The Count of Monte Cristo part 3

This is the final and last segment of the Monte Cristo series. Our last task before our mini-book club was disbanded was to present our findings in a way that would be interesting for others. None of us in the group are particularly tech savvy but this digital civilization class has really given us a lot of fun opportunities to stretch ourselves and use the incredible new tools that are available to us in the 21st century. Since you can't get much more 21st century than YouTube, that's where we decided to focus our efforts. 

The Count of Monte Cristo part 2

The Count of Monte Cristo is so COOL! Last class we broke up into mini-book clubs and chose a book to read. We chose the Count of Monte Cristo and this is my experience. My first step was to get a general overview of the book, so the first stop was Sparknotes.com

The Count of Monte Cristo part 1

For my digital civilization class we were assigned mini book clubs. In my 'mini book club' were First Lieutenant Andrew DeWitt and Kurt Witt (very distant relation and an interesting story, ask them about it sometime). Our task was to find a book from the romantic time period. Read it, and present our findings to others using a new media. Neither Andrew nor Kurt had seen the Count of Monte Cristo. I think it is such an exciting story that I wanted them to read the book to enjoy it too. I was actually a little jealous because they were going to experience Edmond Dantes' betrayal for the first time.

Cycles in Art

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. 

                                                                         - George Santayana

If history is doomed to repeat itself, and if art is a reflection of history then it stands to reason that art repeats itself. Some people don't like history because they say they aren't good at remembering dates. Or, they say they don't like to read hundreds of pages of complicated language about people that lived centuries ago. I suggest taking a short cut and experiencing the "picture book" approach to history. For me ancient art can be summarized into three time periods, Archaic, Classical and  Hellenistic. Then later in history those periods closely mirror the Medieval, Renaissance and Romantic period.

Grooveshark :)

If you want to listen to music online, use Grooveshark.

I would like to share with you my nearly half a decade long quest to find the perfect music source.  It has been a long a winding road for me to get to Grooveshark.

The reason I bring this up is because we discussed peer-to-peer sharing today in class.   Dr. Zappala used Napster as an example of the evolution of peer-to-peer sharing. Napster still had a central server but facilitated platform where people could easily connect with one another and share music back and forth.

The Crystal Palace

I was recently talking with my friend, David Diehl about my digital civilization class. In class we began discussing the industrial revolution. As part of the revolution we quickly discussed The Great Exhibition in England.

The Great Exhibition is a great symbol of the industrial revolution. Even the building the exhibition was housed in is a symbol/ product of the revolution. Because I like architecture I wanted to learn more about the building, which was nicknamed, The Crystal Palace.

Digital Civilization = More Employable

My Digital Civilization class is paying off more that I could have imagined and with immediate benefits. As a student I am on the look out for jobs that I can do while in school and hopefully after I graduate. I was speaking with a classmate in another class recently and he mentioned that Boostability, where he works is looking to fill some positions. I asked him what he does and he told me about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).