Capstone #6, “Working on My Final Product”

Working on my final product was exhilarating yet nerve wracking at the same time. It was a large peice of the process. I had decided to do my final presentation as an ignite, the reason I chose an ignite is because I am experienced with it and I feel more comfortable having time standards. My first time presenting in front of my classmates and teachers I used my script, this made a huge impact on the presentation because I was more reassured that everything was correct. I enjoyed getting critical feedback so my presentation could be the best it could. I think a few of my main problems were not introducing the topic in an orderly way. Also, I had glanced at the screen a lot. I think I did a pretty good job on talking loud and clear. I think all the research had finally begun to pay off.

I had tried to fix/revise all the things that had not been satisfied to the audience. I was really excited to perform with my presentation been done edited. The only problem was it was not fully memorized. To memorize, instead of using my script I had begun to practice with flash cards and stating the key components for each slide.  This was good because it was taking small steps to the future goal of having everything fully memorized. This took quite amount of time, I was still changing a few minor issues on my show (The picture being blurry.) It was extremely helpful to watch other people perform because some of the feedback had impacted my own presentation.

Finally, I had to do another presentation in front of my classmates after the past revision. I felt confident in my memorization and in my visual presentation. I practiced multiple times and it contributed to the way I performed. Memorizing made me feel secure about my performance and I felt less nervous. I think I did much better than last time I had done my ignite. Reflecting back on my  visuals I had changed a couple of things due by my feedback. I think that the timing was really good which is not so easy since I was performing an ignite. I think my visuals were very clean and simple which was how I wanted it to be. I think the outcome has been a great and wonderful performance due to all my hard work and research I had put into it.

 

Capstone #5, “Answering my Main Inquiry Question”

I have finally finished my research and put all the effort into truly answering my inquiry question. Here is my final essay I have created to answer my inquiry question. I am hoping to answer future questions about my topic and hope to create no confusion.

What has made Uber, into a billion dollar company in the transportation industry?  The ride share company, Uber, launched in 2009 and is operating in now in over 500 cities. It has made a huge impact on society because it has affected the way people travel. Uber has revolutionized transportation because its technology makes it incredibly easy for people to use and because it has made it very easy to become a driver for the company. In addition to impacting on the transportation industry, Uber, with its Ubereats division that delivers food, has impacted the restaurant industry.

Uber’s Ease of Use Has Impacted the Transportation Industry

First, how has Uber changed the transportation industry?  Uber provides consumers an easier way to get from point A to point B. Uber has shown that transportation can include technology and can be as easy as clicking a button. This wasn’t always how people ordered a car. It used to be that people needed to “hail” cabs by standing on a street corner and putting their hand up indicating they wanted a yellow cab to stop. Or they would call a private car and order it for a specific time. Nowadays, with an Uber app, a car can be ordered by clicking on an app or online, but most people who use Uber use the app. Another thing that makes using the Uber app really easy is that once you setup your account and link a credit card, your ride will be charged to your account, so you don’t have to have cash or your credit card with you.

         Another way Uber has changed the transportation industry is it has impacted the level of training needed to drive an Uber car. It takes a lot of work to become a regular cab driver. Typically you need the proper license to operate a yellow cab, for example, but becoming an Uber driver is not as much work. To become an Uber driver you need to fill out an application for the company to do a background check and you need to upload your driver’s license, car registration and insurance. This illustrates that Uber has made transportation much easier.

Uber’s Negative Impact on the Taxi Industries

Uber’s impact hasn’t been positive for everyone.  Uber has affected the taxi industry in negative ways. It is almost impossible for the taxi industry to compete with Uber because of Uber’s low pricing and sophisticated technology.  According to the Taxi & Limousine Commission, more people used Uber than taxis last year. In fact, many taxi drivers are struggling financially. Yellow taxi drivers have to buy something called a medallion which costs a different amount in different cities and it changes every year. According to the article, “Cities Made Millions Selling Taxi Medallions, Now Drivers Are Paying the Price,” the cost of medallions in New York City “fell from around $1.3 million to around $160,000. In Philadelphia they dropped from a high of $545,000 to $10,000.”  So, if a person spent a lot of money on a medallion and then it dropped, it means the value of their investment dropped, too. In addition, with so many cars offering rides, taxi drivers are making less money per day because they have fewer customers. Less income means financial problems and that has had very serious consequences. According Forbes’s July 2018 article, “Dislocation And Its Discontents: Ride-Sharing Impact On The Taxi Industry,” taxi driver representatives “relate a doleful tale of bankruptcies, foreclosures, evictions and heart attacks, in a profession that was once a stepping stone to the middle class. At least five taxi and livery drivers in New York City alone are believed to have committed suicide over the past six months.”

UberEats and Its Impact on the Food Industry

UberEats, a division of Uber, has impacted on food industry , specifically restaurant businesses. UberEats is a separate app, and people can order food through restaurants that have partnered with Uber Eats and independent delivery people will deliver food to your door. Before UberEats was invented if people wanted to have food delivered they would need to order from a restaurant that offered that service.  

Great idea? Not for everyone. Though it benefits the customers, it does not benefit restaurants because they need to pay UberEats a commission that is 30% of what the food bill comes to. So, if the food costs $100, UberEats gets $30. That’s a lot! In San Francisco restaurants have been closing ties with UberEats because partnering with UberEats had recently put some restaurants out of business.

Uber’s Major Competitors

Uber, which launched in 2009, was the first of a rapidly growing ride share industry. Ride-share companies that are Uber’s competitors include Lyft, Curb, Didi Chuxing, Grab, and Ola.

Lyft launched in the year of 2012  In the United States, Lyft operates in 220 cities and in other countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam). Lyft and Uber have the most competitive relationship because they are the most popular rideshare companies in the United States.

Curb was launched in 2014. Curb is a company with the concept of ensuring people with safety and professional driving. Curb also relies on a taxi license to work there.

Didi Chuxing launched in 2015, some people refer to Didi Chuxing as the Uber in China. Grab was founded in 2011, it is formerly known as Grab Taxi. Grab’s company operates in a lot of places (Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines).

Ola launched in 2010, in Mumbai. It is rated at one of the fastest-growing companies in India.

The Future of Uber

Uber has definitely changed urban transportation but despite making billions of dollars, it is not a profitable company, yet. According to the Crunchbase 2018 article, “Understanding Why Uber Loses Money,”  Uber’s “operating costs come to a total of $2.2 billion. And as Uber’s costs are $700 million greater than its available gross profit, it loses money.”

Conclusion

Uber has changed how people in cities travel and has had both positive and negative effects on society. Consumers of Uber and its UberEats division, as well as the people employed to drive the cars, have benefited the most. The taxi industry, particularly yellow cab drivers, have felt the most negative effects. Uber is still continuing to conquer the transportation world.

Capstone #4, “Site visit”

I really enjoyed my site visit, my site visit and the interview took place in the same setting. My favorite part of the site visit was seeing how an Uber driver can apply to work in the company and how they rent there type of transportation that they needed. On my site visit we took some time on looking at the cars I had noticed that the taxi industry had not been doing great because of the actions of Uber. I think that since the site visit was a huge prompt in the research area I learned a lot like one of the reasons Uber has great business is because of there advanced technology, they have an entire army of technology genius working with them.

I really took notice to the fact that when renting a car/becoming and Uber driver there is a lot of decisions you have to make such as what car rental/lease company are you willing to use since there are multiple options. Before my site visit I wasn’t extremely sure how the process of becoming an Uber driver is and after my site visit I really understand it. I realized that becoming Uber driver hold many more opportunities than a taxi driver because that takes a lot of patience and work to get a taxi license. There are multiple advantages of being and Uber driver let alone that the company itself. I really enjoyed this learning opportunity/experience.

I am really excited to start answering my inquiry question and really focus on one thing and have a big research process.

Capstone #3, “Interview”

I was really excited for my interview. I had scheduled an Interview with Eric Rothman (president, CEO and founder) of Fast Track Mobility an Uber car renting company. I had to send my question in an email pretense because he wanted to be extra prepared in the task of answering the question and he could elaborate to his questions and it was also convenient  for both of us to have a copy. I was not extremely nervous for my interview because I am partly experienced. My Interview took place in Long Island, NY at the main part of the company. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure all my questions he could manage to answer, but I was confident about them. I brought my phone to record the interview and my piece of paper to take notes on, I used two ways to record because incase I  my phone died I had back up.

During the Interview was a short period of time I had not been educated on what his exact answers were going to be, yet some of them I expected and some I didn’t. I felt a little rushed writing his answers down so I mainly relied on the audio recording to fill in some of the notetaking I didn’t get.  I had to rephrase/add lib my questions he didn’t quite understand and add a little more to the question. Sometimes if I didn’t get enough out of the question and I wasn’t fully satisfied with his answers I had to ask him to elaborate on to his answers. The interview ended very quickly he answered the questions with the the answer already formed so that was very helpful. He answered better than I had expected. Here are the questions I had asked him…

  1. Please describe what you do for Fast Track Mobility?
  2. Why did you start working for Fast Track Mobility how long have you been working there?
  3. Does Uber lease the car or does the Uber driver lease the car?
  4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of an Uber driver using a leased car vs. using their own car?
  5. How long has Uber used Fast Track Mobility?
  6. Who are your main competitors for Uber’s business? For example, Uber Xchange (leasing) or Hyrecar (borrowing cars people own)?
  7. Does Fast Track Mobility only lease in the U.S.? If not, what other countries? If yes, what major cities?
  8. What makes Uber unique compared to it competitors?
  9. How has Uber benefited people who live in urban areas?
  10. How has Uber affected consumers in America and throughout the world?
  11. What problems has Uber created for the taxi industry?
  12. How has Uber addressed passenger safety and what would say to people it can be an unsafe form of transportation?
  13. How does Uber XL compare to a limousine company?
  14. How will Uber keep up with changes in technology?
  15. What is something about Uber that people don’t understand or notice?

I was satisfied with his final answers. I think that the full outcome of our Interview was pretty good. I am so excited to talk about my site visit.

 

Capstone #2, “Final Inquiry Question and Sub Question”

Mrs. Edwards had assigned each of us our own inquiry question. We revised it to be the best to the highest endeavor it could be. I was really headed in the direction for my inquiry question to be how has Uber revolutionized transportation. In my time I had realized that it wasn’t enough and I decided to do, How has Uber revolutionized transportation and what industries has it affected. I really liked how this turned out it was very efficient. My other choices I had brainstormed  for my Inquiry questions were, how has Uber been affected financially and how can it be improved? how has Uber affected society? What are some of the new technologies Uber is developing? I am really happy with how my final inquiry question turned out.

Creating my own inquiry question was uncommon for me and it was very different than what I had expected it was. At first, I was uncomfortable creating my own question that made sense as well as being proficient. It was really hard for me to find the right words I needed. Once I had found the outline  or main idea of what my question was going to be it was much easier to think ahead. It was a huge struggle for me to find the base of my question, then I needed to revise to be longer and more interesting to create a capstone on. Revising was the easiest part of the process. I thought it was easy because I had already knew what direction I was headed in. When I revised it or added on to it I had to make sure it actually put together and words were not repeated.

As I finished the last part of the process of creating my inquiry question. I had moved on to creating my sub questions. My sub questions were beyond my expectations, I had expected them to be extremely difficult, they were challenging to create and start but not so hard. Developing the perfect question was definitely hard but I had managed to create a question pretty good. Once I had finally secured my question it still needed to be edited. Editing took a lot of time surprisingly though it was extremely helpful because it turned my questions up a notch. Sometimes when I revised I thought they were perfect but then when I looked at it again I found a couple of mistakes. I think that I put a lot of work into my questions and I am really proud of the outcome.

My final questions were, how has Uber evolved over the years? What is the process involved in getting a Uber ride? What are the advantages of using Uber? What are Uber’s greatest competitors around the world? What industries have been affected by Uber? How have they been affected? How has Uber made an impact on society? I think these questions are really good and I’m excited for my next task in the process of my capstone.

 

Capstone #1, “Choosing our Topic”

In Class, Mrs. Edwards Introduced us to a new project called Capstone, Capstone is a huge project that falls in the subject of Social Studies, you pick two topics of some of your favorite interests and hobbies and create them into a question form this is called your inquiry question. For my inquiry question I am doing how has Uber affected society and how can Uber be improved. I am really interested in Cars generally but in specifics Uber. Since we had to pick two of our favorite interests my second topic was What is the process of creating a I phone I am also really interested.

I am really excited to begin this project. I am mostly excited for the interview and site visit because since my main topic is Uber I am really curious to see the company and excited to conduct my interview. This is also a huge opportunity to learn more on some of the things I’m really interested in. I am really looking forward to the heart of the project which is the presentation. For my presentation I want to do an Ignite and ignite is usually a five minute presentation that involves memorization (a script) and a slide show. The reason I want to do an Ignite is because I am very familiar and experienced so I know how it works.

As much as I am excited I am feeling tense and nervous because I don’t know what the out come of my project will be meaning will it be good or bad. I am also nervous because I might try to do some of my priorities like the interview or site visit at the last minute. I know that my project will be as best as I can make it, but what is the best that I can do?  I am especially nervous to perform my presentation because it has to be memorized and known by heart.

In all this is a huge part of our unit and is both full of excitement and also anxiety and nervousness. I can’t wait to get deeper in this project and recognize the outcome. I also think that it would be interesting to see my other classmates effort and presentation.

 

Reflecting on the Whole Unit – Interview #5

This was a really exciting project. It was really enjoyable, My favorite part of the project was the interview itself I liked it because it was very easy and quick and a huge learning experience. I also really loved using Adobe Spark because it was challenging and it was cool trying out something different from what we usually use.

This project was a bit of a challenge because of its variety of steps in completing it. It was also challenging doing as much as I could in a short period of time. I had trouble planning out the whole project I’ve learned that it’s better to create a schedule for the whole project so it is easier to complete it.

I was extremely nervous in the conducting of the interview. I all this project was much different than I expected it to be. Sometimes it was harder than I imagined it would be for example Adobe Spark was much more of a challenge than I expected it to be. But, In other situations it was much easier than I thought it would be such as conducting the interview.

I’m so excited to do more projects like this. Although I had my favorite parts I also had my least favorite steps. I didn’t really enjoy creating my interview questions because the process was very long and revising it was very difficult because sometimes it was unchangeable

Here is my video:

Doing My Project on Adobe Spark -Interview #4

  Adobe Spark was the heart of the project, I started to get used to Adobe Spark and I’m more excited to do my project than I was before. Adobe Spark is really nice because you have a lot of options and freedom on it and generally because it works on so many wonderful projects. I especially like Adobe Spark for this specific project.

     I think that in comparison to google slides this has more benefits because you can use a narrative over your visuals.  Also the music is really nice to put with your visuals and the narrative. I didn’t think that I would be using the graphic but I did use it a couple of times to create a better visual.

 

The Immigrant Interview – Interview #3

Interviewing my babysitter, Cora was much easier than I expected it to be. At first, when I was preparing for the interview I thought the interview itself would be awkward and I felt very nervous about it. But in reality the interview was very short and easy. I was very worried about my questions because I thought they would not give me enough information. But as it turned out I was very satisfied with Cora’s answers.

In preparation for the interview I brought the question sheet to write down her answers and a recording app, I brought to ways two keep track of her answers just incase something happens to one I would have backup. I’m really happy how the interview turned out. In the future I know that next time I do an interview I should not get too concerned and anxious on the results. I think the interview was a big learning process.

 

Adobe Spark – Interview #2

We were introduced do a new way to create a video, Adobe Spark. When I first used it I wasn’t used to it and didn’t understand its advantages. Our computer teacher, Mr. Casal had do a sample project on a topic we were  familiar with. This was very helpful to get used and understand all the new quirks.

There were many pro’s and con’s about Adobe Spark. One of the pro’s was you could use a voice overs this provides a narrative point of view to tell the story with a voice. Another pro is you can create a graphic photo or poster and but that in your video. You also have many options to insert a photo in your video. You can choose whatever size, font, layout and theme for your Adobe Spark video. There is also a variety of music you can put in your background.

There were also a couple of cons sometimes resizing your photo was difficult. So you had to create a graphic and set the proper size. Also sometimes there was not the perfect music to fit your video. You had to experiment a lot to find the perfect fit for your video. It also was annoying switching off between your video and the graphic.

I’m really excited to use Adobe Spark to narrate my interviewee’s journey entering the U.S. Overall the pro’s my favorite part about Adobe Spark is  narration in the background and the variety of options there is to create your video. My least favorite part about Adobe Spark is that you have to switch back and forth a lot between the graphic and video.