Midterm Collaborative Project

For this week's blog post I decided to do a review of the Midterm Collaboration Project. For the project, my professor placed the class into groups. Each group was responsible for creating a business, a business logo, a business letter, flyer, and presentation. My group split up the responsibilities by each of us focusing on one major part of the project: mine being the presentation. This project required us to utilize Google Drive. Not only does Google have its own document and presentation program, but it allows groups to collaborate with one another easily. Google enabled us to share each portion of the project within the group as well as with the professor for grading. I also learned how to download additional programs into Google Docs, such as MindMeister, I found this project very beneficial. Not only did it allow me to become acquainted with new people in my class, but it allowed me to learn more about Google's processing programs. Though I have used Google Drive from time to time, I had never before used it to work on a group project or to share documents. This assignment showed me just how beneficial this program is! Because of this project, I will definitely utilize Google for future collaborative assignments.

USB Hackers Response

For this week's blog post, I read the article, Critical USB hack goes public; how bad is the risk? by Matt Picht of the Atlantic Journal-Constitution. The article outlined and explained the recent threat of USB hackers and the issues that they are introducing. Prior to reading the article, I had never heard of or could even imagine a hacking technology like this. I find this extremely alarming and I am concerned for the future of cyber security. I think now more than ever that it is critical to be careful of what we store in our computers, phones, tablets, other devices. According to the article, a pair of hacking researches publicly published the work describing how they developed the malware. Though I can see why the researchers thought this would be beneficial, I think that overall this could cause more issues. Unfortunately, I feel that people will take advantage of their work and use what they have found to further develop the malware, rather than find a solution. I think that other hackers may also use their research to develop technology to attack users from a completely different angle. Something that really stuck out to me in this article was when it noted that this threat could bring "years of insecurity". This article not only shocked and surprised me, but it showed me just how important it is for all internet users to stay up-to-date with recent news in technology.

Picht, Matt. "Critical USB hack goes public; how bad is the risk?." AJC.com: Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News. Atlantic Journal-Constitution, 4 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/critical-usb-hack-goes-public-how-bad-risk/nhcHM/>.

PowerPoint Module Reflection

Without a doubt, this week has been my favorite week of CSIT thus far. I have enjoyed both the readings and discussions - PowerPoints and presentations are one of my strong suits when it comes to learning with technology! That being said, I was very fond of this week's assignment. Not only was I able to work with something I like, but I was able to learn more about the PowerPoint 2010 program. Whenever I have done a PowerPoint in the past, it has always been for a class presentation, and not very many specifications were required. Prior to this week, I had no idea that if could insert a footer or even change the PowerPoint designs from page to page. These are skills that will certainly prove useful to me while completing other assignments, and even later in in life. I'm addition to learning more about the PowerPoint program, I was also able to show my Professor (and possibly even my classmates) a little more about myself. Though there were some technical specifications required for the assignment, my professor basically left the rest up to me. I felt that I was able to show her a little bit of my personality while also displaying some of my skills. Overall, I enjoyed this project because I love being creative and having freedom while completing assignments!

Cookies and Privacy

My favorite topic in this week's readings was Chapter 1-2.8, Cookie. I found this section interesting because I have seen the term cookies used before, but I never knew what a cookie was or how they play a role in daily life. According to Baldauf, "Cookies enable a web server to identify visitors to websites". Prior to this chapter, I never even thought about how sites recognize my name automatically, and even create advertisements based off of previous purchases or preferences. As mentioned in the chapter, this is an absolutely remarkable tool for businesses and advertisers. However, I couldn't help but to wonder how cookies may be invasive to the privacy of users, especially because not many people know or understand how they work. One thing that I found extremely alarming  while reading the chapter is although "most companies track a user’s activities only within the company’s own website, some web advertisers use cookies to track a user across many websites" (Baldauf, 2013). Not only is the website that you're visiting storing your information, but it is possible that separate advertisers and webpages will as well. Though I feel that most people would not be comfortable with this, I think that it is their responsibility to educate themselves prior to using the internet. After reading the  sections in this week's module, I am definitely eager to learn more about how my privacy correlates with the internet, and will certainly be more cautious of which sites I trust!

Baldauf, Kenneth. "Digital Technology." Emerge With Computers V. 5.0 Cengage-hosted Printed Access Card. N/a: Cengage Learning, 2013. 1-2.2. Online Access Code. 

Assignment #1 Reflection

In this week's module, one of the posted tasks was to complete Assignment #1. In all honesty, when I first glanced at the instructions for the assignment, I expected it to be effortless and ineffective. This assignment quickly proved me wrong. I thought that I had a good understanding of CCBC's library databases, but as I was researching my topic, I quickly realized that I had not. I spent the majority of time on this assignment using the CCBC databases, and in turn, found them to be extremely helpful. I particularly like that each database is optimal for searching a specific topic, and I found the advanced version of EasyBib offered by CCBC to be very beneficial. Needless to say, I will be using the CCBC databases more often! I also found this assignment valuable for becoming more familiarized with creating tables, headers, footers, and more in Microsoft Word. Though I use Microsoft Word often, I rarely need to format documents a specific way, so this assignment allowed me to practice with tasks such as those. Another thing I noticed about this assignment was that it was designed so that there would be no extra, unnecessary work. Each question had a unique purpose and was intended to help me reach a certain goal. The only thing that I didn't like about this assignment was that it was extremely time consuming (for me at least), but I appreciate that now because it showed me that I need more practice with using CCBC's library tools and formatting in Microsoft Word!

Debating Mobile Phones

While reading this week's chapters on Personal Computers and Mobile Computing, I couldn't help but to reflect upon the technological advances that we have made in modern day society. In my opinion, one of the most amazing advances in technology is the mobile phone. It is actually quite remarkable - in a matter of seconds, we can have any data, entertainment, or social media at our fingertips. We are able to store more data than ever in less space than ever, with "gigabytes of storage capacity in a space no larger than a fingernail" (Baldauf, 2013). We are able to save Apps, assignments, schedules, and dates on my smart phone with a breeze. According to the chapter, we are now equipped with "Touch screens, tiny keyboards, voice recognition, wireless headsets, and even head-mounted displays..." (Baldauf, 2013), all of which go into making mobile devices easier and more user-friendly than ever before. However, with such advances, we face several issues as well. One, mentioned by the reading, is that "people feel that they are always on call and on duty", which leads to "burnout" (Baldauf, 2013). Sometimes, I feel like I can never have time outside of work or school without receiving a phone call from my boss or an email about an upcoming assignment, which, at times can be stressful. Another caveat stated in the reading is that we face "issues of etiquette" and "issues of safety" (Baldauf, 2013). These are compelling arguments that I seem to experience every day. I often find myself questioning whether or not it is appropriate to text or use social media in a certain setting, which goes hand-in-hand with he issue of safety. Now more than ever, there are more people using mobile devices or other technologies while driving - causing dangerous situations on the road. The debate on technology and mobile phone usage is a very controversial one. Do the challenges that technology creates outweigh the benefits the technology provides? Though I am curious as to how life was prior to technology, I simply cannot imagine life without it.

Baldauf, Kenneth. "Digital Technology." Emerge With Computers V. 5.0 Cengage-hosted Printed Access Card. N/a: Cengage Learning, 2013. 1-2.2. Online Access Code.