Waste Around Chicago

Students in Burley School in Chicago created a digital storytelling under the title, “waste Around Chicago.” They photographed those materials that are disposable; those materials that have been thrown away by people after they have been used once only. Those students make a lot of slogans to advise people in order not to throw away the used materials. “do not throw away our earth,’ this is one example of those slogans. The student’s goal behind that project is to create a healthy environment. The students go out and start questioning people about that issue. “What do you think is meant by throw away society?” this is the highlighted question that the students asked those people whom they interviewed. Many of the interviewers described those societies as disposable societies. Moreover, many interviewers recommended encouraging people to recycle those materials instead of throwing away to the environment.

Point of view: the main idea of this digital storytelling is to rescue people from the environmental crisis and creating usable art from recyclable materials. Societies always have been disposable.

Dramatic question: What come to my mind when people say that we are near to environmental crisis?

Emotional Content: The logos that the students created such as, ‘do not throw away our earth.” 

The Gift of Your Voice: the students are very intelligent in making the story understandable by showing a lot of dramatic pictures that they exactly describe the words that come out from the mouth of the narrators.

The power of the Sound Track: The story has a great music that supports the context of the story. It is very effective that always makes the audience to concentrate on the views of the story.

Economy: I am actually skeptical about this point. The story pointed out multiple topics that confused me. For instance, at the first beginning it talked about the global worming for a few seconds, then passes to the environmental crisis. Finally, it ended with the idea of recycling materials. So, I think the story was not succeeded in terms of organizing the ideas.

Pacing:  The story was very succeeded in this point. There is a lot of fluctuation in the voice of the narrators. Also, the music played a fantastic role in making the story be interesting.

Summary of the Ray Kurzweil on How technology will transform us.



Ray Kurzweil-His courtesy in the google

by Mahdi Abdullah Murad
In a presentation given by Ray Kurzweil under the title, “how technology will transform us?”,  Kurzweil addressed his views about different grounds of the technology that is experienced and will be faced in the future such us, overcoming the disease and poverty, the evolutionary process of the technology, the acceleration of the evolutionary process in both biology and technology, and the communication. Moreover, he demonstrated his predictions of how the technology will be in the future.

In the case of the extension via the biological evolutionary process, what Kurzweil stressed was that the evolution of DNA. Also, how the evolution used the knowledge of the DNA evolution to bring on the next stage. As he described the process as an inherit nature of the evolutionary process, “The biological evolution is inherit nature of the evolutionary process.”  In other words, he talked about the technological improvement in the field of technology. Print and press, the size of the computers, and the evolution of the computer generations in designing the shape of the computers were those matters that he addressed. He went throw the process of adaptation that press and print, and the computer generations had seen by testifying how much time did press and print take till be adapted, and how do the computers changed from their first generation till now in their designs. Communication was another topic that he highlighted during his speech. He described the revolution of the communication as a major revolution by identifying the role of the expansion of the wide wireless, and the internet. Furthermore, the most thrilling part of his presentation was a part that showed the ability to see the internal parts of the human body via the development of the technology, as he said, “the most exciting opportunity is actually to go inside human body.”  He told and showed exact sight of the animation of a respirocyte oxygen in capillary. More to the point, in the last part of his speech, Kurzweil stated his predictions about how the future of the technology would be and what changes human could see and face via the evolutionary process in the technology. He claimed that we would succeed to revise human’s brain by 2020. He stated that the computers would be more powerful than the human brain. He also asserted that the cell phones would be improved in a way that would have the ability to translate speeches.

Regardless of what Kurzweil said, I would like to state a few of my comments concerning what he indicated during his speech. It is the second day that I attended my Information Technology Class at The American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, and Dr. Roger Gayer, who is my instructor, had assigned Kurzweil’s presentation as a homework and asked his students to summarize it. For I am a beginner and don’t have a lot of information about the technology, I am interested in anything that not only famous people will say about the technology, but also those that have been said by ordinary people. For this reason, I watched the Kurzweil’s presentation three times. I gasped during almost all of the points that he pointed out for almost everything was new for me as an Iraqi. The day before I watched the video, Dr. Roger showed us the Internet World Statistic. What I saw there was that my country have % 1.1 of those people who has access with the internet and technology. I ALMOST CRIED! If we compare the other countries and the how technology transformed the life of other nations, we are under their feet. What the Iraqi students are studying in their schools and colleges is the very basics of the computers such as starting, formatting, and playing games. What the other people do with the technology is providing the legend stories. Dear Kurzweil, I am telling you that you made me think more deeply and think about being creative via my field. I am happy more than the happiest man in the world with my major, Information Technology, now.  God help us to rise the number of the technology and computer users in Iraq. 

Dr. Roger: Copying someone else’s work without acknowledgment is unethical, dishonorable, and speaks to luck of character.
By
Mahdi Abdulla

Kurdistan- Sulaimani; March 31, 2009__Dr. Roger has taught undergraduate, graduate MBA, and executive development courses to business professionals for the last ten years. He is now the assistant professor of C.S and Business Administration of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. Here are some questions that he answered me about the studying, copying, and plagiarism.

What do you think of studying – What is studying?
Studying is NOT merely doing homework. To get the most out of the process of studying you are trying for a deeper understanding of the subject or topic by synthesizing a range of different resources into your own thinking. Some of these resources include lecture notes, discussions with teachers, your own peers, and perhaps others on the Internet, as well as doing practice problems and simulations. Thinking critically, creatively, and reflectively about the information gathered and learned, while always having a questioning attitude, will often lead to a richer understanding of a topic or subject.

What do you think of modern education? – This is a hard question. In many ways, the basics of teaching and learning have remained the same through the millennia. Education has always included a process of transferring knowledge from one individual to another; from one group to another. Today, however, education not only includes the acquisition of knowledge but is also concerned with how this knowledge is wielded within a larger, global context. Modern education, I believe, must also acknowledge the acceleration and creation of new information and knowledge as it flows seamlessly and transparently across the Internet. The transformations taking place in our world will require new ways of thinking and acquisition of new skill sets. It will be up to ‘modern education to help students meet these new challenges successfully.

Your opinion about Copying material /Plagiarism – Copying someone else’s work without acknowledgement is unethical, dishonorable, and speaks to a lack of character. It should be avoided at all costs. If you wish to ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’[i], whoever they may be, you must also be prepared to acknowledge them.
I really do not have a good ‘feel’ whether or not we have a significant problem here at the University.
No one likes a cheater. Plagiarism is cheating. The act is dishonorable and a discredit to one’s self. Personally, if I have a friend who is wonderful in every respect, but I discover they are a cheat, they are soon not my friend. I think it is important for students to understand that the process of cheating robs them of the opportunity to learn and more importantly retards the process of building one’s character, confidence, and self-respect.

Have you ever cheated? At my University – The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA – students abided by an honor code which was reinforced every time we took a test or turned in an assignment. Through the integrity of our signature, we attested to the fact that ‘we neither gave or received assistance’ in completing our work. Anyone caught violating this honor pledge ran the risk of being kicked out of the University. I am sure there were some violations of the University’s honor code but during my three years of study, the honor code loomed large for me. You pretty much did your own work and so did everyone else.

Suicide is Forbidden in the Religion of Islam

Nowadays, people are use to be less religiuos. They do many sins without care about the rules of their religion. Although killing himself is not allowed, and it is the biggest felony according to the islamic religion, today, commiting suicide is common among the people. If someone killied himself, it is like one who is calling for help from the scorching heat of fire. God is the only one who has a right to bring out soul in our bodies.

I disagree with the idea that everyone could be free to kill himself if he decided because it is against my religion. In actual fact, whoever ((intentionally)) killed himself, then he certainly he will be punished by the fire of Hell will remain him in it forever. According to the Prophet Muhammad's friends, "There was a man who had a wound. He was in such anguish that he took a knife and made with it a cut in his hand, and the blood did not cease to flow till he died. Allah said: My servant has himself forestalled me; i have forbedden him Paradise."

None of us Have the right to kill ourselves. God is the only one who has the right to decide about our life and death. According to Qur'an, "do not kill yourselves ((nor kill one another)). Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you. Therefore; none of us should ask for death because of the trouble in which he is in volvid, but if there is no other help to it. Then say: O Allah, keep me alive as long as there is goodness in life for me and bring death to me when there is goodness in death for me. Also according to the Prophet Muhammad's speech, "none amongst you should make a request for death, and do not call it before it comes, for when any of you dies, he ceases(to do well) deeds, and the life of a believer is not delyed but forgoodness."

In conclusion, There is not any excuse for anyone to kill himself. Suerly, they should dweel in the Hell forever. Finally, whoever kills himself intentionally, his recompense is Hell to a bide therein, and the Course of Allah is upon him and agraet punishment is prepared for him.

mahdi

Right now, I am a student at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. It is really interesting for me because it has a modern system of education. Also I could see one of the biggest dreams in my life which is learning to speak English.