In digital learning, we had to make coast Salish art. I chose to make a raven.
Here is the hand-drawn copy:

And here is the digital copy:

Response to question:

I think that my digital knowledge and skills have grown, but not by a lot this year. I say this because before I knew how to access the databases and use Inkscape, but my knowledge in those areas was not that great. I did not know how to use edublog, for I had never used it before, so my knowledge on this site has grown. My knowledge in spotting fake sources has also grown, so that will be useful in the future since the number of fake sites and sources will most likely increase. Overall, this year I learned quite a bit on the subject of digital literacy/learning.

My paragraph:
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS is a genetic disease that affects very few people. To summarize what I researched, this disease, ALS, is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, named after a famous baseball player whose career it ended. It is a progressive disease of the central nervous system where the upper and lower neurons degenerate and die. The lower motor neurons are the nerve cells that extend from the spinal cord to the peripheral nerves. ALS progresses rapidly, and paralyzes patients which go under the intensive care of nursing facilities and loved ones, which has a devastating psychological effect on family members and the patient. Approximately 5000 people are diagnosed with it each year in North America and most of the time, ALS is fatal within two to five years, although roughly 10% of people with the disease live eight or more years, after that, they die, most commonly as a result of respiratory failure. In 2011, researchers discovered of the degenerating nerve cells. It is because the nerve cells lose the ability to recycle the building blocks of proteins necessary to function properly, and this damages the nerve cells to the point where they can no longer carry signals from the brain to the body’s muscles.

AI paragraph:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. This condition leads to the gradual deterioration of motor neurons, which are essential for controlling voluntary muscle movements. As ALS progresses, individuals may experience muscle weakness, twitching, and eventually, paralysis, impacting their ability to speak, swallow, and breathe. Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for ALS, and the exact cause remains unknown in most cases. However, ongoing research aims to better understand the disease mechanisms and develop more effective treatments to improve the quality of life for those affected by this challenging condition.

Questions:

What was your experience in using AI?

I found that using AI was very easy and useful, and I could get basically the same information that I got from my research.

Was the paragraph that the AI generated accurate?

The paragraph that the AI generated was accurate because it gave basically the same information in slightly different words, and even listed the symptoms, which I know are accurate too.

Was the exercise useful? How can this help you with your learning going forward?

I think that this exercise was pretty helpful because it helped me with finding better sources that I know are fact checked and accurate, which could help me in future assignments where I have to research about something; however, I already knew how to access the databases beforehand, so I already knew about the accurate sources.

Were your results expected? Explain.

Some of the results were expected because I knew that AI would give a detailed paragraph; on the other hand, I did not know that the AI would describe it so well and that it would give so much information in such a short paragraph.

In this article from Newsweek suggests that a corpse which had did from Ebola that was being filmed by ABC’s Good Morning America had sprung back to life moments before it was hauled into a truck on the way to the crematorium. The video has rapidly gone viral. As men in protective suits sprayed the area with bleach and began to wrap what they thought was a dead body in plastic, the man moved his arm. “He’s alive,” someone yelled, and the surrounding crowd began to cheer. Shortly after, an ambulance came to take the man to a hospital, but with all the hospitals being full, it’s unclear where he was taken. Apparently, this has happened multiple times with Ebola victims in Liberia.

To fact check this very suspicious article, I used four methods:

First, I used Wikipedia to search “Newsweek” and see if it’s a reliable source. I found that it was, but that still wasn’t enough to convince me that Ebola zombies were real. There was another news/blog site that posted about Ebola zombies called Huzlers, so I checked that one. I found that it is a satirical blog.

Second, I used Google to search up the article including the word “hoax”. Immediately, I found multiple articles saying that it was a hoax.

After, I used Snopes.com to see if I could find a trustworthy article on the topic of Ebola zombies. Immediately, I saw that it also provided some reasons as to why the article is fake.

Next, there was an image in the article, so I used Tineye to find the origin of the picture. I then found that it was a prop mask, just like Snopes had said.

After all that, I have come to the conclusion that the article about Ebola Zombies is indeed Fake, or a Hoax.