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Codeacademy upgraded its website because it has partnered with a number of established web companies to offer a host of new lessons that concentrate on the basics of building with their specific APIs. An API is an application porgramming interfaces that allows developers to build applications with sophisticated feature more quickly and easy. Codeacademy now has lessons for building APIs from twitter, evernote, box and grit. The twitter API lesson teaches users how to read twitter from the code editor and make their own tweets from there. While WePay and Dwolla (codeacademys API partners) lets the learners send money from the code ediotr and create invoices, for only some examples. This update isnt only just for beginners, but it can also be for people that are a bit more experience that just want to learn new things.

This article tells how the constant evolution of technology has enabled students to teach themselves without the need of a teacher. One way technology has been proven  to help students teach themselves is when the MIT Media Lab delivered tablets to schools in a remote village in Ethiopia. With only the tablets, the children taught themselves the ABCs and even found their way around restrictions MIT put into the tablets. Another way students can teach themselves with technology is proven is by an 11 year old girl  from Pakistan that passed a university level class even after the government blocked Youtube which was the source of the videos she used to study. Thanks to a Portugese professor who uploaded the videos to a website the girl could access, she was able to complete the course. Our access to technology influences us by allowing to be (mostly) self-sufficient since we do not have to rely on the help of teachers completely to learn. With this, students can get homework done more easily and be up to date on lessons taught in class. I think that students cannot teach themselves solely on technology since it isn't that evolved yet. I think this is a good thing that students cannot learn only with technology because in school, it is easier to learn things when someone else explains it to you, promotes more social interaction, saves the jobs of teachers, and makes it harder to procrastinate. I believe that eventually students will be able to learn at home with only the Internet because of how fast technology evolves and how much information is stored everyday.

Just a few days ago, another Twitter hoax is called into question. The tweet suggested that 18-year-old Justin Bieber is supposedly diagnosed with cancer. This prank all began with a screenshot of the tweet that seems to be from Entertainment Tonight's Twitter account which informs fans to go #BaldforBieber to support the ill celebrity. A website BaldforBieber.com was set up not long after the tweet and showed photoshopped tweets from Justin Bieber, thanking his fans for their support. On the website were also a number of fake news reports that proved that the rumors were "real". On Friday, the #BaldforBieber was revealed to be a hoax that the pranksters of 4Chan created.   I personally found this prank harsh and insensitive; however, it does teach a lesson, especially to those who actually shaved their heads with the intention of supporting the supposedly ill pop star. The results of this joke indicate how many people these days believe what they read and see on the internet. After such a well thought out yet extreme prank, Twitter users should think twice about information presented to them from the internet and make rational decisions. 

This article talks about zombie apocalypse in an empty mall in Readings, U.K. The mall got an idea from the movie called Walking Dead. This mall has brought internet game into real life where people can fight against zombies for 4 hours for $189. this relates to our course because this shows the internet impact on culture that they are making internet game into real life game. Before, they didn't even care about games and they just played at home on their computer but now internet game became part of our culture. This relates to one of our lessons in our courses that talks about internet impact on culture. 

This article basically talks about the plans of microsoft in their kinect technology. This talks about the improvement of it and to use it in other technology and not just for games. This development will help workers that are working in warehouse of manufacturing plant because it will be an ease to them to track their inventory or confirming certain steps in the manufacturing process by using gestures which not require glove removal. If this technology will be developed this can also be used in schools that will help teachers to discuss lessons easily without going back and forth to the computer while presentation.

Pearson (the company that makes most textbooks) has recently bought Connections Education (which is online teaching) In my opinion this move foreshadows that school lessons will be taught more and more online.

After churning out a parade of sequels to all of their flagship games, has EA finally learned its lesson? Last month, EA CEO John Riccitiello said that his company is taking dead aim at Zynga, implying that perhaps the company understands what's at stake, and is determined to be just as much of a player in digital games as it has been on consoles.

This article is about a group called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) who donated two million five hundred thousand laptops to schools in Africa. They found out that laptops does not help improve test results in math and english for these children. Even though the laptops were stored with two-hundred books and reading/writing lessons, the kids did not score more then others on tests. this relates to our class because we use laptops for our classes.

This is extremely interesting to me because it shows that although technology is a great thing, it does not do the work for you.  it shows that 2.5million computers where given to people in Africa and their test scores did not improve that drastically.  this shows that if people want to learn they will, if they dont, they will not.  this relates to our class because we use computers daily