So, this tech task is coming in late but here is the second assignment for the DS106 assignments.  This one is about trolling, so I thought it was a pretty neat one to do.  So, what you do for this assignment is choose one famous person for the photo, another similar one for the quote and then a third similar one for the name attached to the quote.  In total all three are different, so fans of any of these three people would end up getting upset.  The trick is, make these three people similar enough that non-fans wouldn't notice!  Can anyone figure out the three people I used?!  It should be pretty easy, I obviously used famous beautiful women from the past.  I thought this was a really fun assignment, something I would do with my class!

I have decided to read the article called, School Isn't Like a Job by John Scammell.  I read both articles that Dean gave us to choose from but I decided to blog about this one because last semester I did a presentation on retention policies and their effects on students.  This article reminded me of the points I brought up in that presentation.  In this article it talks about giving students a zero on assignments if they haven't completed them, the point that Scammell makes is that school is not like a job, student's are not getting rewarded with money and it just matters if they have learned the material or not.  If not, I don't think its a matter of how low of a grade you should give but more of a question, how do I rework this so this student can get something out of it.  Many people are thinking the opposite, if the student doesn't do the work their grade should reflect it.  I just feel that you should give a student the grade that represents their knowledge of the material and I need to give students the opportunity to show me what they know.  After reading some of the comments I have mixed emotions on the topic, there was one comment in particular by Tom Berriman saying that it teaches students a "why try mentality" when giving them a higher mark if they fail a test.  I do agree but I feel it's more complicated than that.  I don't believe in giving zeros out all the time, but I do feel that if you have given the student multiple opportunities to show you they know the material and they don't deliver I think their grade needs to reflect that.  I really do feel it's a complicated decision that needs to be made different situations.
I feel that giving a zero is more than just a zero, the research I found while doing my presentation last semester showed the negative effects on retaining a student.  This article gives a perspective that I had not thought of before.  Retaining a student has really negative effects on them, including their self esteem, future learning and even drop out rates.  I know it may seem like a zero is just a zero and it's no where near holding a student back but I think it could have some of the same effects.  It may not, it probably depends on the student but I want to try my best to not give a student a zero.  

I just read the article in the Vancouver Sun about the study conducted trying to figure out if coffee drinkers live longer or less than those who do not drink coffee.  This article and study was pretty confusing, it seemed to contradict itself, the study was observational and there were no controls in it.  If you want to get a clear answer you would have to set a control environment where it is the exact same with both coffee drinkers and non coffee drinkers.  There are so many things in peoples lives that may cause them to live longer or not as long such as: unhealthy behaviours (drinking, smoking, not being active), peoples wealth (wealthier people may be able to afford things to prolong their life), stress, illness passed down from family members, etc.  So there is no way to know if coffee is the reason for prolonged living or from a shorter life.  
After reading this article I felt I needed further information on this topic to decide for myself whether I'm buying into this or not.  So, I looked at a Q&A on the Harvard School of Public Health website about the same topic.  From reading this article I concluded that there definitely needs to be more information found on this topic to be conclusive.  In this article they say that coffee has so many different compounds and that leads to diverse health outcomes and it does say that there are some health benefits, such as: protection against type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, liver cancer, and liver cirrhosis. I'm not sure how they came to this conclusion.  It also states in this article that there is no constant, so I have no idea how they are coming to any conclusion..and it seems like in both articles they are on the fence about it.
In my opinion I think if you live a healthy lifestyle you are probably going to live a long and healthy life (assuming you have no other health concerns) and if you want to drink coffee, go ahead..I'm not a coffee drinker and I'm not going to start because a bunch of articles say it might be good for you.