Course Recap

Posted on March 14, 2016 by jacksora

I have learned a ton of new technical skills throughout this course. Posting on a blog site being one of them. I have never had a blog before but I have learned how easy it is to set one up. However, I do not plan on keeping this one post graduation. One of the skills I will probably use most after this class is using the screenshot key. Oddly, I didn’t know how to do that before this class. I also learned how to optimize photos, insert movies to blogs, add an RSS feed to a blog, insert excel tables into a blog by changing it to a photo instead of a document, and I also learned how to embed hyperlinks, which was very useful for this course. During the financial analysis project I learned a lot about using spreadsheets too! I am excited to continue learning about that. Every topic we discussed each week was new for me. My favorite topic was the cyborg theory. I learned more about the gender gap than I thought I would and I am proud to now have that knowledge. I also learned about how well art and technology mix together and I had never really given much thought to that idea before the discussion about it. I am excited to have all of this knowledge and be able to use it in my everyday life. I will definitely use spreadsheets for my financial life from now on, I might even create a new blog on WordPress to discuss different topics.

Financial Analysis: Greatest Dreams

Posted on March 7, 2016 by jacksora

I have so many things I would love to do someday. But my most dreamed about adventure would be to spend months traveling the world. I would want to see all of the famous, most talked about places in the world, and also spend some time in some hidden wonders. Another dream of mine is to build my very own dream home. I also want to fly a plane, and bungee jump, and zip-line through a forest.

Gender Lens Recap

Posted on March 7, 2016 by jacksora

I personally think that Apple is one of the most successful brands on the market and their marketing and design are near perfection. Their manufacturing could stand to be adjusted based on the bad reputation of their main manufacturer. I understand that it would be nearly impossible to manufacture the iPad in the U.S. due to the cost, but heightening their working environment standards would do them some good. I was happy I chose this product because reading about the success of the iPad really opened my eyes to how many people use it now and how many schools and people the iPad has affected.

Gender Lens Progress

Posted on February 29, 2016 by jacksora

I am making great progress on the gender lens project this week. I have chosen the Apple iPad and I am happy that it has been easy to find research on. I have not yet gotten my entire draft onto my blog because I have some major editing to do and I need a few more sections but I think that I have already found the sources I need with the correct information, which has been the hardest part for me in the past. The most interesting thing to me so far is that only men were involved in the design of the iPad. Everything that I have learned has been interesting to me. I am glad I chose this product.

Gender Lens Research

Posted on February 22, 2016 by jacksora

I did a lot of cite searching this weekend to find details about the Apple iPad, and I actually discovered much more information than I was expecting to in the short amount of time that I searched. I think that I have an article or website for almost each of the categories of the Gender Lens project. I was surprised to see how much I could learn from the Apple website about their recycling program and the specs of an iPad, and their environmental report. I also found an article that suggest Apple is marketing the iPad to women because, although men might be the more tech savvy in the house, women hold the buying power. I think this is genius and very true in most households. It will be interesting to read more and start my writing next week.

Recap of Cultural Research and Look Ahead

Posted on February 15, 2016 by jacksora

This project was a lot of work for me. I have had very little time lately and this has been a huge source of stress in my life. That being said, uploading files was very easy for me! It was a relief how well it worked out. I used Windows Paint to optimize my photos and it was much easier than expected. I am relieved to have this project be done and to move on to the next. I learned so much about Hedy Lamarr that I feel like I know her personally, it was just difficult to translate that knowledge to paper.
I am looking forward to the gender lens project now. When I was younger I never played with Lego’s. I didn’t like them as a kid. But now I am an adult working at a Boys and Girls club and I watch kids play with them all the time. I even join them sometimes. It will be interesting to do some research into the gender bias of the brand.

Cultural Research Progress

Posted on February 8, 2016 by jacksora

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish my research project before today, but I am still working on it. I am finding it difficult to find the exact details I want from credible sources. Hedy Lamarr was a talented actress known for her beauty and it wasn’t until much later in her life that she was credited for her invention. This has made it hard to find information about her early life because most biographies skip straight from birth to her acting career, and then from acting to the time of her invention. It has taken me more time than I imagined to complete this project but I am progressing and finding new information with every search. I am excited to see what others have to say about my writing this week in the peer review.

Chatting with a Librarian

Posted on February 1, 2016 by jacksora

I began my research this week searching for articles just about Hedy Lamarr through databases like EBSCOhost and many more. They turned up next to nothing for me. I found snippets here and there but no full text articles and no books that I can access. This was initially very frustrating. And still is. I searched for a few hours and still have had no luck with a complete document or article.

My next step was to ask librarians. I have done some reading about Hedy Lamarr on websites that are not peer-reviewed and that I did not find using a database. From doing this, I do feel like I have a pretty basic knowledge of her and what she did and what her life was like. So I formed my questions based on what I didn’t already know about her. The most useful information that I have received from a librarian so far is an NPR article that recaps Lamarr’s life and it is from a credible source, unlike Wikipedia. I learned a lot from this and hope to look a little deeper into some of the information. I have not yet received emails back from two other librarians, and I am unable to chat in person with the Valley Library librarians because I no longer live near OSU.

My next step is going to be looking into feminism during the 1940’s and also researching gender discrimination during that time. Hedy Lamarr was not credited for her invention until recently and has since been inducted into the inventors hall of fame. It will be interesting to learn why her invention was less important at the time than it is now.

Hedy Lamarr: Inventor of Spectrum Technology

Posted on January 25, 2016 by jacksora

Hedy Lamarr is an Austrian woman best known for her roles on screen in Hollywood. She began acting when she was only 17 years old, but also had a love of mathematics and was very smart. She was married to a Nazi lover, living in Austria, and her husband dealt arms to Nazis. Attending his meetings is where she learned about advanced weaponry. It was not until after she left her husband, moved to London, remarried, and immigrated to the US that she co-invented the technology that we use for devices like cell phones and computers today.

Her invention of spectrum technology began when she was working in the film business in the US and she teamed up with George Antheil, who worked in music. They both wanted to do something to help with the war that was going on back home, so the began their invention of interrupting radio signals at irregular times between transmission and reception. What this allowed them to do was send secret messages during the war without them being heard by the enemy.

Two years later, the two were awarded a patent for their invention that that then donated to help in World War II. Little did they know, it wouldn’t be used until the Cuban Missile Crisis, about 20 years after the war. Neither of the two received any credit for their invention.

Recently, however, Lamarr has been very well recognized for her invention and has even become the first female to receive the BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award for it. This award is the equivalent of on Oscar for acting, but is for inventors. Her invention was not very widely used until recent years also. It is now more commonly known as WiFi. Lamarr is now in her eighties and living in Florida. She has lived an interesting and fulfilling life being both a sexy movie star known for her beauty, and now, finally, an intelligent female inventor who pioneered technology we use so often today.

Set-up

Posted on January 17, 2016 by jacksora

Wow, this has been a whirlwind of learning. I did not follow the instructions for this week in order because I kept finding new things so I just went with it, clicking buttons, and changing things, and by the end I made sure that I have done everything we were supposed to complete. I have to admit, this weeks blogging assignment was much more difficult than just setting up the blog. I feel that WordPress is not as easy to navigate as I though it was last week. Setting up categories and setting up pages was very easy for me, but I struggled with getting my widgets set up. I am still confused as to why if I put nothing in the right hand column, a ton of random stuff shows up there. So I ended up putting a recent posts widget there so that my page looks clean and I know how to use all of the widgets on it. This week was a learning experience. I’m looking forward to when this gets easy.

Raini Jackson

Gender & Technology