Blog Post #5

Supreme Court- HISTORY Reflection

By- Ava Daniels

After reading the HISTORY article about the Supreme Court, I ended up learning a lot of things that I did not already know. One of those is when the Supreme Court actually started. Before reading this article, I assumed the Supreme Court was established years before the actual date it was; 1789. I also did not know the main jobs and duties of the Supreme Court. I knew that the Supreme Court had duties having to do with the law, but not to the actual extent that it is. For example, the Supreme Court is the top of the Judicial branch and has control over the United States Laws and assesses said laws.

The most important takeaway from this article about the Supreme Court is the job and purpose. Laws in the United States are important, because of this, the Supreme Court's job is extremely important. Establishing, editing, and evaluating the laws are all a part of the Supreme Court. 

The most surprising thing that I learned about the Supreme Court was the change in seats from when it was first established to the present. The first Supreme Court had six seats. Today, there are a total of 115 Justices have served, which I think is very interesting. 

One thing that stuck out to me in the video on the Supreme Court was that Once appointed, you serve for life. The reason that this stuck out to me is because I’ve always thought that like the President or a government position, the time served is limited. This also changed the way that I see the Supreme Court because if the same people are staying in these seats for a long time, then the same ideas are being generated and no new ideas or thoughts can be accounted for or even considered. 

Blog Post #4

 Peer Review- Each One Teach One

By: Ava Daniels

One hobby that I have recently taken up is learning about and working with computers. Because of this, listening to my peers present the history of different communication technologies and relating a lot of them to computers was very interesting. Some of the presentations that stuck out to me were the history of search engines and emojis. 

One of the main reasons that I was very fascinated about the history of search engines was because I had never heard of them before. I always believed that when the internet was released, a search engine came with it, however, it was very hard to find and access files when it first was released to the public. It wasn’t until Web crawler designed the first search engine. Although this was revolutionary, it was still hard to filter through the good and bad websites on the internet when it came to accurate and resourceful information. The key to this would be PageRank. PageRank was designed to solve this problem. Some of the impacts of search engines is that it is so easy to look up information in the present, some fear that people are going to stop taking time to learn important things. Impacts on how teaching looks in the future and school systems is also what some predict. I personally could see this happening considering that I use google on a daily basis. 

Another timeline that I enjoyed hearing about were Emoticons . Because I know Emoticons  as something used on technology only, I was surprised to learn that Emoticons, more likely known as emojis, were actually first used in 1881. They were used in a newspaper and looked very simple. No color or variety to choose from, and some may describe them as boring compared to the ones we use today. 

Blog Post #3

 Each One Teach One- History of the Personal Computer

By: Ava Daniels

In 2022, it is hard to go out in public and not see at least one personal computer. Personally, ever since I can remember, in my household we have had either a desktop or laptop in the family office. As we got older, we all got our own personal computers. With this being said, I have grown up with this technology around me all my life. Because of this, I often take for granted how far the personal computer has actually come when thinking about its timeline. In order to fully grasp the evolution of personal computers that we know today, it is important to highlight the first ever computer invented.

The ENIAC began construction in the year of 1943 during World War 2. It was built in the basement of a building on the University of Pennsylvania and was being built by the United States Government. Even though the ENIAC was being built for World War 2, its construction was not completed until after the war had already ended. Although the war was over, the ENIAC was still being put to use. Its first official task was to make calculations for a hydrogen bomb. This computer took up a 30-by-50 ft room and cost over $400,000 to make and, at the time, was the most powerful calculating computer. 

The first personal computer was built in 1974 by MITS and was called the Altair, however, personal computers didn’t start to gain popularity until the year of 1977. This is due to three life changing personal computers that were released that year; Apple Computer, TRS-80, and the PET. Because the internet was not released until 1983, these computers were mostly used by technicians, computer enthusiasts, and small or large companies to organize finances. 

Moving forward in history, the PowerBook by Apple released in 1992 was very important. Even though the success rate of this personal computer was not where Apple wanted or expected it to be, it is important to highlight because it introduced the concept we know today as laptops or folding computers. In the same year of 1992, Microsoft released their 3.1 software. Microsoft has had softwares previous to this one but what is special about this release was True-Type fonts that came with it. True-Type fonts allowed for people to be more creative with their writing by changing the color, font, and size of their text. Moving forward even more, in 2009, Apple came out with their ultra-light MacBook. This MacBook was equipped with WiFi, high-capacity battery power, and a built-in camera. This was revolutionary for the personal computer timeline. 

Today, we have hundreds of different personal computers to choose from. Desktops are becoming less popular but still advancing everyday while laptops are rising in popularity exponentially fast. When I walk around my college campus, there is not a room I go into where I don’t see an Apple laptop. The look of computers have changed a lot but it is also important to look at the function and updates. Before, these devices could only be used for a small amount of things such as typing. They also only had green or black and white fonts. Now, you can do a much wider variety of things. You can create 2D and 3D objects, play video games, search anything on the internet, communicate with anyone from around the world, stream tv shows, and much more. The possibilities with new personal computers are endless. 

Blog Post #2

Values of Free Expression

By: Ava Daniels

The eight values of freedom include the following; marketplace of ideas, participation of self-government, stable change, individual self-fulfillment, check on governmental power, promote tolerance, promote innovation, and protect dissent. In my opinion, each of these values have good meaning to them, however, some are more important than others. 

Check on Governmental Power

This value is not only about opinion but the right to action and that, in my opinion, is a key part to this value and makes it that much more important. It states that freedom of press results in knowledge of abused powers. The restraint of abused power by governments has a right to be called out and changed by U.S citizens when it comes time to vote in different elections. This value is important because it gives people the right to some authority over speaking out about misused power. Along with speaking and voicing opinions, action can also be taken. 

Participation of Self-Government

This value of freedom is very important in my opinion. It states that in order to vote the right way, if you will, a citizen has to be educated and know what, as well as who, they are voting on and for. Being involved and participating in self-government ultimately means having access to candidates' opinions, what they stand for, and what their position values. Being denied this information or this information being policed can result in citizens making choices that are not very wise when voting for candidates. 

Blog Post #1

Top 5 News Sources 

What Are my Top 5 Sources of News?

By: Ava Daniels

Over the past few centuries, there have been multiple different ways of how people obtain getting their fair share of the latest headlines and news from many parts of the world. Recently, a lot of news is spread digitally, through mobile devices, television, and other forms of technology. Below are my top 5 sources that I use to get my information about current events on a daily basis.