Diffusion of Innovations 3/26

Today, we started off by studying a timeline of communication technologies that was printed and given to us. Afterwards we played a game of Kahoot based off the timeline about when specific types of technology were invented such as the radio, television, cell phones, personal computers/laptops and telegraphs. Professor Smith mentioned whoever won the game would win eleven dollars. After our game of Kahoot, Professor Smith talked about Rogers Diffusion of Innovations (or Ideas) and mentioned how he was talking to a biology teacher who is teaching the same thing in her class. He spoke about the four factors which included the innovation itself, communication channels, the passage of time and social networks. He talked about the ways in which we communicate these days compared to the ways used to communicated years ago. Professor Smith mentioned how he only communicated and stayed in touch with people for his journalism job via email, now we have social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter. All different types of ways one can communicate with one another. Professor Smith created a graph that shows the comparison between, Pioneers and Innovators, the Early Adapters, Early majority, Late Adapters and Laggards comparing the time between them. Newer innovations such as Facebook and Instagram caught on quickly and spread all over the world. This is mostly due to the communication channel of computers. So many people were early adaptors because it was a truly a unique product that helped them make and keep personal connections. There are always negative consequences to new technologies. In this case, the negatives include over sharing, exclusion, focusing on the number of friends rather than the quality of your friends.

Individual Self-Fulfillment 3/19

I think Individual Self-Fulfillment is the most important Value of Free Expression because it allows us to say whatever we want, whenever we want, and wherever we want by having the freedom of speech. By having that freedom, what we say makes up who we are as a person, as a group or as a society. We can criticize the government without having the fear of being punished by them in anyway from what we say. We have the right to protest when we don't agree with the government is doing or what they believe is right and they can't do anything about it.

Free speech allows people to express their opinions and ideas to whomever individuals feel is important that should know their ideas and beliefs without being harmed by the government. Without this freedom to say whatever we want, to protest against the government if we choose to, there would be much more punishment and not allowing individuals to express who they are and what they believe in. But because we have this freedom, this power of freedom of speech, we stick to what we believe in and follow up on anything that we think is wrong or subject to protest.

http://www.self-improvement-is-the-answer.com/self-fulfillment.html

Favorite app

One of my favorite apps when March Madness comes around is the ESPN Bracket Tournament Challenge for the men’s college basketball. The top 64 basket teams compete for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship. This app allows you to access the brackets and try to predict who is going to win the tournament. It’s hard for me not being a college basketball expert to pick the outcomes of all the games, there’s always going to be an upset somewhere.

I am not alone as the odds in picking a perfect bracket is 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. Although the odds of picking the perfect bracket are slim, I play on this app to make the tournament more interesting. I compete with my friends as we created a league where we submit our brackets into the league and follow who gets the most points. A lot of money is gambled on this tournament. Millions of people create brackets and play for money in their pools, last year $100 billion was bet on March Madness games. This time of year is very suspenseful and exciting as this major tournament is in the news every day. It’s win or go home. When I’m making my picks as to who I think will win each game, I study the team’s statistics, read some expert opinions and then guess. Anyone can use this app and follow along with the tournament. High point also has a bracket challenge. Try it out.

http://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2019/en

Video watched in class 2/26 blog

The Supreme Court is Supreme

The video we watched in class showed the current internal operations of the Supreme Court as well as the history of the evolution of the highest court. There are nine justices and a new group portrait is taken whenever a new justice is added. There have been just over one hundred justices at the time of the video (now one hundred and fourteen). Over seven thousand cases are sent to them every year and only one hundred cases are actually heard.  Petitions can come directly from prisoners or from high priced lawyers. The justices meet privately in conference to discuss cases that have been presented as well as to decide what other new cases to hear. Every time they meet each justice shakes every other justice’s hand. At conference everyone gives their views on the case.  They vote in private and the final written opinion is written with the help of law clerks. Opinion drafts may be adjusted for many months to ensure everyone’s views are included.  The release of the decisions is a big event and everyone tries to quickly figure out the explanation and impact.

The history of the Supreme Court includes some good decisions and some bad decisions.  John Marshall was the first to strike down an act of congress as unconstitutional.  Another chief justice ruled that congress could not ban slavery and this resulted in the civil war.  After the war the 14^th Amendment was added to protect individual rights.

The President appoints new justices but they must have approval of the Senate.  The power of the court depends on the faith of the public that they are upholding the law.  The public can attend a session and hear arguments from both sides.  The people of the United States are counting on the nine justices to interpret the constitution.