Additional Assignment #1

A. What are the educational implications of searches such as Google Squared provides?

Google Squared allows you to search a topic and see our results in tables that you can adjust as needed. It allows you to add or remove columns and rows as you see fit. It's very concise and to the point. I searched top grossing movies and got a list of movies with descriptions, gross revenue, release date, and more information on each movie.

B. What are the educational implications of searches such as WolframAlpha provides?

WolframAlpha allows you to search a topic and gives you all you need to know about it without having to search through a bunch of links. I searched the University of South Alabama. It gave me everything about South, from I was born. It told me the time difference from today in years, months, weeks, and days. It also told me what time the Sun rode and set on that day and the events that occurred on that day.

C. Did you know about Google Squared before this assignment?

No, I did not.

D. Did you know about WolframAlpha before this assignment?

No, I did not.

E. Have my comments altered your thinking about anything you saw, heard, read, or reported for the Did You Know assignment?

Yes, I have realized that when reading or hearing statistics I need to be aware of other factors. The statistics about China and India compared to the United States are overwhelming before you take into consideration the population differences in China and India compared to United States. All you have to do is figure out what percentage of their country equals the amount of people in the U.S.. People try to manipulate statistics in their favor all the time, and we need to be aware of exactly what the statistics say.

F. What did you learn from this exercise about how you react and deal with "statistics"?

I've learned that I should take statistics with a grain of salt. Numbers alone do not tell the whole story. People manipulate statistics in their favor all the time. I think the best thing I can do is when I learn of certain statistics I should do more research to figure out the whole truth.

Food For Thought
I thought it was amazing how an illiterate stable boy with no previous knowledge of an ipad could pick it up and know how to play on it.