The End & *Re: Three (Times Two, Minus One) Questions & Another Good-Bye Animoto!!!

Well, the time has come to an end for Storypedia, the Blogging Encyclopedia. There was so much to do for the last month...writing stories, answering questions, helping users wander online to another new image generator or photo-sharing site, a useful program that costs nothing that can be awesome for school and at home, such as Google Docs, and maybe Voice Thread, and an animation program that is useful for all occasions--Animoto. It has only been five or six weeks, and it is already time to move on to a new elective! Great, now my now elective is what all boys want their elective to be....DRAMA! Awesome, isn't it? (Not really...) All the other kids who've done it say it is fun, and maybe it is. But Computer Connections will always be one of my favorites. Why am I moving on to a new elective? you ask. Well, our school is not like others (in a lot of ways...). Instead of one single elective in sixth grade, you get six of them, at least I am pretty sure. Four of these include art, computers, research skills (AKA Computer Connections; the class in which I am leaving as of Mon 5:59 pm, Oct 5, and I made this entire blog for), and drama. I liked computer connections, yet I didn't like the fact that the class was a "pass/fail" class, or in another words, if you do not get an A or a B or C, but instead you a P for passing. If you get a D or F, you get a F for failing. So kids can just slack off and put five-word sentences, and still get a P! How insane! And I did all of this work for a curvy, outrageous P! Notice how I have a button at the bottom of this blog that says "Older Posts". I have currently (as of 6:06 pm October 5, 2009) around 25 posts, and I am probably the only student who has two"Older Posts" buttons. Some have one, and some don't even have any! (Each main page gets 10 posts) What I also didn't like was how we didn't get to learn that much about research skills for the Internet. We just did a small blog, and most passed. I learned some things I didn't know before, like copyright, registered, and trademark. I always wondered what that "Copyright (year)" meant or "(Company) TM" meant or any of that stuff. Now I know that it means you can't take something that says something like copyright 2003 or even copyright 1903 by the Bell System, or something like that, because even then you have to ask the company if you can, and pay for the rights to. You then have to give credit to them, like I have done for most of the photos in my blog. Most people don't follow this rule, and usually, I don't either! The Internet has changed this dramatically, and even if "two wrongs don't make a right," what about, "five billion wrongs making a right!" Seriously, who cares anymore....(Legally advised, once again, to tell you, you always should follow copyright laws!) I do follow copyright laws, but the government is not doing that much to stop us from breaking them...There still will be Storypedia, and I have developed a horrible habit of constantly writing posts for Storypedia, but soon I know I will have to learn to stop. Storypedia is ALWAYS available for the public to see, but I solemnly swear to not upload a single post after this one. Along the way, my teacher has created these links to help our class learn more about blogs and have fun with them. If you are starting a blog, and want to share with the public something more interesting that how you are drinking coffee or at the super market, than I suggest you go to these links: AEW Computer Connections 2.0 and AEW Keeping Up. There are more links, but I recommend these ones the most. Here are my *Three (Times Two, Minus One) Questions and I also made another (third) Animoto! Here they are:

Q1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
A1. Obviously, learning about the Internet, and expressing myself with this blog, writing stories along the way, and I absolutely loved making videos on Animoto and morphing photos into other cool stuff on Big Huge Labs and other image generators.
Q2. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised
you?
A2. I was surprised to see that my blog was the longest at the end, but besides this, I honestly wasn't surprised to see how much I could do on the Internet. I was also surprised to see that you can now look at books for free on Google Books, instead of buying them at a store! It really was an experience full of things I didn't know about, that I now do, though.
Q3. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
A3. Hate to break it to you, but a lot...We should have spent time without the computers, just for at least a day each week, looking at cool videos you can find for us on your computer, and learning more about the Internet...We also could have some free time, and should have been able to listen to music and watch videos on Youtube, that even then could help us learn. And maybe we should have been able to write stories for the whole world to see! We could write about a boy who lost his mother, or how the environment can affects both kids and adults, and how kids could know how to solve these problems ourselves! And we really should have taken time to show everyone's blog, even if it was bad, and especially short...It honestly is not fair if you show someone's small blog to the class, and not a big, wondrous blog (like this one; sad face)!
Q4. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to
participate?
A4. WELL, that is a hard question, because I really like rotating to different programs, and not just staying with one, like we have to do after sixth grade...But if it was for a short period of time, maybe around one to two months, because it can get boring, definitely. But it is so fun for the time being!!!!
Q5. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE
SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote Middle School 2.0 learning
activities?
A5. Well, this is a hard question, because I have almost never written anything that is just ONE teeny weeny little word or sentence (this does not count; the following sentence does):
I think my word would be.......computercrazzyoccciousolicouspiousphere!


Please ignore the date (it is NOT Dec 21 2012, but since that is the "end of the world," it is also the end of my blog!)
Image Copyright 2009 by Anonymous Storypedia, Edited on Big Huge Labs, and http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2006_12_01_archive.html


This is my visitor locations map. It shows how many people have visited my blog after its end (Oct 10). The updates (have) start(ed) on Oct 12 2009.