Rock Prodigy Pros

     Rock Prodigy is an app that plays like a game, but uses a real guitar and teaches real songs and skills.  It teaches you these songs and skills by allowing you to play along with notes displayed on the screen, like a real-life Guitar Hero.  You simply play along with the 'game' on your real guitar, and in doing so learn guitar techniques and songs.  Rock Prodigy, however, is not a game; it's an instructional tool.  Rock Prodigy's purpose is to teach you how to play the guitar in a fun way.  It is intended to provide some relief to the burden of practicing, making learning the guitar easier, faster, and more fun.
    
     One large benefit of Rock Prodigy is its mobility.  It works with any recent iOS device, and requires no plug-ins.  Also, you can use any guitar, electric or acoustic.  And so, you can use Rock Prodigy anywhere that you can bring your iOS device and guitar.  It's very portable.

     More importantly, however, it works with any level of experience.  If you are picking up a guitar for the first time, or if you already know how to play well, it has lessons and songs adapted for your level of experience.  It teaches you the basics, such as how to hold and tune a guitar, and then increasingly advanced lessons, such as scales and difficult songs.  This leads into the main function of Rock Prodigy:  it is an instructional tool designed to assist the learning and practicing of any guitar player.  It is not intended to replace any traditional methods of learning or practicing.  Rock Prodigy, as a supplementary tool, can help any guitar player learn and perfect songs and techniques.  Learning how to play a song requires repetitive practice.  Why not practice in a way that is fun?

     In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr claims that our brains change and develop based on our behaviors and experiences.  I think it's possible that, after practicing the guitar with Rock Prodigy for some time, guitar players could come to develop positive, fun associations with guitar practice.  Do not be deceived; no app can make learning and practicing an instrument easy.  It requires hard work and consistent practice.  However, if Rock Prodigy can make learning the guitar a little easier, faster, and more fun, then that is a worthy accomplishment.

Edmodo

About Edmodo:
Edmodo is a social learning network for students, teachers, and parents. A teacher creates a group for each class and distributes the group code to each student. Once connected, students can write posts to classmates, teachers, and parents and upload media as well as view grades, submit assignments, and receive teacher feedback, features sites such as BlackBoard and Moodle utilize. The Edmodo community combines the efforts of students, parents, teachers, and school districts to help education appeal to students’ ever-increasing technological tastes. Edmodo is an addition to the classroom that will promote learning all hours of the day.
Edmodo.com

Positives:




Negatives:




Prezi Presentation: 

Edmodo on Prezi

The SMART Board (Pros)

The SMART board has begun to find its way into classrooms across the country, especially as the growth of technology heightens. The SMART board is essentially a modern day projector that connects itself with a computer inside of the classroom. Whatever is projected on the computer’s screen is also projected on to the SMART board; however, with this board, the teacher is able to do much more. This board is touch screen and can be operated by one’s finger or the pen provided with the board. Therefore, a teacher can open a presentation created on the computer, make notes on top, record the presentation, and then email the notes to the class. This could potentially allow students to focus more on class involvement than writing the notes down since the teacher can send them out to the class. The SMART board provides amazing opportunities educationally. First, the board provides interactive learning. Children in the classroom are able to work on this board while the rest of the class is engaged. Essentially, the board is the modern dry-erase or chalkboard. Secondly, this board uses multimedia to adapt to all learning styles. Sound bytes, pictures, videos, lectures, and text are all available for use on this board. Third, this board only requires one computer that operates with Windows software, so educators do not have to spend too much money on computers for the entire class. All that is needed is a simple PC. In order to be adaptable in our education, schools will begin to implement technology into the classrooms in big or small ways, and this board is a great way to do so.

In The Proust and the Squid, Wolf expresses her concerns about the implications associated with the rapid growth technology. She questions that the rapidity associated with technological growth may cause humans to find less satisfaction in reading long text and may have attention issues. Oppositely, she proposes the ideas that because of technology’s fast-paced style, humans may be able to complete tasks more quickly and, in turn, spend more time on in-depth thought. Secondly, people may become better at multi-tasking (Wolf 214). The educational opportunities provided by the SMART board both appease Wolf’s worries as well as support her positive implications. Because the SMART board is used for educational purposes, it’s a great way to bridge the gap between a non-technological world and an entirely technological one. As we move forward, classrooms will have to adapt to at least some form of technology, as it is relevant to today’s real world. However, this board still allows children to learn proper reading skills as well as learn to use technology to complement their learning styles. If used properly, this device can only support children’s learning needs.

Cell Phones

As time has moved on, and technology has progressed, our ability to communicate across the world has opened new doors, and removed long-existing land barriers. Ecomonmies changed forever, and loved ones could live further away without losing contact with one another. No invention has better served this purpose than the telephone.
The telephone has it's issues, but many of which were later solved with the introduction of the cell phone. It was suddenly possible to live at all times without ever being unreachable. You could be anywhere in the world and connect with anyone else, at any given time.
Today, in the U.S alone, 278.9 million people subscribe to a cell phone service. By comparison, there are 309 million people alive in the U.S according the 2000 census data.
Now that cell phone have become so unanimous, their implications have become more and more wide-spread. Check out our Prezi for the details:

Cellphones and their effects on human development. on Prezi

There are several ways this influences out lives and well-beings. For one thing, the World Health Organization now believes that there may be a link to cell phones and brain cancer. (Though their research may be flawed...)

Not to mention, I would personally trade a slightly increased risk of brain cancer for constantly available 911 access.

Something else to think about, a person's cell phone is always in reach. It has become impossible to escape our friends, family, or the entire world. With the internet connectivity they offer, Google, Facebook, MySpace (if you still use that, get with the times), eBay, and every other notable web service sit right in your pocket, just waiting for the urge to hit you to browse, surf, and communicate.

The cellphone brings lots of positives and negative to the table, but let's be honest, even if they shorten our live expectancies, cell phones aren't going anywhere.

What the Internet has done to our brains. A comic.

Just something I thought you guys might enjoy! Seemed at least a little relevant to the class.

Rock Prodigy (Not cool)

Rock Prodigy on Prezi

The "not cool" aspect of the product itself includes syncing, recording, and clustering. In order for the iOS device to recognize the notes and chords being played, it must record through either its built-in mic or an external mic attached to it. This can lead to delay and lag between the audio input of the guitar and the video output from the iOS device. The faster the song, the more difficult it will be to account for the faults in the syncing as the user's timing will not be perfectly in-time with the notes on the screen. This may be further amplified by the fact that it can be difficult for the built-in mic to pick up all the sounds coming from the guitar, thus needing the guitar to be played relatively close to the iOS device at all times. Any sound that is not recorded will be considered a missed note and an error.

User reviews have claimed that the notes on the screen as seem clustered at times. This is a combination of being limited to a small screen as well as having a continuous stream of multiple notes flying across the screen that are challenging to individually distinguish.

There are limitations on Rock Prodigy's functionality, one of which being only being compatible with iOS devices. That means that a large number of people will be unable to use the application simply due to lack of access to an iOS device, or people will have to spend more money to purchase a compatible device, which seems unlikely that they would do so in order to just be able to use Rock Prodigy. More costs are added to the use of this application as users have to buy songs that they want to play. Each song costs a minimum of $0.99 and there is a limited number and variety of songs that are available for users to purchase and learn. In other words, users cannot use Rock Prodigy to learn any song that they would like to learn as they can only buy and download songs that have been programmed and listed on the list available for purchase. This problem is not aided by the fact that users cannot program their own songs into the format that is used in Rock Prodigy, thus further limiting the number of songs users can learn.

The implications of Rock Prodigy and its technology may be harmful additions to the accelerating transition to a technological and digital-dependent society. Learning how to play the guitar from Rock Prodigy is significantly different from the traditional way of learning how to play an instrument, using sheet music. As a result, new learners will be unable to understand the theory behind music and never gain the ability to sight-read, transcribe music, or teach themselves another instrument, all of which are possible with a true understanding of how sheet music works. The learner will become too overdependent on the application and on the iOS device that they cannot play the guitar without them, making it inconvenient and inflexible.

Nicholar Carr in The Shallows discusses this idea that we are becoming overdependent on technology and further distancing ourselves from the traditional methods. He says that technology and the internet is changing the way our minds function and that he is unable to focus when reading long-passages or articles, and instead finds himself skimming and skipping from places via hyperlinks. It is sad that we are unable to grasp a full and rich understanding of things the more we rely on technology and in terms of music, we are losing the appreciation of its beauty as an expression of art.

Proton Ion Sequencer: What's (very) cool

Proton Ion Sequencer on Prezi

Follow along with my Prezi presentation!

The Proton Ion sequencer is a revolutionary new biological technology. It uses semi-conductor sequencing, a seemingly complicated method which codes AT/CG using the charge of each respective base, to quickly and inexpensively sequence any DNA. This technology is particularly impressive because it cuts time and costs involved with coding: what previously took weeks or longer can now be done in literally 24 hours, and what previously cost $10,000 now only costs $1,000 for one sequence. What is particularly amazing is the cost of the machine itself, as it only costs $149,000 to purchase a Proton Ion Sequencer. While that may seem steep, that is comparatively free when faced with the half-million it costs to purchase a different technology for sequencing. This lowered cost allows for a broader consumer base, letting more and more researchers and physicians purchase the device and investigate the seemingly limitless bounds of genetic codes. In fact, LSU owns a Proton Ion Sequencer, so groundbreaking, inexpensive, and fast research is being done on our very own campus every day.

            The types of things that can be discovered through quick and inexpensive DNA sequencing are boundless. First, it can be used for early detection and prevention of diseases. It has been said that genetics load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger, so knowledge of genetic predispositions is invaluable. Newborns can be screened (i.e., their DNA is processed and checked for known signs) for diseases like cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell anemia, PKU, and hypothyroidism and treatments can be instituted immediately. In the book, “The Language of Life” by Francis S. Collins, he discusses the benefits of such screens: “While hypothyroidism is generally not due to a single genetic cause, early detection is critical. If your child has hypothyroidism, it is essential to replace thyroid hormone immediately to allow normal brain development” (pg. 42-43). So, even for illnesses which are not caused by any single genetic trigger, we can quickly find genetic vulnerabilities and fend off full expressions of disease. This is also true for mental illnesses, as disorders such as schizophrenia and alcoholism have very strong genetic bases and can be prevented against.  Learning disorders such as ADHD and math or reading disabilities can be found at birth, and teaching techniques can be personalized to ensure the best learning environment for all students.

            Another benefit to cheap and readily available genetic screenings is personalized medical care. At some point in the (possibly near) future, private physicians could have access to their patients’ genetic code standard alongside any other medical history, allowing them to optimize treatment. If a patient has a predisposition of a heightened sensitivity to a specific medication, the doctor would write a much lower dosage or even use a different prescription. This method could save countless lives with allergic reactions or accidental overdoses. Similarly, many illnesses are mysterious in their expression, and doctors sometimes toil away for weeks or months looking for the cause of seemingly inexplicable symptoms.  If that particular disease has a genetic basis, a quick DNA sequencing could easily answer any question and allow the patient to be treated properly.

Finally, the potentials for research which come from the Ion Sequencer are endless. As shown in this article, http://www.gizmag.com/ion-proton-sequencer-decodes-dna/21092/, and an e. coli outbreak was solved in just hours since this technology could easily code the virulent strain so it could be isolated and destroyed. Along the same lines, any bacteria, virus, or cancer with a genetic code can be understood and eventually solved using this method. Finally, our genetic code holds the mystery of evolution: all modern life has evolved from a prior form, and comparing modern DNA to discovered fossil DNA can reveal phylogenies and explain the Earth’s past.

Obviously, the technology of the Proton Ion Sequencer is a very exciting one, filled with chances to understand life on an atomic level.