How to Incorporate Instagram into Education!

1.) Photo Essay or Journal: students can take pictures of things that have to deal with a certain sub just, such as health or math, and write a captain explaining the picture and its relation to the subject.

2.) Teachers Can Assign Writing Prompts With Photos: teachers can post pictures on Instagram that students have to write about the picture or create a story based on the picture.

3.) Students Can Use Instagram as a Journal for Tracking Data: throughout a science, math, or art project students can record their progress and the different steps of the project through pictures and post them on Instagram so teachers see the students progress.

4.) Teachers Can Show Student Progress Through Instagram: teachers can post pictures of students in the classroom, activities, and achievements that they accomplished.

RSS Assignment

1.) I selected these sites to subscribe to because they all contained interesting information and articles that had to do with my hobbies, government, and news about the world and America and its information I want to be updated about.

2.) It wasn't easy to find websites that had rss feeds, but those that did were easy to subscribe to. The symbol for the rss feed was easy to find on the website and subscribing was easy because all you had to do was copy and paste.

3.) My favorite sites that I found were the Food Network blog, the art theft articles from the FBI website, and the Science Daily articles about marine biology.

4.) You can use rss feeds to get information about the events going on in school and stay updated with news about the world or politics.

5.) I would keep using rss feeds because it provides new articles from the websites I subscribed to and is updated the with newest information released. Also, I get information about my hobbies and interests without having to search for it on several different websites.

How Apple Aviods Tax Payments

For more information about the article click here.

Voki Posting

Wiki Recap

Another topic that would be interesting for groups of people around our age would be technology. More specifically apple products. Doing a wiki about apple products would be a good topic because most people purchase apple products and they have become a neccessity in our daily lives now. Other pages that could branch out from the home page would include iphone, ipod, and ipad informations, as well as information about mac computers. The home page would be an overview and history about the company. Each page would have about fifteen to eighteen bullet points and two to three sentences in the begining as an introduction to the information. I would only have this much infomation to keep it short and only provide important points about the products.

Dish Offers to Buy Sprint, Joining Phone to TV Service

• Dish network wants to combine with Sprint so they could offer both high-speed internet at home and wireless
• They offered Sprint $25.5 billion so they could provide internet and cellphone service for their costumers at a more affordable price 
• Dish Network hopes to beat the offer that Sprint got by a Japanese telecommunications company Softbank, which offered them a bid of $20 billion
• Dish Network said it would be able to combine its existing broadband and TV offerings with Sprint Nextel’s cellphone operations, allowing it to better compete with rivals like Verizon
• A combination with Dish Networks would pose more of a threat to AT&T and Verizon
• If the bid goes through Dish Network would also take over Clearwire, another wireless operator that Sprint owns

For more information about the article click here.

Multiple-Display Software Follows Your Gaze to Keep Your Focused

• With the aid of an eye-tracking program,researchers at the University of St. Andrews created a software to dim and freeze monitors the user is no longer focused on and adjust the highlighted display.
• When the users eyes move to another tab on the screen the monitor responds 
• 98% accuracy at detecting lines of vision
• the most successful program is the "Pixmap" technique, that highlights information on a pixel level, offers the most effective balance in information density and level of intrusiveness.
•  With these types of attention-focusing techniques, users don't have to worry as much about what they might be missing on other screens, which leads to less frantic eye darting

For more info click here.

Do Now 4-8-13

All in all this spring break was okay, but I'm actually happy to be back in school and the normal routine. The whole week I had track practice at 9 for 2 hours and a  meet on Tuesday and Saturday, which we were all freezing at. Then on Wed. I left to go to Rhode Island to look at a college in Providence; the college is Johnson and Whales University. Johnson and Whales is a culinary school, that is known for its amazing cooking programs and internships. So I took a tour of the campus and talked with admissions and financial workers at the college. Also, when we went to Rhode Island we walked around downtown Providence and a small beach town called Newport. To end break we had a huge track meet.

Johnson and Whales campus

Samsung Galaxy S IV: Everything New is Old Again

• Exactly like the Samsung Galaxy III except its just thinner and the screen is a half inch bigger
• Rumor that you can operate it with your eyes is false. It only knows if your looking down at it, but that feature doesn't work efficiently.
• Samsung Galaxy S IV does have the new health track app that tracks the amount of steps and stairs you walk, and the amount of calories you take in and burn
• Also, has air view/gestures where you can hover over your phone to preview information on your phone, but it doesn't work that well and the idea was stolen from the Galaxy Note II
• Includes Cinema photo, dual camera shooting, and Drama shot
• Overall impression from critics is that it is to much like the Samsung Galaxy III, except with a few changes that at times don't even work the best

For more information about this article click here.

Survey for Finister!

Do Now 3-1-13

If I could travel back in time I would go to the late 60's, when my mom and aunts were my age. I would want to travel back to this time so I could travel to France with them to see my family there. Every summer they would go together to France visiting my great grandparents and do some site seeing. They would go to Paris and Luxembourg, which is where my family is from. I would be able to see France and my family, whom I have never met before. Along with seeing family, I would get to go to neighboring countries like my mom and aunts did when they went to France. I don't think I would want to take anything back with me and  I definitely wouldn't try to  change the past so the future is different.

Apple's Upgrade Dilemma

• Apple worried about future iPhone and iPad sales, so they are going to rely on upgrading rather than consumers to increase sales.
• Apple buyers aren't upgrading fast enough because of the high quality of the products. 
• People are less likely to upgrade, and that is slowing down sales for Apple. 
• Apple is trying to create significant upgrades to older products.
• Another option is to prematurely stop supporting old products.
•  They would be limiting software upgrades to older products so that people will upgrade

For more information about the article click here.

New Curriculum

If I  could add any class to the school curriculum it would be another art class like a sculpting class. The class would meet later on in the day, probably from periods 6 to 8, so that the students aren't falling asleep or spacing out during the class. In this class students would work with ceramics and different types of clay, and learn about the different tools and types of sculpting. The classroom would be more open, and have all the tools needed for sculpting. Similar to the art room now, it would have different murals and music playing. The students would have to show a finished project at the end of the week every week. Then there would be one big final project at the end of the course that involved reconstructing a bust or human figure.

Apple Said To Have Team Developing Wristwatch Computer

• Apple Inc.has a team set up to develop a wristwatch device that has some of the same capabilities as an iPhone and iPad. 
• Want to produce a new product to raise falling margins and to pass over some of their competition, such as Samsung Electrics Co.
• Need to create a way to better manage battery power so the device doesn't have to be recharged everyday.
• Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the company that made the iPhone for Apple, invested in start up WIMM Labs that are designing a watch with a screen, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.   

Click here to see the article for more information.

Here's a picture of what the iWatch is thought to look like what it is ready for consumers. 

Last weekend was the huge snow storm, that left us with 10 inches of snow. Even though there was so much snow I still made the most of the weekend. Me and my friends, Adrian and Jason, walked across town to a friends house. There we played Just Dance 2, 3, and 4. Then we watched movies like Bridesmaids and Ice Age. The next day we all went to the movies to see Identity Theft and had a snow ball fight afterwards at my house.

Here's the movie advertisement for Identity Theft...

Summary of the New Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet

Microsoft has come out with a new tablet the Surface Pro.
Here are some pros about the new product.....

• same capabilities as a Windows PC laptop 
• big, bright screen
• metal kickstand to hold it up, that disappears when you don't need it
• two different types of keyboard covers. one that's a touch cover and a thicker, traveling keyboard
• very fast and compact

Some cons about this new product are.......

• speakers aren't strong
• the keys and screen are smaller then on a regular laptop
• most of the storage is already taken up by the Windows company itself
• has a horrible battery life

For more information click here for the article link. Here's a picture of the new Surface Pro tablet....

Welcome to My Blog!

Hey I'm Katie .Welcome to my blog! Here's a little background about myself. I'm a junior at Wood-Ridge High School. I run long distance in spring track at my school, my events are the 1600 and 800. I like to draw, even though I'm not the best at it, and I'm a part of our teen institute club and chorale. I have a dog named Roxie and two older brothers, Vic and Paul. Some things I like to do are going to the movies, shopping in Pacsun, and playing Just Dance with friends. My best friends ever are Danielle and Ashley. I love the beach, and am counting down the days until summer. My favorite restaurant is John's pizzeria.
My favorite band is Florence + the Machine. Here's a video of my one if there songs.

The best place on earth is Six Flags, here's a picture of my favorite ride Nitro.