The TI-84 graphing calculator is a very expensive calculator that most high school students are required to have. This calculator on average is around 100$ which is very high price for a tool almost every high school student is required to have. This calculator may not be an option for some students because of the high cost, therefore they may not be able to advance in areas in school that require it. New digital graphing calculators that function the same as the TI-84 have come out and are quickly taking over the market. The company Smarter Balanced, which created Desmos, is leading the market with these calculators. These calculators will allow anyone with internet access to have a graphing calculator for free. The digital calculators can also be very helpful for exams. The CEO of Smarter Balanced Eli Luberoff said, "If our goal is to measure students' ability to compute algebraic functions, to actually engage in math, then we don't necessarily want them to use a calculator," Luberoff said. "If we're asking students to engage in data analysis and problem solving -- where we're testing more of their process skills and not their content knowledge -- then we absolutely encourage the use of a calculator." This is referring to having the graphing calculators show up on the screen of an exam, but on the next page they can be taken away. I think this is a really good idea because everyone will be able to have access to graphing calculators and won't have to pay 100$ to have one, also I think it is interesting how we had to buy the TI-84 graphing calculator and this directly relates to us. I hope the digital graphing calculators do end up replacing the TI-84 because then everyone with internet access will be able to have one, and people won't have to spend 100$ to buy one.
Facebook is partnering with an indian mobile company, Bharti Airtel, to bring and spread 20,000 wifi hotspots across India. Facebook already has 700 hotspots set up in India. They want to give people access to cheap internet and are accomplishing this, the hotspots cost $ 0.15 for a day, which should be affordable for Indian citizens who on average earn 160$ a month. Facebook wants to give billions of people wifi across the country including rural areas as well as busy cities. This isn't the first time Facebook has brought wifi hotspots to other countries, "India is the fifth country to get Express Wi-Fi after Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Indonesia but by far the biggest in terms of potential users. Only about 400 million of its 1.3 billion people currently have access to the internet." This is really good because with more and more people being exposed to the internet and all the benefits wifi has, the future of technology can advance even further. As well more people will be able to express and share their thoughts and ideas, and contribute to this advancement of technology. Many tech companies are trying to give internet to countries that don't have it for those reasons, as well as to capture a huge market. I think this is a great thing for Facebook to do and hope more countries will be able to have access to the internet through programs like this.
Recently a number of startups have taken on the idea of inventing a flying car. Many of these startups are placed in Silicon Valley, and one of the startups is moving forward rapidly. The startup is named Kitty Hawk and they have a prototype of a flying car they have been testing and have good results from it. However, there is a lot of competition because many other startups are advancing quickly behind them. Kitty Hawk's goal is to legalize and sell flying cars to be used as a normal mean of transportation. "We hope that this is more of an exciting concept than what most people have had in their minds about flying cars,” Mr. Robertson said. “This is not yet that product in terms of what we will say and what it can do, but I think it demonstrates a vision of the future.” Their flying car isn't quite the model they think people will be using in the future with flying cars, but they hope their model interests people to want to continue advancing and investing in flying cars. The model they made can successfully fly and takes on the role of a car, with being able to turn and change speed, but in the air. The vehicle can only hold one person, but they hope to expand the seating so it can hold more people. The whole contraption weighs 220 pounds and is powered by eight propellers. I think this is really interesting because this is happening right where we live, also I think it would be so cool to be able to fly where ever you want to go.
Trillions of tiny, fragmented pieces of plastic are filling up the waters of the Arctic Ocean. The plastic is believed to be washing in from the north-atlantic. Scientists don't know all of the effects the plastic will have on the Arctic ocean, just know it won't be good. Andrés Cózar Cabañas, the study’s lead author and a professor of biology at the University of Cádiz, said he was surprised by the results, and worried about possible outcomes. “We don’t fully understand the consequences the plastic is having or will have in our oceans. What we do know is that these consequences will be felt at a greater scale in an ecosystem like this because it is unlike any other on Earth." Every year, around 8 million tons of plastic goes into the ocean, and scientists estimate that there might be around 110 million tons of plastic trash in the ocean. Even though the environmental effects of plastic pollution are not fully understood, it has made its way into the food chain and is having negative effects. This is not good and can have very serious, long term, effects. I think this is very sad, and hope we can find a way to collect a lot of the plastic and it doesn't do too much harm to the ecosystem.
I am Katie. I am a freshman writing a blog for my American Democracy and Global Issues class.