General Colin Powell at Dreamforce

Have you heard of Saleforce? I had known about the company, but that was about it until this last week. I first wanted to know more when I realized the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were playing 2 blocks from where I volunteer last Wednesday night. At this point I figured I should see what this company is all about. I think it was an interesting conference, but I think I learned most from it by listening to a man by the name of General Colin Powell.

Colin Powell  was the first African American to serve as the Secretary of State under President Bush. Just knowing this, was enough to decide to listen in on his speech during the major keynote at Dreamforce. He was accompanied on stage by Jeff Immelt CEO of GE and of course Mark Benioff CEO of Salesforce. I found that Jeff had a lot of good ideas and thoughts, but I really felt like Colin Powell's thoughts were a lot more meaningful to the human condition.

First off Powell's thought on technology were extremely interesting to me. An older man that has done so much without the use of todays technologies. A man who has seen so much good, bad, and pathetic with technology. Powell's view was simple though, if it helps use it. He was not against technology at all, as long as it strictly was used at a catalyst for a bigger cause such as creating jobs, liberating people, or helping a team. He talked a bit about technology, but what really got me listening was he thoughts and views on leading, presenting, progress, life's purpose, and loyalty. Every thought that came from him was focused on one thing, people. It wasn't based on the US, money, culture, or even popularity; it was based on people and nothing else. Some of the quotes that really struck me when he was talking were:

• Think of people first
• Think about your audience before your presentation, before you even make your first slide
• Think, 'how can I help my team?'
• What is your purpose in life?
• Be ready to throw over your shoulder a great idea because it actual just sucks [for the greater cause]
• Pursue something bigger than you

He allowed me to really think about how important people are and how you go about your actions. "Pursue something bigger than you," he was talking about teamwork at this point and explaining that devotion to your team rather than you personal gains of the team is more important because your impact on the world will be much greater. 

General Colin Powell expressed that he has a favorite word and I couldn't agree more with his choice: Inspire

As always here a few pictures from my recent adventures!
You can find all the pictures Here.

 A great sight from the Golden Gate Bridge!

 Can you say great sunset??

 I went on my first "long" bike ride last weekend. I made it 33 mile and then got a flat tire and had to take public transportation back. But on my adventure I came across the San Francisco National Cemetery. It was an unbelievable sight to say the least.

 At the center, there was a huge flag that was just an amazing sight at the top of the hill.

 While riding back on my adventure I found a crazy awesome location where couples have weddings. Personally I would have mine in a church, but this sight was absolutely amazing!

 Wednesday I went to a Giants game for free. Pretty cool!

 Dreamforce. A conference focused on Salesforce. This was just cool advertising on these stairs if you ask me.

 There was a whole outside concert the whole day on a beautiful sunny day!

 Look its me! The board I am next to was a digital spray paint board.

 Did I mention I got into the conference for free? And then I found a beer garden.... for free.

 This was the major keynote that I went to. The room was packed, it was soo huge!!

 General Colin Powell speaking

So after the conference I asked a conference staff person if there was anything going on after the last keynote and he looked into his little guide and told me that there was a whole bunch of after parties around the area. So I went to a club close by the conference center and while waiting I realized this was a gathering for partners of Salesforce and VIPs only. I was tired and decided if they didn't let me in (I just had a generic free pass) I would just go home...... well friends they let me in! My guess is because I was one of the first people the the bounces weren't sure who to let in.  Nonetheless, they had free drinks, food, appetizers, and lots of networking. It was a enjoyable time to say the least. Below you will find some of the pictures of the food that was there. MMMMMMMMMMM

Tech Savvy Classrooms and the Luddite Fallacy

Sometimes the main reason I find it hard to blog is the exact reason I should blog. Experiencing so much new in my life has really allowed me to see a different side of things and has allowed me to really step back and think about memories and recollections of my life. So today I will discuss a few topics concerning the use of technology in the classroom and what it means to the futures of these kids and the rest of the world.

Today was the first day of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) at De Marillac.  First off, apparently kids are introduced to bubble testing as early as 3rd grade. Unbelievable! I never thought that national statistical data would need to be collected at such an early age... but I guess it does. Second, statistical data! I used to think that the big picture idea of bubble testing was dumb because you could never truly gauge a childs growth by the test. Today though I had a realization-- The test isnt about the child, but rather the whole. In terms of De Marillac, they use these numbers to show donors of the progress of the classes and the program that DMA provides. It is also used to keep DMA accredited with the archdiocese, Californian, and US. Then in tern, DMA gets money donated depending on scores. Granted there is a lot of flaws with this and many controversial topics surrounding the whole bubble testing idea. Nonetheless, ITBS week is apparently a big deal in schools and wasn't just made up to torture the kids for a week. :)

ITBS was one of the first and most basic ways technology crept into the classroom. Recently, I have been working with a technology by SMART (creator of smartboards) that allows for real time student interaction by the use of clickers. In college, I has a simplified version of this and thought it was cool but not really useful. Then I came across SMART Response at DMA and was asked to research it and present about it. I still thought the idea of creating assessments on the computer and then have the students answer by use of clicker was cool, but I still thought it was overkill of technology in the classroom. So I still did the research, did a presentation, had a teaching session, and then watched the clicker technology be used in the classroom and I found my views quickly changed.
First off, I found that the teacher was about to quickly keep the kids accountable for answering. They were able to "force" the kids to listen to the question before they answered and also about to see in real time (by pie or bar chart) how students answered the question. Cool.
Secondly, apparently newer teachers of today seem to like the idea of technology in the classroom. (Even though I think its cool, I don't know if I personally want to use it in the classroom). This was a surprise to me. Cool.

Its cool to see technology in the classroom. Its cool to think that I can be a catalyst for bring it there. Its cool that with the proper training, technology can give kids the skills they need for a wide range of jobs that are and will be needed. One of my coworkers expressed today that if some of the unemployed of today just had basic typing skills, general computer knowledge, and a motivation to learn more, their chances of getting a job greatly increases. Interesting... though, makes sense, and makes me think.

This thought brings me to great topic of technology. The Luddite Fallacy. This is the idea that while technological progress will cause some workers to lose their jobs as a result of outdated skills, any concern that advancing technology will lead to widespread, increasing unemployment is, in fact, a fallacy. Basically, even though technology is getting rid of jobs, it is in tern creating many many more jobs for the work force. Now, there are very realistic theories saying that the Luddite Fallacy will one day become incorrect, but currently for our society, it holds firm. This means that technology and the tech skill we teach our kids along side reading, math, social studies, and science is becoming increasingly important. Very important.

Point of today: The way technology is used in the classroom is no longer progressive, rather it is imperative to teaching to give students the technological skills to one day do the most basic jobs in a developed digital world.

Today is a new week in San Francisco. I have had many thoughts this last week, missing people, where I fit in, places I need to grow, my family, Iowa State, and even just silence. But the number one thing I have noticed while being out in California is I need to find home out here. Now, I know 99% of the people that are reading this are thinking "NO!!!! You need to come back to Iowa!!!!!", well yes, you are right, but all in good time.

I need to find a center out here. My family isn't here, my college isn't heard of, it's hard to take long bike rides, running isn't quiet or 'my own time', work is not work, conversations are much different, friends are only superficial, and worst is there is no silence where I can here myself think. The things that have kept me grounded for the last 5 years (and even longer) are not actively in my life anymore and I can start to feel the pressure. I need to find grounding out here, a home, something that I can love in my life.

My good friend once told me 3 things. Just 3 things kept him grounded in his life. No matter where he was, what he was doing, or where he was going, just 3 things. Prayer, Community, and Thankfulness. Three simple and yet extremely complex things. He told me that over the years you change a lot and to have that grounding allows you to stay focused and with Christ.

First off, Prayer. To have a personal prayer life. To take time out of your day and just pray to God about anything in your life. This gives you that personal time in the day where you can really focus on the things that matter.

Second, Community. He called it friends, but I like the term community better. I think he called it friends because he even saw his family as his friends and loved their company. But his main point with this one is create a network (or community) of people that will define you, challenge you, and most importantly, will be there for you. Because We all struggle, and those friends will be there for you because, you would be there for them. Having friends is hard work. Well, having true friends is hard work. He told me to make time for them, no matter how busy you are. Stay up until the wee hours to get your work done so that you can have those close conversations, laugh, pray, and love together.

Lastly, Thankfulness. We, as Americans are extremely blessed and we need to thank God for all the joys in our lives constantly. To have a family to love you, to have friends that will be there for you, to always know that you will have a place to stay if you just ask, and to know that you will probably never know what real hunger is.... These are the things we need to be reminded of and be thankful for constantly. Waste not want not. These are the things you do not want to waste in your life.

I feel like I'm not good at these three things, but I respect and love the friend that told me these and I will continue to try and find grounding in them.

Below are a few pictures from last week and Labor Day! Enjoy!

We went to San Jose to my roommates house and enjoyed the beach over the weekend.

Vincentian Service Corps!

We learned how to skim board. Long story short it hurts.

My roommate after a long weekend.

Went on a fun ride with the ladies and a few of my roommates. Definitely a highlight of the weekend.

Our beautiful San Francisco beach!

We stopped to get a hot dog at the local vendor in Golden Gate Park. Almost like a Super Dog!

What a week!

One more week has gone by in San Francisco and it was crazy. It was jam packed with exciting things almost every night. So here is a brief overview!

Tuesday:
We had our first community night on Tuesday. Community night is a mandatory night once a week (Tuesdays for us) that the VSC program requires us to have. It is supposed to be a time where the whole house gets together and eats together and then does an activity to grow in our faith. We are also supposed to invite our support people to join as well. Support people are individuals that are there for us locally for anything that we need spiritually. We have two support people for the San Francisco house: RJ, who is a previous VSC volunteer and Sr. Kathleen, who works at De Marillac with me.

Our first community night I was "lead" chef and we had spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, and a salad with homemade salad dressing. The 9 of us sat around the table and ate together, asking questions, talking about our days, and just enjoying each others company. Afterwords we did a simple faith, get to know you game. I introduced them to the challenge of summing up your current faith life up in 6 words. Hard right? The exercise is for you to take all the words out of your though and focus them into a simple meaning. I have done this quite a few times, but each time it changes and this time I came up with I'm here, I'm willing, I'm ready. Short, simple, and to the point.

Our Beautiful Meal.

Thursday:

Thursday I had the privilege to go to a conference put on by Evernote. It was an amazing experience! It was a 2 day conference and since I needed to request time off, I was able to go to the educators conference on thursday rather than the "programming" conference on Friday. The conference cost me only $12 (I got a discount code for being a volunteer!) and I got breakfast and lunch. I met lots of educators excited about integrating technology into their curriculums. Education is changing so much! I was in high school only 5 years ago and the only thing you used a computer for was to type assignments and do a small amount of research. Now though, gradebooks, curriculums, schedules, ways to teach, portfolios, and most paperwork is now digital and online. ITS CRAZY. I think there is a very delicate balance of the use of technology in the classroom and now society is trying to find that line.... but thats another posting for another day.

At the end of the conference LiveScribe did a presentation about their product and how it integrates with Evernote. But to show their dedication to educators, they gave everyone there a free LiveScribe Pen! I have yet to test it out, but I'm pretty excited.

Evernote's Educational Conference

That night I went out with some co-workers to the California Academy of Sciences (discounted of course). IT WAS AMAZING! If my family ever comes to see me, this is one of the places I will take you! The special thing about Thursdays is that the whole museum becomes a huge party for guests. They have bar tables, DJs, and lots of food around the museum. So you can go there and socialize and see all of the exhibits too. They have a bio dome, a planetarium, a huge aquarium, and an earthquake simulator, and more! I was like a little kid in a candy store, I hope to go back soon to say the least :)

Bio Dome!

Jellyfish. So cool!

This was the BEST exhibit there. Proof that the earth spins. Its a huge pendulum and because of the earth's rotation, the  ball slowly moves in a circle knocking down all the pins!

The crazy huge aquarium!

Friday:

Since I was only able to get one day off for the Evernote Conference, I signed up for the after party  on Friday (starting at 5:30) and was only $3.75 with my special discount. I was able to get there a little early and listen to a panel of questions about Evernote and where they think their company is going, it was really interesting to say the least. One of the questions was concerning education and I taped what they had to say about it:

Soon after the party began and I quickly realized they had great bluegrass musicians there, free arcade games, free swag, complimentary food, and an open bar.... and remember I only paid $3.75 for it. I made a lot of connections and had a lot of good talks with the people there about what it takes to be in the "start up" business. I don't think I would ever want to be in that world, but its just interesting how passionate these people are that their ideas will change the world.

Oh yeah I saw this on my way to the conference!

Saturday:

Some of us from my house decided we were going to go to the Golden Gate bridge, and so we did. It was a lot of fun to to a little road trip with my roommates. 

Look mom, its amazing!

Action photo!

King of the world, oh yeah!

This was the third time I was able to go to the bridge, but the first time I wasn't under a time constraint. I was really happy about this because I had time to read through the information on how it was constructed, why certain decisions were made about the bridge, and just see how the bridge was built... amazing.

After the Golden Gate bridge, we went to Fishermans walf to walk around and then called it a day... a really good one. :)

WOW! It really was a busy week, but a good one. To all my readers: I think about all of you a lot, I'm finding it really hard to keep up with everyone though. Please though don't take this the wrong way, I want to know about you! and this is the best way that I feel like I can give you an incite into my life right now. I hope that I am able to connect with all of you soon! And most of all I love you.

From the darkness we come into the light.

My new life

I have now been in California for 3 weeks now. Things are finally starting to settle, habits are forming,  I'm starting to see usual patterns, and normality is attempting to set in.  The first week here I have professional development days at De Marillac, the second week was learning how to be a Vincentian, and this last week was learning how to teach 4th graders.

All I have to say is teaching is hard! Its physically taxing, you always seem to have a "mask" on, and intellectual conversations are hard to come by during the day. This last week I started to grow a new found respect for teachers and the teaching industry. My mother, father, and one of my sisters are all teachers and I have always respected them, but this brings a completely new understanding to their lives and how they live them.

I can't say that this week was all sunshine and rainbows for me, but I can say that I opened my life for change and change is what I got. I am constantly learning new things at my job, seeing problems in the school systems, hating technology more and yet growing a new found love for it. Seeing technology progress forward sometimes I wonder what they point of it all is? Why fix something if its not broken? Why do schools get grants for technology and yet struggle to get new books, teaching supplies, and even teachers? What is this strong pull that everyone thinks technology is the solution?

I personally see technology as a growing crutch to the developed world.On the other side of it though I see  technology as a beautiful catalystic organism that is allowing humanity the chance to fully express how we see the world and how we want to be apart of it... no matter where we are in the world. My two cents: "Be aware of how much you rely on technology and take a break from it once in a while"

Here is a nice assortment of  pictures from the last week. Miss all my readers from Iowa!

My roommate Laura at the top of Twin Peaks

A great view from the top of Twin Peaks

Our first successful trip to Costco! And we are only out $230!

We had a movie night... Yes Titanic on Two VHS tapes.

My roommate Peyton at the top of Twin Peaks

We decided to go to Dolores Park and throw the football around. Yes, I can throw a football!

Lisa Engler, ISU graduate, fellow Trumpeteer, and the greatest graphic designer I know!

Security Scare

I have found that in San Francisco I am starting to live a double (maybe soon to be triple life): My VSC life and my computer engineering life. While I was at my VSC orientation this last week I was extremely involved (and now almost finished) with a book by the name of  KingPin. It is a book on the life of Max Vision (Butler) aka Iceman and the cyber criminal underground. Its really a good book and has really opened my eyes to how vulnerable the cyber world is. Knowledge is power, but no one ever said with knowledge come only good. It has re-sparked an interest in security and understanding infrastructure for me.

Along with reading KingPin, I had a huge security breach in my twitter account. The trickest part about it though was the fact that all parties involved didn't even know there was a security break... including the accidental hacker.

I received a weird tweet from one of my friends on Tuesday and looked at the tweet they replied to and realized I did not send it. My phone had been charging  out in the open at the retreat center and so I figured one of my new friends saw me unlock my phone and then they used that to their advantage to tweet on my behalf. So I kept my phone with me until I figured out who the culprit was. My friend later tweeted back to me and low and behold the hacker replied back to my friend "who are you?". I had my phone with me, someone was accessing my account from somewhere else.

At this point I started to get a bit more nervous, but figured that it was still one of my friends screwing with me.. somewhere. So I watched all of my social networking sites and email to see if there was a intrusion on them (if there had been, that would mean my passwords were compromised), nothing. So only twitter was hacked by one of my friends.... but how? All of the boxes that I signed into are either with me or in my closet at my parents house password protected..... My work. 

This last summer  I worked with my brother-in-law at his company and after I left I know he took my computer so he could have all the code I had written over the summer, no biggy. But then I realized I was signed into twitter on that computer and he could have noticed and decided to play a nice prank on me (he's soo nice...). I texted him and he told me that he wasn't on my work computer... at this point I was starting to panic a bit, my password must have been cracked.

It had to be a personal attack though because most bots, hackers, and malware will only crack your password and put general crap on your feed but never interact with followers. So at this point I changed my password on my twitter. That would cut this hacker from my account, once his cache refreshed. I waited a few hours to ensure that he would be kicked off and asked my friend to tweet me again to see if they got a reply and sure enough they did, "Who the hell are you, how did you get my number!". Weird.

All of the text messages were confusing, asking who my friend was and this last one the hacker referred to the reply as a "number". But why? I thought about it for a bit and everything became clear and I became extremely angry I did not catch it before and my mind exploded with thoughts about the third party privacy world we live in today.

I checked my twitter account and sure enough my settings confirmed my realization. My old phone was linked to the twitter account. I didn't port my number from US Cellular when I moved to AT&T because I use a google number. Everyone sees my google number so there was no point in porting over my USC number (it costed a pretty penny to do so). Well sites like facebook, twitter, emails, and other social sites allow you to link up your phone to get live updates via text message. For reasons I don't know these sites will not forward updates to a google number and so I had to put in my actual USC number.

When I dropped my number at USC the ONLY explanation they gave me for keeping my number is "you will have to tell all your contacts you have a new number and it will be a very tedious process, paying a little extra upfront cost for connivance is worth it". That was it. Nothing about "every network you have your number linked to will have to be deleted and readded if you want to keep your security". I don't know about about the general population, but if they would have said that, I probably would have kept my number. Third Party failure to keep their customers secure.

On the other end though, social networking third parties. To update and "link" your phone with their site all you do is type your number in, they send you text and you reply with a confirmation number the site tells you. This is a fairly secure 3 way handshake. But what happens when a new user takes the number? There is initial log in of the phone, but nothing after that. No verification each time someone replies to the site or anything. Third Party failure to fully secure and inform linked devices.

Yes, I am partly at fault for this as well. But me being a computer nerd, I could make these connections, but what if  I was a normal user? And what if my  "hacker" really wanted to screw with my account? I would have NO control over it. The only control I would have would be to delete my account. Fortunately for me, the guy was a nice trucker that just got a new phone. He was a nice and understanding guy by the way.

Moral of the story: Be aware of who you trust with your private information. And when involving third party companies with third party companies, security can potentially be breached.

I hope others find this interesting and learn from my mistake. Don't link your number to a device, link a manageable account.

The Vincentian Service Corps

Its been about one week since I have written last and I could could type forever! This last week I became a part of a bigger organization called the Vincentian Service Corp West. The program I am in has helped me decide what I want to do after college, brought me to California, started to change my thoughts and views, started on me on a path closer to God,  created a great network of contacts and friends in Silicon Valley, and most importantly gave me a new incite to serving the poor. And I have only been a Vincentian for a week!

St. Vincent De Paul was a good man and I can only hope to one day have a mind set like him. During our retreat we learned about the poor and how we can serve them this year. We learned about community and what it means to live simply. We learned about different forms of prayer and we learned about AmeriCorps. We even learned why each of us came out here.

The program is set up all around the US and I am apart of the Vincentian Service Corps West. In this branch there are 2 sites, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The LA house has 10 volunteers and the SF house has 7 volunteers including myself. The house I live in is known as the Pink Palace and I live on a floor with two other guys and the other floors are filled with four women. It seems like my house is excited to be active, the one thing I wanted in a community. :) They are excited to site see, bike, run, camp, hike, and just open to new experiences.

The 2012-2013 VSC West Volunteers

Vincentians live by four pillars: Spirituality, Living Simply, Community,  and Service. I love them all. I want to grow in my spirituality, I love living simply, community brings us closer, and I think service is a moral obligation of humanity. A wise friend once told me that the key to living a Christian life (to him) was based on three things: Friendship, Prayer, and Thankfulness. Since I have heard this, I have been striving to incorporate these in my life to their fullest. With the Vincentians, I think I will be able to take this to a new level.

I am truly blessed and greatful I have taken this opportunity to serve and grow this year.