Special Blog Post #1

When I searched WolframAlpha for "Compare Populations of India, China and the United States" I found many more statistics. More importantly, I found statistics about populations in India, China, and the United States all compared. In 2010 it was estimated that India had 1.21 billion people, China had 1.35 billion people, and the United States had 309 million people. These state that China was in the lead of population followed by India then the United States. This was not new information to me or surprising. In my previous blog post I commented on how I thought this would be the population order.

For my two example searches I searched for "united states coffee consumption" first. I found a breakdown with charts, number, and any statistic I could need. My second search, I used "5 most popular girl's names" and nothing came up so I tried again with "Elizabeth, Rebecca, Jennifer". After the results came up, again I saw charts, numbers, and any data I could want comparing the three names I entered.

WolframAlpha is new to me therefore it is difficult to write how I would use it in my classroom. I did some research on the site to learn a little more about it so that I could answer this question. The definition of this site is a free online computational knowledge engine that generates answers to questions in real time by doing computations on its own vast internal knowledge base. I found that WolframAlpha can be used to solve math problems and general information like science topics too. They also have lesson plans for educators to use. I believe that with time this could be a successful learning tool to help explain lessons to students.

Watching Gary's Media Count website, again, I am not surprised. I actually expected the numbers to be higher. I see what the sight has done is gather the data then divide it by the allotted time. There, it is not completely accurate, but I see the point. Yes they are moving up at an astounding rate but that was a statistic collected in June 2012 and the media usage I would think would have gone up since then. Also, New websites with be in use and sites we are currently using now will be overrated and not used heavily anymore.
As I said before, I do understand to process and the outcome of this website and I do believe it gives good insight on how much we as a society rely on internet and social media usage. For my professional career as a teacher I think these social media numbers will not affect me in a negative way. I would use the social media to help educate the class as Dr. Stage has done with EDM 310.