Week4: Proof of Learning

We did it. I can't believe how fast this class is flown and everything that we accomplished in a short four weeks. This past week has been research filled.

My initial idea for this research project was to write a paper. I feel like that is something I would be more comfortable with, but as I sat there trying to figure out how I could make this creative, I got stuck. I remembered reading a post on a discussion board about weebly.com. When I checked it out, I was surprised as to how easy it was to use! When I think of creating a website, I think of it being time consuming and just difficult.


My main focus of this project is how technology can cure cancer. I orginally found the machine called the CyberKnife. The CyberKnife is a non-invasive alternative to surgery for the treatment of both cancerous and non-cancerous tumors. This machine can be used anywhere in the body, including the prostate, lungs, brain, spine, liver, pancreas, and kidney. The CyberKnife actually involves no cutting. It is pain-free, non-surgical option for patients who have inoperable tumors. This machine is unique because other radio surgery systems can only perform in the head. I found ton of websites on this machine and patient stories to add into my website. I was very happy with how smoothly everything started to turn out. After putting things together, I decided I wanted to see if I could find another similar machine that is out there that I could add to my page and I did. It's called the RapidArc. 

It is very similar to the CyberKnife but it a quicker type of treatment. This treatment takes less than 5 minutes a day, while other treatments, even the CyberKnife take around 45 minutes. Looking into more research, I found it a little difficult to find good detail. 

This course has been fun to take. I feel like I have grown as a person. The articles we have read really opened up my mind to thinking about things, I hadn't taken the time to sit down and think about before. The class contained many genres that we used to help us document everything that we were doing. The most important that I found was the discussion boards. It really allowed me to connect with my peers without even meeting them.  The discussion boards have also helped me become a better online writer, meaning I feel I am able to post my thoughts more thoroughly. Before, I felt as though I was struggling to say what I wanted to the point were the person understood perfectly. In the beginning my thoughts were a little open ended and now I am able to get to the point. Overall, everything used in this class was beneficial. Looking back, I first thought posting on discussions, lab notes, and blogs would be a little tedious, but in the end all of them had a purpose. The discussions were used for us to connect and show that we were participating in the class. The lab notes were there for us to keep track of our thoughts and articles that we used. this was especially useful when I went to create my POL. Everything that I wanted to include was basically spelled out for me. 

Thanks for a great summer class. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer!

Week 3: Proof of Learning

This week we read articles and discussed exactly what we were doing, online discussions. Online discussions play a huge part in online classes, even in a classroom setting I still think they are important. For this class especially, I don't know how it could be done any other way. Without meeting anyone, I was able to connect with my peers and discuss our opinions about the topics of the articles we were reading.

The article, Predicting Learning from Asynchronous Online Discussions, was a good way to explain about the differences of online classes and face to face classes. Asynchronous, which means not occuring at the same time, is what our class was doing. We all have our own schedule and that's why I think an online course really works in the summer time. People were on at different times of the day posting, so we all weren't on at the same time talking. Synchronous means to occurs at the same time. This would be a face to face class. Another example of  synchronous would be a course my uncle teaches. He is currently teaching an online/offline class similar to this one at a community college. I was talking to him about it and it was interesting to hear how other teachers use the internet for their own classes. He has a actual class two days a week and then students are also suppose to post on a discussion board a couple times a day. He said he’s kind of getting sick of reading all the posts but it’s a good way to make sure they are doing what they need to. Sometimes instead of having a live class, they do a type of live conference on the computer. I am not sure how it works but it uses web cams and he teaches the class that way. I thought that was so cool. If our class was like that it would have be more time set, so we wouldn’t have the freedom to come on when we want. 

This week I have been researching to find a solid direction to go with my research project. Earlier this week I created a annotated bibliography to start me off.  The focus of my project is on how the medical field is using technology to cure cancer. Technology and medicine have come a long way over the years and it only makes sense that we put them together and do some good. Cancer affects almost 12 million people in the United States. The most common type of treatment for cancer is surgery, chemo, and radiation therapy. The Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada have introduced a $6 million tumor-fighting machine. This machine is a CyberKnife radio surgery machine. The machine is able to treat hard to reach tumors. The purpose of this study is examined how the medical field is using technology to treat cancer and if it will be successful in the future. I plan to use the documentary research approach and listen to the stories of people I know cancer, or research people experiences and stories with their type of treatment. I plan to present my research in a research report. I felt that I feel more comfortable with writing a typical print report, because that would be the best way to express what I discover. I hope to include interviews in the report, too. I want to be creative as I can with my report by adding charts or pictures to add something to it.

Week 2: Proof of Learning

This week’s readings were all about online dating and how we use these communities to find a significant other. We discussed the differences between online communities and online dating communities. This week was interesting to me still. I always enjoying learning about something that will shock me, such as people sending basically strangers money.

We started off discussing how people have been victims in scams while using online dating communities. This article and video was the most interesting to me. It shocks me that people are that, I guess you can say desperate, to find love. I posted a comment about how, it is basically the victims fault for this to happen to. They are the ones that are giving strangers money to visit them. Couldn’t they just go visit them themselves? Another person in the video talked about how money was removed from her account. I and other people commented back that they were confused on how the guy got her bank account. I am curious as to know if she sent it to him. I was happy to see many people agreeing with me on the argument that the victim was partially or fully to blame.

The article on Soul Mates was another interesting article to me. I had never really thought about what the definition of Soul Mates is to me. The article describes it as "one of two persons compatible with each other in disposition, point of view, or sensitivity". This definition was a little confusing to me, and I felt many other people in the class felt the same way. Multiple people posted about how the way this article makes it seem is that a soul mate can be your best friend. Now, I can understand why people would think that, but to me soul mate would be the incorrect term for that type of relationship. I see your soul mate as being the only person for you. Someone that you have a romantic relationship with, you love, and want to spend your life with.

We are already half way done with class. I feel like I had a difficult time with my schedule this past week with being able to sit down and say what I wanted to. It was hard for me at the end of the week because typically I can only get on during the day or at night. Of course, Thursday was the one day I couldn't at night, and when we didn't get the article till late, I was in a bind. Also, this bad weather was not nice to my internet this weekend. But put all that aside, I feel like I truly am learning a lot in this class. I am learning how to overall be a better writer. I am learning to be able to present myself in a better way. With this class only being online, I feel like the first week I was struggling to fully explain myself so people would get my complete thought. This week I worked harder to make sure that when I reread it, I could understand it from an outsider that would have no idea what the topic was.

Week 1: Proof Of Learning

Coming into this class I really didn't know what to except. I wasn't sure about the articles we would be reading and that made me nervous. After the first couple days, I came to see that the articles we were reading was about stuff that interested me. I am a college student, of course Facebook and texting are going to interest me. I really connected to the topics and that took a little bit of stress off of me. I am working a full time job this summer, so after driving in the car for about an hour and a half in traffic home from the city, I don't want to sit around for 5 hours typing on my computer. I am glad it wasn't what I expected because it makes it that much easier.

The article I enjoyed evolving from was the Reputation Management article. I really could connect to this article because personally I was cautious, but not extremely. My Facebook is blocked from people I am not friends with and I limit someone the people I am friends with. Reading this article really made myself think about what is really on my Facebook. I have always wondered how employers are finding ways to see potential employees Facebooks if they have it publicly blocked. But then I thought about how I find ways to get around peoples Facebook to look someone up. Facebook can be complicated at times. Sometimes it will randomly change my settings, or if I go thought my privacy settings, a few albums I have up won't be set to private. I am not a bad person and I try to keep my life personal even on Facebook. I go through my pictures every once in a while and think do I still want this up for everyone to see. Sometimes I'm like what was I thinking having this stuff up for everyone to see. I have worked in retail for the past 3 years. I am friends with everyone I work with, not the manager, but assistant managers. I never really thought that any of the stuff on my Facebook would get me in trouble, because first of all nothing was bad and secondly they know who I am and can see that I am a hard worker. Hearing everyone post about how they/people they know have not gotten jobs or lost jobs because someone saw something on Facebook was an eye opener.

The videos we watched on the first day really fascinated me, especially the How The Brain Works one.  While watching this it gave me the idea to possibly use the medical community as the example for my research project. Some of the stuff in the video, such as your brain getting distracted and not seeing the background, was common sense. Other stuff such has machines that can change the way you think really blew my mind. Everything science can do today will go farther and farther as we go into the future. It is weird to think that when our parents were young, none of the technology or medical advancements had been created yet. Things were different back that and makes me wonder how my life would be different if we didn't have these technologies.

After this first week, I am excited for the rest of the course. Technology has always been something I am interested. I am constantly wanting the latest technology and learning how to use it. As these next weeks come and go, I am sure I will be more comfortable to interacting more with people on the discussion board. I have always been a shy person, even when it comes to just online conversations.

Day 1

This is my blog for the summer course IDS 121.