After watching this video created by Dr. Strange I was pretty excited to try it out for myself. I was also a little upset with myself that I have never heard of either google squared or WolframAlpha. Once I got to google squared I did the same searches as displayed in the video, then I started experimenting on my own. My first search was internet use. Among the places that google squared displayed I found that China (surprise, surprise) was in the lead with 384,000,000 internet users, next came Japan with 95, 979,000 internet users and in third was the United Kingdom with 46,683,900 internet users. After some more clicking around I saw a suggestion for small hypoallergenic dogs so I decided to search large hypoallergenic dogs. From here I searched for the longest life span. The three listed were the Bearded Collie from Scotland who lives up to fourteen years, the West Highland White Terrior also from Scotland lives up to fourteen years and the Airedale Terrior from England who lives up to thirteen years. While I was on google squared I did run into some search trouble, where some of the searches came up with nothing. I can only assume it was the way I worded what I was trying to find and I need to keep navigating this sight to become more familiar with it.
Once I went to WolframAlpha I typed in the search box, "women in Australia." That was my first mistake, my wording was silly. What it recognized and suggested (which I then typed in) was female population in Australia. My results were very clear cut, in 2008 there was a total population of 10.52 million women in Australia. Compare that to the total population of 21.1 million and it's just about half. It also gave me the life expectancy which lead to my next search. After my Australia search I typed in female life expectancy in the United States. My results were lots of graphs, charts and percentages. 61.3% of women will live to their 80's, 27.4% will live past 90 and 3.1% will live past 100. Pretty interesting!
Educational Implications involved with google squared were; it helped for us to understand, perceive, solve problems and learn when we can see the answers side by side and compared to different things or different places.
Educational Implications involved with WolframAlpha were similar. In my opinion though, this website was easier to use. I liked how my search and answer were a bit more focused and it tried to give only what you were specifically looking for. Where as google squared gave related information, which is good, but sometimes the topics were related by a single word.
I have never heard of either google squared or WolframAlpha before this assignment.
After watching the google squared ad WolframAlpha video created by Dr. Strange my thoughts on the Did You Know video have changed a bit. I still really like the video and the message it portrays. The first time I saw it I was blown away with the statistics. As Dr. Strange said though, we need to be aware of the context which the statistic is being delivered and the real message.
From this assignment I have learned about two great new websites useful for seeking out all types of information. I have also learned to think about a statistic before I just take it and start sharing it myself. I am glad Dr. Strange made it a point at the end of the video to remind us to be aware of what we hear, see and read. I can guarantee there has been more than one time in my life I heard a statistic and didn't think twice about how much truth was behind it.
Food For Thought- I thought this was an interesting article. I did find it a little hard to believe. Sometimes I feel so lost using new gadgets that I can't exactly picture a boy who has never touched an ipad, picking it up and figuring out how to operate such an advanced piece of technology. However, this article does go to show us what technology can accomplish!
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