Naked in the ‘Nonopticon’ – Tere Cheatham

Facebook newsfeeds has caused a problem with the college students. Speaking on behalf of myself, when Facebook first started the newfeeds, I was upset because it was personally stuff posted. For example, if i was in a realtionship it would say who i am with, their name and etc. Just too much personal information out. Plus everyone could see what’s going on with your life. Then when I notice that you could block the information so no one can see what you dont want people to view, I felt better because I like my privacy. I feel that  no one has enough privacy anywhere. I have different views on provacy. I feel that there is a lot crime that makes society place cameras up everywhere so I feel that privacy may be invaded but for a good purpose but when it comes to the internet privacy is not respected. The article made a statement about why “young people do not usually care about privacy but they care about what’s viewed on websites like Facebook” ( Vaidhyanathan 1). or myspace. I feel that young people care because of their image or because they want to keep secrets so if a girl has a boyfriend but does not want people to know then she would want to hide that for whatever reasons.

After the class discussion I was interested in knowing the fact that we reall have no privacy. Not having knowlege on the facts that where ever you may use a credit card, information is transported to the government sayin where you used it, how much you spent, who used it and etc. really made me open my eyes. Now I know we are being followed everywhere we go.

The Governor: Brittany Meyer

I really think that it is a disgrace that the governor is constantly cutting funding for higher education and all of its programs and resources. It’s bad enough that he has no real clear-cut plan for how he divides up the funding for the state schools. Some of the bigger state schools are getting less funding than some of the smaller schools. Honestly, it doesn’t make any sense. There is no transparency in his methods at all. This would be my first pet peeve with the governor. Then, last week, he came to Rowan and was speaking about his new plan for the tolls. Although in theory the plan seemed effective, in actuality the plan is going to cause a lot of problems for the majority of New Jersey residents, many of whom have to drive through these tolls every single day. There were many people who stood up to speak to him and ask him questions about his plans. Instead of the governor trying to appear concerned or sympathetic, which is honestly the least he could have done even the emotions were not genuine, he was extremely rude. He spoke over people, cut people off mid-sentence and rushed people when they were speaking with comments such as “Okay, Okay, I get it, just stop.” His utter lack of respect and speech etiquette were my second pet peeves with him. However, my latest pet peeve with the governor is how is treating the Knowledge Initiative Act. At every state college and university, the governor is cutting the funding for all of the major online database journals, such as EBSCOhost and Academic Search Premier. What does that mean to us? It means that when we have our big research papers due at the end of the semester, we are going to have to look for printed sources at various libraries and have them sent to us instead of just being able to search for them on these databases. This is a huge hassle, especially because many of the libraries have stopped subscribing to some of the printed resources because everything is available online and we’re trying to save some paper and trees. We can’t just sit back and allow this to happen. Please voice your concerns about these issues. Flood the governor’s office with calls. Email him. Send letters. New Jersey residents need to speak up and prevent him from doing any more harm than he has already done.

COSGA: Brittany Meyer

I am going to Texas this weekend and I am so excited about it.  Every year, there is a conference called COSGA (Conference of Student Government Associations) that is held at Texas A&M University.  The delegates of the conference are drawn from SGA members from 85% of all colleges/universities across the country.  There are a variety of workshops to attend and they are all very informative and give great ideas about a variety of different topics that might be useful to bring back to your own school.  There are also these really cool roundtable discussions that delegates are able to go to.  Each roundtable has between 15-25 people.  The roundtable groups are created by putting together delegates who represent schools of similar sizes but from different states.   Honestly, it’s so neat to be able to meet people from all fifty states who are equally as passionate about SGA and are interested in comparing notes and sharing ideas.  Many of the ideas that I have had for SGA for this year were taken from ideas that were sparked by things that I discussed with other COSGA delegates last year.

 

Our SGA here at Rowan got selected to do a workshop at COSGA this year, and it will be the first time that Rowan has ever presented there.  The workshop that we are doing is called “How to Respond When Tragedy Strikes.”  Our SGA decided that we wanted this to be the topic of our workshop because of the events that occurred at our school this year and how we, as SGA, chose to respond to them.  This workshop relates directly back to COSGA, too.  Last year when I attended COSGA, I went to a workshop that LaSalle University presented about how their school united its students and bettered its image after tragedy struck at their university a few years back.  The ideas that were presented during that workshop are what I suggested that our SGA do when we were responding to our most recent tragedies this year and they were really helpful.  Our SGA wants to give back to COSGA in a way, so that maybe our workshop will be just as beneficial to someone in the future as LaSalle’s workshop was for us.

Internet Plagiarism – Tere Cheatham

Internet plagarism has caused a lot of college students to be place out of their classes or even the university they attend. Just speaking upon some students I know from here have been examples of the Internet Plagiarism cases. From being in english classes, plagiarism has been the number one concern and especially when articles are used of the internet as sources for one’s paper. Since the internet has so many different links that could obtain the same information, students have to be very careful of which websites they search on. Most college students know that www.org or the colleges library have different databases that are considered good sources. The day I saw a friend of mines get dismissed because the teacher felt that her paper and another paper was similar and that they both went to the same website which was not a good source, I thought the samething that is stated in the article: ” My sense is that Internet plagiarism is becoming more dangerous than we realize” ( Laird 1). After hearing a huge amount of people getting dimissed for Internet plagiarism, I knew that Universities were taking it very seriously.

Most the time students may forget to give credit to whoever has made a statment and dont think anything of it but professor would consider that as bascially the student is saying that they were the ones who wrote the statment or quote. The article states that ” the internet is described as the cause of a percieved increase in plagiarism” ( Howard 1). I agree because  random websites which may not be academic can give false information.

Another reason Internet plagiarism can be a huge problem because now google and yahoo have essays written on wahtever topics and students are know to copy and paste , place the date, class period, and their name on the paper and turn it in. Knowing that technology is improving, now professors are checking to see where students information has come from and there is a 99% chance that the student who plagiarized will be caught because plagiarism is not just wrong but its considered a crime as well.

The one thing I argue about plagiarism is that sometimes students misuse sources. In the article it says that the author at her university was working on “urging that the university she  is working at adopts a plagiarism policy that differentiates plagiarism from misuse of sources” ( Howard 12). I think that is a good idea because some situations involving plagiarism are not serious cases but are taking seriously even if there was misused sources. I feel like the internet is good at times but not goot at other times especially when it comes to academics and getting good and educational sources.

Is playing video games a wast of time?-Jen Festa

Video games, as well as music, television and listen to someone tell a story are all forms of literacy.  I do not think any form of literacy is a waste of time, unless it is a type of video game which just involves killing.  But I have seen video games were there is like a story plot to the video game, and to understand the video game you must understand the story plot.  Also, most of the time, when you play a video game, at least a new video game, you have to learn it either from reading the directions or listening to someone tell you the directions.  Like Zelda is not an easy game, I think that you would definitely have to read the directions to understand it, and if you are not able to read the directions you will not have a good chance of understanding the game, making it clear that literacy is needed for everyone and it is presented to us in many ways.  I just want to add that I think music is a great literacy.  Like Jack Johnson for example, his CD Curious George, has so many great songs on there for younger kids to enjoy while learning literacy.  And there is plenty more just like that, but I feel like personally I have learned about myself so much through music and lyrics can definitely change a persons life.  One of my favorite forms of literacy is storytelling though, I love to hear a great story that is passed down in my family from generation to generation, to me there is no better literacy then that.

V-Day: Jackie Williscroft

Today is Valentines Day and I am hearing mixed thoughts about the holiday. Every morning on my way to Rowan I listen to 95.1 WAYV and on today’s show they had a series of callers talking about why they loved the holiday and why they hated it. Obviously the ones who loved the holiday are the ones who are in a steady relationship or married. The ones who had negative things to say about the festivities going on today were single and alone. I personally do not see Valentines Day as being an important holiday so it doesn’t bother me either way. I think it is nice to tell someone you love them when you normally wouldn’t everyday. Also I think many times we should say it more than we do. It is just a nice loving day to get someone a box of candy or some flowers but other than that I think people get too crazy. I know many guys who have planned the perfect day and somehow it gets ruined or the girl gets her hopes too high and gets let down and therefore a fight occurs. I also have heard of stories of having wonderful a Valentine’s day but then next year impossible to top so the significant other gets upset. A holiday is something that is supposed to bring joy to all and possibly cause for a celebration. People need to stop feeling sorry for themselves and just enjoy the day whether they are single or married. They day is not just for people who are in intimate relationships. It can be for families and friends as well. I know when I get home my parents are going to have a present and a box of candy for me on the kitchen table. I am also sure that I will get a card from my grandmother and godmother. So even if there is not a significant other in your life go and tell someone you care about them and thank them for being in your life and appreciating you.

Plagiarizing: Jackie Williscroft

The article was very informative and I think that many college students should read it because in today’s society the internet has become increasingly popular and many students need to be aware of the consequences that can happen if they decided to take information from a website. Plagiarism is stealing someone else’s ideas without permission. I too am guilty of going online, doing a quick search and reading someone else’s work. While I read I begin to write the paper and before I know it, it sounds almost identical to what I have read. I always make sure I check my work and also always include my references. It is no joke, especially in college if you plagiarize. I understand many students may not even realize they are doing it but they can get into a tremendous amount of trouble if they are caught. It really is a way of cheating because you are in a sense “looking at someone else’s paper and writing down the answer they came up with.” Everyone knows that on research projects and papers we need to use other people’s information but all they have to do is simply cite it and they will not get into trouble.  Just by adding a small works cited page they can steer clear of getting kicked out of an institution, fines, and even jail time.

            Plagiarizing is not helping anyone in the long run. The people who did work hard and produce the original get angry and have the option to press charges. The people who are plagiarizing are not learning anything from their experience and not putting their own intelligence to the test.

            I was well informed of what plagiarizing was when I was in high school but I am sure there are a handful of students who do not fully understand what it is. I think colleges should have a course that goes over all the policies and regulations of the school as well as plagiarizing. Students truly do not know what could happen if they are caught plagiarizing.

I hate the computers we use in class:Jackie Williscroft

I hate the Mac computers I am forced to use in this class. I have a Dell at home and find it to be the easiest piece of technology I own. When I was growing up my schools even had plain Dell or Gateway computers, never Apples. When I sit down in this class, open the computer and see the desktop I ask myself “why do they have to make everything so damn complicated?” I swear Apple made their technologies backwards just to be different. Yes they are easily recognizable but at the same time they are so annoying and very hard to use. It’s very difficult for people to have to learn how to do simple tasks on a computer that is very different from what they grew up using. My mother is the worst person when it comes to technology. She does not even know how to turn on her cell phone but she is able to use her Dell computer at home. If she were placed at a Mac computer she would get up and say “See ya later”. I thought that technology was supposed to be easier to use and access but they seem to make more and more things go backwards. I do not like saving documents on them because they seem to always get lost. It took me about ten minutes to learn how to log out of one of them in the computer lab and I hate that damn rainbow pin-wheel (cursor) that spins when it is loading. The mouse it awkward and the little ball on it, does not make it any easier to scroll down it just ticks me off and I end up using the scroll bar anyway! Also the standard keyboard has a slant permanently on it. I like the “normal” keyboards because you can either have it be on a tilt, or you can have it flat if your wrists start to hurt. I think that all the computers in the computer lab and the ones used in class should be either a Gateway or a Dell.

Privacy issues:Jackie Williscroft

As I was reading the article “Naked in the Nonopitcon” by Siva Vaidhyanathan I too began to wonder what the word “privacy” really meant to people. The article goes in depth about Facebook and their posting of daily news feeds. If people chose to have this new service they would get updates of current events and updates on their friends. For example if a couple breaks up it informs the users who are friends with the individual that they are now single. Facebook was under the assumption that because young adults had profiles in the first place they would all be ecstatic about this new service they were providing that way the log in and immediately see the changes in the friend’s lives. There was however a small protest saying that it was violating people’s privacy.

Facebook has become the number one way for college students to keep in touch with high school friends as well as current ones. People are able to add “applications” and pictures to make their profiles more personal. It has many options that you can add or take off according to preferences so I do not see what the big deal is about the news update. These people can easily take themselves off the list. If people are so concerned with their privacy they can even change their profile to private that way only people they have accepted as friends can access their site.

The funny thing is that the people who are protesting about the privacy issue are completely non-private according to their profile.  In today’s society many young adults have become extremely comfortable with computers and have been posting blogs, pictures, stories, and information on them for the whole world to read.  I do not think that people ask themselves “what would my grandmother say I she read this?” When I log into my account I do not read “Hi. How is school going for you? How is the family?” Instead I see updates of people adding photos to their gallery. Photos that most of the time are repulsive and inappropriate.

In conclusion all the people who use Facebook are able to choose which settings they would like to have and which ones they don’t. It can be a personal site that’s open to the public or extremely private. I do however; think that all individuals posting information of themselves online need to think twice about what they are posting.

Oh Technology: Brittany Meyer

When I first signed up for the “Introduction to Writing Arts” class, I thought that it was going to be really easy.  I figured that it was an introduction class so how hard could it really be? I had already taken many upper level courses both in my other major and in my minor, so I just assumed that I would be able to handle whatever this class would throw my way.  Then, the first class happened.  After discussing the features of the class in the lecture hall of the Engineering building, I realized that this class was going to be a lot more work than I had originally bargained for.  I saw the “Technology and Future of Writing” unit and was absolutely petrified.  I’m the first person to admit how much I hate technology and I try to use it as infrequently as I can, so clearly this unit was not at all appealing to me.  I was praying that I wouldn’t have to take that section first because I wanted to put it off as long as possible.  Needless to say, I was the second name called out on the roster for that unit.  Just my luck.

When I initially looked at the syllabus for this unit of the class, I was automatically discouraged.  I had never even heard of half of these types of technology before, so how in the world was I going to be expected to be able to use them?  I knew I had my work cut out for me.  When our class first started working with the different technologies such as blogs, netvibes and diigo, I was completely flustered and confused.  I felt like I was asking so many questions and still not understanding how to use them.  However, I guess the old phrase “practice makes perfect” really does hold true.  The more I used the different technologies, the more I got used to them.  By no means was this an easy process.  Yet, I was determined to be able to use these three features on my own, without the help of anyone else.  I kept working with the technologies and I finally started getting the hang of them.  I might even go out on a limb and say that I actually enjoy using some of these technologies, such as netvibes.  As someone who organizes her life to the point where it could be considered OCD, I love how the systems are set up and how useful they are.  Netvibes was quick and easy to use.  I guess the point that I am trying to make is that I feel like I really learned a lot about technology during this class.  Dare I say that I enjoyed this class?  I might.  Surprisingly enough, I might even start using some of these technologies on my own time once this class is over.