Category Archives: Tech/Games

School Life, Tech/Games

Whats the deal with these iPads?

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IPads were introduced to Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) in 2015. It was a new way for students to be interactive with their work. The iPads bring education to life with hands-on work. Students have specific access to apps such as Dictionary, Calculator, Schoology, and Campus Portal. While some apps are allowed in SPPS, others aren’t. Although we were given an iPad, some restrictions applied. The App Store, Messages, FaceTime, and more, are not allowed. With this information, it had us thinking: Why aren’t students rewarded with the App Store if they are maintaining their grades?

With this question, we took the time to talk to Mr. Peterson. He is the iPad coordinator here at Highland. He takes care of all the Troubleshooting problems and has helpful hints with not only iPads but anything technology. We talked to Mr. Peterson to get as much information as we could on the iPad. Here are a few of the highlights:

Why don’t we have the App Store?

  • It is because not all apps are school appropriate. The district has a filter where they manage which apps we have access to.

Why do other schools have their App Store?

  • Private schools might be breaking the law about the iPads. They have different rules. It could also be they are managed differently. The way that we manage the apps means that we have to consider all ages in our choices about which apps in are in our self-service.
  • There are some apps they could have for specific ages, but also have to be aware of middle schoolers.
  • Self-service is the only service that does the job of maintaining, but it doesn’t do everything, it’s not able to give “age appropriate apps” (feature request).
  • Some apps are connected to some federal laws, and we get a federally mandated price for our Internet, so part of the fear is that we could lose our education radar for our Internet if we got caught giving apps that kids aren’t supposed to have. Strict guidelines.

With group projects, and people living far, why don’t you think they should have Skype and FaceTime, in your opinion?

  • I think the district should do whatever it can to get video conferencing enabled for students to use or Skype.
  • They have been reviewing Skype to make sure that it wouldn’t be too much on the system, so they have been running tests on them, and they haven’t been going well on there. They keep saying that they will (Enable Skype) but end up failing. It’s an ongoing project that they need to rush and enable the app.

While talking to Mr. Peterson, he mentioned CIPA, COPPA, and FERPA. The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) governs the filtering of Internet access, acceptable use, and digital citizenship education. The Children’s Online Privacy & Protection Act (COPPA) governs the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information collected from children under age 13. While the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student education records.

These three laws work hand and hand to ensure Internet safety across our district. The App Store was removed when the district learned they were violating CIPA, COPPA and FERPA laws. The solution is to shut down the App Store.

For more information about these laws, please visit: https://www.spps.org/cms/lib/MN01910242/Centricity/Domain/11270/OverviewofCIPACOPPAandFERPA12.2015.pdf

Overall, while many students don’t enjoy their iPads, it’s a helpful resource. These iPads, as Mr. Peterson puts it, are to help personalize learning and transform learning for each student.

There are complications when it comes to having a reward.

There are district laws that prevent us from having our the App Store on our iPads. While our App Store dreams are crushed, there is still the possibility of having Messages, FaceTime or Skype, all helpful tools for group projects.

As we continue to use the iPads, the District will continue to find the best way to operate and execute it properly.

Entertainment, Movies/TV/Theaters, Tech/Games

Fornite’s popularity

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Released in the middle of September, 2017, Fortnite, a battle royal video that was created by, Epic Games, was a major hit in the gaming community. In just 3 months, Fortnite was one of the most downloaded games of the year, and as of February, 2018, has reached over 40 million players world wide.

Not only is Fortnite free-to-play, it is also a battle royal, and at the time of Fortnite’s early access, the most played battle royal game was, Player’s Unknown Battlegrounds. Fortnite has gained popularity because of its free access to players, and how the gameplay of the game works.

Many times, Epic Games had to expand their technology towards Fortnite with the number of players worldwide. Epic Games would have game servers shut down from time to time because of the excessive number of players.

Fortnite is a genre of battle royal, where the player drops onto a generated map with nothing but a pickaxe. Once landed, the player’s objective is to find loot, such as weapons, health kits, shields, etc. and survive against 99 other players who also have the same objective; to be the last standing surviver.

Fortnite’s graphics are created to give the game a carton type vibe, and allow players to build using 3 resources: Wood, Stone and Metal. Players are allowed to build floors, stairs, ramps, walls, doorways, etc., using this mechanic. This allows players to better survive against others in combat, and gives the game a new mechanic that players can use.

Battle royal has become one of the more favored genres in gaming ever since the release of H1Z1 and Player’s Unknown Battle Grounds.

Reviews for Fortnite have been mainly positive; for it’s free-to-play access and the mechanics of the game. Many gaming companies have taken a liking to Fortnite and many famous YouTubers have profited from Fortnite. Many companies have prospered because of Fortnite like: Twitch, PlayStation, Microsoft and Epic Games.

Epic Games was also affected, because of how many players downloaded Fortnite and played. Epic Games had to increase the amount of servers they had because of the increase of Fortnite players. This also affected another game that Epic Games had been developing over the past 2 years, which was Paragon.

Fortnite has been used by YouTubers, and streamers, to boost their incomes; mainly, YouTubers because of the new Terms of Service, of how certain graphical videos would earn no ads for that particular video. This meant that YouTubers couldn’t earn money from uploading videos of certain games, so many YouTubers became streamers; also known as monetization.

Twitch gained a positive value from Fortnite because of the amount of streamers who had come to stream Fortnite using Twitch. This allowed Twitch and the streamer to earn donations by the viewers who watched. Twitch gained an increase in streamers, once Fortnite gained popularity, before the end of 2017. This affected Twitch’s views, economy, software updates, and the streamers who used Twitch.

Entertainment, Tech/Games

Social media

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Social media is great for a lot of reasons: it can educate us, bring us closer together to those who we admire, it’s cheap entertainment, and new friends are just a click away. Another way social media positively impacts us, is it can help us with today’s world. For example, “social media is an integral part of today’s society” according to an article on Teenshiled.com.

Although social media positively impacts resilience, it can also negatively impact it too. For example, infographic states that social media “Takes away time we can spend face to face” This shows that social media can negatively impact a person because instead of spending time with their family or friends, they rely on technology for interaction and entertainment. Addiction to social media can, and will, take away time from the things that are important to you. A lot of studies, like one found on Time.com, even show that social media can make you dumber.

Another negative impact of social media is cyber bullying. Many people decide to bully other people behind a screen. Cyber bullying is a major issue that affects many teenagers’ lives. Bullying is definitely not right, but it’s harder when someone you don’t know keeps harassing you. It even makes it harder to seek help, or confront them, because you don’t know who they are.

What many people don’t know is that social media makes a lot of money off of people. According to Social Networking “ Social network ad spending reached $23.68 billion in 2015 and should reach $35.98 billion by the end of 2017.” Sites like Facebook. Twitter, Tumblr etc. might be free, but they still get money from users that have accounts. So, you might think no money is being made from you, but the truth is these sites and other social media sites are making money off of your entertainment.

Another thing that’s wrong about social media is that your privacy could be invaded. Whatever you post on your social media site is public, so it can be seen by anyone. Many jobs actually look at their candidates post to determine what interests this person. So, if you are a person that posts problematic things, just remember it’s public and everyone can see it, even your future boss.

Social media is a great place to explore yourself, but it also has negative parts to it. Just make sure you’re careful.

Advice/How To, Tech/Games

Don’t text while driving

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Why not to text while driving
The main reason not to text while driving is because it kills innocent people and probably the person who is driving. If someone is texting you, don’t look right at your phone, instead, wait until you make a full stop.

According to the FCC (Federal Communications Commision), people who text and drive think that they can get away with it without getting caught. In a recent study conducted by the FCC, it was shown that 18% of crashes were caused by drivers who were texting while driving.

In 2012, the FCC reported that 3,328 people were killed and around 420,000 people were injured. Texting forces you to take your hands of the wheel. Statistics have shown (FCC) that 40% of teens admitted to texting while driving. In most states, texting and driving is against the law.

Texting while driving happens at about the same rate for both men and women. That means that both genders text while driving.

How to avoid texting while driving
Staying off your phone while driving can be difficult. Once you hear a ring or a buzz, you are likely to be distracted, which means your eyes will be pulled from the road. Here are some tips to abide being distracted while driving:

  • The first thing you could do is to turn your phone on silent, especially while driving. That will help you to focus more on the road than your phone.
  • If that doesn’t work, then completely shut off your phone so you don’t start texting and causing distractions.
  • If those 2 steps don’t work out for you, then keep your phone out of reach, but don’t put it near you.
  • Lastly, download an app that prevents you from texting while driving.

These tips should help prevent you from texting while driving. It is important to be alert at all times and not be a distracted driver.

School Life, Tech/Games

New iPads

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For the next school year, teachers and students will be given new iPads to use for school. The new iPads will have a different case, along with a keyboard. The case and keyboard are navy blue. The keyboard can be attached and detached easily. The keyboard does not have touch pads, but has everything else on it.

The reasons why the school decided to get these new iPads is because they have a three year lease on them, and have been planning to get new iPads for a while now. Also, the new iPads have 128 gigabytes whereas the old ones had just 16. With more gigabytes, it will be easier for students to use the iPads, and make movies for school projects. Another reason for the change, is because the old iPads would eventually break down, so keeping the old iPads wouldn’t be worth it. Plus, the new iPads are more durable to use.

The school hopes to pass out the iPads sooner next year. The paper for getting an iPad will still be online, so students and parents can access it. The plan for passing out the new iPads is to maybe pass them out even before school starts, so students could possibly come pick up their iPad in late August or early September.

Editorials/Student Voice, Tech/Games

Dependence

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The week that the Seniors turned in our iPads was strife with technical difficulty. We were all short one more device, and on top of that, the Internet was acting all goofy. Sometimes it didn’t work, sometimes it did. Having no internet for even just an hour really set us back. All of this happening made me realize how dependant we are on technology.

I have always been extremely grateful for my iPad. I have terrible handwriting, and having the tablet really helped me take notes and write things. Having no smart phone until September last year, this also was just really great to have on hand. To look something up, I didn’t need to go on a computer, and for the longest time, it was against the rules in my house to use more than one electronic device at once.

And now, having it removed, it made me realize how much I relied on it. Every morning I would sit down and read about world news and other things. I also used it to write not just for school work, but on my novel. I’ve probably written well over 20,000 words of the book on the iPad alone. In a way, the device was an extension of my brain.

And that worries me.

200 years ago, local journalists just wrote things down. I at first thought I wouldn’t survive in that field with my bad handwriting, but I write far faster than I think. With all this information from the Internet, maybe that’s why I think so fast? I am writing this down on a piece of technology, and you will read it on that. Even if I printed this out, the text would have been made by computers, which is still technology. But then again, isn’t pen and paper technically a technology?

Are we already cyborgs?

Editorials/Student Voice, News, Tech/Games, World

Vault 7

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Spectacular Mountain

In the midst of Paul Ryan’s failure to pass his healthcare bill, and other dramatic political news, a much more interesting story has probably been overlooked. This is of course the Vault 7 leaks, a series of around 8,000 documents that record some of the CIA’s methods of spying and tracking information. The person who leaked this information remains unknown, and the CIA refuses to comment, besides vague remarks.

The leaks first came to light on the website Wikileaks, the controversial platform run by Julian Assange, who has previously been accused of messing with the US elections. Along with the 8,000 documents, was a synopsis of the whole situation, along with a promise to release more similar documents in the future (none have yet arrived), and early access for reporters who did high quality reporting on the leaks.

Some of the more well known leaks do seem to be a major threat on privacy. For example, Weeping Angel, probably the most widely reported virus, allowed the CIA to access certain models of Samsung TVs, allowing them to be used as cameras and microphones to monitor the room the TV was in. This program does still appear to be in the relatively early stages (so far, it has only been delivered via flash drive, and can be removed by unplugging the TV), but is still probably one of the more scary programs that leaked.

In addition to Weeping Angel, there are a multitude of other programs, largely aimed at the Windows operating system and Apple iPhones (the first because of how common it is and the later because it is used by political elites the CIA wants to hack). Overall, the leaks are an astonishing look at the capabilities our intelligence agencies, or at least one of them.

News, Tech/Games, World

Artificial intelligence

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AI, or Artifical Intelligence, is intelligence that is exhibited by machines. Recently, artificial intelligence has taken over many news cycles as we see it being used to solve many problems. According to Wired.com, AI research is defined as the study of any machine that takes information from its environment and uses that information to solve a goal or be better for its task.

Artificial intelligence has been around since at least the early 1960’s. Why are we only hearing about it now then? The main reason is that it has only recently been useful to the common man. Before we look at how AI works, let’s define some of the terms.

When discussing AI a common term you will hear is “Machine Learning.” Machine learning is basically what it sounds like; a machine learning. However, it can get very complex very fast. The main idea behind machine learning is that the machine creates its own prediction engine and is able to accurately predict the outcome of an input over time. For this prediction engine to be good, however, humans have to train it. There are many ways to do this, but the most common way is for the algorithm to be given a set of inputs, with known outputs, and then given some inputs, with unknown outputs. After predicting the output of those inputs, it is then given the actual output and learns from that.

There are many ways that we can apply this. It also has importance on many different levels. The ability for machines to solve problems through logical deduction along with being able to display knowledge about their environment is important because it shows that AI is able to have the same reasoning that we see in young children. It also has importance due to the fact that AI will advance automation along with replacing jobs.

Clubs and Activities, Tech/Games

HPHS Robotics

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image taken from: https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/682683446628450304/vXiLQreN.png

This weekend, the Highland Park robotics team are hopping on a bus and going to Duluth to compete in the 2017 First Robotics Steamworks Competition. This competition will determine if the team will move on to the worldwide competition in St. Louis later this year.

For those of you who don’t know, First Robotics competitions work like this: every year First Robotics creates a challenge, this year it’s “Steamworks,” they lay out a field of play for the robots to traverse, and complete unique challenges in order to earn points, to eventually win the match. One challenge this year was to make your robot climb a rope onto an “airship.” Another was to make the robot throw wiffle balls into a boiler in order to “power” the airship.

When the match starts, the first 15 seconds are called “the autonomous period.” This is where the robots do pre-programmed tasks and deliver pre-loaded game pieces. After the 15 seconds expire, the team’s drivers take over for the last 2 minutes, and 15 seconds, of the match. In this time, teams might try to defend an objective, or complete some of their own. The team’s drivers have to be some of the most talented people on the team as one crucial mistake could mean the end for your team’s season.

Behind the scenes are the build team, the business team, and the programming team. During the six-week long build season, the build team comes together to actually turn their designs into reality. This job takes skill, and the ability to work with your hands. During the hectic build season they must work hard to assemble a robot that can physically accomplish all the methods of winning. According to freshman Alexander “Zuperman17” Busch, the hardest part of being on the build team is managing your time properly in order to finish everything with time to spare. “I mostly like the snacks,” He said jokingly.

The business team works with local businesses in order to get sponsorships, and to manage the team’s finances. One member of the business team, Greta Shore, says robotics helped her follow her passion for science, engineering, and technology. “It helped me develop relationships with upperclassmen,” she said with a “dab.”

In contrast to the large rosters of the build team and business team, the programming team is much smaller with only two members. One member of the programming team, Alexis, said, “Robotics is challenging, but fun, and very rewarding!”

Overall, robotics isn’t about the competition, according to the FRC (First Robotics Competition), it’s about the cooperation, or working with other teams, and with your team, to accomplish goals. That’s what really makes robotics special; it’s the “varsity sport of the mind.” It’s extremely different than many other sports because two teams can win the match. Robotics combines the precision of an athlete, the smarts of mathlete, and the determination of a boxer.

For all of you who want to join an after school activity, but don’t know what to join, the robotics team always welcomes you.

Advice/How To, Tech/Games

How to get off your phone

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cell-phones-dinner
image taken from: http://primility.com/phone-game/

The are so many ways that  teens can get off their phones, especially in school, during church services, and also at the dinner table. Here are a few that might help.

  • One way to get off your phone is to turn off your data when you are in class, church, or at dinner. If you also turned your notifications off, it would help.
  • You can also uninstall things that you don’t really use, so it won’t take anymore of your time sorting through them.
  • You can also set a specific time to get on your phone and when to get off of it, and you can set a charging station outside your room so you don’t look at it.
  • Also, leave your phone home when you go to church or dinner.

There are many more ways to try to get off your phone, but these are just a few simple ideas.