The 1st Conflict

So today the art room functioned as a detention center during the lunch hour. Apparently because the disciplinary office is attached to the cafeteria and Mrs. Smith (who is the person the kids go to when they get kicked out of their classroom) is busy monitoring the lunchroom, some of the surplus students are dispersed among classrooms like the art room. Today we had a student named Vanessa brought to the art room after she ate (her recess time) doe 3o minutes. As soon as Mrs. Carey left the room, Vanessa started pulling things from her pocket like lip gloss and a bouncy ball. Obviously, she wasn't suppose to be having any sort of fun and not playing with anything. I told her she needed to put that stuff back in her pocket. I had used her name too, which is kind of easy to remember when you are told you are having a specific student brought to the room to be punished. Teachers do this thing called talking to one another and student names are shared. I'm saying all this because Vanessa right away began saying that that wasn't her name. Whatever.

At 12:30, the next class came in and at 12:40 she was to go back to her classroom. I was asked to escort her. Right away this was showing complications as she was wanting to walk the speed of a turtle. When we finally passed the music room (one two doors down) one of the other girls that had gotten in trouble with Vanessa (it was a total of three girls that were bullying other kids on the playground) came out and thought she should go back with us too. This caused additional complications, as Vanessa attempted to follow this second girl into the music room to collect her things. But she was cutting off an oncoming group of 1st graders, so I reached out an tugged on her hoodie, causing her to freak out on me. I was not going to deal with this attitude to the opposite side of the school building, and the office was oh so close. So I instead said we were going to the office. This worked. I ran right away into Mrs. Smith, who said Vanessa needed to just return to the art room until she learned how to walk down the hall. She also earned herself 5 more lunch detentions in the art room and that she needed to see me (if only a little) as a figure of authority.

Not exactly the best moment in my teaching, but it is far better to learn it student teaching than afterwards.

Reading Recovery Banner

I had one of the teachers come to me asking me to make a banner for the new reading recovery program. She said she had something started in Word and that I am welcomed to sit down with her and help her fix it there. I opted to just spend a little time at home doing this. The dimensions will be 5' long by 18" tall. She wants the words "Read it up" and some balloons.

Building relationships

One of the ongoing themes I see emerging from the student teacher experience is the requirement of building relationships with students. The "problem children" require a lot of attention and normally will not recognize authoritative rolls if they do not know who you are. These children depend on consistency and do not react well to change. As a student teacher, my roll is temporary within the school but it is very important to develop bonds with the students within the school - most especially the students that then to cause problems within the class. As part of my first several weeks I will be learning my students' names (~280 total).

One such case includes a student named Vanessa. During the first several days of class Mrs. Carey and I would sit in the front of the class. I would introduce myself to the class, take attendance, and then Mrs. Carey would go on with her lesson. During the first lesson that Vanessa had been in class with me, she began asking me (during Mrs. Carey's presentation mind you) if I wanted to buy girl scout cookies. I'm all for entrepreneurship, but there is a right time and place for everything - during class time is definitely not the right time nor the right place.

My 1st day of Student Teaching

I began my first day of student teaching at B.T.Washington Elementary with the students returning from a 5 day weekend, which meant that the students would be additionally rambunctious. I had been nervous because I didn't know what to expect, but excited because it would be a "real" teaching experience with all sorts of real problems known of a public school. All I have experienced prior to this new experience has been idealized experiences under the control of the University, teaching at day camps to students interested in art, and Art a la Cart to classrooms with the primary teacher still in it. B.T.Washington Elementary is a bilingual Spanish school with a high percentage of free/reduced meal plans (~85%), meaning there are a lot of students from poor families. I had selected this school primarily because of the teacher. Mrs. Carey had received national recognition for her services within the school; plus, I had had a course with her when I first began graduate school. I respected how she thought about her students, and believe that working under her guidance would be a benefit to my future as an art teacher.
Through the course of this first day I learned of the routine we would be having. We get 1/3 of each grade level each day, so once you've taught one lesson the next two day's is Groundhog Day. This week will primarily be observation, plus some team teaching.

Blue Bunny Ornaments

This Christmas I'm making a collection of ornaments to give to friends and family. They are based on my blue bunny video and I am obsessed with making them. So cute!

I used Crayola Model Magic to make these. I dyed them with Crayola markers before modeling it into the bunnies. The ears are a little on the fragile end. I would not recommend making these for gifts for friends with little kids, as they want to play with the bunny. Instead, I would recommend making trees or snowmen.

Lab 11 /

Which chatbots were the most convincing? What was done well? What done poorly? Within 10 years, will there be a program that can pass a five-minute Turing test? Is the Turing test a reasonable measure of whether a machine can think? More generally, if a program can behave in a way that is indistinguishable from human behavior, can it be said to think, and, if not, then what is thought?

As part of the requirements for Lab 11 of Informatics 102 students enrolled were to have a 5-minute chat with 3 chatbots and take a Turing test to decide it the 'bot' on the other end was a human or a machine. The three cyberbots were Eliza, Alice, and Jabberwacky. Eliza was programmed to model the speech patterns of a Rogerian psychologist. When talking with Eliza, circular logic becomes a pattern. It does not understand meaning of many words, which ends up creating sentences that make little sense. For example, because it is programmed to respond to the short response of "Yes/No" with "You are being positive/negative", when the user (in this example, me) replies with "I am not" (as a method of disagreeing) Eliza assumes "not" to be a state of mind (not as a method of disagreeing). I found Alice to be on the annoying end. Jabberwacky proved to be the most interesting of the three. The statements made were quirky, and a little more "human-like". For the most part, though, the statements seemed really confusing and not really fitting with the conversation.

The Turing test was most obviously a computer. I attempted speaking with the bot several times, and my internal compass never grasped a feeling of a human being on the other end. As stated in Shieber's article The Turing Test and the Loebner Prize, it was "realized early on that given the current state of the art, there was no chance that Turing's test, as originally defined, had the slightest chance of being passed by a computer program." So in order to give the computer a fighting chance at fooling any human performing a Turing Test, restrictions on the conversation were put into place. These limitations included two things: topic of the conversation and tenor (i.e. emotion).

I believe that if a cyberbot can achieve the intellectual conversation level of a human, it is the achievement of mankind that took it to that place. It is not 'thinking' until responses no longer need to be programmed and abstract connects can be made as swiftly as the human brain. I also believe that cyberbots have a place in our civilization. For example, as a method to supervise the Internet. I believe making the Internet safer for children and absent of visual stimuli that could be considered abusive (i.e. child porn) would be a valuable application of A.I. On this platform, the cyberbot could monitor chatrooms or help in catching online preditors.

Should these Judicial Candidates retain their office?

Sue E. Myerscough
Bio

Thomas Difanis (R), 1995, 2008
Put a stop Urbana City Council from meeting in private.

Harry E. Clem (R), 1979, 2008
Nothing really solid can be found beyond individual cases.

Arnold F. Blockman (D), 1996, 2008
Primarily tries family custody cases and states that with the current laws, custody is primary given to one parent. He's gotten a lot of static from fathers, where groups have even posted billboards against him. The following links will provide more insight into this matter.
Fatherless in America
Divorce and Custody excerpts:
"For those unhappy about his custody rulings, Blockman said the appellate court is probably the best indicator of if his actions are appropriate. Since taking the bench, Blockman said, 105 of his rulings have been appealed; 91 were affirmed outright; seven were partially affirmed. That means seven cases, or less than 7 percent, were overturned. Those numbers involve all kinds of cases, but for the last five years, he's done essentially nothing but family cases... Blockman said it's true he doesn't grant joint custody when only one parent wants it. But it's because the law precludes him, not because he has a prejudice against a particular parent."
News-Gazette: Judge receives criticism

Katherine McCarthy
Commenter on blog calls her "nice" and "reasonable"

A. G. Webber
Judging the Judges
More on the above

Blue Rabbit

Today the Girl that Got her Hair Cut Off morphed into a Blue Rabbit. This is practice video focusing on movement and color consistency.

With cheap cameras you will have really slow reaction to the color balance. I'm working with a XBox360Live. You really need to wait about 3-5 seconds once your hands have left the 'stage' for the camera to have enough time to adjust the coloring. This was an unpredicted piece of knowledge I get to share today. Can't wait to write it into a lesson plan!

First attempt at Claymation:

Girl Realizing her Hair got Cut Off
This is my first attempt at making a Claymation video with iStopMotion. Its a little out of focused and the environment isn't so well planned, but the short is fun.

Ethical Issues pertaining to DRM

The governing of society requires laws to clarify the right from the wrong for both businesses and individual members of the society. These laws are made to protect the rights of consumers, individuals, businesses, and anyone else affects.

Shortly after the Olympics ended, China made the news with their milk scandal. Milk powder containing Melamine, a toxic chemical found in plastics and fertilizers, had been the cause of 432 kidney stones in Chinese infants. Milk provides essential nutrients to infants, and poisoning it with Melamine in order to stretch out the baby formula is considered wrong. Prior to Food and Drug Administration laws were in place within the US, thinning out milk had been occurring here too. While this may not be as sever as the addition of Melamine, thinning the milk required infants to consume much more in order to receive the nutrients they need. Having laws in place on a national level AND enforcing them places companies responsible for their own wrong doing.

In John Lewis's book Computer Science Illuminated an article addressing ethical issues and digital rights management (DRM). One controversy addressed within this article illustrated Sony BMG's applying rootkit programs to their products. As defined by Wikipedia, rootkit "is malware which consists of a program designed to take fundamental control of a computer system, without authorization by the system's owners and legitimate managers." One of the primary reasons behind Sony's action had been the increase in pirated materials through Internet exchange (i.e. bit-torrent sites like Napster and Piratebay). Owning a CD or movie provides the owner with rights to that particular copy. However, uploading it to share with others takes away profit from the companies that developed the materials. This had been what Sony was reacting to.

Were the methods they applied as a solution right? No. Just as milk contamination placed infants in danger of death, Sony exposed their consumers to a security hole that could have caused a lot of damage via identity theft, etc. However, companies in ownership of intellectual property should have some governmental forces protecting them. This would require an entity to take charge of the Internet, as it is a nearly governless force. Until this happens many online theft will continue through sites like Piratebay.org.

Eggplant Pizza

As soon as I have the time, I want to try this Eggplant Pizza. It looks delicious. The recipe may be found at Epicurious, discovered via Google search.

Off to do some grocery shopping. Maybe I'll add some yeast to the list and locate time next weekend. I know I'll be buying some eggplant anyway, but I've been making a single-serving Eggplant Parmesan lately. So good! Usually when I make Eggplant Parmesan its for a mass of people (or a mass of leftover) because its so much food. But I've recently explored the concept of the single serving of this recipe by just taking two slices of eggplant (about 1/2" thick) and spreading seasoning on it and stacking mozzarella, Parmesan, pizza sauce and fresh basil between (and on top of) the two layers. Very good. Quicker cook time and attractive when serving.

Tic Tac Toe

Check out this Tic Tac Toe game. So awesome.

Squeak Lab

Working with the program of Squeak over the next two weeks, I would like to try my hand at creating the classic game of Sammy the Snake. For this game, the user must be able to control Sammy with the 4 arrow keys. Sammy must be able to 'grow' when he eats the randomly appearing food. Whenever Sammy eats, the game must be able to keep track of the food eaten via a score board.

To build this game, key sensitive connections need to develop for user control. I forget which function this is, but it will need to connect to the arrows, which each change the direction of Sammy to 0°/90°/180°/270° (up/left/down/right). If Sammy "sees" his color (meaning, if he hits himself) or the wall, than the game is over. So there needs to be scripts that allows for this and a Game Over function. This also means there should be a Start Game script that is activated by any key stroke (or the space bar).

The thing I believe will be most challenging and requiring the need of a TA, will be programming the randomly placed 'food'. I think this will be similar to the function of the pong ball going in a random direction.

Any thoughts and assistance will be much appreciated.

Moore's Law

Observed in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, Moore predicted that the number of transistors that could be placed on a silicon chip would continue to double at regular intervals for the foreseeable future. His original prediction had been 12 months. First cited in the 35th anniversary's article in Electronics, Moore explains that integrated circuits refers to "all the various technologies which are referred to as microelectronics today as well as any additional ones that result in electronics functions." Examples include but are not limited to: digital cameras, iPods and other sound devices, computers, watches, security systems, et cetera. The primary goal of the article was to explain that as the integrated circuit technology continued to advance, the cost of acquiring the technology would lessen. This Law is still able to be witnessed. For example, every year, the cost of an Apple computer may appear static, but what you get compared to the previous year is more advanced - more RAM, more memory, smaller laptop or bigger monitor, better Intel chip, et cetera.

In 1975, Moore updated the law - as 12 months was no longer a valid prediction - to state that the transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would double every 24 months. In an interview completed by P2P Consortium in 2005 (the 40th anniversary of the Law), Moore states that Intel is actually ahead of the prediction, doubling in a little under 24 months.

As noted above, the originally stated observation of 12 months, slowed to half after 10 years. While 30 years has demonstrated that 24 months serves as a remarkably stable prediction, I believe this too will slow. Moore himself, expect Moore's Law to hold for at least another two decades.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today, September 19, is Talk Like a Pirate Day! So have some fun, length those "arrrr"s and act totally ridiculous. See the official site too - talklikeapirate.com.

What I Want from a Blog

One of the things I want from my own personal blog is the ability to control how it looks and easily update it. When I say that I want to control how it looks, I mean I would like to design it, control the CSS and so forth. None of the free providers really have all of those options for the amount I'm willing to pay at this point, which is zero dollars. One of them, I think it was livejournal, allowed the CSS to be edited, but the user needed a premium account. I didn't like how you couldn't sort out which services were free and which were advanced-user until you've already placed the time into editing the coding. That was annoying.

I am currently at blogger because I have a couple of family members using the service and it is through gmail. I heart google.

HW1:3 Flag Compression

Flash Bunny

Artist Anand Duncan and her super cute animations of bunnies would be an excellent resource in the art room. It showcases works completed for Disney to Cartoon Network, and a diversity of fine art mediums, most particularly quick graphite sketches. What I find most interesting about the site is that Duncan provides the amount of time it took to draw a human model. If shown in the classroom, this would be a good opportunity to talk about how an artist can market themselves and how they show quality of value.

The Post-it gives birth to the New Identity

I will begin my first posting by acknowledging the Post-it stuck on the upper right corner of my iMac, requesting that I "begin and maintain my first blog". I think its been there for maybe a month or two, and is most likely one of the newer Post-its making similar requests and reminders within the computer region. I've attempted to begin a blog before, however I always stopped my registration when it asked me to pick a name. The decision was too great. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the blog, so how could I possibly pick a name? If I just went into default mode and used my common avatar user-name, I would end up with the url skiwana.blogspot.com. If I went for my "U of I alias" the url would be cegolf.blogspot.com. If I wanted to have something more focuses, like on a hobby, I would end up with a url like theartofprocrastination.blogspot.com or oneunitaday.blogspot.com or themidnightoil.blogspot.com. The list could go on and on with the confusion and options available.

Knowing what I wanted to do with the blog was a huge part of my commitment issue with starting a blog. If I want to use it as a journal, then I would need to write consistently and be willing to share my thoughts with the cyberworld – ie. making the private public. Will I be willing to spend the time to compose these thoughts so that they may be interesting to others? Will it help me get over my writer's block if I write about my daily nonsense? Would I get weirded out if people start finding and reading my blog or will I get disappointed if I'm the only one moving the page hit counter?

Today I found my motivation to leap over my fear of committing to a blog name. This motivation was homework from my Informatics 102 course, requiring that I "sign up for a free (blogging) service" and "maintain it for the rest of the semester". Since I will be having to post homework at this address for INFO102, it seems appropriate to use the site as something that can grow from a day-to-day log to whatever it morfs into. Choosing the name Sedezin, which had been the business name I ran under when I did design consulting before returning to grad school, is my first step towards rebranding this identity. My current day-to-day is dedicated to writing papers, teaching, and make art. So my site remains offline and an unused url. Rebranding would allow my to reconsider who I consider my audience to be.

And so I leave this topic to go design a new logo, as new excitement has been born with the birth of this blog.