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.