Along My English Experience
Fabian Patricio Tinoco Mosquera English Language Program
Yachay Tech University
Level 6-013
Teacher: Hamilton Ismael Quezada Guerrero
January 13, 2017
Yachay,Ecuador
Content
1. Portfolio letter 2. Response essay 3. Literary Analysis 4. Interpretation essay 5. Final research project essay 6. Additional materials (pictures/videos/other works) 7. Thank you letter
Portfolio Letter
Patricio Tinoco Mosquera I3-4 15/12/16
Dear Portfolio Reader,
Thank you for reading my letter. My name is Patricio and in this letter you will find my thoughts, experiences and progress throughout this level of English. Learning English has always been difficult for me from school until now. In school the teachers had not even taught us to use our mother language properly, so I never gave it the importance it deserved; I believed that learning English was annoying. Years later, when I was in high school, I still believed it, and almost at the end of high school I had a teacher who inspired me and explained me the great utility that English had; since then I have dedicated myself to learn English the best I can. I often relate learning English to one of the sports that I like: climbing.
First, when I started climbing some time ago I met many people who shared the exiting feeling of climbing. I met some of the best climbers of the country, who for example had climbed Everest and Aconcagua. They inspired me and guided me to improve every day based on hard work and dedication; I learned many things from them, and things related to the sport but also learned values such as respect and patience. Maybe the most important thing that I have learned is to get to know myself: to know what
I'm capable of, to keep going forward, to never give up, to continue trying even if sometime I get hurt or discouraged, because deeply inside of me there is something that always tells me to go forward, so I cure my cuts and try again once more.
Furthermore, my progress along the level has been like a climbing wall with many challenges. For example, the quickdraws are similar to each of the writings we did this semester, because we must overcome them to reach the top, and the first one is one of the most complicated writings. The first essay was difficult, because I needed to remember previous information that I had before. I can give also as an example the structure of an essay: at the beginning it was difficult and not that easy to follow, but then this became fundamental for the rest of the semester.
As we climb, we arrive at the argumentative essay, which was the second most complicated test of all. I often use previous knowledge as well as others that were learned and reinforced this semester; also, we must do a well-structured essay and its draft as well as the reinforcement of our quoting abilities.
Finally, the most complicated and important step of all was the research paper, in which I used all the knowledge of level 6 to finish it. It took me many days to complete it. Some days I thought I would not achieve it, but with patience and dedication I could finish and I arrived to the top of this wall.
The English teacher is like a rope, who has always been available to answer any questions and help us to improve our writing. Besides, the rope is what keeps us safe when we fall. For me, the rocks on the climbing wall are all English skills that I have learned; each one of
them helps me to go up, and without them it would be impossible to complete the wall.
In conclusion, I think that the knowledge and new skills that I learned by doing the different assignments of this English level, make it one of the best levels for me; and that is what I wanted to show with this letter.
Sincerely,
Patricio Tinoco Mosquera
WILL TECHNOLOGY KILL UNIVERSITIES? Fabian Patricio Tinoco Mosquera Yachay Tech University 5 october,2016
WILL TECHNOLOGY KILL UNIVERSITIES? Taking into account advances in technology, would college someday disappear? In this article of the Time Magazine, different points of view about education and learning in the future are developed. The different experts who were interviewed for this article leave a clear message: technology will improve the way we learn, and it will also make education more accessible for everyone, but it will never replace entirely conventional universities. The views are very convincing because today we can already see certain features of what education will be in the future, and we can appreciate how clearly it is shifting to the address they describe. First, Andy Miah claims that students will be on the driver’s seat. Technology will force universities to redefine their role, because knowledge is increasingly less tied to an institution in particular. Students of tomorrow will want to experience flexible and mobile learning, so universities need to see technology not only as a vehicle to communicate or enrich learning, but as a co-learning collaborator. Computers will become entities in which students would project their learning expectations; then, if humans continue to stay in the center of that interaction, we need to really reconsider what humans offer that computers do not. I agree when Miah mentioned that knowledge is no longer tied to a physical place, because today anyone can learn about any topic of interest without much effort, as internet has information about practically everything. On the other hand, it seems a bit contradictory when he suggests that universities should see technology as a co-collaborator, and then mentioned that students would project learning expectations on computers; this suggests me a protagonism of computers leaving students behind, so there would not be the co-collaboration he mentions.
Furthermore, Kui Xie says that teachers and physical classrooms will not disappear in vain. Each generation of technology has changed the way we live and has also generated a lot of controversy; for example, the creation of online courses generated much debate, whether this new technology will replace teachers and the physical classroom. However, from the historical point of view, the answer has been negative, because after all, the human element is essential for education systems. Not only the acquisition of cognitive skills, such as problem solving, are part of the student’s experiences, but social experiences such as collaboration, leadership, and friendship, too, which Moocs can not provide. That said, I recognize that technologies have had an impact on teachers and schools. In addition, learning future technologies will continue to bring changes in educational systems that improve the functions of the universities, making them more efficient, effective and able to make an impact in society. I fully agree with Kui Xie, because he uses historical references to support the argument that the human being is indispensable for education systems, and he is not only making a prediction of a possible future. Also, Shia Reshef states that education will be extended to all corners of the world. The field of higher education is undergoing a rapid and profound transformation. Demand is growing and supplies are increasingly diverse, and students are more dynamic than ever. However, education accessibility and quality are very uneven; for example, there are more high-quality universities in the first world countries than in third world countries. This technology will transform higher education from being a privilege of a few to be a right for all. Besides, the internet has led to three major achievements: (1) access to education is a human right, (2) freedom of information is a universal freedom, and (3) people are naturally willing to help each other as it is shown through social networks.
The technology gives people the opportunity to get an education all over the world, but we must also keep in mind that for people to study more effectively, they need a model that includes personalized attention. Reshef also suggests that in a future, the education access will be closely linked to the internet access, which does not seem to be entirely true because I believe that the more classic means of transmitting knowledge, such as books, will continue, and they may never disappear. In conclusion, the different views that each author provides show us very objectively and in detail, how education will be in the future. The authors’ views are based on historical evidence or the actual behavior of society towards new technologies of education. For this and the reasons described above, I agree very much with the authors about this topic. References ¡
Goodbye, Chalkboard. (2015, March 18). Retrieved October 06, 2016, from http://time.com/3747816/education-chalkboard-chatroom/?iid=sr-link2
ABOUT ANTIQUE AND NEW MARRIAGE Fabian Patricio Tinoco Mosquera Yachay Tech University 5 october,2016
ABOUT ANTIQUE AND NEW MARRIAGE
The human thinking, behavior, and customs have changed through time. Anyways, this does not apply all the time in all cases. There is always something that remains as there are things that change. This essay analyzes the view of marriage according to the short story “The Story of an Hour� by Kate Chopin. First, the story shows a woman that has to live a marriage life that is typical of its epoch: 1894. She had to be behind the shadow of her husband, she had to please him in everything he wanted, and she would not do anything that was not involved with being a good housewife. This means that she had no life made by herself: she lived the life that his husband wanted and the life that society established for her. Moreover, when her husband dies, she starts being naturally desolate and she shuts herself up in her room to cry. It was the only form of life that she knew. As time passes, she realizes that her husband’s dead is not an awful thing after all. His dead means liberation: she does not depend on someone economically, romantically, or socially. Before, she was not really happy about her married life but she would not do anything about it because of the fear of being rejected by society. Now that she is a widow, she is happy because she can be free without being judged as she would have been. Now she can really start to build her own life. Nowadays, relationships are quite different, but not totally. At the present, there is more equality between men and women: both have to give some things to their shared life that are not only money and housework. Women and men are considered equal in almost every sense in first world countries such as the European ones. But here in Latin America the case is not the same; there is still a lot of gender inequality. It could be a sort of advantage that these days divorce is common in society: if a marriage does not work, each person can start again and make a new life. That did not happen in 1894.
To conclude, we can compare marriage viewpoints through time and we can find very interesting data. Daily lives in the present are very different from those of the end of the XIX century as people’s minds change from one epoch to another, but there are some things that remain until society realizes what the correct behavior is for a specific time.
References: Chopin, K (1894). “The Story of an Hour�
The D'oh-cial Network
The D'oh-cial Network Fabian Patricio Tinoco Mosquera Yachay Tech University 5 october,2016
The D'oh-cial Network In the episode "The D'oh-cial Network", the director, Chris Clements and the screenwriter J. Stewart Burns describe social media, facebook, because they tried to show the impact that facebook has had since it came out in 2006 and the importance that it had in the world. Then they used characters from all ages to show how facebook is involved in every step of the life that means since you are child, teenager, adult or ancient. All begins with a poor ability of Lisa to make friends and that is the main reason why "springface" was created. Then the addiction for this app creates a lot of situations like: traffic accidents, avoid every kind of human touch, etc. J.Stewart Burns, the screenwriter, at the beginning of the episode wants to transmit the reasons why “Springface” was created, in the reality Facebook was created by Mark Zuckzerberg and his reasons were: (1)share information, (2) interaction inside the University, (3) privacy and (4)business. Instead of that in the episode Liza creates “Springface” because she wants to make friends and also because she feels alone and that would be a good idea for sharing your feelings and what is happening in your life. Another good reason is proposed by the episode. In this case, Lisa Simpson is in a school park with some of her "springface friends". She is trying to talk with them, but no one answers or pays attention to what she says. In this scene the author shows a false sense of connection that the social networks produce on people who use it because these people forget the real world and they can not distinguish the real meaning of a relationship in the real world. Once using social networks, people tend to want a lot of followers and friends, and in some way, it produces the false illusion of being popular and something that is not necessarily true in real life. Friends mean support, love, and company: they help us overcome loneliness. One of the fears that people have in the present is being lonely, for this reason it is not weird that
people search for friends anywhere, including social networks. Keeping with the illusion of having a lot of friends by adding people on social networks. We could realize it is an illusion when having problems or, in general, simply needing a friend in front of us. There are a lot of people that have thousands of friends and followers, but sometimes in real life, they do not have anyone very close whom they can share personal interests with. When needing someone, a person would have much less people to call than friends or followers, as in the end, at the moment we enter a social network, we know that the people we add practically stay in a digital place. One of the direct consequences of entering a social network is that we start being a part of something bigger than ourselves. Joining a group goes in the same line as having friends: people could overcome loneliness by having a distraction or being an active part of something related to other people. Being part of a group means to be accepted and share common things, in such a way that people could see that they are not so alone; but is it really true? And is entering a social network really something helpful for us or for the world in that sense? The bad uses of the social networks also involve when they are used. Many people do not distinguish when they should use it. It is not easy to agree about when the right moment is. It depends on the decision of each one, but there are many situations that everyone must consider before using social networks. Some specific situations that social networks put in danger user’s life or the society in general are prohibited by laws. Many examples are presented in the episode, one of them is in a scene where Homero is driving a car and his family are passengers. He is modifying his state in a social network while he is driving. After that, he runs over an old man. In this example, the author puts in evidence one of the most common irresponsible attitudes of social networks users. On the other hand, social networks are used in order to share pictures, documents, some
words or just to know about others. Recently, “Facebook� has launched a different way to share videos with others. Their users can transmit live all what they are recording in that moment. This is a good tool that in many cases is used in a wrong way. People use it for transmitting tragedies to others. As a critique of that, in the chapter there are some firefighters in a fire. They are taking photos during the fire and they uploaded the photos to the social network. They are not doing their work and they are not concentrated in what they really have to do. Finally, despite the fact that all critiques during the chapter are parodies of people who use social networks, many of these examples presented are not so far from reality. Social networks have connected the world, but their wrong uses have created many issues in the society. Some problems have been accidents, disagreements, bullying, etc. We need to reconsidered the purpose of social networks. It is necessary raise awareness in the society in order to create responsible people of the uses of social networks. And this is possible by putting in evidence their bad habits using social networks.
References [TuCanalDeSeries]. (2016, October 26). LOS SIMPSON FACEBOOK DE SPRINGFIELD [Archivo
de
video].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NSDIUsWDq8&t=664s
Recovery
from
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CONTROL Fabian Patricio Tinoco Mosquera Yachay Tech University 5 october,2016
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CONTROL Throughout history, there have been many attempts to reproduce and simulate human mental abilities such as the Von Kempelen droid who played chess with Napoleon, and Charles Babbage's "analytic motor" that can calculate logarithms. Also, the conception of human intelligence as a mechanism is ancient: well-known mathematicians like Descartes, Hobbes and Leibniz conceived this idea. During the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, the development of artificial intelligence shifted from the notion of a mechanism towards the idea of developing biological analogies, thereby attempting to create a brain and a "synthetic" mind capable of emulating a real one. This notion was quickly abandoned in the second half of the twentieth century to refocus on the idea of a mechanism, which then made more sense with the formalization of the notion of computing. Artificial intelligence (AI) was introduced in the scientific community in 1950 through the article “Computational machinery and intelligence" by Alan Turing. Although years ago related research was developed, it was not until Turing introduced the idea of an intelligent machine that this topic got the attention of the scientists of that time. Since then, many investigations and experiments were carried out in order to develop an artificial intelligence, such as Sad Sam and Eliza, a program developed by Stanford University that was able to sustain a fluid conversation with a human user. They have been the most successful experiments, and the closest to real artificial intelligences. Nowadays, research continues and the artificial intelligences have jumped from laboratories to the market, as the case of Cortana and Siri. In addition, with the new advances the forecast is more and more encouraging, so the next years we will be able to interact with real AIs. Artificial intelligence is provoking big concern between experts, as they know the huge potential that it has. They also know that if they do not establish since now clear rules for its
development to be focused on seeking the welfare of society, this technology can become harmful for humanity. The thesis of this article states that AIs will provoke a very positive impact on society, but in order to be sure of this, governments will be in the need of regulating them. These regulations would work creating, between other measures, a democracy in which everyone could join in and decide what is ethic, and then teaching this to the AIs. First of all, the next generations of AI will have such a big impact just as the revolution of cellphones and internet had at that time. Besides, nowadays they are being introduced in our daily lives and are increasingly capable of detecting patterns that humans cannot see or anticipate (Schmidt 2015). The next jump forward will be made with the Inventive AI-machines: artificial intelligences with a set of data that allows them to solve a big spectrum of problems. For example, an adaptive learning system that analyzes medical registers of the patients of a hospital by examining their clinical history instantly, which offers quick information to doctors in order to avoid, for example, a negative reaction to a medicine. In order to achieve this, everything needed is a big enough set of training data, and adaptable enough equipment and algorithms. Even if computers can help us, they are not like us when making value judgements or introspective thinking. Our wide experience does not only give us creativity, but we accumulate conscious and unconscious biases that AIs would not have, as they do not have the complex emotions that guide the human decision-making. In the end, AI is technology, and technology is just a tool. It depends on us to use that tool and take advantage of its power to ameliorate our lives and the lives of people everywhere. Additionally, it is necessary to regulate the development of AI. Many experts in this technology have recommended the governments, and some of them are already taking action and policies with respect to AI. For example, USA has a report in which there are certain
guidelines such as the necessity to guarantee safety when using AI devices, because clearly, one of these devices could be used as a weapon. There are many weapons that can be adapted to work with AI, from simple robots with armament to sophisticated missile systems. Any type of weapon that use AIs has to be made according to international humanitarian laws; for this reason these weapons should be constantly supervised by humans who will make the decision of using them or not, because in this decision many factors that cannot be ignored intervene. Another measure that this report proposes is that regulations must be established anticipating the use of AI on some labor fields. There is certain preoccupation about the possibility to lose jobs because of the implementation of AIs, but this won’t happen in short term: AI will be developed to this point in many years. Anyhow, this is not a reason to worry because a lot of jobs related to the supervision of the correct use of this technology will be open. For this, the report suggests that workers from practically all areas should have knowledge about technology related to AI. The example of USA shows that countries are conscious of new technology development and are adjusting their policies to the changes that will clearly occur when its use is extended. Furthermore, according to The National Artificial Intelligence research and development strategic Plan, AI Machines should behave according to the norms applied to humans. For these regulations, AI design needs to be multi-disciplinary: using different engineers, and ethics experts that, between other things, they must assure the easy human understanding of this technology in order to correct any defect that machines could have (2016). Another recommendation is to design the architecture of AI machines with different forms, for example one with two devices: one that makes all the ethical decisions related to its purpose and the other that carries out the task for which it was created.
Tech companies all over the world are enthusiastic to develop this technology, but they know that they have to take into account these recommendations. Thus, there are for example the world’s biggest tech companies, that altogether are trying to create an ethical standard around the production of AI; researchers from Google, Amazon , Facebook , IBM, and Microsoft have gathered to discuss topics such as the AI’s impact on jobs, transport, and even war. The details of what these companies are going to do are still unknown; however, the fundamental intention is clear: to guarantee that the research focuses on people’s benefit, not harming them at all. With this example, we can appreciate a democracy in which each company can express its point of view and vote to decide what is ethical for them to be programmed on AI. This will guarantee the accomplishment of the purpose for which technologies and especially AI were created, that is, to be a tool that generates progress and wellness for humanity. On the other hand, we could make an opinion based on the fact that the future of technology is uncertain, therefore it does not make sense to regulate something with an uncertain behavior, and also in setting regulations we are cutting the potential of the new technologies. In addition, it would be better to wait to see the advances of technology and the way in which people use them to begin to regulate it. This opinion is much likely to be respected, but we should let artificial intelligence develop without control, because it is very necessary that AI would be regulated in order to make sure it won’t generate any harm to humanity, such as the one that massive destruction weapons produced, which are a result of the lack of control of the weapons’ development by some countries and international institutions.
In conclusion, AIs are going to revolutionize positively the way we live. This is easy to check because nowadays we are already using this kind of technology that is ameliorating little by little aspects of our lives such as communication and transport. The two examples that are shown in this text, one related to the policies that USA plans to make concerning to AI control, and the other that talks about how the biggest tech companies of the world reunite to establish an ethical standard in the development of this technology, verify the thesis proposed in this research. Finally, we can say that the implementation of AI in our daily lives is something very beneficial and practically inevitable, which certainly needs regulations in order to work properly for society. References ● Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen on Technology in 2016. (2015, December 21). Retrieved December 10, 2016, from http://time.com/4154126/technology-essay-ericschmidt-jared-cohen/ ● J. (2016, September 1). How tech giants are devising real ethics for artificial intelligence. Retrieved October 18, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/technology/artificial-intelligenceethics.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Artificial Intelligence&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stre am_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=19&pgtype=collection&_r=0 ● National Science and Technology Council (U.S.), Committee on Technology, Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, (n.d.). Preparing for the future of artificial intelligence. Retrieved December 10, 2016, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/whitehouse_files/microsites/ostp/NST C/national_ai_rd_strategic_plan.pdf.
â—?
Tim Worstall. "Exactly What We Don't Need - Regulation Of AI And Technology." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 12 Oct. 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
Additional materials
Thank you very much for reading my portfolio
Sincerely
Fabian Patricio Tinoco Mosquera