IT Globalization

IT has improved health care through the prevention of infectious diseases, patient to healthcare interaction, rapid dissemination of information, and improved responses of outbreaks. Health officials use technology to study the impact of health interventions and disease prevention programs through mobile technology to seek treatment that is unattainable due to many lack of resources. This is to provide care to people who are not located near hospitals. Countries that have small communities in very remote areas are able to benefit from distance learning the most because they do not have education provided to them in those small countries, and it is most likely that many of the children in those countries cannot attend school due to other responsibilities of their families.

In Thailand, IT is being used in the fields of medicine and education through the use of skype in education systems and awareness to others to increase the education of their schools. They use IT in medicine by reaching out to other countries, and having them provide resources that they are not able to get themselves. 

Technology helps!

One app that Google has developed to help visually-impaired users use smartphones is the Simpleye app that allows tapping gestures to be transferred into text. When the user touches the screen using tapping or swiping gestures, it is also imitated as Braille. The app gives audio feedback, and reads our words that are created through the gestures. Currently, the app is only available in the English setting, but the creator is working on making it multilingual for other non-English speakers. This app controls all uses such as calling, text messaging, calculations, and settings. Still being designed are the applications in the phone such as navigation and music use.

Products that are reducing the digital divide is a product that develops free software to enable people to use it like social media. This product is called Ushahidi. It empowers people to make a serious impact with open source technologies.One "green" initiative that promotes sustainability and reduce the amount of e-waste is the recycling of old laptops and even ink cartridges.

The 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show

The 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show featured more than 3,200 exhibitors touting the latest technological creations. Of those technological creations, the three that I found most interesting were LaserDisc's, Ultrabook's, and MiniDisc's. LaserDiscs are a video format formed in the 1970s, by Philips.  The surface of the disc contains one long spiral track of data. Along the track, there are flat reflective areas and non-reflective areas. A reflective area represents a binary 1, while a non-reflective area represents a binary 0. The drive shines a laser at the surface and can detect the reflective areas by the amount of laser light they reflect back. When you record the writing laser changes its transparency and the reflectivity of the disc. When this information is mirrored back it is 1's and zero’s are decoded back into the original data, processed and sent out.  Laserdiscs were huge because they are based on CD technology and data density, so it had to be huge and two sided to hold all the video and audio data. They were originally the first discs that played movies before DVDs and VHS tapes came out. An Ultrabook is a laptop that meets Ultra requirements. It's ultra-thin, ultra-light, and ultra-powerful. Due to the limited size and space that they have available, they typically do not have the common laptop features such as disc drives and ports. Students, due to the convenience of weight and space use many Ultrabooks. Minidiscs were used as data storage devices of audio or select data. A minidisc has the shape of a cd but smaller, and is used to record sound or data as well as play that data back. Many of these inventions are very interesting to me because I am very inspired by the way, they started out, and made better throughout the years. 

How social media plays a part in our lives...

In the Arab Spring revolution, social media seemed to play a very important role by influencing many people. In some instances demonstrations were planned or announced via social media. Pictures and accounts of activities were spread by social media by participants. People were not dependent on controllable news sources...people got the raw, first person information. Word could go out faster than the announcers could be arrested. Lindsey Stone was fired over a picture that she posted on her Facebook page. I understand the position that the job was put in because they were recieving many complaints because of their employee. I feel as though, an employee represents their job everywhere they go. If you are associated with something, you will be looked at as a part of that position, 24/7. I do agree that if you make your own personal information public by putting that information on a social network, you should be held liable for these mistakes. You are able to get rid of your digital footprint, and there are many ways to clear it up.

A Class Divided 

I enjoyed the video simply because I responded to the idea of the third grade teacher challenging the young children, and trying to turn such a mature situation as the shooting of Dr. Martin Luther King into a topic that even third graders can understand. It was very moving as the now-adults were able to look back on what their reactions/sayings were as kids and how they could relate to what discrimination was as whites. I could not say that I didn't like a certain part of this video, because I seemed to enjoy every part of it. Not saying that it was entertaining, but it relayed a message... and gave others a chance to expose this issue to people who are not as educated on the subject. I was very surprised at how the children with blue eyes treated the children with brown eyes. It seemed as though they turned very quick on others that they once considered their friends. They didn't know why they didn't like children with brown eyes, but they just chose not to like them after their teacher told them that they were "better" than them. They seemed to enjoy the fact that they were considered better, which even relayed in their work. The students that were considered better than the others the first day seemed to have a better performance in class than the other eye color. I found it every interesting to see that. The scene that I am sure that I will remember a month from now was the scene where all of the children were referring to African Americans as "niggers". Yes, I am sure that at that time, calling a black person a nigger was socially acceptable, but that definitely doesn't make it right. I was just so shocked to see children at such a young age refer to them as that, whereas children in today's society would most likely be punished to referring to human beings as that. 

What does it mean to be American? 21117. The year 2050.

To be American? 21117. The year 2050. 

To be an American means that you are free, and that you have the ability to make any choice that you would like. I have the freedom to think, act, and find happiness without a strict government telling me what I can and can not do. To be American means that you have the freedom to pursue your own destiny, rather than what someone wants for you. Because I am American... I can enjoy the great gift of life in an environment of great liberty, and freedom. 21117 is a zip-code that I am proud to be from, and a city that I love to be in. It shows that we are all hardworking people, and are able to achieve anything that we would like to achieve because we know our rights as an American. On the zipskinny.com website, it shows that many people in Owings Mills Maryland, are high school and college graduates, they are married with successful homes, and some have achieved making over six figures for their income in the professional world. I enjoy viewing these statistics, because it does show that I have a very good chance at being a part of this statistic if I do work hard enough. 36 years from now, I can tell that the US demographics will be stronger than they are now. Knowing my generation, and what they are capable of... I am positive that we will be the generation to make a difference, and to create a change.