Kantelis Web 2.0

Let's play a game. Go to  https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords  and type in an old password that you don't use anymore.  This website will scan through the leaked files of hundreds of website data breaches, and it will tell you how many data breaches your password was compromised in.  How many times have you been Pwned? When I type in one of my old passwords, I see 5 different data breaches that it's appeared in. On the site's homepage, you can see if your e-mail has been part of a breach, and you get to see which data breaches got your e-mail address and its password. There's a section of the website that details every single data breach that the website can scan information through, and there are tons. Literally every website you could think of is on there. Here are just a few that I know I've used before: Avast (an antivirus, of all things), 500px, and online photography website, Adobe, Canva, Chegg, Dave, Domino's, DropBox, Imgur, Kickstarter, League of ...

In this course, Dr. Dennen was very good about being clear that if anyone was uncomfortable using a certain social media platform that accommodations could be arranged. At first, this didn't fully make sense to me, but it makes sense as I consider it more. I have several friends that don't have Facebook accounts because of the way that the company has handled their information in the past. Consequently, they don't have Instagram because Facebook owns Instagram. I have friends that won't touch Twitter because, as the legends say, Twitter can be a revolving door of toxicity and misinformation.  Some people won't touch Snapchat because of the data breach that showed that the "deleted" photos aren't as deleted as users were led to believe. Others stay away from YouTube because they were willing to allow anti-LGBTQIQA+ advertisements to appear on channels that are explicitly made for a pro-LGBT+ audience.  My point is that every social media platform has di...

I'm currently working on a project about VRChat. The project is meant to discuss Uses and Gratifications theory and the Law of Apparent Reality, and my group is using VRChat as a case study to help us teach the core concepts of the social theories.  The premise of VRChat is that users enter a virtual space as a 3d avatar and mingle with other 3d avatars using their real voices. Some advanced users make custom avatars, but most people seem to rip them from their favorite video game or they simply borrow someone else's custom made 3d model.  What you end up with is someone that looks like Spongebob talking with someone that looks like Pikachu talking about their personal lives in the BatCave. There are no levels or advanced game play maneuvers in VRChat--it is simply a virtual space for people to, y'know, chat in VR. That said, this could serve as a valuable teaching tool. I imagine that things like 3d modeling will become a more widespread talent as time goes on and as 3d mo...

Last semester I took a class with Dr. Rayburn, who was on his last semester before retirement. Needless to say, Dr. Rayburn was not  a technologically inclined person. Switching to online classes for the end of the year was his worst nightmare. Some things we can do to help make the transition better for professors that are living their worst nightmares by having to teach online: Assign TAs that are especially tech-savvy to professors that are especially not. Reworking discussion posts: I hear students complain about them often--I don't think that they are inherently flawed, but perhaps overused. Finding ways to spice up the discussion might be a fun way to shake things up. For example, maybe sometimes students could hold the discussions on different mediums or platforms, like through Voicethread or through micro-vlogs.  Options: I love that this course gives concept-level options for each project that are gated by potential grades. A similar system would be a welcome ...

This summer semester, I'm enrolled in one synchronous course and two asynchronous courses. This means that for one class, I have a scheduled Zoom meeting with the professor and the rest of the class for a lecture/discussion, and the other two more simply have readings, assignments, discussion boards, etc. Nothing that's face-to-face. What are the advantages of each? And disadvantages? Cons of Asynchronous: The biggest con relates to how personable classes can be. When I feel like I know, trust, and respect the opinion of my professor, the drive to not disappoint them tends to make me want to work that much harder.  Classmate interaction: the odds of finding a group to study with or a student to share notes with on a sick day are astronomically lower in an online space with limited social interaction. Becoming friends with people is just easier when you're already siting right next to them. It's foreign to me: This may heal with time, but doing things like sch...

Sometimes, one of the silver linings of a tragedy can be the art. After WWII, the world got to read some of the most gut-wrenching books and see some of the most inspiring films ever created. The tragedies that beget art always lead to art that commentates on the world it was born from. I suppose a not-so-subtle example of this would be Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire.  The song reflects the state of the world that a baby boomer grew up in. As part of the generation who's college funds were tanked in the 2008 depression, lived in constant fear of school shootings, and who's job market got absolutely smashed   by COVID-19 right before graduation, I can't help but feel overwhelmed with the amount of things that have happened this decade. Far too much to fit into a song. For example, here are some notable events from this year: Kobe Bryant's death Trump's Impeachment George Floyd's death and the subsequent protests Trump's Travel Ban ...