Sometimes I under estimate my ability to procrastinate. Except last night, instead of surfing Facebook or trying to eat my way out of my macro exam, I did something a little different. Something I’m a little more proud of. My friends and I started a blog. It wasn’t my idea but when we all took a break from studying to do a little free-write, I was pulled in. We all ended up staying up til the wee hours of the morning, writing, editing, and publishing content.

I never liked the idea of keeping a full time blog. To be honest, I still don’t. To me blogging is often tedious and I’m rarely exceptionally proud what I post. However, last night I was really happy with what me and my two friends produced. Maybe, blogging is just better when you and your friends do it together (excuse the lame blogging slogan). If you have a minute, take a look. My piece is called pocket aces. I hope you enjoy: http://towersandspires.wordpress.com/

SCR

Secretly, I’ve always wondered if I should become a teacher. Without I doubt, I think teaching is one of the most honorable professions and I wish we lived in a place where teachers were more valued. Although I don’t know if I’ll be able to reconcile my wish to be become a teacher with a teacher’s life style, I truly believe that teachers play one of the most essential roles in society. So when I heard that we had to teach a class for DML, I was pretty excited. For our lesson, Sarah (my partner in crime) decided to help the students figure out their potential Facebook audience. We were planning to go through, give them data, and help them figure out many more people could see their Facebook posts depending on their settings.

Last summer, I spent a month teaching kids overachieving kids from poor areas around Toronto and it was an extremely rewarding experience. Because I’ve had some experience teaching, I feel pretty comfortable in the classroom and I feel especially comfortable with kids of that age group. To make things even easier, Pam Quinn runs her classroom really well and she made it really easy for us to jump right in and teach. Looking back on the experience, I think our lesson went really well. The kids seemed really responsive to our ideas and I think the math really fit in well with their curriculum. In fact, at one point, I even heard Pam refer back to one of their earlier lessons on the order of operations to help a student solve the equation that we gave them. Although we started off the class a bit slow, I think the math section went well and the discussion really rounded things out. As we started to discuss the implications of Facebook privacy settings, I really saw the kids start to understand how important they are. Without a doubt, that “Ah Ha!” moment is exactly what Sarah and I wanted and we were really happy that our lesson clicked for so many of the students! As we were leaving the classroom, I even heard them discussing plans on how they should slim down their Facebook Friends List. One student screamed “Wait, don’t you have your Mom on Facebook?!?!”

If I could have done one thing differently, I would have changed the way we asked students to find the equations that helps them find their number of friends of friends. That having been said, I think our lesson went smashingly and I’d like to thank Sarah for being a great partner.

P.s a little food for thought 

This morning, I was casually surfing my Facebook news feed when I saw a status update that read “On this weeks episode of Keeping Up With Rob Ford, Rob Ford says “he didn’t eat some random lady’s p*ssy, and that he has plenty of it to eat at home” live on CP24…” Now, when I found this great little update on my favorite mayor, It had only been posted a couple of minutes ago. Naturally, being the politically engaged young Torontonian that I am, I decided to investigate. The only problem was when I googled for this classic line, nothing came up. This meant one of a couple things. Maybe she’s lying? No, that line is too good to have made up, plus it sounds exactly like something good ol’ Robby would say in one of his drunken stupors. Maybe I was searching for the wrong thing… To be fair, it’s hard to misinterpret his words and my search was pretty detailed. After a couple of minutes of looking I realized that I had just beaten the reporters to the story.

It wasn’t until that I checked Twitter that I found what I was looking for. Although I’m not yet completely sold on Twitter as a platform, I’m starting to realize that it does its strengths. As soon as searched for Rob Ford on Twitter, I found thousands of tweets discussing the mayors latest fiasco. Now almost twelve hours later, the internet is abuzz with article on our ever popular mayor. At times, I think that Twitter is annoying, pointless and a waste of time. That having been said, there are times like today, when it really comes in handy.

This weekend, my old Model UN team competed in the Secondary Schools United Nations Symposium which is essentially the biggest MUN tournament in Canada. It attracts teams from all over the world and is always very competitive. After a tough loss last year, we took home many individual prizes as well as the top team prize. As last year’s club head, I honestly couldn’t prouder of my guys. About five minutes after the awards ceremony, I face timed the team as they celebrated. What a great moment.

Within about 30 minutes of the new presidents going up to collect their trophy, I video called them, I sent them all a congratulatory email, I changed my Facebook status, and now I’m blogging about it. It’s interesting to think about the flow of information has changed with technology as my facebook status quickly accumulates ‘likes’. Either way, I couldn’t be happier for the guys – what a big big win <3.

Until 2 years ago, I was never really into watching sports. Growing up, I watched some hockey with my dad but as I got older, I stopped tuning in. It just wasn’t for me; I didn’t like the violence or the stigma that surrounded certain players and teams – it was just all to aggressive. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school when I subscribed to NBA on Youtube on a whim that I actually starting following a major league sport. I just really liked the basketball highlights. They were dramatic, athletic, and oddly relatable but I didn’t have time to watch a full game. That being said, watching NBA highlights just weren’t a time commitment. I could do all my work, talk to my friends and then go on youtube and catch the highlights.

Thinking about how technology has impacted how we watch sports in general, it’s hard to ignore the dwindling attendance of sporting events. With the advancement of instant replay, watching a game at home almost makes you feel closer to the action than when you go and see it live. Sitting on my couch watching the Packers play, I get instant replay, ariel views of the stadium, great commentary, and I don’t have to freeze my ass off watching a night game over Thanksgiving. I think it was genius for the Cowboys to put in a giant screen in their stadium because it brings some of the advantages of new technology along with the excitement and atmosphere of stadium. I don’t think that people will stop going to games, but if other owners don’t take this account soon, I see ticket prices falling fast.

I got into basketball by watching the highlights but over time as I started to know the teams, I started to care. Now, trying to full me a way from a basketball game during the playoffs is one really tough task.

FYI if you haven’t seen this, it’s worth watching. I almost had a heart attack: 

At exactly 6:46am this morning, Zach, my FYC, ran down the hall banging on doors and waking everyone up for course registration. He came with donut holes to console the tired and disappointed. Apart from the aftertaste of a sprinkle timbit (I refuse to be assimilated – donut hole sounds stupid), what really stuck me about registering online for courses was the amount of emphasis that was put on technology.

This morning, differences in Internet speed probably broke some hearts. I could almost feel the future career earnings of economics majors slipping away from beneath them as their favorite course filled up without them. Last night the last thing that my roommate and I did before we tried to fall asleep was test our ethernet cords, preload banner, and warm up our trigger fingers. From thursday, when the courses were released, up until this morning at 6:59:59, I probably only had two meaningful conversations about classes. That having been said, I spoke with my friends endlessly about the pseudo science that is registering online.

I’m not complaining about Banner. From what I’ve heard, the system works much better than what it’s replacing. I got into the class I wanted: Intro to Meditation. In my zen like state, it’s just interesting to see how changes affect our focus.

Sitting in class, listening to the statistics on the digital divide, it’s hard not to believe that technology might be the key to ending poverty. Now before I come off like the Canadian socialist that I am, I should probably add that I don’t actually believe that we can eliminate poverty by putting computers in schools. I do however believe that media literacy education might be the key to reducing the performance gap between schools… If we do it right.

It’s almost common knowledge that the internet is the largest and most comprehensive resource that the human race has ever seen. With an internet connection, you can talk to people from around the world, look up the answer to any question, and engage in social networking. That having been said, the rich have an unprecedented advantage in media literacy. It’s been consistently shown that the wealthy have greater access to technology as well as a better understand of how it can work to their advantage. Inversely, the poor don’t have the same access to information. More than anything, this inequity just furthers the cycle of poverty.

By educating all students in media literacy, you bring up the average. By educating students on how to properly use media, you don’t just teach students how to turn on a computer – you teach them how to search for jobs, use websites like Khan Academy and Wolfram Alpha, and use resources like Google and Google Scholar. A digital education is important because it equips students with tools that will help them far beyond the classroom. Having a working understanding of the internet will help kids across the country grapple with social and political issues as well as educational tasks. What’s important in the 21st century isn’t knowledge but the skills that will allow them to succeed. Never has a class like this been so important.

What a typical Sunday afternoon. After waking up late, I’ve spent most of my day on the internet finding new and interesting ways to avoid doing my homework. Although we had the luxury of a three day week, because of Midterms, I don’t actually feel like I’ve had much of a break. As a result, I’m lacking the necessary resolve that would allow to tackle my homework efficiently. I’m not technological determinist, I try to take accountability for my actions, and I don’t believe that the internet is what is distracting me from my work. I do however believe that internet gives me more interesting ways to distract myself.

If you mindlessly surf the internet, it really can be a black hole of information. That having been said, it’s can also be a powerful tool. Reflecting on my day today, I’ve realized that I’ve been able to learn so much from the giant ‘free’ resource that we call internet. From learning the guitar through online videos, to becoming a huge spoken word poetry fan by subscribing some of my favourite poets on youtube, to getting twitter just to follow a hip hop artist, I’ve discovered many of my favourite hobbies on the web.

I honestly think that the internet gets a bad rap. Instead of blaming the internet for being a huge distraction, we should cherish it for what it is: an unlimited resource.

Middlebury —–> Burlington —–> Philadelphia —–> Toronto —–> Home. I find traveling exhausting. Although, I’m not especially neurotic, impatient, or scared of flying, I, like most people, dread the song and dance that flying has become. As I write this, I’m on my flight home to Toronto, I still have two hours before I arrive home, and I’ve already been traveling non-stop for eight hours. When I plan a trip, I basically just subtract two days that I deem travel days. Days that inevitably get bogged down by hours or taking off and putting back on my shoes, wandering through terminals, and sitting in my seat listening to my iPod and making small talk and uncomfortable eye contact. (I particularly enjoy watching my neighbors facial expression change as he realizes that he’s going to be squished next to a teenager for the next couple of hours).

When I was younger and would travel with my parents and younger brother, I always really enjoyed playing with my GameBoy. Flying essentially turned into a period of unrestricted Pokémon training for me. Given that my parents were reasonably strict with how much time I got to use ‘screens, I absolutely it. As I got older and outgrew my GameBoy, I started to rely on the screen in back of the seat in front of me for my entertainment on long flights. Recently though, I’ve been flying out of smaller and more obscure airports that don’t have the jumbo-jets with the expensive media systems.

Flying today really got me thinking about my media usage while traveling. Flying for many people has become one of the few times in their lives where they don’t have access to communications technology. For those few hours while we hurl around the globe in that metal box, we’re almost completely isolate – that was, until recently. The policy that prevents us from fully taking advantage of our electronics during flights was created during the later part of the twentieth century when planes were far more rudimentary. Since the rule’s inception however, technology has advantages to the point where planes aren’t really affected by conflicted signals. Now, Wifi is being offered on some flights: for a small fee of course. Although I think that the fact that I can buy Wifi but can’t use my phone while on board a flight is inherently stupid and contradictory, I also think that this policy change is just the next step in the further integration of technology into our lives. Although overall, I’m definitely in favor of this change in policy, I can’t help but think that I’m going to miss the random conversation I enjoy having with strangers. Although, I don’t think that technology kills conversation, I also don’t think that I’m going to be the only one guilty of bury myself deep in digital world as soon as I get internet access. Although I won’t try to fight progress, I’m definitely not going to stop saying hi to the people on my flight.

Although I don’t know the name of the girl who I’m sitting beside, I like her. She works in adversing, graduated from UOIT in 2010 and has a 40 minute drive home from the airport. Maybe I’ll see her around – probably not though.

Last Thursday, October 3, at exactly 12:30 PM, I began my media fast. Now believe me, I love technology as much as the next self-important, over exposed teenager, but in all honesty, I didn’t think the media fast would be very difficult. When Professor Mittell initially introduced the assignment I even rolled my eyes and silently scoffed and at my classmates that were obviously emotionally disturbed at the thought of not having access to twitter for more than 60 minutes. That having been said, as the deadline approached, I started to have a really hard time finalizing a date to start the assignment.

For me, easily the hardest thing about the media fast was finding a day where I could not look at a screen. Although I don’t claim to have a tough life by any means, the work at Middlebury is very challenging. Finding a day where I couldn’t have the ability to check my email, work on a paper, or search for information was extremely difficult. As a result, I decided to it while traveling to NYC to compete in a Model UN. Although I really missed the ability to listen to my iPod, I enjoyed the radio (despite the amount of bad country music that was played) and managed to catch up on some sleep.

One point that really hit me was how much easier it was to do the media fast when I didn’t have my phone or my computer close to me compared to when they were in reach. All though the expression “Out of sight, out of mind” might be slightly cliché, I found it very accurate. When my phone was in my pocket, I was extremely tempted to reach for it but I left it at the hotel that night, I didn’t really miss it. I think this all boils down to conscious choices. Making the choice to leave technology behind for a day really made me aware of how much of my technology use is subconscious. Whether that’s just quickly checking Facebook or reading my email in the car, a lot of my media use completely fades into the background. Although I hope to never live another busy day without access to technology, I also hope that I can start using media more purposely.

“To change a habit, make a concious decision, then act out the new behavior” – Maxwell Maltz