Closing Metacognitive Journal Post

Well, it has been a long semester and honestly a very informative one. I’d like to make this post informal as this is characteristic of the medium of blogs and internet dialogue (thanks David Crystal!)  I think that big picture idea that I learned was the scope of which the internet has changed life as we know it.  It just seemed like something that we did because it was easier.  We shop on Amazon because things come to our house, we buy music on iTunes because it goes on our computer and we can then transfer it to our iPhone(portable computer), we bank online because we don’t like waiting to deposit checks, and we entertain ourselves on YouTube because, we love all of the silly things that animals do.  But I don’t think that I actually realized what it really meant to be networked and digital.  My preconceived idea was that if I became “networked” I thought that I’d be staying in a hole, growing a beard, and peeing in jars (sorry that was gross but it’s something I've seen in movies and television shows). 

What I've come to discover is that it actually does the opposite.  It allows us to become more worldly, more informed about the world around us.  And I mean like allll of us, not just our little town, or city or state.  It allows us, at an instant notice, to see the forest fires in California, see headline news in a small town in Alaska, watch demonstrations in China, then see who is running for office in the neighborhood the next town over.  The world is our oyster, and the internet is the closest thing we have to a perfect machine.  The more information we put in is the more information we can get out of it.  Talk about efficiency! 

So how does this affect my own life?  I've found that the audience I would like to focus on in continuing my studies is theater production students.  It combines my love of building things and creativity with the aggravation of getting students to actively and positively participate.  I've found that my biggest goal is the “how to draw students in to learn and be efficient” and the answer lies in technology.  So there is my problem and my solution.  The real quest is how to make it happen.  I feel like that could be like the game Othello, “a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.”  But I already have a leg up.  They already use it and feel comfortable.  It has the capacity to educate and create motivation. So I’m beginning my journey.  I’m supplementing the real life and physical experiences with augmented reality to move toward my goal of creating productive and motivated students in a theater production program.  I know there are going to be some ups and downs and there will be some stumbles along the way but I’m looking forward to it.  I've already come up with some ideas and when they are perfectly crafted or at least imagined, I look forward to getting your (yes you, global villagers!) input. 

Until next time, stay classy WORLD! 

Language and the Internet-David Crystal Response

It is clear that the invention of the Internet is an immense technological achievement, according to Crystal in his book, Language and the Internet.  It has been a selection that I have enjoyed reading and his perspective as an enciteful linguistic analyst has has solidified some of the ideas that I have had in both the constructs that language has on the internet and vice versa.  Early on in his book though, there are some issues that I thought were interesting and the curiosity of how they materialized kept me interested to read further.  Crystal would probably agree with Spiderman/Peter Parker's famed Uncle Ben when he said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”  Sometimes, we are not responsible and “the dangers of the Internet…pornography, intellectual property rights, privacy, security” (Crystal 1) are produced or jeopardized.  But according to Crystal, the most primary issue that critics are worried about is linguistic issues that the internet has on everyday language.  

Crystal then goes into talking about how Internet culture, with its “i” “e” and other prefixes have invaded common language.  With his description of Shawn Wilbur’s day, I have come to the harsh realization that I am not a ‘netizen’ but someone who utilizes the internet for whatever task I have to do.  Wilbur checks the internet when he wakes at night, has it open when he does other work on the computer, and logs on once or twice a day for extended periods of time for demanding real time communication.  A true addict, as Crystal says, does some of this and more.  An addicted internet user is online for multiple days at a time, has the computer close to their refrigerator, and even uses internet language in everyday life!  This almost seemed comedic to me, especially when I heard the terms.  Who says, “Scroll up” when someone asks what you said, or tells someone that they live at http://123.elm.street/house/bluetrim.html?  That is ridiculous!  To be honest, that doesn't even make sense.  The only way that is even halfway intelligible is that people live at an address and that is an internet address, that is it!  I think that while there is an ability for some “Netspeak” to enter into our colloquial language, I do not think that it would convolute the language that these people grew up saying, unless they were in a vacuum of a completely computer based society where the only people that they grew up with were other computer people.  I mean, how would they “It’s my turn to download” meaning I've heard your gossip, now hear mine.  Really?  I’m not saying that people do not make up terms or say things that mean something else, but if you ask a computer person the different meanings of the word ‘download’, I’m sure they would probably not stray too far from its commonly known meaning. 

Something I do agree with Crystal is his thoughts on “@” words infiltrating our lexicon.  The symbol, “now the universal link between recipient and address” was chosen by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, because it was already on the typewriter and was not used in names (Crystal 21).  So while I will agree that it is being used in business, I posit that it is merely just a function, a short hand of sorts and is something that more people are familiar with.  I believe that the notion of the “@” works more toward an ideal of making something easy to understand that some of the more ethereal and abstract constructs that were discussed earlier that, in my opinion, are the vocabulary not of ‘netizens’ or ‘digital natives’ but of people whose whole existence is consumed not by the internet but computers in general. 

The Medium of Netspeak

I thoroughly enjoyed Crystal's section on Netspeak and how he set up the differences in language used and the idea of the "written speech...'write the way people talk...electronic discourse is writing that often reads as if it were being spoken-that is, as if the sender were writing talking"(Crystal 25).  I have often thought that reading different things on the internet was in fact easier than some literature and it appears that this is the case.  It seems as if the constructs of common internet language would go so far as to combine the traditional sense of speaking and writing and ultimately be a hybridized form of that while creating some of its own properties.  Crystal further states that, "First is a function of the technology-the lack of simultaneous feedback...it does not arrive on that person's screen a keystroke at a time-messages does not leave until we hit send"(Crystal 30).  This expression that Crystal has shows the way that Netspeak, in its standardized form, is uncharacteristic in entirety of both speech and traditional writing as it takes on a third origin in the technology being used.  

Another interesting issue that Crystal raises is the construct that Netspeak utilizes some of the vocal qualities of speech and incorporates that into text.  Being as such, written text traditionally does not have the support of incorporating additional meaning that is present in facial expressions, gestures, and changes in voice.  The conversational, writing as if we were talking ideals present in Netspeak have created different ways to show emotion through the use of capital letters, italics, underlined phrases, spacing, repetition of letters, and punctuation.  

I think, if anything that Netspeak, while it sometimes does not follow the conventional form of writing, is substantially positive as an adaptable medium.  Text on paper writing can change, but only slightly, while Netspeak has a way of changing to suit the user's needs and in a world where the best suited whatever wins, Netspeak is clearly becoming the medium of the majority of users, lauditorially speaking.

Crystal, David. Language and the Internet. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print.

Adolescent Interview

I recently interviewed a 16 year old girl from a suburb in Long Island.  For the most part, I would initially describe her as fairly typical in her use of technology and networked media, at least in the common perception, but upon further review I have found her responses fresh and perhaps atypical of people her age, mainly in the amount of time that she uses social media.  Her use and integration of networked environments in her life is fairly utilitarian and her responses have exhibited that.  She has successfully utilized technology so that it is maximizes utility while she appropriately separates it from other parts of her life.  Her success is through a hierarchy of methods of communication that she has created, being that some communicative tools are more appropriate for some situations that others.  

The notion of informality that comes up with text messages is interesting  and the fact that people have different roles in her life with different attachments is also refreshing.  Too many times people blame text messaging and shorthand for the shortcomings of adolescent writing but as of this conversation, I think that there are other factors involved.  I think it is also interesting because as the common perception of students/adolescents is toward their attachment of technology and using it more and more in their everyday life, these young people still have a great anchor in the technologies of the past, books, physical human interaction, etc.  The dialogue that is listed below is honest and telling of how she and other students her age find the application of emerging technologies, the usefulness of them, and the hurdles in their applications in school.

How old are you?
Sixteen.

What are the top 3 forms of social media that you use?
Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr

Do you have a favorite software or app?
Yes, Instagram

How often per weekday do you use social media?
Around once or twice a day

What is one piece of technology you couldn't live without and why?
I can't live without my cell phone because with it I can access news immediately, and I enjoy using it for the occasional welcomed distraction and entertainment.

Do you enjoy being always connected to some kind of network?
Yes, I don't like missing out on stories that my close friends are talking about and the pictures that they post.  Having the ability to always be in the "know" is very nice.

Do you like time without technology and why?
I like it, I think its important to put boarders on technology and its important to spend time with friends and family without distractions.

Briefly name two situations when you wouldn't send a text message to someone, besides emergencies.
I usually don't send text messages to my friends except when something does not require conversation, like confirmations, yes and no questions.  I value talking to people "voice to voice".  I also wouldn't send a text message to most adults because I think it is too informal.

Are you more likely to pick up a book or digital reader?
I am more likely to pick up a book because for some reason, I am hesitant about picking up digital readers because of the fact that I can get distracted by other things on it.

Do you think digital media defines you well or speaks clearly as to who you see yourself as?
I don't let that happen because I fell that people would have a better understanding of who I am meeting me face to face.  I also don't like the idea that anyone on the internet could access information about me.

Would you like to see digital technology used more or less in school?
I would like to see it used less in school because even though iPads make things very accessible, most students do not use them appropriately in class and teachers are hesitant about the switch to a paperless classroom because when there is a problem with technology it seems like it is more disabling than when there is a snafu with papers.  The margin of error is huge with technology.

Word Association:
(We then did some word associations to see what her "knee jerk" reaction was to the following words.)

Friend: Fun
Facebook: Notifications
MySpace: Old
Twitter: Tweet
Book: Read

Media Education

     Let me preface this by saying that this is not my first experience with the idea that the type of media and the media itself are part of the message that is conveyed.  When I first read the Medium is the Message in 2003, I was a bit too young and consequently not serious about the meanings of his work.  I felt as if he were speaking of us living in some dystopian society, but I didn't see my world as such.  Even though I thought he was a bit too abstract and extreme, I realized that there was some truth in what he was saying.  As I go back to what McLuhan has said and the messages that he conveyed, especially in the world today, I am even more interested in the way that as he was describing the media he saw in his day, how applicable it is the to media today.  The more I realize, the more I see that the predictions he made were not just loosely grabbing at the ideas of evolving technology he saw but he has a solid foundation of the ideals of networked media and all they have come to mean.  I can see how technology has a meaning and why an email is so much different from a tweet, how the limits of 140 characters assigns a different meaning to a message that can be pages long, how a Snap chat message and its temporality has so much more meaning than a regular picture taken and saved on a phone.  By this same rationale, I can see how print images, and their freeze of a moment in time is much more different than a commercial.  By this logic, we need to educate our youth so that they fully understand the media around them and how it can be manipulative in its message.      

     I have really become enamored by his notion of the Global Village, and all the connections that he makes in regard to it.  The "globality" of our culture is amazing and I do not think that people realize how connected we really are and how that has shifted to what it was before.  Even the advent of amazing sources of transportation can not even remotely compare to the immediacy that technology allocates to us.  "Push a button and the world is yours" is such a groundbreaking statement, even at this time, because we ultimately have a whole world's worth of resources at our finger tips.  He says, "everywhere is your neighborhood" and the "world is more familiar" now.  Also, as brought out by Olivia Kruger, in her book Gaia, God, and the Internet: The History of Evolution and the Utopia of Community in Media Society, McLuhan likens his metaphorical comparison to a village as oppose to a town because in a village, interpersonal relationship are closer and that is level of closeness that we are with the advent of new technology(p. 154).     

     He also discusses the transition that we went through as a civilization and how books, an old medium/gadget, was as closed a medium aw we could get.  The people that were "with it" understood books.  The reader would sit alone, scan a line, and the ideas are conveyed one at a time.  This activity was private.  In the advent of broadcast television, the world has become more tribal and has moved away from the individual man, and man has lost his private identity.  This loss of identity has made us move toward being part of the conglomerate and tribalizing as a single entity as oppose to everyone being their own single entity.  "We are moving toward a collective, without any individual consciousness," McLuhan states on his interview about the Global Village, and he surmised that there is "no harmony, we are concerned with everyone else's business."  It is for this reason that advertising has become so invasive and effective in our world today.  It is obvious that as we move toward togetherness and what we deem equality, we would seek to keep that equality and advertising manipulates that feeling that we would need to "keep up with the Jones".  

     While McLuhan has been very accurate with the underlying descriptions of media meaning, I would like to ask him some questions and see his responses.  A question that I had, in terms of today's media is what he thinks of how it is steadily dissolving from a top down structure to a bottom up structure where the singularity of message is no longer what it once was.  How instead of corporations having complete control of "broadcast" media, the people are beginning to have that control as content producers instead of mere consumers.  I think that it is possible that he thinks that in a subversive manner those higher ups still have control, but I guess the optimist in me sees a slightly less dystopian society in our future, one where control will live in those who deserve it.  I see us moving out of the Global village, where even though we still have communication over far distances, we begin to close ourselves to more like minded people and make small communities over our networked public.

Marshall Mcluhan Speaks – Centennial 2011, Global Village (1968), Retrieved from http://marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/sayings/1968-global-village.php

Marshall Mcluhan Speaks – Centennial 2011, Global Village (1977), Retrieved from 

from http://marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/sayings/1977-global-village.php

Olivia Krueger, Gaia, God, and the Internet: The History of Evolution and the Utopia of Community in Media Society http://www.jstor.org/stable/27643256

        

Week 6-Democracy and Technology

The issue that I found most interesting within the readings is related to the sense of our political duties as they relate to society and the implications that technology has on democracy.  The article by Mark Kann was interesting because it really solidified the a few ideas that I already had.  "In recent years, we have seen a broad disenchantment among people with civic engagement and representative democracy," states Kann, and within the mid 1990's it appeared as if things were bound for a change with the internet.  He gives three methods in which the internet promoted democracy:

extended communities for broad forums of discussion,
many to many citizen interactions that invite political action,
and polling being made easier through people's expression.

But within a few years, "theorists and advocates of digital democracy" started to see the "populist majority as uniformed, impulsive, and materialistic."  These opinions were created whenever people look at the populist majority's preference of "Internet pornography and commerce" over civic and political engagement.  With the rise of this growing sense of political apathy, digital democrats feel the need to educate and improve public opinion of the system.  But the author later posits that because internet discussion is generally "undisciplined, intolerant, and superficial" that it is not suited for online talk intended to "produce sober, wise recommendations for policy-maker and law-maker consideration.  So the point is that perhaps the internet is not suited for such a high level of "disciplined, facilitated discussion...more suited to the halls of Ivy League universities."  Most importantly the author has determined that some individuals should be unwelcome in a public forum debate.  Those who are "impulsive, impassioned, self interested...people of faith, [who] are commited to a singular version of truth, morality and virtue...social and political..activists" are all individuals with ideas that are corrupted by a greater idea that makes them incapable of compromise and thoughtful and forward thinking discussion. 

But to this end I wonder, is this all new?  Is this dissention in democratic thought borne from our networked society?  I believe the key speakers from the videos, Digital Youth, Social Movements, and Democracy in Brazil and Networks, Power and Democracy both had very similar ideas.  The civil society, one that has discourse and discussion, as summarized by Saskia Sassen has been used by the technology where conversely in the world of finance, technology has been altered to fit its ideals.  From this, Raquel Recuero states that technology has exemplified the issues that harm democracy and the global presence allows more consumers to see that is the case. 

There are substantial uses of technology for democratic good but as Sassen has stated, there may have to be some creative destruction to maximize the benefit.  She also suggests that we need to invent new political formats for technology to be effective in that means.  Recuero, and her evaluation of Brazil's digital youth, is on the way to maximizing the technologies abilities for discourse with their direct link to the President and their ability to solve pollution problems, but there are still issues that need to be solved so that everyone can participate and be involved in a reworked civil society where morality and good intentions reign supreme.

I'm just wondering, what would Sassen and Recuero would think of Barack Obama's campaign that relied heavily on networked culture.  I'm sure Sassen would have thought that it was not a completely sincere attempt but Recuero may have thought that it was a good attempt to reach the masses.     

References:

Kann, Mark E.. "More or Less Democracy in the Internet Age?." Networked Publics. N.p., 6 Oct. 2005. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

"Raquel Recuero - Digital Youth, Social Movements, and Democracy in Brazil Connected Learning." Connected Learning. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

"Saskia Sassen: Networks, Power, and Democracy - YouTube." YouTube. Kazys Varnelis, 23 Mar. 2006. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

Week 4-Participatory Culture

First off, wow, what an awesome reading from H.J. Jenkins!  This material has spurred some very interesting conversations with my colleagues and myself and I think I came a realization about networked culture that has changed my perspective completely.  I've always assumed that education should always create an environment that is similar to the one students will encounter when they leave the safe confines of school and enter the harsh reality of the real world.  I have known that the internet and the various spaces created in it are very prevalent in everyday life but I now know that when the education system does not effectively teach in the network culture it is detrimental to the development of students.  Not only does it not prepare them for the world by using internet based resources but the culture itself teaches so many valuable lessons, many of which are highlighted in this reading. 

I'd like to center this post around a statement that was introduced in the assignment for this week.  Most people assume that people, especially young people, are reading less and have too much screen time.  On a superficial level, I would agree.  Young people are socializing more through networked culture and are relying on the internet for entertainment.  Some young people play video games and often enough they are educated more in video game culture than they are in academia.  But honestly, who can blame them?  From what I can tell, to most pre college students school is boring.  I love learning and talking to people in person because I feel like that is a complete experience you can not get online but I see the alluring nature of technology.  Technology is forgiving, does not judge, and is there all the time.  I think that the skill of play, discussed in the reading, is the main reason why tech culture is more popular than academic culture.  The user gets the chance to learn at their speed, in their preferred medium, experiment, and go back and learn afterwards.  All of this is done with little to no pressure.  How is the "user" treated in school?  The school user does work, inside of class and out, and then is tested.  After tests, that is it!  And the tests for some, are in high stakes situations, full of pressure that is corrosive to true learning.  Sure there is some scaffolding that occurs that would make students recall information they have previously learned but the "Renaissance Man(woman)" culture that schools have cultivated puts less importance on specializing on something and makes students learn just a little bit of everything.  What is the reason that students would want to remember something if they just move to something else later?  More importantly, what is high school doing to prepare young people to enter the world if they do not go to college. 

In my opinion, most people start learning in kindergarten and stop learning when they reach 7th or 8th grade, and that is it!  I would bet the farm that most people don't remember what they learned in high school and can recall more accurately the information from their younger years.  What is that telling you about the validity of high school education.  If I was given the key to the city and the ability to restructure the school system, the college format would start earlier.  Students would pick what they want to pursue earlier in school instead of the "Renaissance Man" curriculum.  And to simulate the real world, instead of tests that are fairly arbitrary and do not give a complete view of knowledge gained, students would be evaluated through tasks that they must accomplish.   

I know that I am opinionated and I think that is because I work in a school.  I have had discussions with teachers and students and they have similar views.  Teachers feel that they are inhibited to teach and go off on valuable tangents because they are teaching to a test, the end point of a curriculum. They must tailor a whole school year, 180 days of learning, to a test that lasts two to three hours.  (When did school become so Machiavellian?)  Students on the other hand, are not sure why they are learning the things that they are learning.  I know that not all students are advanced but I know a student that is doing highly sophisticated work with people in college and beyond and is applying for patents for technology that he and his team created.  How is school servicing him?  He goes to school, sits in the library and watches Netflix on his computer because he has to be in a building for a certain amount of time in order to graduate.  In my mind, he has already graduated. 

So to conclude, I think that the system is broken.  I know that the system was created to benefit the greatest number of people but I think it can be differentiated to accommodate more students.  We can use the ideas presented by Jenkins and others that harness the positive aspects of a networked, participatory culture.  We, as educators and a public that is concerned for the youth of society, must make learning more intrinsically motivating.  Sure, people are getting a bit more screen time but where else would they go, or better yet, where would they want to go?  Let us make the screen time work more effectively for us.  Let us direct the screen time in a way that can allow people to develop more intellectually.  Why not make a learning environment that has meaning for students and enable teachers  of all types to be facilitators of knowledge?  Why not use technology to educate students in the proper uses of technology and enrich their education through it?  There are definitely technological skills that need to be harnessed if we want to be more successful and the only way that we are going to do that is joining the internet revolution, not resisting it. 

Week 3: Reflection on Jenkins Reading Highlighting the Participation Gap

The concept that interested me was the participation gap.  I felt that prior to reading this section, I could have surmised what a participation gap is, but I think that the importance of it really hit me as I read along.  Within Green’s Model, this fits in the Operational dimension because it deals with the tools and techniques associated (and the limitations that are imposed) with literacy and the ability to be literate.  With computers and internet access everywhere, it seems like there wouldn’t be much of a gap, but alas there are differences in the capabilities of people accessing the internet.  In the Jenkins reading, she states that governments have found importance in the use of the internet and they are providing access in different ways.  On a PBS Nightly News Hour in November 2005, Philadelphia mayor John Street spoke of how the city government would work on providing low income families with internet connection (Jenkins 12).  The reading also went further to say that the city’s Emergency People’s Shelter, a non-profit organization, is providing access to people in the shelter as well as other community members.  With all of this focus, and the insight into its increasing importance in completing everyday tasks, it is a wonder that more people aren’t fluent in this literacy. 

With that being said, there are hurdles in the way of access to the general public.  A good summary of these occurrences are stated plainly in the reading on page 13, where it states that “’Speed, location, quality and support, and inequalities in access do persist’ states a 2005 report on children’s online experience in the United Kingdom.” (Livingstone & Bober 13)  These are all big hurdles when it comes to both self-discovery and guided usage.  From my own experience, especially as it relates to the courses I am taking, I have noticed at the school I work at that there are hurdles in completing my studies.  Second Life, the program that is utilized in the Learning and Emerging Technologies course, is blocked because, as the IT director said, “it opens up ports that may present a security issue.”  Also, certain blogs are also blocked and for the students, the blocks are more numerous.  Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are all blocked, just to name a few.  In addition, the filtering system also makes judgments on the content of the site and when doing some research for various projects, an alert comes on the screen that may say that the website you are trying to access is “obscene/crude” and is ruled inappropriate for school usage.  I can only edit Prezi presentations on a hard line connected computer because the Wi-Fi is too slow for the speed demands of the website.  So the fear of security deficiencies and speed issues weigh on my participation (or ease of) in classes and can somewhat affect my ability to learn. 

With all of the hurdles that some people face, disadvantages occur for those with fettered connections.  While I might seem like a cry baby because I have obstacles, but I am very fortunate and I can still do what I want to.  I have internet access at home, have technology mobility at work, and am always connected by a mobile phone.  For those that are relegated to using “outdated machine[s] in a public library with mandatory filtering software and no opportunity for storage or transmission pales in comparison to what  a person can accomplish with a home computer…”. (Jenkins 13).  This inequality of ability follows disadvantaged students through school and disallows them the comforts that might otherwise enjoy if they had a clearer route to access. 

So as educators prepare students for life outside of the brick walls of an institutionalized education, computer access must be equalized.  I feel the same as Jenkins probably feels when she mirrors the achievement of skilled computer users and their network access to the historical parallel of “[the] youth who had access to books or classical recordings in their home…concerts or museums…engage[ment] in dinner conversation…skills that helped them perform well in school.” (Jenkins 14)  Jenkins further along in the reading that computer usage is less of a lifestyle as it is a part of everyday life and that computer access is becoming more of a necessity.  Work, play, and learning are increasing in presence on the internet and those that do not have access will unfortunately be left behind.  So I too echo the yearning for “free Wi-Fi coupled with new educational initiatives to help youth and adults learn how to use those tools effectively.” (Jenkins 13)