The Blog Project

See, English 110 exists outside of the classroom. We'll be sharpening our analytical minds in this heated arena: blog-dom.

The point of the blog is for you to practice making 1) observations and 2) analyses on the material you come across in your day-to-day virtual lives, and then to share your analytical experiments with your classmates. Take this opportunity to explore the course theme and broaden your understanding of your chosen sources. Social media, YouTube, and online articles are rife with opportunities for interesting analysis. So impress us with your brilliance, hipness, and pop-cultural savoir faire. This is all about practice (and nerd/cool points, of course) so really go for it.

Let's say to post (roughly) once every other week, which makes a minimum of 5 posts total. There's no limit to how much you can post. But I'll remind you: if you start honing your analytical skills here, your grade and your chances for success over the next few years will markedly improve. Try stuff out--this is graded simply on doing it. If you're truly exploring, you'll probably make some analytical trips that you look back on and are slightly embarrassed about--and that's a good thing.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Google Maps

In today's world, huge paper, folding maps aren't very convenient when you are trying to find your way quickly and not draw attention to yourself by holding a giant piece of wrinkled paper in front of your face. Google maps has made it easy to get directions. By simply typing in your starting place, your final destination and clicking "Enter" Google Maps is able to provide you with turn by turn directions and even tell you the mileage and estimated time of arrival. The ability to get internet access on smart phones increases the use of Google Maps by allowing people to use them not only on their computer but on their mobile devices as well.

I have never been good with directions, so Google Maps is a very useful tool for me. Though I don't have a smart phone I often find myself using Google Maps to get around whether I am using it on my computer before I go somewhere or when I am in a group of people trying to find our way using someone's phone. After coming to a new city and a new campus that I am not completely comfortable with yet I realized how much maps are a part of my everyday life and how technology makes it easy and convenient to use almost anywhere.
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6 comments:

  1. Carlos LugoOctober 2, 2011 at 4:00 PM

    I'm not even going to lie, i wish i had a Google maps app on my phone the first couple of days here so I wouldn't have had to keep stuffing the large campus map in my pocket.

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  2. Morgan HiseyOctober 2, 2011 at 6:14 PM

    Its also really cool how you can choose different types of transportation methods to see how to get somewhere by bus, foot, or car. It makes it so much easier to use the COTA bus system to get around Columbus.

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  3. Melissa ClementOctober 2, 2011 at 9:41 PM

    I think it’s funny how obsolete tangible maps have become. I can remember every summer when my family would go on vacations, my mother would whip out the thick book compiled of state maps and use it to guide us the entire way to our destination. As Google Maps and Mapquest became more prevalent I saw that map book less and less. And now that my family has acquired a GPS system, we’ve relied entirely on it wherever we go, whether it’s to another part of Cincinnati or to another part of the country. I personally would not be able to get anywhere without my Garmin. I wonder if—because I wasn’t using the part of my brain concerning directions and etc—I’ve lost any ability to navigate over the years. Maybe because humans aren’t using that part of their brain as much due to the invention of Google Maps, Mapquest, and GPS systems, we won’t be born with as much capacity to navigate. I feel as if it’s true already: I’m positive that if someone dumped me somewhere and told me to find my way around, I would never be able to figure it out.
    And I have to agree with Carlos, I was seriously wanting a Google maps app on my phone the first of days as well so I wouldn’t get lost or stick out as an obvious freshman!

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  4. Connor GeraghtyOctober 9, 2011 at 5:39 PM

    Google maps keeps on evolving into an evermore refined system. Now people can have a street view as well as traffic and even construction. Google maps can alert you of the construction and find an alternate route. It is just amazing how Maps can do this. Pretty soon there will be a real time street view. Satellites are already being used this way and it is only a matter of time before we see this as an added feature.

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  5. Larry RossNovember 17, 2011 at 11:53 PM

    Google maps is one of the greatest and most useful inventions ever. Not only is it an electronic map in your pocket, but you can search for something so broad, and it will find exactly what it is you are looking for. I, too, used Google maps on my phone for what seemed like the first month of school, so that I would not get lost around campus. It is difficult for me to think about how different life would be without the little things that we take for granted like Google maps.

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  6. Megan JohnsonNovember 30, 2011 at 7:16 PM

    I use google maps ALL the time! I use it to get around campus a lot too so don't feel bad. I am very grateful for the app on my phone because without it I would get lost a lot.

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