GAFE

Google Drive: 
What is Google drive?
Google drive is a "file storage ans synchronization service" that was created by the company Google and presented to the public on April 24, 2012. In Google Drive you can store documents, pictures, files, presentations, videos and all of your media in the cloud. The company got the idea of making this tool in 2006 but it was only available for use 6 years later. 

How do you save all of your information?
All of your documents are saved in the cloud. You don't have to worry about USBs or CDs full of information. Google Drive offers 5GB of information free for your use in the cloud, but if you want more space you can pay $2.50 and you can get 20+ GB  to fill with information. 

 Where can you use it?
Google Drive is a program that works online through a website so that you can ensure all of your information is saved in the cloud, but you can also download in and work on it from third party applications that can be downloaded through various different application stores. 

Owner?
The company Google is the owner of this tool. 

What can you do on Google Drive?
-You can make:
-documents
-presentations
-draw pictures
-edit images
-make charts, graphs etc
-many different people can access the drive through their computers and they all edit them at the same time so you can watch the other people chat etc.

You can go to THIS website to learn many details about Google drive and watch a video that will explain the information thoroughly. 

What are some special features of Google Drive: 

*As you can see in this picture to the left, with Google Drive you can make documents, presentations, spreadsheet, forms, drawing, adding folders making templates etc.

*There are no files that are "too big" for Google Drive. You can upload any file, no matter the size. 

*People that you give access to, can leave comments and view your files. 

*In your phone, you can add a feature that of you take a picture, it will automatically be sent to you Google Drive to a special file. 

*You can view slide shows in full screen.

* You can now watch what is inside a folder without to having to actually open it, this way you can view previous and not waste your time opening all the folders in a drive. 

*You can look at old versions of your file

*You can look at all the revisions that you've made to your documents in the past 30 days

*You can save a document format, it won't change, even if the software is updated. 

Another cool thing I discovered is that Google Drive is integrated with an app called "hello fax" and you can fax documents through your computer or even phone. And now you can do it through Google drive too. 

This is what hello fax looks like, this way you can send faxes from anywhere you are!










*All you need to do to save a file to your Google Drive is to drag and drop it in a file and then you will be able to access it through any computer/device. 

*You can access your Drive through an app or a website.

THIS video was really helpful and explained some features that the drive has compared to other online information saving programs.

Something that I didn't know about Google Drive is that you can add a setting so that all Word documents that you upload will be changed into a Drive format, so then you will have no problems with the document.

You can do advanced searches in Google Drive! You can find documents by just using one word that you mentioned in the document/presentation.

I think I will be definitely be using Google Drive it is free, useful and very modern. We can use it to store homework  to make class discussions since everyone can write and edit at the same time. Teaches can also make calendars and post new assignments and students will be able to comment and even post their assignments on the blog therefore all of the students and the teacher can see them. We should definately use this and make like class drives  so that everyone can access them, it can save paper so that we can post instead of print

Google Day #3/ Presentation

*3 goals for the day:
-Find really fun facts about the University
-Find what makes that place worth going
-Finish what I started last class and didn't finish
-Start making the outline for my presentation

Goals 1-3:
Last Class I started fun facts about each university. This is what I did:
*Evidence of what you learned or learned to do and a description of your new knowledge or skills 
Fun Facts about: 
BROWN:-Brown was established in 1764- The first name it had was College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations-In 1804 the tuition was 5 dollars
GEORGETOWN: -Founded in 1789-Jack the Bulldog is the mascot


Today:
GEORGETOWN (continued):
-The movie "Exorcist" was written by a student of Georgetown, it was later filmed on campus. 
-Bill Clinton went to the University and didn't win the election for class president
-54 buildings make up the university! 

GEORGE WASHINGTON: 
-Founded in 1821
-It's 4 blocks away from the White House
-2,000,000+ volumes in the library
-Over 100 residential and academic buildings 
-1,174 teachers in the University, that is really impressive

BOSTON UNIVERSITY: 
-The Boston University Bridge is the only spot in America where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. I thought this was a really fun and weird fact haha
-There is an observatory in the top of one of the buildings
-Has its own mini water park
-Founded in 1839
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., earned a Ph. D. in systemic theology from BU in 1955
-2 Nobel prize winners are part of the faculty
-2,628 teachers

All of these facts helped me realize some unique things about the University and some of the things that makes it interesting and a place that makes me want to go there. 

*Links with description of why they are useful to your goals:

Some links for the facts were:
Here Here Here Here Here Here
These 6 websites were really helpful for me to find some academic and fun facts about all of The universities. Some of theme were articles and even websites of facts of the world. Most of the links I used were facts from the official page of the University. That way I can verify that they are actually true. 

Unique things I noticed about Brown: 
One thing that I have seen that is unique about Brown is that it has an open curriculum that allows students to choose every single class they want to take. Like no class is mandatory students have more freedom in doing what they want to do. Not many schools offer this and I find this a great opportunity. 

*One thing that you want to learn next Google day:
I don't know if there will be another Google day... But for homework I want to continue researching what makes each university special, I didn't have enough time to finish in class. 

PRESENTATION: 
Okay so my presentation will have many different things included in it. 
I am going to make a "movie" using the program Final Cut. This program is great and has many features that are different from any other movie-making program. 
1.I will first make a creative title that pops out when you open the link. 
2. After that I will write my over all goal and explain why I chose the universities that I did, and some facts about how to/how not to choose a college.
3. I will give a little history about both of the universities
4. I interviewed a GW student so I will edit that and put it in the presentation
5. Then, I will put some pictures of each University going by really quickly so the presentation is not boring. 
6. After that I will go into some detail about each of the 4 university's  it can't be into too much information because the presentation need to be 2:30min or less so that is a great challenge. 
7. Then I will put some of the fun facts that I listed above. 
8. In the end I will use many videos that I find of each university and make like a 10 second long mini movies of buildings and the campus. 
9. At the end I will put the links I used to make the video. Or maybe I will put them in the description box (in you tube) so people can access them more easily and it doesn't take time off my video. 
10. THE END. WOHO. 

Google Day #2

Goals of the day:
*How do you choose a college?
*What are the requirements to get into a college?
*What are some facts about each university that I don't know about?
*Can a person change University's like they do schools? 

Links with description of why they are useful to your goals:
*This 1 2 3 links were useful to help me look at how to choose a college
*This link was helpful to see how not to choose a college
* Links of Fun facts: 1 2 3  

Evidence of what you learned or learned to do and a description of your new knowledge or skills:
There are many factors that affect what college you will choose.
The main things too look at are: 
-Classes: Does the college offer the classes that you want to take to be able to choose the career you want? 
-Age: Is the college for majoring only? 
-Size: How big is it? Do you like colleges that are more individualistic? Or do you like large ones with more people?
-Name: The "name" of the college doesn't matter! Choose what is appropriate for you. 
-Gender: Do you like colleges that are mixed? only female? Only male?
-Reputation: Make sure you know what you're getting into. But also, make sure the stories you hear about the college are true.
-Location: Do you like urban or rural areas? Do you want to be in the US, Canada your own country? 
-Prize: Can you afford the college?

Things that might help ME choose:
-Make a list of my top 10 and do Pros and Cons of the University
-Talk to a student that goes there 
-E-mail a teacher asking questions
-Visit the colleges to see the mood of it. 

How NOT to choose a college:
*Just because your boyfriend/girlfriend goes there
*Your parents want you do go there
*Your best friend is going there
*Your counsler told you it was right for you
*It is a party school
*The tuition is low

Requirements to get into a University: 
-Doing the common application
-Doing all standardized test that they ask for 
-SAT, ATC etc
-Each college asks for about 2 essays or more
-High school record
-Subject tests
-These are some of the generals for all universities 

Fun Facts about: 
BROWN:
-Brown was established in 1764\
- The first name it had was College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
-In 1804 the tuition was 5 dollars

GEORGETOWN: 
-Founded in 1789
-Jack the Bulldog is the mascot

Goal for next class:
Next class I want to finish the fun facts, and my last goal of today. I also want to look at some more specific requirements for each of the colleges that I want to get into. Finally, I want to e-mail or talk to a student of one of the Universities that interest me! 

Google Day #1

Question: What are the factors that will help me to choose a college? 

There are many things that influence peoples decisions of choosing a college. I, for example have many different options of colleges that I would love to go to. Some of them are: Georgetown University, Boston University, George Washington University and finally Brown. Today I will be comparing them to see which one is the best option for me.

Goals: 
*Find out which universities are right for me?
*What are the factors that affect my choice?
*Why would I want to go to this universities?
*How many people from my school have gotten accepted?

The first thing I did was to log onto this page. Here I took an online survey of the colleges. My results were varied depending on the Universities I want to attend. 

Georgetown: 

*Tuition and Fees:$41,393 / $41,393
*School Size:16,937 students
*Average GPA:3.9
*Average SAT Score:2082
*School Type:Traditional College/University
*Campus Setting:Large urban area
All of these were very important for me because the college turned out to be a 97% match. This was pretty   high because I love the location, the school size and the fact that it's a traditional 4 year college. The bad part of all of this were the process and the scores you need to get. I have a 3.7 score and for you to be able to get into Georgetown you need a 3.9. Apart from all of that my SAT score needs to be really high so that I need to take into consideration.


I did the same thing for the other 3 universities. These were the results: 
Boston University:


Tuition and Fees:
$41,420 / $41,420
School Size:
32,727 students
School Type:Average GPA:
3.7
Average SAT Score:
1880
Traditional College/University
Large urban area
This College has more students and that would mean that the acceptance rate is higher. This one would be perfect for me because I love the location, The SAT is not so high and it is in an urban area. But a factor that influences everything is the Tuition. My chance of getting into this school would be of: 91%
George Washington University: 

Tuition and Fees:
$42,377 / $42,377
School Size:
25,135 students
Average GPA:              
 3.79
Average SAT Score:
1925
Location: Urban AreaTraditional University

This school is equally expensive than as rest of them. The SAT and average you need are still pretty high. I liked the dorms in the pictures I saw and the fact that is is in an urban area makes me love this university even more. It was a 92% match :) I love the University, I visited it in the summer and it is really large and has all the things you need for your college experience.

Brown University: 
Tuition and Fees:
$42,230 / $42,230
School Size:
8,525 students
Average GPA:
3.9
Average SAT Score:
2135
School Type:
Traditional College/University
Small urban area

This is the smallest school out of all of the ones I like. The acceptance rate is 9%!!! This makes me really nervous because for example if 100 students apply only 9 would be accepted! That is so so low. This one is the hardest. The GPA is the highest one and the SAT average is so high too. This is my dream college because it is really about you choosing what you want to do. There are no mandatory classes so for example if I don't want to ever take math again I don't have to. The campus is large but it is in a small urban area and this makes me have doubts. 


After looking at all this information I completed a chart of all of the different information about each one: 

	Georgetown University	George Washington University	Boston University	Brown University
Cost $	$41,393 / $41,393	$42,377 / $42,377	$41,420 / $41,420	$41,393 / $41,393
Location	Washington District Of Columbia	Washington District Of Columbia	Boston, Massachusetts	Providence, Rhode Island
Ubann/Rural	Urban	Urban	Urban	Small Urban
GPA	3.9	3.79	3.7	3.9
Amount of Students	16,937 students	25,135 students	32,727 students	16,937
% Accepted	20%	37%	58%	20%
SAT's	2082	1925	1880	2135

How many people from my school go there?
GW: 7
Brown: 0
Georgetown: 1
BU: 8

Links: 
The most helpful website today was THIS one. I say this because the website is very personal and it helps you choose colleges that are right for YOU. This website is amazing it really opens my eyes to the options I have and how to get there.
Another link I used was this one, this helped me chose why I wanted to go to the Universities I selected.

Next Google day I want to...
Look at all this colleges more in depth but using different websites and opinions. I also want to look at more pictures of the universities to see what they're like.
Finally I wast to e-mail some of the people who go to these and see what they have to say about them.

Augmented Reality (google glasses)

 -What you know about the topic before your research:
-From what I have heard I think that these are some glasses you put on and you can browse the web
-People say you can also take pictures with them
-That they are High Definition
-That they were a Google Project that turned out to be very creative
-They are not in the market yet

-What you wonder or questions you have about the topic before researching (at least 2) 
-Are all the things I've heard true?
-Do the glasses have a video camera?
-Do they work as actual sun glasses?
-Where can you buy them?
-Links to where you found the most useful information (at least 2)
-NBC new link 
-Google Plus on glasses link
-The Telegraph link
-Bits link
-Bullet list of things you learned about the topic (at least 5)
*They are still working on the model of the glasses
*You can take pictures
*They will have internet connection
*They will contain all of Goolge apps (google maps, google plus etc)
*They have a microphone for giving commands and also for video chats
*You can set up a calendar through the glasses
*The main people working on them are Babak Parviz and Sebastian Thrun
*The lens is very well thought because like the information is so close it can't damage your eye sight
*The lens contains hundreds of "LED'S"

 -A short summary of how this topic connects/relates to you or your life 
This topic connects to my life because the glasses are a totally new and innovative technology.This reminds me of the movies we used to watch of what the future would look like. These glasses seem like the future of technology.This affects my life since the future is here we need to start adapting to the new technologies it brings us. These glasses could be very useful in school for quick research and information provider. Hopefully they become available to people so we can test them and see if they are actually what they say they are.

-Questions you still have (at least 1)
-None of the websites said where the glasses were sold or when they were coming out to the public so I still wonder that.
-Also, what will be the cost?
-How will they make them safe for people who for example are driving or on the street so they don't crash? This really makes me wonder because what if you are driving and a huge sign comes up saying your mom is calling for example and then you can't see where you're going anymore.

WATCH THIS VIDEO TO LEARN MORE

Design Day 5

LEARN PHASE

 -What was the biggest problem you encountered? How did you solve it?

The biggest problem we had was the day we built the game. It was hard and we didn't know how to work with dicks and water and cardboard. It was hard at first but we managed to create the "tank" with cardboard and decorate the outside with colored paper. After that everything else was easier.

 -When did you get your biggest "AH HA" idea? What was it? 

It was when we came up with the whole idea of what the game would be. Like it was actually a great idea and on top of everything it was educational so that made it a great game. 

-Who in your group resisted new ideas the most and why? 

Daniela was the one that resisted new ideas because she wanted to make a circular tank and we were making a squared one. So in the end we ended up making it rectangular so that we could all agree.

-What doubts did YOU have about the project and how did you overcome those doubts? 

Most of my doubts had to do with the water and cardboard. Because that clearly isn't a good mix. In the end we just decided to use a blue plastic cover on the box to make it look like water and our problem was over.

-Who in your group played "devil's advocate" (a person who questions everything, even good ideas) and how did that help the process? 

I guess this was me haha. I always doubt good ideas, even mine. During the process I was always rethinking everything because I wanted no mistakes to be made. In the end I guess this encouraged everyone to try a little harder and make the best effort they could.

-What did you learn about yourself, teamwork, and the design process? 

About myself  I learned that I can work fast and efficiently in a short amount of time, I can achieve my goals and work in a group. About teamwork I learned that it can be tricky sometimes but you just have to be a little more open-minded to succeed. And the design process, well about this I learned that it never turns out how you expected but it can always be great.

Social Service Experiences

Monday, February 25th, 2013:

The first day I woke up early in the morning to get to school. I thought it would be a regular day, but it was the opposite of that. I got to Mr. Starks classroom and we waited for the rest of the group to get there before we got on the bus to go to "Fundacion Santa Rita." We had a bus ride that was about twenty minutes long and we got to a little white gate that was in front of a small brick building. We went inside and there we met the coordinator. She told us we would start with an activity that would help relax the kids. They took us to a colorful room where there was a ball pit, swings, and mattresses all over the floor. We waited there for the kids to arrive and one by one. When they were all there, we were given a box with different objects with different textures. We had to rub the textures all over their arms and legs. At first, I thought this was kind of useless, but suddenly the kid who I was massaging and at first was curled up in a ball, started to relax his muscles. I was impressed. We worked on this for about two hours. It was tiring but worth it. Next, we were taken to the Laundry Room. Here we helped to fold clothes and blankets. This took a lot of time since the clothes were so small and there was so much of it so by the time we were done an hour later, it was already 10:30 am. After this activity we switched to a task were we had to type into a computer some paperwork volunteers of the foundation had filled. Like their name, id, why they wanted to work there etc. We did this for about an hour also. When we were done, we went down a flight of stairs to meet up with the other group that was in the folding station. We told them to come to a little couch that was near the entrance and we ate a little snack. After this, it was time to go, so we gathered our trash and took the bus back to school. When I arrived to my house, I just thought, I was kind of still in shock. The kids at this foundation had a lot of mental and physical problems and it made me reflect on my life.It made me realize how lucky I was to be able to sit up, sit down, walk or even smile. I am lucky because I can move around. This is a privilege not everyone has. 

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

 On Tuesday we got to the foundation at about 8am. When we got there a woman cam up to us and asked us if we could help with the decorations of the kids rooms. She gave us about ten boxes  with different flash cards and games. We had to glue thick pieces of cardboard behind every piece of every game she gave us. The woman explained to us that this was because if they were so thin, the kids wouldn't be able to grab them. I started out by gluing the cardboard to some flash cards that showed different emotions. Then me and my friends put together about five different puzzles that were like 200 pieces each and we glued them to a cardboard too. These would be used as decorative posters for the kids rooms. This was a very important job because they would lighten up the kids rooms. We spent till about 11am working on this job. After this a woman asked us if we could help to make all the cribs. There were about 20 of them per room. We had to make the bed plus add four blankets to each one because the night was so cold there. Then she told us that they had to make the beds and change the sheets everyday. After making all of the beds/cribs, it was already about 12pm so we had to leave. Tuesday was a good day. 

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

On Wednesday, the day started out like Monday and Tuesday. We left school at 7:30 on the bus, got there at 8:00 etc. We got to the foundation and this lady came over to us and gave us a long piece of cardboard and many folders. She asked us to decorate all of these folders. She gave us a list of all the names so we added that in the folders too. We had to be very creative. Also, in the piece of cardboard we had to do a curriculum for the year of 2013, like a calendar. We were going to put our best effort so that this would mean a lot to the kids. We did the big calendar and about 20 folders in about two hours. We then folded clothes in turns for about twenty minutes. We saw the park and we noticed that it was in deplorable conditions. It was dirty and not even put together. We had a new plan, to clean the park. We went to the laundry room and got two buckets. One of soap and water and one of clean water.We managed to clean a whole piece of it in about two hours. After this, we were exhausted so we put everything back in its place and sat down for the last ten minutes we had. A woman came up to us and told us that if we didn't want to work with the kids that we had to leave.  This really made me sad and a little angry because I felt our work was not appreciated. We had been working really hard! They didn't even say thank you... 

Thursday, Febuary 28th, 2013

I was ready to go to the foundation as I entered the class room. I waited and waited but we didn't leave. I was very confused... Mr. Paez came over to us and told us that we weren't going to the foundation today. I was startled ad I didn't understand why. So we reflected  for two hours on everything we had done for the past 3 days to see what we had done wrong. I just couldn't see it. After this we came to an agreement that we would make posters for the foundation here in school. We gathered up a ton of art materials and started to work. We did this until the end of the day and I felt like I wasn't being productive.

Friday, March 1st, 2013

I got to school at 7:00, the same time as the days before. We went over to the social service coordinator and she told us that every Saturday, classes are held in school. These classes are for people that are 17 years or older. They are free and they get 5 hours of school on Saturday so they can validate primary. She showed us the booklets that they used as textbooks and explained to us that the booklets had big tests but not little quizzes of each unit so we had to do that on Friday. We had to pick a subject that we liked so we could do the quiz. I took 3 booklets of biology and for each unit I did a quiz. I had to read the booklet firs so that I could do the quiz which was a long process. But I managed to do it and at the end of the day I had 10 different quizzes on 3 booklets! Friday was very productive.