Prompt: What are the big takeaways from chapter 1?  In a full journal entry, help explain the significance of what you found important and what you connected with in the chapter.

The first chapter spoke very briefly about a variety of things that pertained to public speaking, including a bit of history, the reasons to pick up public speaking as a skill, how you can learn to improve your public speaking skills, some varieties of communication, and the components of a speech.

I personally found the sections that spoke about the different kinds of communication and components of a speech to be the most important sections, as both were relatively new to me. I have taken a public speaking class previously, but it didn’t talk much about the components of speeches or kinds of communications. Instead it focused on giving us lots of practice on how to give a speech in practice without giving us much textbook knowledge on the subject.

As for what I personally connected with, the section that spoke of the benefits of learning public speaking skills really felt true to me. I have found that in both my schooling and the jobs that I have taken, the practice and experience with public speaking I’ve had has helped me significantly. I personally believe it’s an incredibly important skill to learn, and I hope to learn more about it in this class!

Over Winter Break, I will be once again volunteering at the Mystic Aquarium on weekends at my old position as a docent. Essentially, I just talk to people about the exhibits and answer any questions they have regarding the aquarium, the animals, the exhibits themselves, or where the nearest restroom is.

Link to my Audio Project

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12PpdoDlNXwBZUFvX7KrJRSBE39OpvvsX/view?usp=sharing

For this project I once again used Audacity in order to further my practice with the software, and I believe that given time my understanding of how to use it will improve. I attempted to use multiple layers of sound in order to potentially add additional background sounds to make it seem more professional and less like someone who is recording in their dorm room, however it ultimately didn’t succeed and I scrapped that part of my project. If I had more time, I would probably include some background music as a way to tune out the white noise coming from other things in my room such as a fish tank.

For my source found using the databases provided, I found “An invitation to critical social science of big data: from critical theory and critical research to omniresistance” by Ulaş Başar Gezgin. This is my favorite source so far. Firstly, it was published in October suggesting that it therefor has a perspective conscious of the most recent studies. Secondly, it is approaching it from the perspective of social science. I am planning on elaborating on Big Data’s effect on the general populous socially, such as how we as a people have become seemingly hypersensitive regarding the usage of our private information by companies due to relatively recent successful hacks of large companies such as Target in 2013.  An estimated 110 million customers’ credit card information was compromised. Lastly, it provides information about the potential benefits of Big Data through the use of the data it provides for research.

The citation for this source is:

Ulaş Başar Gezgin. “An Invitation to Critical Social Science of Big Data: From Critical Theory and Critical Research to Omniresistance.” AI & Society, 2018, pp. 1-9. ProQuest, https://une.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.une.idm.oclc.org/docview/2126470568?accountid=12756, doi:http://dx.doi.org.une.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0868-y.

(Apologies if this isn’t formatted correctly, I do not know how to format it like you would in Microsoft Word or Google Docs)

As our dependance on the Internet has grown, we have encountered a lack of privacy some have found alarming. When a whistleblower named Edward Snowden leaked documents including the United States’ government monitoring citizens of interest, the resulting upheaval broke the blissful ignorance many of us had regarding our privacy. Among the largest concern is the use of Big Data, extremely large data sets analyzed in order to develop potential patterns or trends. Generally, this is something used by companies trying to tailor ads to our desires. And while this can sometimes result in you finding that thing that you didn’t even realize you needed until you saw an ad for it, it also can be exploited by those seeking more than just your business. Such examples include the massive breaches of privacy that happened to Target in late 2013, where a sophisticated hacking campaign left tens of millions of their customers with their information in hackers’ hands.

To my knowledge, big data is a method of gathering information about everyone who uses the internet. This is achieved by monitoring what sites people go to and allows for analysts such as those regarded in “The Big Idea Behind Big Data” by Adam Frank. Some analysts use this in order to market products to people based on their footprint they leave behind as they traverse the internet. I have noticed this can be useful for suggesting items I wish to purchase, even if I never explicitly searched for them. At the moment I cannot recall any particular downsides, although I’m sure they exist.

At the start of the day, my laptop generally has minimal use if any as most of my classes are in the morning to midday. In the afternoon however, it’s a different story. Either work is getting done frantically in order to finish an assignment as soon as possible (without sacrificing quality of work) or I am playing games and socializing with friends from vast distances as I have nothing else to do. In the grand scheme of things, it’s pretty uneventful. But it’s a vital tool in my daily life.

In order to improve my experience in Biology, I am planning on applying current annotation techniques in order to better understand new material by always noting important information as well as its supporting evidence!