- The TED talk I chose to watch is How to Make Stress your Friend by Kelly Mcgonigal.
- Why did you choose this talk?
- The main reason I chose this talk is because stress is something I am going through right now. Final year in high school in which all my marks matter and all of this decides how my future is going to look like. I experience stress from all my classes. It isn’t a lot of stress, but it is still stress.
- Coping with this stress is something I have been trying to do for a long time. And throughout all of this I have seen stress as something bad. This video gave me a whole new perspective on stress. Sometimes it is a better choice to go with something than against it. And I think it is time I see stress as a “friend” than an “enemy”
- What did you agree with in this talk? Why?
- I agree with everything mentioned in this video. All this time we have all seen stress as something that affects as negatively and ruins everything. But looking at it from a different perspective changes everything. Seeing stress as something that prepares your body for what is coming, is a completely new way of seeing it. I know I will be thinking about this video everytime I am in a situation that I find very stressful and hopefully I will be able to change that stress into something positive and energize myself
- What did you disagree with in this talk? Why?
- I don’t think there was anything in the video I disagreed with. Everything mentioned in the video was exactly how I perceived stress to be. Something that is unhealthy for you. The video clearly stated that stress wasn’t unhealthy at all. It is all about how we perceive it to be.
- Did the talk make you reflect on your future/consider new choices or new decisions? Why or why not?
- Yes, I believe this talk has definitely affected how I will be coping with stress in the future. I never saw stress as my body preparing itself for what is coming. The talk made me think back to all the times I have been stressed and what the outcome would have been if I saw stress in a different way rather than just getting more frustrated that I was stressed.
- Would you recommend this talk to a friend? Why or why not?
- I would recommend to all my friends who are taking sciences this year because I know what they are all going through at the moment. In fact I have already send it to friends who have come to me asking if I studied for my upcoming Biology Test. Since I already watched this video, I had a perfectly relaxed face on and send them all this video. I believe this video will help everyone out for the better. It really has changed how I feel about stress and I know it will be the same for most of them.
Self-Directed
- What your project is about?
- My self directed project is a workout motivational video that I created using Adobe Premiere Pro CC. The video features clips from the gym I go to that showcases different people working out. My video was inspired by other workout motivation videos that I used to watch before hitting the gym or doing any sort of exercise.
- Why you chose it?
- The reason I decided to make my video on workout motivation was due to the fact that I go to the gym on a regular basis. I usually watch videos such as the one I made to push me to actually go rather than making an excuse and not working out. A video related to exercising was something I wanted to make for a while but never got the chance to do. This project was the perfect opportunity since I also went to gym twice before the project was due.
- What you learned/did?
- It is easy to misunderstand that what I learned throughout this entire project must be something related to working out. Filming a video and working out was something I usually do, but editing a video using Adobe Premiere is something I have never done before. I had to look through tutorials to give myself a basic idea on how to using Premiere. Once I got the basics down most of the concepts could only be learned through experience. Even then when there was a certain aspect that I couldn’t grasp by playing around with the program, I would end up watching YouTube videos on using that certain functionality in Premiere. One of these functionalities that I couldn’t learn through experience was how to unlink a video and its corresponding audio so that I could add a different audio track for that certain video or edit the video and audio separately. YouTube had many 1 minute tutorials which provided me with what I needed. Since I had prior knowledge on editing videos using Sony Vegas, it wasn’t much harder to do once I had my basic knowledge on Premiere. One of the concepts that I learned by just playing around with the program was on how to change the brightness and contrast of a video. There is an effects tab that could be accessed once I had a clip selected . This tab contained all sorts of different video effects that could be added. Playing around in this section also showed me how to add effects to the audio track as well. The audio effects were used in the very end of the video which can be noticed as the audio is heard to slowly fade out. 2 days of using the program has also made me efficient in using it. I knew using multiple video tracks was the way I would be more productive with my editing. This was something that I learned with experience as well since no video or article will tell you that you have to use multiple tracks to be more efficient with your edits. Cutting a video was something that I had to use external help from as well. Overall, I believe I am pretty confident with using Adobe Premiere Pro CC and will be replacing Sony Vegas with it. It felt like bits and pieces coming together once I had the basic structure complete. I just kept building on what I knew and eventually was able to produce my video.
The video timeline is on the lower right and is called the sequence. Videos will appear here and can be cut, and further edited from here. 
Effects tab that can be used to add video or audio effects to the selected video or audio 
Unlinking video and audio so they can be edited separately 
Using razor tool to cut the video 
Using multiple video tracks to edit the video more effectively
- It is easy to misunderstand that what I learned throughout this entire project must be something related to working out. Filming a video and working out was something I usually do, but editing a video using Adobe Premiere is something I have never done before. I had to look through tutorials to give myself a basic idea on how to using Premiere. Once I got the basics down most of the concepts could only be learned through experience. Even then when there was a certain aspect that I couldn’t grasp by playing around with the program, I would end up watching YouTube videos on using that certain functionality in Premiere. One of these functionalities that I couldn’t learn through experience was how to unlink a video and its corresponding audio so that I could add a different audio track for that certain video or edit the video and audio separately. YouTube had many 1 minute tutorials which provided me with what I needed. Since I had prior knowledge on editing videos using Sony Vegas, it wasn’t much harder to do once I had my basic knowledge on Premiere. One of the concepts that I learned by just playing around with the program was on how to change the brightness and contrast of a video. There is an effects tab that could be accessed once I had a clip selected . This tab contained all sorts of different video effects that could be added. Playing around in this section also showed me how to add effects to the audio track as well. The audio effects were used in the very end of the video which can be noticed as the audio is heard to slowly fade out. 2 days of using the program has also made me efficient in using it. I knew using multiple video tracks was the way I would be more productive with my editing. This was something that I learned with experience as well since no video or article will tell you that you have to use multiple tracks to be more efficient with your edits. Cutting a video was something that I had to use external help from as well. Overall, I believe I am pretty confident with using Adobe Premiere Pro CC and will be replacing Sony Vegas with it. It felt like bits and pieces coming together once I had the basic structure complete. I just kept building on what I knew and eventually was able to produce my video.
Online Verbal Assault
1) Do you play online games? Do you experience verbal harassment when playing? Does it bother you?
– Yes, I used to play online games and verbal harassment was definitely a part of it. It did bother me for the first few times but after those few initial annoyances it was tolerable and even enjoyable at times. Experiencing verbal harassment is something every online player has gone through, as it is a part of the usual gaming experience.
2) Have you participated in verbal harassment in online games? Why or why not?
– As someone who used to play games online, I think every gamer has participated in verbal harassment at least once during their gaming career. Verbal harassment has almost become a norm and people don’t take it seriously at all. It affects most gamers during their first few days of gaming, but after the initial curve it is part of daily gaming.
3) Why do you think this harassment happens?
-All online gamers started off gaming getting harassed which causes them to want to harass other players. This along with peer pressure present when gaming with a group of friends causes one to insult other players to impress their fellow gamers.
4) Would you accept similar behaviour in the real world (during a sports competition/board game, etc)?
– I think harassment to a certain level is acceptable since everyone these days try to bring down the other team by doing whatever they can. Bringing down the other team with the use of words is something that is being done during most games. As long as the team doesn’t do something physical that harasses the other team, I think it is acceptable since it is good sportsmanship to accept the harassment.
5) Should schools address this issue with students? Why or why not?
– Yes, I think schools should address this issue to a certain degree. Schools shouldn’t get involved in what happens in the students online life but rather just get involved by educating the students on how to behave when going through harassment.
Effective Technology Tools
The two technology tools I think that I will find useful as a student are Block and Focus and Desmos.
These two would be really useful for me since they can help me focus and gives me and also give an extra edge on one of my courses this semester.
I believe Block and Focus will be useful all around since it doesn’t really focus on a certain course but rather helps users focus on their tasks. Desmos on the other hand is something I use at the very moment for my Advanced Functions class. It has proven itself to be very useful when we are asked to graph certain equations since Desmos is capable of providing a accurate representation of them.
Desmos is already being integrated into my Advanced Functions class. The teacher has already asked us to do various assignments using Desmos since it is the best alternative to a 100$ graphing calculator.
As a teacher I think the best one for me would be Remind since it will be an easy method to communicate with my students. I can schedule a reminder that will be sent to all my students asking them to do their homework or to keep them up to date on all the upcoming tests and quizzes. Currently one of my teachers this semester, uses Remind in a very efficient way. Her reminds tell us about the future tests, quizzes, keep us up to date when the due dates are and asks us to do the homework so that we don’t get lost in class tomorrow. This also how I see myself using Remind if I were a teacher.
Archives
- January 2017(2)
- December 2016(1)
- October 2016(3)
- September 2016(1)
Procrastination
- Are you satisfied with the final product you are submitting today? Is it your best possible work? Why or why not?
- I am definitely satisfied with the product I am submitting today but I don’t believe it is my best work. The project could have been much better if I had begun working on it with Norman a little earlier. This would have allowed us to display our information in a much more efficient manner.
- In your opinion, did you procrastinate on your learning task assignment? Why did you believe this to be true?
- Yes, I did procrastinate on my learning task assignment. A project that I finished in the last 2 days could have been completed the week before. I think the main reason I procrastinated was due to how easy I thought the assignment would be and the lack of teacher presence.
- Did you use your class periods effectively?
- No, not all classes were used effectively. There were a lot of class periods during which the computers were down. This resulted in slowing down everyone’s work efficiency.
- Discuss the assignment with respect to expectancy (did you expect to do well? Did you feel you could do well?), Value (Did you value the task or the grades you will receive for the task?) and delay (did you leave all the work until Thursday, Friday and/or the weekend?)
- Yes, I did expect to do well in the assignment since the video did meet my expectations, but I do feel like I could have done better since I know it isn’t my best work. Most of the work was done on the Thursday, Friday and weekend. For this particular the assignment I did value the task more than the grades
- Knowing that many tasks in this class are structured similarly (multiple work periods provided, loose guidelines on what to do), are you worried about the tasks? Can I change anything in the structure to help you succeed?
- I am not too worried about the tasks since I have been able to finish all of them in time so far. The only thing I believe that can be changed is the way the instructions are presented to us. There are times where the instructions have been confusing to most of us. A better presentation of the instructions will definitely increase productivity.
My reactions to PEDs Project
- What do you like about the project so far? What do you not like? Explain
- My favorite part of the PEDs project is the research we have done so far. It has helped me understand what are some applications and sites that I can use at home for my own personal use that will increase my productivity. For example when we were showed Diigo which is an extension that is used to bookmark pages of interest and organize them in the order we want, I knew it was something that would help me during my research for other courses. Diigo is an application I would love to use at home when conducting any research.
- The part that I don’t like would be how time consuming our project is. Getting teachers to accept PEDs into their classroom is something that will need a lot of perquisite projects and planning. Getting responses from the teachers is another factor that delays our entire project since not all of them reply in time.
- What is your tole in the group?
- My role in the group is to analyze our research and create the products/conclusions based on the research. All our tasks have been assigned to each other using Trello.
- What are your concerns going forward?
- My biggest concern going forward with the project is whether or not we will finish it in time. Getting teachers to accept PEDs into their daily teaching based on their and the student’s needs is something that will take time.
- What do you expect the outcome of the project to be?
- I expect the project to be successful in a long run, but if the due date we are given is short then this project won’t be a success. This project has the potential in getting a lot of teachers to use the modern technology that will help make teaching much easier. All it needs is the time to make it happen
Welcome to Gotham City! 