English 120 Blog

April 16 Reflection

austinbagley — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:22:54 +0000

Throughout this week there have been many new technologies that I have been introduced to, such as Prezi, Blogster and so on. Throughout this week I have learned also that there are many things that you have to be careful doing when you use a picture from an internet site, or a video from the internet. You have to make sure that you are abiding by the copyright fare use policies. Also when you use a picture from the internet you have to make sure to have it cited in your profile below the picture and in the work cited page.

My first inpression of the visualization platform we are using was good. We are using the Blogster cite to make a poster on and then take that and put it into our profile to help with establishing our dominant impression. I was not intimidated by the platform, I just thought that it was really cool how you can take a video and bring it onto the poster and have a cool border around it and also a cool background on the page. I also thought that the cite was very user friendly and it was not hard to use at all, I got used to navigating the cite right away.

I have learned many things about “fair use” and the things that we have learned have helped me understand how strict the government and copyright people are about using someone else’s pictures or videos. I don’t think that after I learned about the “fair use” that it will be to hard to abide by the rules and use pictures and videos as long as my group and I follow the rules involving “fair use”.

This week working together in my group has gone very well. We met together and made sure that we distributed the work between all of us very well when it came to getting the content on our website for our profile. Also, I think that I have contributed well to the group because I have mostly been dealing with making the layout of the cite and things look good.

April 9th Reflection

austinbagley — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:33:46 +0000

This week has been a very good week in class and out of class. I have learned many things throughout the things that we have talked about in class and the things that my group and I have done when we have met to work on our profile. The things that I have learned the most are probably how to work together as a group that way we can get things done by the time that it is due. Another thing that was fun to learn about and different than anything that I have ever used would be the weebly site. It was really interesting learning about how to navigate on the site to make your webpage and it was very interesting all the things that you can do on it. At first when we looked at the weebly site for the first time I was kind of intimidated but as we went through the steps of doing things I realized that I have done stuff like this before, so it became way easier once I messed with it. One thing that my group and I are intimidated at is the fact that we have to get all the rough draft stuff done in a limited amount of time and we think that we need more time to get it together because there are many steps that go into making the web page on our leader. I think that the thing that will help out the best with what we covered in class today was the fact about having a good outline done before we make the the web page because if we have the good outline constructing of the web page will be much easier and it will help the flow of the web page better that way we don’t just throw things together. One of the main things so far that is going to be tough with this project is trying to keep the dominant impression throughout the web page without losing track of it. All-in-all I think that the project is going to be really fun and interesting when we get it done.

April 2 Blog Reflection

austinbagley — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:44:35 +0000

Throughout this week I learned many new things. I learned how to use many new sources on the internet such as www.weebly.com. Also, while doing the quiz on the learning styles I learned that I have a very Kinesthetic learner. And while doing that quiz I realized that I really am a kinesthetic learner. Whenever i have spare time i love to go out and exercise instead of spending my time inside when i can be outside of my dorm or house watching tv or other things. Throughout high school i was always playing sports. I was never home when it was nice outside. Also, when it comes to learning things in class and outside of class. In class I learn the best by paying attention and by staying moving like by doodling and things that way I don’t get bored in class and end up falling asleep. I realized that by doing that quiz that I can’t stand to just sit in my room and watch tv or listen to music. I do love to listen to music but i would way rather be outside doing something. I think that by being in sports all throughout high school caused me to have this type of learning style. To me this learning style helps out in class because with the stuff that we are doing for our hypermedia profile, I can learn things by doing them and then when someone in my group needs help with how to use a certain program i can go and show them how to use it and what to do. I am not very good at just explaining things with words, i am the best at showing people how to do something by doing it myself which I think helps out the best because most people do not do very good at taking directions by listening, most people are better at seeing how someone does it then doing it themselves. All-in-all I learned that having this type of learning style has many positives to it.

March 26 Reflection

austinbagley — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:21:43 +0000

Austin Bagley

Blog Reflection week of March 26

I am going to explain what I plan to make my learning goals for this unit, and how I hope to learn them. I plan on throughout this unit to learn many things that go with making a profile on some certain person or place. I plan to learn many facts about the leader that we are doing our profile on. The leader that my group is doing the profile on is ex-coach Bob Knight. He was the head coach for the Indiana Hosiers for a long time and then he coached for Texas Tech until he decided to retire after his years coaching that Texas Tech. I plan to learn also through doing this profile many things that deal with making of the profile such as the weebly.com cite which we will use to make the internet cite on Bob Knight. I also plan to learn more about the wikispaces.com. I plan to learn using the weebly.com site that deal with internet sites on how to keep things color coordinated with all the pages. I also plan on using that site to make our pictures and words and videos co-exist so that they will all come together to make the dominant impression of the profile noticeable. Throughout using the wikispaces.com I plan on learning new things that will help with the making of the profile for Bob Knight. It is going to help because through doing research on Bob Knight and posting it on the wikispaces site it will help with finding out what information that i will want to use in the actual profile. Throughout this unit i will be able to learn many new facts and ways of doing things because of the new programs that i have to learn how to use such as the weebly.com and wikispaces.com. I think that this unit is going to be very interesting on how the profile is going to come together and if the pictures and videos are going to work together to make the dominant impression.

Unit Reflection

austinbagley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:18:26 +0000

Throughout the work that we have done for the commentary I have learned some useful tools to help with writing a paper. One of the best helpers that I did throughout the activities we did for the commentary is the Mind Map. The mind map helped me to get my facts organized so that I could easily start my commentary paper. The mind map was also useful for putting thoughts on to paper and knowing which facts I could use in my commentary and to know which information was not useful to use for my commentary.

I also think the puzzle activity we did was very helpful for the commentary. It helped with seeing how other people would put my commentary and making it easy to see how I could change some things so that it would make my commentary stronger.

So far throughout the writing of my commentary I have grown stronger as a writer in the fact that I know how to order things better in a paper and also I know some new activities that help out with getting facts down onto paper (Mind Map).

Commentary Puzzle Task

austinbagley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:02:47 +0000

B) The differences from the thesis that I wrote and the one my partner wrote are that my thesis statement deals with more of the fact that when young people make the decision to make a verbal commitment to play for a college sports team. And the one that my partner did deals with the fact that these young people making verbal commitments has become an issue and the fact that there are consequences to making this verbal commitment.

I could make changes to my body of my commentary to make it reflect the thesis statement by making sure that the paragraphs do not say the same thing. And also to make the paragraphs have better transitions to the next paragraph so that the paper would reflect the thesis statement better.

C) My peers arrangement of my commentary is pretty much the same as the arrangement of my actual. The one paragraph that takes away from my commentary because it just jumps into the paper instead of giving background information first. Also, the arrangement of my peers version of my paper takes away to the way that I wanted to order the commentary so that makes the commentary make less sense.

Summary RA Articles

austinbagley — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:42:22 +0000

CNN co-writers Dana Bash, Deirdre Walsh and Ted Barrett, and Fox News Associated Press stated that after a long meeting at the White House between the House and Senate Democrats that there had been progress made between the differences in the health care bills. CNN and Fox News both state that they made significant progress. According to CNN even though the Democrat leaders are very tight lipped about specifics, there is a deep House-Senate Democratic divide over how to pay for health care reform. CNN states that Obama has made clear he favors the Senate Democrats approach–taxing high cost insurance plans. But many House Democrats worry the tax would hit too many middle class Americans, and therefore oppose the Senate and Obama’s approach to the health care reform. According to Fox News it was stated that a special election in Massachusetts could result in a Republican victory that effectively would doom the health care legislation.

Outline, CNN Article

austinbagley — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:27:27 +0000

Main point: What is being done between the House and Senate about the health care bills.

I. Introduction: Statement about making progress with the health care bills.
a. ” Today we made significant progress in bridging the remaining gaps between the two health insurance reform bills,” President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

II. Body: Supporting evidence for what is being done between the House and Senate about the health care bills.
a. Obama has made clear he favors the Senate Democrats approach–taxing high cost insurance plans.
1. Many House Democtrats worry that the tax would hit too many middle class Americans, oppose the Senate approach.
2. Senate’s proposed Cadillac tax on high end insurance plans — to make it more palatable to House Democrats and unions.
b. The senate plan taxes insurance plans for families that cost $23,000 and higher. Democratic sources have said a leading idea is to raise that , in the hopes of affecting fewer workers that get high-cost plans through their employers.

III. Conclusion: What was being done with Medicare.
a. Democrat negotiators were also discussing a way to expand the Senate’s Medicare payroll tax to make up lost revenue from dropping the House surcharge on the wealthy.

Outline, Fox News Article.

austinbagley — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:00:49 +0000

Main Point- Long meeting at the White House about what is being done to pass the health care legislation.

I. Introduction: What Obama is trying to get done to pass the health care legislation.
a. Obama wants to expand health coverage to millions who lack it, end insurance company practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and slow the rate of growth of medical costs overall.

II. Body: Progress on the legislation being passed by the Democrats.
a. The White House said the leaders covered all aspects of the legislation but it released no details about where the progress had been achieved or when the laborious process would end.
b. Obama spent a good amount of time at the meeting while also dealing with the earthquake in Haiti.
c. The days talks ranged widely over numerous areas of disagreement between the House and Senate.

II. Conclusion: The vote in Massachusetts impact on the legislation.
a. A special election in Massachusetts could result in a Republican victory the effectively could doom the health care legislation.
b. House Republican leader John Boehner told Republican lawmakers that they could still sink the legislation.

Five Factors for RA

austinbagley — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:58:53 +0000

Purpose
The purpose of both of the articles is to inform us about what is being done to get the health care reform legislation passed. The difference between the two articles is that they are written from two different viewpoints. Because CNN, and Fox News have their own way of telling the story to the public. That means that one news corporation might take sides with the Democrats and the other with the republicans. The purpose of the CNN article is the fact that they go into more detail about what the Democrats are doing to get this legislation past, and the Fox News article tells us about what both sides are doing about the issue.

Tone/Style
The Tone and style of both of the articles is informative. They both are informing the general public about the meeting that was held all day to talk about the the health care legislation. The style of writing of both of the articles is mostly just to inform us. They don’t use very hard language so that we cant understand it.

Audience
The audience of the articles would be governmental, and the general public. The reason that is because people that work for the government would want to read on this issue to see what is going on, and also the general public also wants to know what is going on with this reform movement. The reason that the general public wants to know is because if the legislation gets passed it is going to change a lot of people lives, especially the middle class Americans as could be affected by the major tax that Obama wants to pass.

Social Context
The social context of the CNN article is to tell us about what the Democrats are doing to pass this legislation in specific, and the Fox News article is just giving an overall status on what happened at the meeting and not going into detail about what the Democrats are doing.

Genre
The genre of the Fox News article would be more towards the informing of what is generally going on in the meeting and not being super specific about one certain side of the meeting. The CNN article on the other hand went into more detail about what the Democrats were doing and how they were talking about how they are going to pay for the legislation as who they are going to tax to get the money.