Where are you Going?

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Final Project Idea

For our final project we are making an interactive Google map of where students are going over the summer. Each dot will pinpoint where the student is going, and have a clip of audio telling what they are doing. It will also include a picture of the student.

Writing Center

Most LSC students are probably aware of the Burnham Academic Support Center, that small room connected to the library. Many have probably also been in it, even if only to sample the free food. But how many students really know what goes on in this room, which many call Bob’s Place or simply “the Writing Center”? As it turns out, a lot more than writing happens in Academic Support.

Academic Support is home to two programs: Project Excel and Student Academic Development. Project Excel is a federally-funded program that works with students who come from low to moderate income families, who have learning disabilities, or whose parents have not graduated from a four-year college. The program offers testing accommodations for students with learning disabilities, help with note-taking, tutoring, laptop lending, help with tax preparation, counseling for both personal and academic issues, financial aid assistance, and a scholarship program. Project Excel at LSC is run by Bob McCabe, Director of Student Support Services, and also employs Angela Ryan, Special Services Counselor; Mary Etter, Learning Specialist; and Lori Drew, Tutor Coordinator.

Students who do not meet the eligibility requirements for Project Excel but would still like some academic help need not despair, as they need only contact Student Academic Development. This program, run by Debra Bailin, is open to all LSC students and has many of the same features as Project Excel, most importantly tutoring and help with academic issues, such as test anxiety and time management.

Tutoring is one of Academic Supports primary services. Tutoring is conducted on a course-by-course basis, and both students and faculty can request that a tutorial be set up for a specific class. Project Excel students seeking tutoring will be assigned a personal tutor. Other students will be directed to the tutor for their class, whom they can see on a drop-in basis (no appointment needed) whenever that tutor is on duty in Academic Support. Academic Support also runs the Writing Center and the Math Resource Room. The Writing Center, located in Academic Support, offers writing tutoring regardless of subject, while the Math Resource Room, located in Vail 450, offers math tutoring and stocks educational math materials. Math tutoring has also recently become available in the Writing Center. All tutors are fellow LSC students, and students interested in becoming tutors should contact Debra Bailin.

Students who wish to participate in Project Excel can call Academic Support or stop by. Instructors can also refer students to Academic Support.

Video Comparison

Cape Cod Times: This website has quite a bit of video options, but most of them lead you to other websites. They have a multimedia tab which had sports video, cape cod videos, Times Videos, and Cape Web Cams. Most of the video links led to other websites, such as YouTube. I thought this was pretty unprofessional. The only videos that were actually on the website itself were the sports vdeos. i Had a hard time viewing these because of the horrible internet connectin, but I can't blame that on the website. What I did see of the videos looked okay, but a little unclear. The camera quality to not appear to be very high, and it looked as if only one person had been working on the videoing.

Washington Post: Since the Washigton Post is a more prestigious paper than the Cape Cod Times, I expected the video quality to be better. I was right. The videos were really difficult to find on this site, which is probably not a good thing. I searched videos in the search bar and I finally found some videos. The videos were of very professional qulaity, and to my delight, when I clicked on them I did not find myself on YouTube. The quality was much clearer and it looked like it was recorded by someone or multiple people who really knew what they were doing.

iReport

I thought iReport was an interesting site to look at. It covered things that ranged from seemingly unimportant things as Easter dogs and national pillow fight day to things with a much heavier impact such as torture within the Islamic prisons. Some of it was very random, but I don't think that any of it was boring. It had videos and pictures of a lot of different things that you wouldn't normally see on the news. I liked this aspect of it a lot. I couldn't tell which videos had actually aired on CNN, so I'm not sure what the difference would be between those and the rest of the videos on iReport.I imagine that the ones aired on CNN would be of a higher quality, and as the box that popped up upon entering the site said, they would be fact-checked so they would be more accurate.

Campus Tour

Fox Vs. CNN

At first glance, the sites aren't too different. CNN has a bolder layout while FOX seems much more neutral. I may be bringing the stereotypes I've learned about FOX and CNN into this, but that can't be helped. The two top stories featured on the home page for CNN are about flooding and the militia preparing to kill. The top story on the FOX homepage is also about the flooding. So far, no real differences are seen. They both have standard pictures, videos, and stories. Perhaps the content of the stories is more different.One thing I noticed in the stories about the flooding in Rhode Island was in a sentence that was meant to say exactly the same thing. CNN said, "Obama extended a state of emergency on Monday for the entire state, freeing up federal dollars to help with relief efforts." Whereas FOX News said,"President Barack Obama issued an emergency declaration for Rhode Island, ordering federal aid for disaster relief and authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts" With just the slight difference in words, they tell the same story, but convey a different meaning. CNN made it sound like Obama was being a hero freeing money to help, whereas FOX made it sound like he was demanding money that wasn't rightfully his to demand. Overall, they are both interesting sites to look at.