PLN 3

     Dr. Michael Wesch communicates his opinions of the how the digital world is evolving in the short video The Machine is Us/ing Us. Wesch describes very early in the video how our idea of technology has changed over time and that it continues to transform who we are, how we use it, and how it "uses" us. When the web was young, people designed codes to control the structure of a web page but we evolved it to do more. Since form and content could not be separated in that format, computer scientists created XTM. It allowed form to be manipulated in any way the author desired. It became much easier for the user to upload data to the Internet. At one point in the video, Wesch effectually states that with everything we do on the Internet or with technology, it learns. He is trying to get the point across that everything we do to simplify technology for us also makes it more complicated internally and if we are not careful, it can turn bad for us. In conclusion, Wesch got his point across in a way that described in a detailed way, how we drive our progression in technology and that we are truly The Machine.

     The video The Machine is Us/ing Us by Dr. Michael Wesch confused me a great deal because I did not know the context in which I was supposed to view it and since I do not know very much about computer technology I was lost half of the time. Watching the video gave me the impression that the author knew a lot about the topic of the video which relieved my distrust from not knowing what he was doing. In the video, near the end, he shows a paragraph that describes technology with a Machine that is learning with everything we do and ultimately that we are what drives the machine. I agree with his concept. I feel that if we do create a computer that is so technologically advanced that it can exceed the power of the human brain like Karl Fisch’s video Did You Know?, then we would eventually end up teaching it what we care about and what is important to our society and let it learn how it could sneak in and destroy us. We would just be the cause of our own fall. This video had an eye opening effect on me because while I realize the rate at which technology is advancing, I had not realized that people were the driving force of the dangers of technology.

PLN 2

Jason Russel’s purpose of the Kony 2012 YouTube video is to increase the American public’s awareness about Joseph Kony and his crimes in Uganda, Africa because he feels that what Joseph Kony is doing is wrong and he wants to change that.  He tries to gain support for his cause by showing the audience a video clip from a trip to Africa when he is taking to his African friend Jacob and Jacob begins to cry when he thinks about his brother who had died by the Lord’s Resistance Army, the organization that Kony leads.  By using the natural sympathy of human nature, he puts other people in Jacob’s shoes so they are obligated to consider what it would be like if they were in Jacob’s place.  Jason really grabs hold of the audience’s attention by giving them facts like the incredible numbers of the people Kony and the L.R.A. have displaced and how they capture children in the middle of the night and force them to kill their own parents.  The author starts to encourage support when he describes the event that will be the big push to wake up the country and ultimately the world to the horrors of Kony’s crimes against Africa.  He shows images of young people and adults showing support for the cause to stop Kony to encourage other young people that his goal is attainable and anyone can do it.  The author stated his reasons to stop Kony in an effective way and he accomplished his goal in raising the American public’s awareness to put an end to the terror reign of Joseph Kony.

I watched the Kony 2012 video created by Jason Russell about a man named Joseph Kony who has committed horrifying crimes in Uganda, Africa.  Earlier this year my friend told me about the video but i never watched it.  The more I heard about it, the more I wanted to know what it was about and who this “Kony” was.  The thing that stood out to me the most was that over the twenty-six years that Kony has been abducting children and burning villages in Uganda, nobody has done very much about it.  It strikes me as more of an urgent thing that needs to be stopped as soon as it possibly can rather than something that could just be put off until something really really bad develops in it. It’s common that nobody does anything about a situation until it affects them and by that time, it’s too late to do anything.  I think this is the author’s purpose, to get people to open their eyes and help with his cause before it becomes irreversible.  Another problem that stood out to me was that Kony isn’t fighting for any specific cause, he’s fighting so that he has power for himself.  Personally, this makes me feel like something is seriously wrong with this man because he pretty much has no reason to continue what he is doing.  The viewer cannot directly relate to the people who are affected by Joseph Kony but they could imagine what it would be like if a sibling was killed or if they were forced to kill their parents.  I feel like Jason Russell did an adequate job of getting his point across that Joseph Kony needs to be stopped however, I feel that the video was mainly aimed at a young audience and that more people should have been the aim of the video.  

PLN 1

       Karl Fisch, a teacher at Arapahoe High School, created a short slideshow informing the viewer about the world we live in and how it is shifting into the future.  The slideshow included facts ranging from population growth to economy health to the rapid development in technology.  China has the highest population but as their population increases with 244 babies born about every six minutes, India’s population expands by 351 babies born in the same amount of time.  In 1900 England had the highest standard of living, education standard and was the world’s center of innovation but those titles have been redistributed to other countries.  Technological achievements like the amount of new technological information doubles every two years and in the next few years a supercomputer will be made that can exceed the capacities of the human brain.  This informative video was only a peek at our futures but with all the possibilities, we may never know what we are going to face.

     I was caught off guard when we watched the short video “Did You Know?” by Karl Fisch.  Initially when I heard that we were going to watch a short video made by one of the teachers at Arapahoe High School I was expecting an entertaining short film that helped a student learn something in whatever subject the teacher taught.  Instead I got a reality check that so many people, including me, were in the dark about subject matters such as these.  I assume that the purpose of the video was to make the viewer more aware of things happening in this world and thats exactly what it did for me. The most surprising facts in his video were the ones regarding the population of China and comparisons with the United States and India because I had no idea of the intensity of the job situations in those countries.  Though I was not prepared for this video mentally, it was informative and served its purpose.