An additional two references

In order to further my research for my thesis, "The learning styles and language of digital natives is making traditional classroom lectures ineffective", I am adding two additional resources to my literature review. The articles "Millennials Go To College" by Neil Howe and William Strauss and "The Unintended Consequences of the Application of Technology in Teaching and Learning Environments" by John Nworie and Noela Haughton will both add depth to the focus of the concept of digital natives and the challenges faced in educating them.

"Millennials Go To College" gives a great foundational look at the personality of the Millennials who are also known as Generation Y. The article emphasizes their experiences and preferences that make them a unique generation and how they will change the face of learning in the college classroom.

"The Unintended Consequences..." addresses the impending distractions of new technologies in the classroom. Although the innovations are improving certain aspects of education, the accessibility to these technologies poses new problems with new ways of student cheating, constant distractions of readily accessible communication applications like instant messaging, computer games, and emails. This article does a thorough job of addressing the possibility of distractions, but more importantly it addresses the changing face of classroom teaching through a concept called the law of unintended consequences. The causes of this concept are identified as ignorance, error, immediacy (an interest or willingness to obtain immediate results which may overshadow long-term interests or cause adverse effects to be ignored), basic values (which may require or rule out some actions), and self-defeating prophecy (seeking solutions before problems are identified). Nworie and Haughton state that "the use of certain instructional technologies introduces the unintended result of redefining the role of instructors...from teaching and lecturing to that of a facilitator."

Ghost Whisperers

I have to admit this week's assignment is quite a stretch to tie into media convergence, but surprisingly enough there was relevant connections. Our readings, "Loving the Ghost in the Machine" by Janne Vanhanen, and "The Aesthetics of Failure: Post Digital Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music" by Kim Cascone both steer us toward the idea of digital convergence in the music world.

"Loving the Ghost in the Machine" gives a thoughtful look into the world of contemporary electronic music while detailing its history roots from several genres of music. The article highlights a few of the various machines used in the past to make music and how unconventional uses of these machines contributed to today's electronic music including the phonograph and its contribution to the birth of hip hop's scratching techniques.

"The Aesthetics of Failure" also highlights the emergence of electronic music but also incorporates the Internet's role to its recent popularity and availability to the everyday consumer to be composers.

Most importantly, both articles detail the history, definition and contributions of glitch, unpredictable sounds that sometimes create a ghostly unpresence of sounds outside hearing range or gaps in recorded time.

Key Points

1. Convergence - Vanhanen paraphrases Deleuze and Guattari and states "all creativity, whether it's art, philosophy or science, has to approach the outside of thought. To be able to create new ways to feel the world, new percepts and affects, one has to court the chaos and worship the glitch." To me this phrase summarizes media convergence in a nutshell especially the phrase "to create new ways to feel the world". Whatever form of media it may be, music, film, television, or radio, consumers now demand these tools come together to help them feel the world.

2. Convergence - Vanhanen again references Deleuze and Guattari and shares the concept of a "...continuous development of form..." to bring out the "life proper to matter". As we've discussed throughout this semester, convergence is a process, not an end point.

3. Academic Demand - In her conclusin Cascone eloquently calls on the academic world to embrace electronic music and begin to incorporate this genre into its research. Although many academics are unfamiliar with this music, the author implores them to engage their students to get more knowledge and be more relevant.

Discussion Questions

1. How can students encourage their professors to embrace electronic music and incorporate it into current research?

2. Is the concept of no silence similar to the concept of the impossibility of not communicating?

Relationship to present research:

This topic is very closely related because both articles, but especially Cascone's discusses the possible generational gap in the area of electronic music. There is a demand for cutting edge professors to begin to bridge the generational gap and engage their students to continue to be relevant in the modern-day classroom.

May the Fan Force be With You

Much to my delight, this week's reading helped to tie in our last unit to media convergence. “Quentin Taratino’s Star Wars? Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media Industry,” pp. 131-168 (ch. 4) in Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide was a great expansive example of convergence at its best. The chapter highlights convergence of the motion picture industry, the web and the grassroots community and the struggles between film companies and the emerging fan-based movie makers. The chapter also addresses the notion that it's in the best interest for film companies to embrace the fan cluture rather than attempt to shut it down.

Three key ideas from our reading:

- Participative Culture: The emergence of modernized mass media was once thought to be the end of traditional folk culture, but the popularity of the web and the user friendly movie making software readily accessible to fans has breathed new life into fan culture. Fan culture and home movies were not traditionally a threat or an issue to the industry, but the web has changed that because fan-inspired spoofs of their favorite movies are now globally available to all who have internet access. This movement has bred a new level of participative culture, a main indicator or media convergence.

- Collective Intelligence: Evan Mather, a fan filmmaker, provides documentation of how he made Les Pantless Menace for other amateur filmmakers to copy or adopt for their own use. Fan filmmakers know the importance of sharing creative intellect and believe it helps to improve the quality of work in their community. Many fan websites allow for commentary with their films to share technical insight into their productions.

- Consumer-Driven Convergence: The very nature of the fan filmmaking platform and the film company's response to them adds credence to the importance of consumer-driven convergence. Our text addresses how Lucas Films originally embraced some fan films that spoofed Star Wars. George Lucas was so inspired by the fan community he opened up space on his website for fans to create and share what they create with others.

The most difficult concept for me to digest this week is the prediction McCracken makes that companies that embrace the fan filmmaking community and loosen their copyright control will attract more active and committed customers as opposed to the companies that continue to set strict limits on their products' use. I feel fans have and always will support the movies that intrigue them despite exclusion of fan filmmaking communities.

Discussion Questions

1. Does the average consumer that supports major motion pictures really care if the fan filmmaking community is subject to copyright limitations?

2. What can film companies do to encourage the fan community's participation while protecting their revenue base?

Presentation Connection

Can teachers use a similar platform of the fan community to expand students' participation in the classroom and foster collective intelligence?

The power to call things up

Just when I thought I got the hang of this blog thing, and media convergence was a phrase I could use in my everyday life, I began to read this week's readings. I really hope I wasn't the only one slipping off into side thoughts of utter confusion while reading the articles. If I was I hope at least get a few points for honesty. I can't say I get anything significant out of either article because I would be lying, but I can however, conjure up three key points and some questions to discuss.

Why the Digital Computer is Dead by Chris Chesher argues that the term "digital computer" is in appropriate for modern times and is somewhat misleading. Chesher gives a good argument by breaking down the meaning of the phrase by word. Digital refers to discrete values and computer was a term originally used to define workers whose job it was to focus on tedious menial tasks like manual calculations.


The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction written by Walter Benjamin in 1936 discusses the pitfalls of mass reproduction, its influence on society and its participation in war.

Why the Digital Computer is Dead - Key Ideas

- Invocation media can be viewed as the historical term for media convergence. Chesher states "Invocational media, by contrast with reductive rationalist digital computers, have pragmatic and material histories drawing together technology, language and magic." This statement highlights the concept of convergence by implicating history's involvement as well as addressing the convergent aspect of drawing together technology and language.

- Invocational media also speaks to the current idea of convergence as it can "translate all events into a constant cycle of reading, interpreting and acting upon instructions". When we consider the mapping models our groups created in class, all three groups had a cyclical scenario that defined convergence. Chesher further explains that invocational devices are the main platforms reading, writing, conversing, playing, etc. This points to media platforms such as the internet used for gaming, chatting, desktop publishing, etc.

- Software features give users greater power, while simultaneously distracting them from their original path. This cultural process is refered to as avocation, a minor form of vocation. Invocation, or the power to call things up, is comprised of smaller, multi-layered pre-formed, programmed avocations.

By far the most challenging concept of the readings was the article by Benjamin. I could not for the life of me detract something significant to say as a result of reading it. I understood the overall concept of mechanical reproduction diminishing the quality of work produced or received by the consumer, but I don't feel like I could apply the information readily in everyday life.

Discussion questions:

1. How do we apply the concepts in The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction to media convergence?

2. How do we relate the same article to principles of leadership?

Since my paper focuses on the digital generational divide I may be able to apply some of the principles of Chesher's paper to mine.

Learning for work via podcasting on my free time?

I think the Podcasting group chose two very interesting pieces of work to share with us this week. First the video of Larry Lessig discussing reviving our creative culture, and the article The Changing Face of Workplace Learning by Anders Gronstedt. Both were informative but I have to admit I did enjoy one way more than the other.

The video of Larry Lessig unfortunately left me wondering if I had watched the right video and I kept checking my link to make sure I had the right one. Although engaging and thought provoking, I did not see the relevance to podcasting. He made valid points about reviving the creative culture by giving free access to content so young people could learn from it and use it for further creative flow. He gave two entertaining examples of video clips remixed with popular songs. He further explains that the culture and times in which our youth are growing up in, mixing songs and their belief that they are entitled to use them for creative expression at their leisure, is all they know.

The learning piece I really enjoyed was the article The Changing Face of Workplace Learning. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of facilitating training using podcasting in several areas of my company. I extracted two key points from this reading: The trend to host voting for favorite podcasts and the self-filtering of relevant information directly supports the note the article concluded with: "In the old world we could only evaluate ourselves months later by inferring how our performance affected company results. Now we know right away and lessons learned can be put into play immediately." Those are music to a marketer's ears! Even if it is an internal concept, immediate results of what's effective in training can help guide future trainings and save a company tens of thousands of dollars.

Another key concept is the mobility of podcasting. Although it's key for employees to maximize their time while on the job, I am not sold on the idea of employees using their own down time to cram in more training. Driving to a sales meetings to meet with clients, yes, good use of work time, but listening to a podcast while on the treadmill after work, NO! At some point there has to be a personal life to counteract the work life. We have become a society where people are defined by what they do. We find professional people more valuable than blue collar workers. Many professionals are so consumed with their jobs that their lives revolve around them and when something goes wrong even if its out of their control they take it so personally they take their own life because of overwhelming grief.

Food for thought:

If the creators of music, art, theater, etc made their content free for the everyday consumer, how would they make their living?

If employees spend their down time learning via podcasting when do they recharge their batteries?

Lastly, I found the Workplace Learning piece enlightening for my paper because I see the potential for pocasting to be utilized more in classroom teaching. The digital generational gap could prove challenging for educators to grasp the concept of using this technology. Some of the principles of this article could directly tie into or give example to why it's important to bridge the digital generation gap.

Digital Natives and the Education System

To further support my thesis, the learning styles and "language" of digital natives is making traditional classroom lectures ineffective, I’ve added two additional resources to my readings. The Net Generation goes to University? by David Cameron of Charles Sturt University, and The ‘Digital Natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence by Sue Bennett, Karl Maton and Lisa Kervin.

The Net Generation highlights the digital natives beginning to enter college and the challenge educators face trying to teach them. The Net Generation poses a unique challenge, because they are fascinated with technology, like to multitask and expect fast interaction. The article highlights the differences between the learning preferences of digital natives versus the teaching style of traditional educators, also known as digital immigrants. One of the main differences in the natives learning preferences versus the teachers’ training methods is the natives’ preference for random access to information rather than step-by-step learning. These emerging differences have made educating digital natives a hot topic in the education community.

The ‘Digital Natives’ Debate highlights the opposing views of the existence of true digital natives. They classify the new generation of learners as students that have grown up with information and communication technology (ICT). Some educators argue that the classification of digital natives is too hasty although they acknowledge there are significant differences in today’s students learning styles and traditional educators’ knowledge of technology. The authors claim that the debate of digital natives is based on two main components: 1) A distinct generation of digital natives does truly exist and 2) The education system must change in order to remain effective in educating upcoming students.

Several key points in both articles exist. First, in The Net Generation, the author explains that digital natives prefer “twitch speed” which is a hectic approach to gathering information, as well as random access to information. Some theorists, including Marc Prensky the leading advocate, argue that these preferences will require educators to use gaming formats as instructional resources in the future in order to get through to digital natives. This claim is supported by research that shows the digital natives learn differently and their brains develop different from their predecessors.

Secondly, in The ‘Digital Natives” Debate, the authors highlight the fact that the educational system is in a panic to restructure education, but the panic attack may be unwarranted. They suggest that although the learning styles of upcoming students is changing, more emphasis should be put on teaching students how to conduct thorough effective research using technology. They stress that the natives’ tendency to want immediate answers has weakened their ability to conduct meaningful research and sort through inadequate or irrelevant research and that their critical thinking skills has been weakened as a result.

Finally, the last key point of the readings is crucial – there is limited empirical evidence to support the anecdotes of some educators and that more thorough research needs to be conducted before radical changes in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and professional development take place.

These findings and others will directly support or disprove my thesis that the learning styles and ‘language’ of digital natives is rendering traditional education ineffective.

This week’s readings have left me with a couple of questions:
- Is exhaustive research necessary to prove that the learning styles of the Net Generation are significantly different and provoking change in teaching methods?
- Are some theorists correct in assuming that upcoming teaching methods must incorporate gaming methods to be effective?

Blogging answers

Blogging: What is it?

1) What motivates people to create blogs?
It’s an opportunity for people to write about what they care about, what they know about, and react to things that are happening in their communities.

2) Do bloggers have ethical responsibilities for accuracy?
Because blogs tend to be a large majority of people’s personal views, bloggers do not have ethical responsibilities for accuracy, but should follow moral principles to not knowingly spread false information.

3) Has the blog made an impact on how people use the web? Do blogs encourage a more participative culture and collective intelligence online?
The blog has definitely made an impact on how people use the web. Blogging has enabled the common citizen to become grassroots journalists and communicate to traditionalists and politicians about what matters most to them. Blogging has encouraged merging between traditional journalists and bloggers which has created a participatory culture. Because bloggers have access to more information collectively, this has enriched the collective intelligence that happens among bloggers and between bloggers and journalists.

4) How is the blog an example of digital convergence?
The blog exemplifies digital convergence as it combines traditional journalism, the web, and letter writing.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Blog

1) What are the ethical implications of blogs? Should people be mindful of offensive content?
Because bloggers are note legally mandated to prove their stories are correct, they can influence the opinions of the public with their opinions if they pose them as fact on their blogs. Although I believe in the freedom of speech, I believe people should be mindful of offensive content because not everyone is comfortable with profanity and people should not use blogs to attack people’s character.

2) Does blogging elicit civic and community engagement? Or, does blogging draw the blogger into the online world and away from the community?
Blogging definitely elicits civic and community engagement. Like Rockville Central, blogs encourage feedback from the citizens of the community they focus on. Blogging doesn’t draw the blogger away from the community on the contrary it encourages the blogger to monitor the community more closely.

3) Should the administrator of the blog have the right to edit posts by others? Does this make the blog less authentic?
The administrator should have the right to edit or delete posts in order to maintain the integrity of the blog, but unfortunately it does make it less authentic. Instead of editing, it would be best to just delete entries that violate the terms of participating in the blog.

Millenials as Digital Natives revised

My readings for this week took me on a research adventure into the world of generations, but more specifically, the Millenials or the N-Gen as some would call them. Although not an expert on the subject, through my research I would argue that the N-Gen is a subculture of the Millenials. The N-Gen are digital natives and have never known life without the internet, hence the name N-Gen or Net Generation. So what does this all have to do with my research thesis for Digital Media class? Everything. Last week I attempted to develop my thesis around the dual definition of the digital divide. Desiring to investigate the ills of society and the effects the economic divide has on technology in poorer school districts, and the technological gap between Baby Boomers and the N-Gen, I was faced with the reality of the overwhelming task of connecting the two. Hence, this week I am concentrating my efforts on researching the intergenerational digital divide and the challenges our society and educational system faces trying to narrow it. I find this topic to be of importance because there is a need to create a participative learning environment using digital media convergence to optimize student learning. Thus my revised thesis is the learning styles and "language" of digital natives is making traditional classroom lectures ineffective and compelling educators to use video games and other means of technology to teach basic literacy and math.

Researchers, academics and marketers alike are fascinated with this generation and thus there is a plethora of research on the Millenials, but very little on the digital generational gap between them and their teachers. Ultimately I have found a few articles that address the subject. I will share overviews and highlights of two them. Teaching Millennials, Our Newest Cultural Cohort by Angela Provitera McGlynn addresses our modern day educators and exhorts them to get to know this generation, their thought process and how they learn. She theorizes that the N-Gen students gravitate toward group activity, learn differently and interact differently than older generations. They embrace teamwork, experiential activities and gravitate toward technology. In fact, they cannot and have not lived without technology. She lists among their strengths a collaborative learning style and the ability to multitask. The Millennials love of technology has fostered a strong collective intelligence in that much of their life lessons come from interactions on social networking websites, chat rooms and in some cases digital video games. McGlynn implores her colleagues to embrace the characteristics of this generation and use them to properly educate the students in the classroom. Such characteristics include their desire to stay connected to family by means of electronic communications such as email and cell phones, and work collaboratively. Additionally she encourages teachers to “learn what we can about using technology effectively to enhance learning”.

In part one of a two-part series, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, author Marc Prensky also engages the reader in the topic of the Millennials, but warmly refers to them more as the Net Gen or N-Gen. In addition to this generational catch phrase he introduces to a term he prefers, Digital Natives, meaning this generation are “native speakers” of a digital language involving the use of personal computers, video games and the Internet. Prensky also introduces the comparative term Digital Immigrants, or those of us who have embraced technology, but later in our lives. He emphasizes Digital Immigrants learn and retain but always keep our “accent”. One example as mentioned by Dr. Xia in class is the inclination for Digital Immigrants to print out a document from the computer in order to edit it instead of just editing it on the screen. I have to admit I am often guilty of this digital crime and get angry if I run out of ink and can’t print out something just to read it over. Prensky also does a great job of discussing the topic of my paper which is the effect this digital divide has on our current education system. He points out that most of our current day educators are from a pre-digital age and speak an outdated language, and thus have a hard time teaching Digital Natives. Teachers are boring these students because they are used to getting information quick from the internet, and like to multi-task like listening to music and/or watching tv while studying or doing homework. They do all of this while texting on their cell phones. I must admit as a parent of two Digital Natives, this drives me crazy and I do not understand it at all. Prensky also addresses the enormous project of teaching Natives the basic content of reading, writing, arithmetic etc, but in a language they understand and at a much faster speed and using technology.

Both of my articles address the current struggle educators are facing keeping the attention of Digital Natives in the classroom and learning to teach them in a language they can comprehend. Additionally, my second article addresses how many educators are tossing around the idea of developing tools to teach the basics using video games and advanced software. The future of academics might just come in a Nintendo or Wii box with a joystick.

http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/pdf?vid=9&hid=105&sid=c542e05f-789a-4caa-aa32-08ae0c90329e%40sessionmgr107

http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/projects/resources/Digital_Natives_Digital_Immigrants.pdf

Millenials as Digital Natives

My readings for this week took me on a research adventure into the world of generations, but more specifically, the Millenials or the N-Gen as some would call them. Although not an expert on the subject, through my research I would argue that the N-Gen is a subculture of the Millenials. The N-Gen are digital natives and have never known life without the internet, hence the name N-Gen or Net Generation. So what does this all have to do with my research thesis for Digital Media class? Everything. Last week I attempted to develop my thesis around the dual definition of the digital divide. Desiring to investigate the ills of society and the effects the economic divide has on technology in poorer school districts, and the technological gap between Baby Boomers and the N-Gen, I was faced with the reality of the overwhelming task of connecting the two. Hence, this week I am concentrating my efforts on researching the intergenerational digital divide and the challenges our society and educational system faces trying to narrow it. I find this topic to be of importance because there is a need to create a participative learning environment using digital media convergence to optimize student learning. With narrowing my topic also came much less literature and research available on the subject.

Researchers, academics and marketers alike are fascinated with this generation and thus there is a plethora of research on the Millenials, but very little on the digital generational gap between them and their teachers. Ultimately I have found a few articles that address the subject. I will share overviews and highlights of two them. Teaching Millennials, Our Newest Cultural Cohort by Angela Provitera McGlynn addresses our modern day educators and exhorts them to get to know this generation, their thought process and how they learn. She theorizes that the N-Gen students gravitate toward group activity, learn differently and interact differently than older generations. They embrace teamwork, experiential activities and gravitate toward technology. In fact, they cannot and have not lived without technology. She lists among their strengths a collaborative learning style and the ability to multitask. The Millennials love of technology has fostered a strong collective intelligence in that much of their life lessons come from interactions on social networking websites, chat rooms and in some cases digital video games. McGlynn implores her colleagues to embrace the characteristics of this generation and use them to properly educate the students in the classroom. Such characteristics include their desire to stay connected to family by means of electronic communications such as email and cell phones, and work collaboratively. Additionally she encourages teachers to “learn what we can about using technology effectively to enhance learning”.

In part one of a two-part series, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, author Marc Prensky also engages the reader in the topic of the Millennials, but warmly refers to them more as the Net Gen or N-Gen. In addition to this generational catch phrase he introduces to a term he prefers, Digital Natives, meaning this generation are “native speakers” of a digital language involving the use of personal computers, video games and the Internet. Prensky also introduces the comparative term Digital Immigrants, or those of us who have embraced technology, but later in our lives. He emphasizes Digital Immigrants learn and retain but always keep our “accent”. One example as mentioned by Dr. Xia in class is the inclination for Digital Immigrants to print out a document from the computer in order to edit it instead of just editing it on the screen. I have to admit I am often guilty of this digital crime and get angry if I run out of ink and can’t print out something just to read it over. Prensky also does a great job of discussing the topic of my paper which is the effect this digital divide has on our current education system. He points out that most of our current day educators are from a pre-digital age and speak an outdated language, and thus have a hard time teaching Digital Natives. Teachers are boring these students because they are used to getting information quick from the internet, and like to multi-task like listening to music and/or watching tv while studying or doing homework. They do all of this while texting on their cell phones. I must admit as a parent of two Digital Natives, this drives me crazy and I do not understand it at all. Prensky also addresses the enormous project of teaching Natives the basic content of reading, writing, arithmetic etc, but in a language they understand and at a much faster speed and using technology. Many educators are tossing around the idea of developing tools to teach the basics using video games and advanced software. The future of academics might just come in a Nintendo or Wii box with a joystick.

http://athena.rider.edu:4055/ehost/pdf?vid=9&hid=105&sid=c542e05f-789a-4caa-aa32-08ae0c90329e%40sessionmgr107

http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/projects/resources/Digital_Natives_Digital_Immigrants.pdf

Pancake People and the Future of American Politics

This week’s readings did prove to be the most interesting yet I believe. It was an enlightening mix of the political blogosphere, Internet brain drain, and the benefits of podcasting. The article, Can Blogs Revolutionize Progressive Politics was especially interesting because of blogging’s prominent position in the recent presidential campaign race. The article highlighted the rise of blogging and its effect on American politics, while the article Is Google Making Us Stupid? brought much needed attention to the possible perils of Internet usage and its effects on literacy in both the young and old. Finally, the podcast of Greg Cangialosi speaking at Duke University was extremely educational, usable information that is paramount to the future of corporate and organizational communications.

We all should know by now that blogging is a consistent presence on the Internet and is continually evolving and finding its place in the corporate sector, financial industry, religious community and the political arena. As I read the article I filled margin after margin with notes to self and comments about how this article was so relevant to this past year’s presidential race. It’s as if the author knew what was on the forefront of American politics and she was giving us a sneak peak. There were two key points I read in this article. First I related the bottom up approach in digital convergence to the article when it stated “Blogs instead exert an indirect form of power, amplifying and channeling the pressure of netroots opinion upwards to pressure politicians and journalists”. That is such a key concept of connecting political blogging to digital media convergence. “It’s really a rising up” said Peter Daou who organized John Kerry’s presidential campaign blogging outreach in 2004. Blogging’s influence during a presidential campaign is indicative of its reach and effectiveness in American politics. Kerry’s campaign was the first time I ever participated in the political arena in an online capacity. I subscribed to his weekly and monthly messages to keep up with his platform and ideas. This brings me to my next point about this article. A consistent internet presence, some in the form of blogging, was a key part of Barack Obama’s success on his way to the White House. Compounded with other wisely planned grassroots activities, his netroots campaign gave him a distinctive edge over Clinton and eventually McCain, and his staff continues to use this avenue of communication during his presidency. The article stated “Blogs allow rank-and-file voters to pick the candidate to support in any given electoral race, influence his or her platform, and volunteer their time, money and expertise in more targeted and substantive ways”. I again participated in politics through the internet, but this time more interactively. I donated, left comments and volunteered my time because of his efforts. If Barack Obama’s campaign didn’t expose and use blogging knowledge to the fullest, I don’t know who did.

Nicholas Carr writes a telling article about Internet drain that is very accurate despite what some tech geeks and self-professed internet junkies may think. Although it won’t destroy us, the Internet is changing the way we think and process information. As we were just recently discussing in class, the ways children learn and their ability to read complex material is quickly changing. My theories about educating young people only touched the surface however. It wasn’t until I read this article that I realized its impact on adult literacy as well. As Carr states even he has a hard time reading lengthy articles and his constituent confessed to completely giving up on reading books altogether. I often resolved within myself while teaching fifth grade that most of the reading materials and textbooks that I learned from would no longer be appropriate to use now. When selecting short stories and books to read collectively in class, I would first look at the length of the story or chapters within a book. Anything over 3 pages and I decided against it. It’s not that I didn’t believe in my students, but I knew they would be on overload if we read longer material. To the contrary of this fact however, those same students could sit at the computer for hours on end surfing the internet for information and chatting on social websites. As Maryanne Wolf explains in the article, “…the media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains.” I truly believe this is the reason why a three year old child who cannot read yet can turn on a computer, participate in numerous games and activities on a computer and shut it down without knowing how to read a single word that comes on the screen. Literacy is fast becoming more and more about symbols and less about the alphabet.

This article also addresses a concept I believe is key in the idea of digital media convergence as it pertains to the Internet. The author writes “When the Net absorbs a medium, that medium is recreated in the Net’s image. It injects the medium’s content with hyperlinks, blinking ads, and other digital gewgaws, and it surrounds the content with the content of all the other media it has absorbed.” The internet is one aspect of digital media convergence, yet I believe it’s the most crucial aspect. The author goes on to say “…traditional media have to adapt to the audience’s new expectations. Television programs add text crawls and pop-up ads…” This immediately made me think about whenever I’m watching USA Network. I can’t enjoy a half hour or hour program without a pop up from the bottom of my television informing me of what’s coming up within the next few hours or even the next few days. There are now even pop ups of the product that is sponsoring the show. I find those pop ups so distracting, but according to the author, the internet is designed to distract, so it seems like television has followed its lead.

The most difficult concept I had a hard time dealing with is the A-listers in the blogosphere and their attitude toward diversifying the blogging community. Two A-list bloggers that were interviewed gave me the distinct feeling, like stated in that article, that bloggers are just the new old boy group in politics. They seemed to have no sense of social responsibility for making the blogging community more diversified and that reminded me of the 1950’s south and the racist white men that controlled it. For Moulitsas to state that he and other bloggers shouldn't have to embrace an “affirmative action of ideas” was insensitive and hypocritical to his own belief of using blogging as the “ultimate tool of democratic participation.” Who is the democracy anyway? Is democratic participation only for well educated, techno savvy white men? Attitudes like his will widen the social gap that blogging was created to narrow.

This leads me to my questions of the week:

- Can blogging truly revolutionize politics if it’s controlled by young well-educated white men who are quickly becoming the minority in this country? Statistics show that colleges are predominantly attended by females.

- Will our education system realize the impact the Internet has on future literacy and learning styles and address it?

- Can we use blogging and podcasting to educate our educators about the future of learning?

These questions and others that I’m pondering are forming my ideas about my upcoming paper. I’m interested to research the effects be them positive or negative that increased internet usage will have on our education system and the way teachers approach classroom learning.

Collective Intelligence: Heaven on earth?

This week I enjoyed two additional readings about media convergence. I found the article The Reinvention of the World Wide Web to be very engaging. Its main intent was to encourage readers to consider redefining how we think about the World Wide Web and tend to define it by comparing it to print media. Hilf encourages us to expand our thinking past the concept of comparison and develop a new model to define the Web that encompasses its main components: accessible information and efficient communication.

Next, the chapter Spoiling Survivor from the text Convergence Culture, was equally engaging and enlightened me to the world of spoiling reality television season plots on the Internet. The chapter discusses the lengths and depths that spoilers go to involving modern technology to figure out the location, cast list and winner of each Survivor season. The chapter also details the concepts of collective intelligence, knowledge communities and the expert paradigm. Although I would not ordinarily be interested in the ins and outs of reality television, the chapter gives a intriguing look inside the spoiler community and an elitist sub-culture known as the Brain Trust that has emerged.

There were so many great tidbits of information that revealed itself to me in the readings, but if I had to narrow down to three, I would focus on the following:

• "Spoiling emerged from the mismatch between temporalities and geographies of old and new media." This I believe was a driving force behind the convergence culture as a whole. As the World Wide Web became more available and the everyday consumer learned to navigate this new source of information, the world became much smaller. As stated in the text, the three hour time difference between the East and West Coast in the United States became a window of opportunity for information to leak before it was supposed to in other time zones. Thus the concept of spoiler was born. The Internet's ease of use and overwhelming availability of information forced media producers to rethink their approach to content and play catch up to early adopters who found a new hobby of investigating industry secrets.
• Pierre Levy believed knowledge communities could restore true democratic citizenship as evident by the popular Survivor Sucks online community that collectively disseminated information and came to its conclusions. Hundreds and thousands of consumers formed global villages to vote and rule out insider information, and no one voice was louder than the other. Unfortunately, the elitist brain trusts formed within the knowledge community and began to only share what information they deemed was necessary and once again restored hierarchy to the newly formed knowledge culture. The brain trust closely resembles military factions and government.
• The third key point that stood out to me was the question: "Was spoiling a goal or a process?" I immediately thought of the definition of convergence when I read that question. The question resembled the concept of convergence being a process and not an end point. Is the merging of digital media and individual transition by industry or a collaborative effort by all media to survive and evolve? As we read in our week two readings, although it began as an individual process, it has become a collaborative effort and thus the concept of media convergence has arrived.

The most difficult concept for me to swallow was related to an aforementioned key point. Levy suggests that his model of collective intelligence is an "achievable utopia" and through small intimate experiences we'll learn to live within knowledge communities. That's a strong concept to suggest that only working collectively will bring about the ideal state of living. Although I agree that teamwork is much needed in our society, I'm reluctant to believe that it's the only way to bring about an ideal state of living, a utopia. Is the only way to achieve world peace through sharing our knowledge? I'm not convinced that this will produce heaven on earth.

The concept of playing is a one of the ways we learn hit a direct nerve for me and I can relate it to my everyday life. The preschool I direct engages our children through a curriculum called Creative Curriculum. Essentially it is built upon the precept that children ultimately learn through playing. It was refreshing to see that model being applied to adult learning as well and I definitely have personally seen the value in these concepts of reskilling and reorientation.

So as I conclude my thoughts for the week I'd like to leave you with a few thoughts to ponder. Is collective intelligence the way to achieve an ideal state of living? Will a hierarchy or gated knowledge community always emerge within a seemingly content culture? Is the collective participatory nature of any group enough to hold it together?

Electricity: The father of controlled chaos

I bet German physicist Otto von Guericke, English physicist Stephen Gray, Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta, and George Simon Ohm didn't know their fascination with electrical currents would one day be the start of the controlled chaos of media convergence we today embrace as our beloved cable programming, world wide web, cell phones and video games systems? As Federman states McLuhan realized that the "effect of electricity and what he called 'all-at-once-ness' was implosive."

I found both readings fascinating, yet disturbing at the same time, to say the least. The introduction of Convergence Culture gives us a solid foundation to build our knowledge of the convergence platform by explaining the history or timeline of different types of media and how they relate. The Cultural Paradox of the Global Village snaps us into the reality of the multiple "digilives" many of us are leading with and without knowing. This article also eloquently revisits the concepts of acoustic versus visual space, but in a much easier to read format than our week one reading. There were several key ideas in the readings, but the three that stand out to me the most are: a) Our inability to shut out the effects of the Internet on our culture and society, b) the realizition of multiple digiSelves on the internet, and c) media convergence being more than a technological shift.

We learned that we cannot shut out the effects of the Internet on our culture and society. A prime example as stated in the text is the case of Senator Trent Lott who made racist comments that the conventional news media was going to ignore and not put a spotlight on it. We may never know why they weren't going to, but one thing we learned quickly as a result of the internet: Conventional journalists aren't the only ones with access to millions of "viewers". In this case, readers and writers of weblogs caught wind of the comments and decided it was newsworthy and began posting comments about the incident. With pressure and continuous focus from internet journalists, the mass media had no choice but to also feature the story and report on it in detail, and thus Senator Lott had to step down from his position.

The key idea that personally has had the most impact on me is the realization that many if not most of us have multiple digiSelves on the internet. As I began to read this section I thought of the multiple networking accounts I personally own and how different parts of my personality prevail on each site. The harsh reality sunk in that I have multiple digital personality disorder! I say that jokingly, but as Federman states "...manifestations of our identity exist on the web, in chat avatars, among weblogs, web page postings and other digital media, and thereby create numerous digiSelves." Jenkins supports this and states "Our lives, relationships, memories, fantasies, desires also flow across media channels. Being a lover or a mommy or a teacher occurs on multiple platforms." The possible ENVU avatar account that portrays this woman as a lover will probably have a completely different look than her Facebook account where she proudly displays pictures of her children, or the school networking site that she shares lesson plan ideas. What is disturbing about this concept is that although one may think they own or in full control of their digiLife, there has been no legal recourse establish to ownership, and thus once created it feels like your life is subject to open season to the government, savvy computer hackers or maybe just some high school student that's adept at programming. It's a vulnerable feeling, yet leading multiple digiLives can be addictive.

Jenkins states "Media convergence is more than simply a technological shift. Convergence alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres, and audiences." A great example our text gives of this concept was the author's inability to buy a cell phone that was just a phone. "On the other end of the spectrum, we may also be forced to deal with an escalation of functions within the same media appliance, functions that decrease the ability of that appliance to serve its original function, and so I can't get a cell phone that is just a phone." Demand drives the quality and content of our supply. When the salesperson said they no longer carried cell phones that only make and receive calls its because convergence has altered the way the end consumer processes information and communicates. We live in an age when people want the ability to communicate multiple ways from one device. With the right phone someone can be holding five or more conversations at once. Web enabled cell phones with text messaging allow users to hold simultaneous conversations by talking, texting, emailing (on multiple accounts), and instant messaging. This does not even include messaging via Facebook mobile. And so this media convergence has altered how we communicate and the number of people possibly in different parts of the world we may communicate with all at one time. Federman's take on this issue is similar "What is the culture of a place that is everywhere and nowhere, that is at once global but renders the globe obsolete, that globalizes the individual yet strips our individuality?"

Although I did find many of the concepts enlightening I did find one theory challenging. Federman states "It will not be long before we see the next phase of this evolution: theatres equipped so that patrons will actively engage in an online webgaming experience, while simultaneously watching the theatrical release of the film. The networked film-goer will simultaneously interact with the two entertainment media, and other audience members world-wide." This concept seems very far-fetched to me and I doubt that convergence will go to this extreme. Although we already see the motion picture industry collaborating with the gaming industry, I believe that watching a film fulfills a different need within a person at that time. Later when desiring to have interaction, then is when consumers will decide to play the game, but not at the same time. Additionally, although I agree with Jenkins that convergence is a process, not an endpoint, I do not agree that "There will be no single black box that controls the flow of media into our homes." I think products like the I-Phone are the first glimpse at this possibility.

The readings have prompted a couple of questions for me:

1) Will it ever be possible for the government to effectively monitor or regulate the internet and limit identity theft and fraud?
2) Will there always be a generational gap that will keep "obsolete" products around? Eg; Will some older people refuse to use a digital camera and thus a traditional camera and film always be around?

This is new to me

Although I'm looking forward to a great semester, I must admit that blogging is very new to me and so as a result I feel somewhat insecure about this whole thing. But since I consider myself a risk taker, I am willing to wholeheartedly give this a try. Who knows, maybe I'll get hooked. Stay tuned for my first dynamic blog coming this Sunday (or sometime before that).