Week 15

     Using social media as an education tool is an excellent way to incorporate something millennials consistently use to make them enjoy learning more. However, I never realized how difficult it is to use social media within instruction. After doing our group presentations and having to use our specific social media platform within the presentation, I realized how truly challenging it is to do so.
     My group had Twitter for our presentations, and I think we got kind of lucky in that aspect. I think Twitter was one of the easier tools to incorporate into a presentation. We found the easiest way to use the tool within our presentation was to tweet what we wanted to ahead of time and then just go to Twitter as we were presenting to show what we wanted to show. This way we didn't have to take time out of our presentation to tweet out the things we wanted to. We never even really considered doing our presentation by tweeting during it because we knew it would be too difficult. We would have had to stop talking to go and tweet, and we would also have to take the time to go and find what we wanted to tweet in the midst of our presentation.
     Our presentation definitely could have gone a little smoother. However, it didn't for a number of reasons. For starters, we could have probably practiced a little more to make the transitions from PowerPoint to Twitter more smooth. If we had the chance to go back and fix it, I think I would want to simply because I am a perfectionist. And our presentation was not perfection. Part of the problem also stemmed from Twitter itself. After we tweeted something, we couldn't go back in and rearrange the order of the tweets. That really frustrated me because I tweeted things out as I found them, but that was not the order I wanted to talk about them in. Another problem came in the form of not being able to have Twitter and PowerPoint show on the screen at the exact same time. Therefore, we were constantly having to go back and forth between PowerPoint and Twitter. I wish there had been a way to use both at the same time.
     Overall, I enjoyed doing the presentations and it was nice to be able to incorporate social media into it. Most people our age are always on social media, so using it to help teach about the platform itself was an interesting experience. Things could have gone better, but this just goes to show the problems using social media in the classroom can cause. But I would probably do it again if I could.

Week 13

      So I always knew the dark web existed, I watch too many crime T.V. shows to not know; what I didn't know was how extensive it actually was or what the dark web actually entailed. Now, however, I have a better understanding on what it is. And it is safe to say I am even more appalled at the lengths people go through to commit crimes. Obviously, people can use the actual internet to commit crimes, and even commit crimes without the use of the internet, but the dark web further extends the amount and severity of the crimes committed. Probably two of the worst things that people do on the dark web are terrorism and child pornography. The depravity that people use the dark web for is appalling. And while we discussed the very limited number of positives to using the dark web, I feel the negatives far outweigh the positives.

Week 11

     Real friendships and relationships can't be formed from behind a computer screen and keyboard. This statement has long since been my belief; this belief stems from my own real life experience and from reading about what has happened to people who have become "friends" with people over the Internet. Emotions and intentions can not be fully expressed through electronics. Those can only come from being around the actual person-seeing their face, hearing how they are speaking. The Internet is a great way to meet fake people. And yes, you can meet fake people in real life as well, but it is typically easier to differentiate between real and fake when you are having face to face conversations. I have found my truest friendships have been formed with the people I have met in real life, not over the Internet. The Internet is a great place if you want to find yourself a stalker or potential murderer, but not so great for meaningful relationships. And yes, I know there are thousands of success stories of people finding love over the Internet, but those sites never advertise how many people have been tricked by people on their sites. People who have turned out to be awful individuals-broken their hearts, stolen things, maybe stalked them, sometimes they even kill their dates. You can also have the people who form fake relationships with individuals with the sole intent to bring them harm. They can form these friendships or romantic relationships, get the person to trust them, and then end up doing something awful to that person. That horrible act can sometimes have deadly consequences. This is why I am weary of trying online dating, why I never accept friend requests from people I don't know, and why I rely on meeting people the old fashion way. Nothing beats having a face to face conversation. Feeling those butterflies when you look at your crush. Being able to comfort and be comforted by a friend-feeling their arms around you, hearing their voice calming you. In person contact will always be the best form of communication and forming lasting relationships.