games. Examples would include Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, etc. Even Pokemon can be included because the monsters have to fight each other to determine a winner. So now to the main question, do video games cause violence or violent actions?

I came across an article on CNN titled “Do video games lead to violence?” About a year ago a teen killed nine people in Munich, Germany. This teen was a fan of first person shooter games, so naturally the discussion came up about if video games cause violence. The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics each agree that teens should not being playing violent video games. The American Psychological Association (APA) says that 90% of children play video games in the United States. 85% of games for sale contain violence of some sort. The APA says that “research demonstrated a link ‘between violent video game use and both increases in aggressive behavior … and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral engagement.'” The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says “that violent media set a poor example for kids” and “should not use human or other living targets or award points for killing, because this teaches children to associate pleasure and success with their ability to cause pain and suffering to others.” The academy conducted over 400 studies that show a link between violent video games and acts of violence or aggression in society. However not everyone is on the same page. Some scientists have some other thoughts and experiments.

Whitney DeCamp has discovered other evidence that opposes the APA and AAP. Whitney is “an associate professor of sociology at Western Michigan University.”  He concluded that evidence does not show a correlation between violence and violent video games. He says the studies have shown that the two correlate, however, he says that there is a chance that the kid or teen “may have a predisposition toward aggression.” In his own studies he asked 6,567 eighth graders if they had played violent video games within the past year. He concluded that violent video games do not predict violent behavior. Christopher Ferguson, associate professor and co-chairman of the Department of Psychology at Stetson University, not only agrees with this statement, but even goes as far to say that playing these games reduces societal violence. His reasoning behind that statement is that they stay off the street and do something they enjoy, hence causing less harm to society. During the week of the release of a popular new game, there is a general decrease in societal violence.  Recently a group of 238 scholars told the APA to retire its “outdated and problematic statements on video game violence.” To me it seems as if times are changing and these two professors and other scholars seem to think there should be an update in the studies. DeCamp said that almost young males play violent video games and the large majority do not commit crimes in society.

Personally I do not think video games and violence have a direct correlation. I have played violent video games since I was 12 and I have never once thought of committing a violent act in society. Obviously I can not speak for everyone who plays violent video games. There are studies that prove and disprove the correlation. I think there is a slight correlation but I think there are other factors besides just the violence of the video game. The best method which was pointed out in the article is that parents should monitor the games they play and their actions.

 

Distractions are Everywhere

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I would have started this sentence earlier, but I got distracted. Sorry that was corny but appropriate. The technological world we are growing up in is different than anyone born before 1990 or so. Why is that? It is because we grew up with this never before seen technology. Now we have phones that can send instant messages or pictures. Oh yeah, then there is social media. Social media has been the distraction champion every since it was created and will most likely never be dethroned. I’d be willing to bet that within the last week you were distracted by something on social media while working or doing homework. These distractions do not seem like a big deal but it could affect how we learn.

Lets start off by saying that we can all agree that overall, studying is not fun. Wouldn’t you rather be with friends or watching TV? Well the sad reality of that is that we can’t always have that. Adam Gazzaley stated in a interview that “When we switch between tasks, we suffer a degradation of performance.” For every distraction that we come across can slowly make us less likely to perform our current task at a high level. This does not just apply to work, it also applies to everyday tasks like driving. Texting and driving is very dangerous and checking your phone once to see what Billy Bob had to say could alter your life or someone else’s.

Digital distractions are not the only thing that can slow down the learning process. Today, we can read articles online for a class instead of having to buy the book. Yes! We all get to save money now, but it still comes at a cost. In the article “A textbook dilemma: Digital or paper?” The author (Claudia Wallis) says that Patricia Alexander, educational psychologist, discovered that out of  “878 potentially relevant studies published between 1992 and 2017, only 36 directly compared reading in digital and in print and measured learning in a reliable way.” So 842 studies say the opposite. If that does not say something then I don’t know what else would. It all comes down to personal opinion on what you prefer, but studies do indicate that we should all consider studying print instead of digital text.I personally find it easier to study off of a text book. I will say however that in some cases I do prefer reading online. For the most part I find it easier to read on paper.

Now, you would think that in this digital age that reading online would be more popular and would arise a problem right? Well not necessarily, actually it is the other way around. In the article “Book Reading 2016” that “Nearly four-in-ten Americans read print books exclusively; just 6% are digital-only book readers.” However a 26% of Americans do not read a book at all. So 38% of Americans prefer books in print than digitally. Thankfully that trend isn’t going anywhere, for now.

At least we know that people so far are sticking to the old fashion way. As time goes on it will be interesting to see if people start shifting towards digital learning, reading and writing. Maybe technology will change and we may see that learning, reading and writing can be scientifically proven to be better. For now, I am content with how it is now.

 

Benefits of Blogging

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With the evolution of the internet, ways of spreading information have become more broad. If anyone could start a blog, they could. It could be to write about their life or write about a variety of different topics. Did you know there are hidden benefits as well? In the blog post https://kdshives.com/2016/04/22/blogging-to-establish-your-digital-identity/ that a good way to stand out is by starting your own professional blog. That is only one source though. You could be thinking so what? It is just one website. Well I found others that agree with me and others who have the same thought process.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/2472969/internet/why-blogging-is-still-important.html

The man who writes this post talks about the reasons he finds blogging to be very important. He recalls submitting his first post and remembering getting feedback on all the grammar and structure mistakes he had. That is understandable because when you start blogs. He also talks about how you get to create content and not just consume it. Also that it should not be too long. Long enough to get the important details across but do not make it too long so that the reader loses focus. One final thing is he is to support others. Comment on other peoples blog to help them out with their process of writing.

Not convinced yet? Well in https://blog.wishpond.com/post/47804902390/4-reasons-why-blogging-is-important-for-your-business we see that the author agrees with some of the points in the last post and has some points of their own. The blog is mainly focused around if you have a business however I still thing the points are valid. The author states that blogging can help create traffic to your own website. I like this point because if you want to start a small business you can have a blog on the side and plug your business in occasionally. Another point the author mentions is showing your leadership at your business. Well written articles can indicate that you are running your business successfully. One final point relates back to the first article and that is communication. Being able to communicate with others on their blog is important to help them and it also helps your business out as well.

If you use your blog correctly, it could benefit you a lot. They are many benefits of blogging and the reasons shared above are only a few of the many reasons.