My E-Portfolio!

Introduction to My E-Portfolio
On this site, you will find examples of the work I have completed so far in my college career.  This website will be updated as I progress through college to portray my best work to date.  At the moment, you will find an essay, a speech, and a few blog posts which I have completed throughout my first year at Penn State.  As I dwell into the next few years of my college career, more examples of my literary work will be added in order to portray an updated and current view of my writing and speaking abilities.

Prior to my Spring 2012 semester, I did not have very much experience with rhetoric and its overwhelming presence in everything we do.  However, upon entry into the Rhetoric and Civic Life class that I took during that semester, it became clear that rhetoric, if used effectively, can drastically improve your writing and speaking skills.  More importantly, I have learned how important ethos, pathos, and logos are in writing and speaking.  With this knowledge, I believe I am beginning to develop the ability to apply these rhetorical skills to my work in a way that clarifies and strengthens my overall message.

Michael Interdonato's E-Portfolio

Gary Hamel's Presentation Style

Recently, I had to do a project for my Management class in which my group discussed "skills" of organizations. A key component when talking about skills is an idea called "core competencies."  Core competencies are essentially the core skills of a business or organization that differentiate that business or organization from its competitors.  Core competencies were developed by two men, one of whom goes by the name of Gary Hamel.  Upon doing research on Hamel for this project, I found videos of presentations he has done on management related topics and in most of them, he used a very unique presentation style.

In class on Wednesday, we went over various presentation styles and one of those styles was the Lessig style.  Immediately when we went over this, I thought of Hamel's presentation.  Hamel's is much more appealing and slightly more complex  Nonetheless it seemed to be a variation of the Lessig style.  Above, I posted a video of a presentation Hamel did as part of the Phoenix Lecture series about "the dead hand of tradition holding us back" and restricting us from change.  I would recommend taking a look at the video because not only will it allow you to understand what I am saying, but it is also pretty cool.

The words displayed on the screen behind him are words that Hamel is saying and they are displayed as he says them.  This technique seems to be very useful.  It helps develop logos as you listen to the speaker.  Hamel is very a good speaker as well which helps, but the words flashing on the screen almost make it seem like everything Hamel is saying is true.  You hear him say it and then you see on the screen which, at least for me, makes the presentation very compelling.  All in all, I've found that this Lessig style of presenting really does work if done right.  It has some subtle rhetorical effects on you and makes the viewer more prone to understanding and believing the message.

Pranav Mistry's Sixth Sense

Pranav Mistry

With my recent blog posts, I have started to become extremely interested in TED talks.  Mistry begins his TED talk by talking about his earlier inventions.  First off, he discusses his invention "Quickies" which are essentially intelligent Post-It Notes.  These notes are connected to your computer and as you write on them, the information is transferred to your computer.  The notes can also be synced with your phone, sent as texts, or answered if they are in question form.  When writing a question, the answer can be printed out after the computer reads what the question is.  In addition to "Quickies", Mistry invented a pen which can draw in 3D.  It uses cameras and receivers to see which what the pen is drawing and it shows up on  computer screen in 3D.  This can be helpful for architects.  Finally, Mistry moves on to his newest, and in my opinion coolest, invention.

Sixth Sense was originally developed as a bike helmet with a camera and projector on it which could read these colored tips that Mistry would put on his fingers.  With this, he is able to interact with the digital world and move around objects in a way that reminds me of the movie "Minority Report".  The color markers on your fingers are recognized by the camera which allow you to do things with objects and zoom in and out by pinching your fingers much like you would on your phone's touch screen.  He also wants to begin to use Sixth Sense in order to take pictures without using a camera.  Just by making a rectangular shape with your hands as if you were taking a fake picture, the picture would actually be taken and saved on your camera.  Then, you can view these pictures on any wall and edit them and send them to people.  Also, you can use things like your palm as a surface to project numbers and dial a phone number on your palm.

Mistry goes on to describe how Sixth Sense can be used to be show you information regarding objects you are holding in your hands.  For instance, he uses Sixth Sense to look at a book and then once the invention recognizes the book, it projects text reviews, sound reviews, and other info about the book.  Also, on a newspaper, you can video of events that occurred and also you can see live weather projected over a map on the paper.  There are other uses that he describes like reading an airline ticket and it projects whether the flight is on time, delayed, or cancelled.  The things that Sixth Sense can potentially do are endless and I found this invention to be absolutely amazing.

A 12 Year Old App Developer

DOGOnews

To continue with the subject matter that I discussed last week, Thomas Suarez is another very young individual who has accomplished pretty impressive things in his short life.  He has programmed multiple apps for Apple's operating system (iOS).  I personally cannot do that at all.  I did take an introductory programming class for Microsoft Visual Basic my freshman year of high school, but the best thing I was able to do by the end of that class was make a very simple and pretty bad version of the game "Snake."  I also could only do that because our teacher laid out the directions to the point that it barely required thought.  Granted at the time, I thought it was awesome that I made a game, but I have since come to learn that Suarez, who is only 12, is able to make fully functioning apps that are available on the app store.

Suarez spoke in a TED convention in which he made a very good point.  He said that it is very easy for kids to learn how to play the violin or play soccer because the resources in order to do that are very accessible and available.  However, a kid with the aspirations that Suarez had, which was to learn programming and make games, may not be able to find the necessary resources in order to do that.  Apple released a development kit which Suarez began to familiarize himself with and make test apps.  One of these test apps, called Earth Fortune, he later released in the app store.

Suarez, like Taylor Wilson who I discussed last week, is helping to persuade kids like him that they can truly do whatever they want to do with their lives.  Also, there is no reason that they cannot do something just because they are kids.  There is truly nothing that can limit or prevent you from going after your goals and enjoying your life.  Suarez definitely promotes civic engagement as well in that he is promoting the pursuit of programming.  He also spoke about using clubs like the one he started in his school where he can help other students and teach them about what he has done with creating apps.  He wants to ensure that the resources are available for students that are interested in the topic.

I found Suarez's Ted talk to be extremely interesting and inspiring and as I mentioned last week, I find that young kids' success stories are very moving to me.  It is amazing that he was able to do what he has done in his short twelve years of life.

The World's Youngest Nuclear Scientist

The White House

Taylor Wilson is the world's youngest nuclear scientist.  He constructed a working nuclear fusion reactor in his home at the age of 14.  Since then he built radiation detectors at the age of 17 for Homeland Security which cost 100s of dollars.  The reason that this is so significant is that the previous detectors that they had cost 100s of thousands of dollars.  He later presented these detectors and the research that he did with Homeland Security to President Barack Obama.  Upon first hearing all of this, I was amazed.  I found it hard to believe that a kid could not only build, but successfully build a nuclear fusion reactor at age 14.  Just the fact that it is a fusion reactor is simply amazing in that fusion reactors have not been perfected for use as an energy source.  All of the nuclear power plants in use are fission reactors.  I know that personally, I would have no idea where to begin to build a fusion reactor.

But what does this have to do with rhetoric or civic engagement?  I think a kid like this can and will persuade other kids to take the initiative to follow their dreams just like Wilson.  He is an example for kids throughout the world that you do not have to be above a certain age in order to do something amazing and make a difference in the world.  I think in this sense, Wilson is able to promote civic engagement in our youth.

I don't know about you, but hearing stories of success of kids is always very inspiring in my opinion.  It makes me personally want to strive to do more with my life.  There is always more that you can do to better your chances of doing something great with your life and kids like Taylor are the reason that I have come to realize that.  Do you feel that stories like this have a strong effect on you as well?

The Filter Bubble

Brain Pickings

I came across this idea while researching for topics for a media project that I had to do for the very class I have to write this blog for.  I was browsing on TED and found a video about "The Filter Bubble."  This is an idea that was developed by Eli Pariser that I found to be very interesting. It is basically the idea that the internet can essentially cater to our interests.  Things like Google use information like previous pages that we have clicked on or our past search history in order to show us results that it thinks we want to see.  It creates a filter bubble of information effectively eliminating opposing or different views on a similar subject from our lives.  The first ten results that I see when I type in "Michael Vick" on Google could be completely different from the first ten results that you see.

The reason that I found this idea to be so interesting is that it is basically serving to discourage civic engagement.  By withholding new and different ideas from us, we only get to see one side of things.  This would prevent people from ever questioning their opinions or even realizing that there are other opinions out there.  Unless we are exposed to every side of any subject matter, we can not effectively speak and raise our voice on that matter.  In order to be good citizens, it is our job to speak our opinion.  However, the filter bubble idea makes you think whether or not you are actually speaking your own opinions.  You may just be speaking what Google thinks is your opinion.   The filter bubble has also been discussed with regard to Facebook in that Facebook has been criticized for allegedly filtering or personalizing what you see on your news feed.

All in all, I think this idea that Pariser has developed is something that you should keep in the back of your mind.  I don't think anybody wants the internet to create our opinions and views for us and therefore, we have to make sure that this does not happen.  What do you think about the filter bubble?

The Effect of Nice Weather

Fuel Your Writing

While this may be a silly topic to discuss, the weather has a way of persuading us to do certain things and to become engaged as citizens.  This past week the weather has been amazing, especially for this time of the year, and everyone seems to be loving it.  There are more people outside relaxing, playing sports, and just walking around.

However, the weather does more than just get people outside.  It convinces them to do things like go to class.  I don't know about you, but lately it has been clear that more people have been going to class.  In all of the lecture hall classes that I have, it is very noticeable that more people are going.  This is just an assumption, but I'm sure the weather has something to do with that.  I just find it interesting that weather can have such a persuasive effect on us.  When it is rainy and cold, some students do not go which suggests that the benefit or value they get from going to class does not outweigh the annoyance of walking through the rain in the cold.  However, on a nice sunny day, the value of class does outweigh anything else they could be doing with their time.

In this respect, "weather" can be considered to be a talented rhetorician.  Obviously, that is a bit of stretch, but the effect weather has on people cannot be overlooked.  All in all, it is just amazing that people make decisions like going to classes that cost a ton of money based on the weather.

On another note, enjoy the weather while it lasts (which is hopefully forever).  Personally, I just feel happier when it is nice out and I love being outside.  Are you the same way?  Do you find that weather affects any of the decisions you make?