Glogster Country Poster

http://morganm64.edu.glogster.com/virtual-tour-mm/

Evaluating Websites

Today we learned about how to evaluate websites to help verify the information that is presented on the sites. First off, we visited the Quality Information Checklist website also known as QUICK. We were presented with the task of completing the first and third assignment on the website which included verifying the information on some mock websites and telling which website out of two choices had the best information. Out of the two websites -which were both pretty ridiculous- I have to say that the AFDB website was more reliable for a few reasons. One it gave us some contact information to people associated with the product. And it did tell us when the last update was even though it was a few years old (2008). On the other side though, the Google Gulp page was a much worse website, it called people not cool if they didn't use their product and the privacy policy was not very clear or secure either. It told us that our personal information was held at the Google Gulp HQ whose coordinates was only known by Eric Schmidt and also said that its coordinates were held in a metal briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. So in the end even though both were pretty ridiculous, I would have to say that the AFDB website was the most reliable.
The next part of the assignment was to have a fake research report on a city called Mankato in Minnesota. where we had to determine which given sites would be the best to use for valid information.The first site offered was very unreliable since it didn't give us any contact information and it was clearly written to persuade one to visit the city and seemed very biased. The second site seemed very... legitimate. the first thing that caught me was the fact that the URL ended in ".gov" and the latest news article on the home page was all about the current date and it offered a phone number to call if there were any questions.The next site, was the infamous Wikipedia, which I home everybody knows is a bad place to get information, unless they plan to use the cited sources posted by others. In the end I had to say that the obvious winner was the second website.

Citation Builder Critique

For the past two days in class, we've been exploring various websites that would make citing sources easy and convenient. We used three cites; SourceAid, EasyBib and Citation Machine. I before yesterday, I had exclusively used Citation Machine, but after today I can firmly say that it will not be the way I cite my sources from now on. My favorite site out of the three was definitely SourceAid, then after that was EasyBib, then lastly Citation Machine. I liked SourceAid the best since, the options for the medium I was sourcing were very clear and simple to understand, not to mention when it was asking for the information I wanted to include in my citation it made the process very simple by being very organized and easy to maneuver. EasyBib was my next favorite, I found it super easy to use and it had a lot of options for medians to be cited (more than 58 options!)and it also gave up the chance to use a premade citation if the work was well known or had been previously cited. And lastly, my least favorite of the bunch was Citation Machine; I never knew before how much Citation Machine was missing in terms of being user-friendly. When listing options for mediums to cite our sources it used too many 'technical' terms that were confusing and difficult to use. Citation Machine also asked for information about the source that seemed unneccessary.  Overall if ever in the future I need to cite a source, I know  I will happily use SourceAid or EasyBib before Citation Machine.

Theodore Roosevelt and The River of Doubt Summary

After a sad loss in the 1912 election against Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt was ashamed and became a social pariah. A miraculous opportunity showed itself in the form of an opportunity to speak in Brazil, which also happened to be the place where his son Kermit lived. After arriving in Brazil he was faced with an opportunity to amazing to give up, an expedition down the Rio Da Duvida, or the River of Doubt with renowned Brazilian explorer Colonel Candido Randon and his son. The trip started out as an innocent tour to map out the river and discover its source and find where it deposited. Soon after the expedition began, things began to go awry. Theodore contracted malaria and a serious and potentially deadly infection from a seemingly minor cut on his leg. With a rising fever reaching the 105 degree mark, the expedition reached a section of river that contained apparently impassible rapids and all they had to pass them on were a few shoddy dugout canoes. At this point the expedition fell apart, one member of the party drowned in an attempt to pass the rapids and another was to be murdered from the insanity of a different member, not to mention the death of expedition leader Candido Randon by attack of the natives of the land (Cinta Larga). At this point, the expedition was falling apart and the survival of Teddy rested upon Kermit’s shoulders. During the final stretch of their journey, they faced a 30 ft waterfall, with the wit of Kermit and his knowledge of ropes and bridges the group survived along with the majority of the dugout canoes. At the conclusion of their journey the last survivors were taken back to New York via ship, after the expedition, Roosevelt never fully recovered from his sicknesses and was plagued with recurring malaria.

Theodore Roosevelt and the River of Doubt Timeline