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This video, on basic HTML encoding for a rather simple webpage, gives step-by-step instructions on how to create your basic online webpage, including a title, body, and bold and italic font. It goes through the basic tags, such as <html>, <head>, <title>, <body>, <p>, <strong>or <b>, and <em>, the latter two of which create bold and italic font, respectively. It also addresses the fact that, at some point, all tags must be closed with a repeat command with a forward slash (/) before the word. From the comments below the video and from my own reaction, I can determine that this video has helped many to format their HTML-encoded webpages and that tutorials like this have been very beneficial for a great number. Personally, I learned one or two codes I had never known before, so in general, I found this tutorial a great idea and very helpful for me as well.
Laura, a 10-year old girl from New York, has recently created a blog titled "25 Days to Make a Difference", where she has told of her plans to do little things to help those around her for the first 25 days of December, as well as what she has done on each day so far. At this point, she has performed many small but meaningful deeds for many people and even animals, such as cleaning her fishbowl, donating spare change to the Salvation Army, and writing a message to her school's lunch monitors thanking them for all of their hard work. Her original goal was to encourage some people to try to better the holiday season for a few others, and give a $25 donation to the one who donated the most. She was completely astounded when she discovered the huge amount of people that actually committed to making a difference. When I read this, I felt really good, knowing that people can use technology to help others and make many people feel better. I believe sites like this can really encourage people to get involved in their communities and really help to make the lives of many much better. People like us can take her advice by simply doing small things like helping out around the house, taking the time to thank somebody for their hard work which would normally go unnoticed, and possibly even creating our own blogs about helping others on any scale. Personally, I'm planning on asking my parents what I can do to help them around the house, as I've seen that they have a ton of work to do for their jobs lately, in addition to caring for my siblings and me. Also, I've received a good amount of money from Chanukah presents, and, after reading Laura's blog, I'm definitely planning on donating that to charity, possibly to the AIDS Relief Fundraiser currently going on in our high school. For a class project, we could possibly contact a local charity and create a site where people could donate money or sign up to help out there, to really help those in need. Overall, I believe Laura's site was a fantastic idea, and she's really helping out as much as she can. It's good to know there are people like her out there, those who sometimes don't get the recognition they deserve. In the future, we should all try to change that.
When I first read this message about how a boy from Canada named Evan Trembley went missing, I felt sorry for the mother who seemed to be sending out the message. I wanted to help them and hoped for the best for Evan. The mother said she wanted to help get people to find him by circulating the message over the Internet. It seemed as if it was true. The story sounded believable, and yet...
There were clues. There was no contact info, the description of the disappearance was very vague, and there were many sites all over the web denying the validity of this message. The email address that was provided was not a full or valid address, and the supposed police officer that had sent this message FROM TEXAS was not real either. Also, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had no record of anyone named Evan Trembley. It had turned out that Evan Trembley himself had forwarded this message over the Internet, although his friends had seemed to have started it. He wasn't really missing, the message was a lie that had been started as a prank, although how it is funny I do not know. I think it's horrible that we have to question whether or not information on the Internet is valid and reliable. Why would people post lies? I don't think that this is a serious crime, as it has no major effect on most people, but it is definitely, to some degree, harassment of anybody involved who is posted about involuntarily.
It's scary.
This video has completely opened my eyes, but the scary part is, it's ALL VERY TRUE. Talk about overpopulation, 34 babies are born worldwide every 8 seconds, 5 of which are in India and 4 of which are in China. It also disturbed me that the highest standard of living, strongest educational system, and richest place in the world was found in Great Britain...over 100 years ago. Also, I was deeply affected that over 2 billion children live in developing countries, where 1 in 5 never even finishes the fifth grade. Most of all, I was, well, shocked, but somehow not the least bit surprised, to find that by 2013, the computation abilites of a supercomputer will exceed those of the human brain, and that, if all predictions are correct, a those of a $1000 computer will exceed those of the human race by 2049...
It's scary.
Did you know?
I found these videos to be a good source of info and each contained good advice or messages, but here is a summary of several of them and my opinions of them...
Video 1: Think Before You Post
This video shows a high school girl who posts a slightly inappropriate picture of herself on a public bulletin board. The picture is then seen, taken, and spread throughout her school, and when she wants to get rid of the picture, upset about what has happened, it is impossible.
I thought this video was a very good representation of posting pictures, especially of yourself, on the Internet or blogs. It also, though, showed the fact that anybody at all can easily see the pictures once posted, and it is sometimes difficult or impossible to take them back or delete the images. In this case, people our age could more easily relate because it showed the picture of a high school girl being seen and getting shown to all of her friends and eventually everyone in the school, including those she didn't know. This helps us directly because it is a very good lesson not to display embarrassing or inappropriate pictures on the Internet. Our family, friends, and others who we don't even know can see them.
Video 2: Ad Council and National Crime Prevention Council Launch (Cyberbullying Video)
In this video, a girl named Lindsay announces to an audience several very rude statements about a girl named Patty, including that she's stupid, ugly, dirty, greasy, wears a nasty pink sweater, and is hated by everyone, and Patty is very offended and extremely humiliated.
In my opinion, this was a perfect example of how easily somebody can be cyberbullied. The thing is, in this video, it shows that the bullying is not just directed from one person to another. Because it is posted online or on a blog, it is similar to "Think Before you Post". Everyone in a community or in any place, for that matter, can see these offenses, and hence, the victim is even more embarrassed and hurt. It is just like the video says, if you wouldn't tell information to somebody directly, definitely don't post it online where they and others can see it, as it is just as hurtful over the Internet.
Video 4: Online Sexual Exploitation PSA- Exchange
In this video, it shows how a young girl got into a fake relationship with an older man through an online chat room. All the while, however, the man was a sexual predator and just wanted to meet the girl in person so that it "would get interesting".
I thought that this really sent a good message that chat rooms can be and sometimes are dangerous. In this case and in cases all over the country, kids talk to others online who turn out to be older and usually sexual predators, who are just looking to abuse them. I believe the main idea here is that you should always know who you are talking to and stay away from people you don't know well in online chat rooms. Interactions like these can have very bad consequences for the victim. People should be extremely careful in a chat room, or should avoid them altogether if the danger is too great.
