research paper

with my final reserach paper i chose to do the auto bailout. I found a lot of information, almost too much pertaining to this subject so it was hard to just focus on a few topics without introducing more and more. i focused on it's effect of the economy if bankruptcy should happen. i think mitch albom sums up the situation greatly in the past two sunday detroit free presses about the hypocricy of the government nagging on the auto companies but letting many other things fly which have brought us to our credit crunch today. hopefully none of the big three fail as they would be devastating losses to our foundation, not to mention all the jobs that will be lost, probably the biggest point. i nkow of many people who would be directly affected by this. the government won't let them fail whatever the situation will be in my opinion. only time will tell, especially with the new obama administration coming in i'm sure there will be changed on the wy the auto companies do business and possible they can be regulated.

Consolidating the Freep/detnews

Do people care that the free press and news are trying to consolidate? I think they are only delivering sunday, thursday and friday starting in the spring. I used to get the free press up untill 5-6 years ago, some days no sections would be read at all. How much is it, around $100 for a year? Some people say they newspaper can't be replaced by the internet newspaper, some say otherwise. I think what should happen is regulate the internet www.detnews.com or www.freep.com and charge a similar, perhaps higher fee for obtaining news articles online, and at the same time offer a "preview" of the days top articles, only allowing non-users to read through half or even less of the article. I think it could work, and should work knowing the every changing technology wiping out digital immigrants. At the same time, many jobs in transportation and production of the newspaper itself will be lost, or decreased a lot. Just not a good time to be in Detroit....

few thoughts

As our class ends, I feel that I've gained a lot more than I thought I would back in September.  I think the topics we discussed were really important, and I pay attention to the things we've talked about a lot more everyday -- such as our digital society, and current events.  I find myself really paying attention to bias a lot more than I did before on cnn, fox, espn, etc.  I'm not sure I would have followed the election as much as I did after talking about bias and news, etc.  These are really important topics to bring up, and there are no other classes like current events or anything of that nature to obtain this information in class. And I think it's good and really important to be aware of these things as we grow older, somehow I feel more educated as opposed to my other classes where it's just memorization then after the test you forget all of it.   I hope more people feel the same way.

Digital classroom?

Something I've been thinking about lately has been about digital technology and classrooms, similar to what we did a few weeks about by holding out "virtual classroom", which was similar to a chat room. I think with the emergence of online classes, more and more subject will use that sort of thing. For example, there are a lot of classes, like my nutrition one, that you don't really get a whole lot out of going to class that will help you on your exam. The teacher reads off the lecture notes, adds in comments about certain bullets and ideas, and our exams are just based solely off the lecture notes. Now a class like that, you have the recording posted online, the notes posted online, so why bother going? I have attended all the classes but one this semester. You can basically "attend" the class at home later, just plug in your headphones and turn on the powerpoint notes on your computer. The only difference is that this can be anytime, but the live class is only at9:45 am.

I think more and more classes will do this, and eventually there won't be as many classes that need instructors to conduct live classes, rather online classes. The virtual classroom was a little bit chaotic, as it's hard to interact online rather than in person, but it did allow for more elaborate ideas that possibly in person. This is because you have time to type, delete, cut, paste, modify, etc etc and you don't have that option speaking.

So i guess it's not as likely to have virtual classrooms in the future as it is general online classes that they have now, but plenty more in my opinion are on it's way. I think this just adds to digital media because students won't have to actually sit down in a desk with their other students and attend class, making it convienient for them, but at the same time doesn't this make you think that technology is just making us more lazy? E-mail seems to be more old-fasioned with the emergence of text messaging, facebook, and twitter. Does anyone even remember AIM???????

this can be also seen with banks.... tellers as opposed to ATMs, at grocery stores with "virtual checkout", etc it seems like there are some jobs that can be replaced now with technology.

Virtual Classroom, interview followup

Last week we experimented with a "virtual classroom" settting on blackboard. This was basically a chat room. In this, we tried to hold a class discussion on following up with certain links posted and our reactions to them and such. I read a story, and watched a short little interview on ABC news. THey were both interesting, of course the ideas and comments crossed over with both the artcle (CNET) and interview (ABC news) since thye were from the same co-author. THe main headlines for both are that parents should get involved, technology adds to creativity of user and Digital Native, multiple personas online and mroe social outlets.

John Palfrey really stressed the importance of parents getting involved in what their kids do online. I think mostly this pertained to social networking, like myspace. He added that kids don't mind showing their friends pages rather than there own, maybe more to hide from parents online? This also ties into his point of kids having multiple personalities online and in person. Its different communicating with someone face to face, rather than behind the computer. This is very true for the most part.. talking to people you don't normally talk to in person, talking more online than in person, there are just more emotions and feelin when you talk to people in person rather than online. Online chatting has less feeling involved, not all the time can you detect things like sarcasm, etc. Also, the part on creativity was a very positive point that the author brought to the attention of the viewer. Technology is used as a tool to expand and enhance users' creativity, and art. This can deal with creating logo's for groups using software available on computers. Technology is basically a tool in every aspect.

I agree with most of the basis for the book. Although it's a tad overrated in my opinion (digital literacy) it's a good way of dealin with the problem by educating the audience on both sides -- good and bad. This is a parallel to dealing with media bias, no way to eliminate it, but rather education people in order to recognize the good and bad. Now we have technology there's no way to eliminate the bad that comes out of it, so educating users (and non users--digital immigrants) in the positive, and negative aspects of internet in order to use it as a tool in helping us get something done efficiently, or whatever we may use it for.

Understanding Students Who Were "Born Digital"

The piece Understanding Students Who Were "Born Digital", is an interview with the authors who wrote "Born Digital : Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives". This book is for parents and teachers to "understand" what their kids do (I assume in regards with technology and such). The natives are considered from grade school to higher education. The interview covered topics such as : whether or not to ban internet in class, evolution of libraries, and whether students are learning differently as a result of new technology.

I think this book they wrote is unnecessary. I think it's being made a bigger deal than it really is, of course a $$$ deal. It's like one of those scares you see every night on tv.... remember Y2K and how the world was supposed to blow up because computers weren't supposed to be smart enough to put 00, instead of 99? Well, maybe not that extreme. I like the way they answered their questions because well, #1 they actually answered their question and got straight to the point, and 2, they showed both sides of the pro's and con's of the internet in today's education. They showed why it's good to have internet in the classroom for a cyberlaw professor (never heard of that before), and why it's not necessary in first year courses. Also, I support their statement on "technology on its own can do nothing, rather it's a tool for teachers adnd students to put to work in support". I think that summarizes it well because things like computers are almost necessary in education today, or atleast at the university for research, word processing, note-taking, etc. but the internet will not do your paper for you, look up your research for you, or take notes for you. It just makes life easier, and more efficient when it comes to school work. As for the distractions it may cause --- I do not think that is as big of a deal as it's made out to be... sure it does distract, but if a student is not so inclined to learn about subjects he/she is enrolled in, then so be it. Thus far, I've determined that success is attained by the work you put into whatever it may be. If you can go on the internet, or go on your iPhone (so played out now)during class and not pay attention, yet still achieve the grade you would like, then great, if you don't achieve the grade that you want, then you should probably stay on tract during class, lectures, etc. So yes, technology can be a distraction, but I don't think it's something you need to ban with adults that make their own decisions daily.... perhaps in high school or middle school there can be a ban, but in no way would that work in a university setting.

Digital Naitvies

On wednesday we read a short piece about "Digital Natives" and "Digital Immigrants". This was a rather interesting story on this generation and the technology revolution, and the prior generations, or the "old school". Mentioned were how students and professors interact in learning. It was suggested that "today's students are no longer the people our educational system is designed to teach" . It went on to say that todays generation has been surrounded by video games, tv, cell phones and other electronics and spend more time playing video games than reading. A professor of medicine suggested that "our students brains have physically changed", and just think differently than before. A main point in the article is that the professors now are having a hard time teaching "a population that speaks an entirely new language".

I agreed with most of the things mentioned in the article, but I did not agree that "legacy" content (math, reading, writing, logic) should become less important than "future" content (ethics, politics, sociology, languages). I think Legacy content is still the foundation for schools and should not be brushed aside. I have not seen or experience a problem with the way classes are taught or the way lectures are conducted. I still prefer to write out notes rather than typing. I think the interaction between the students and teachers is very important in classes -- especially the "cps" unit we have here at wayne.... it implements new ways of thinking and learning during lectures through these interactions, rather than just the teacher talking the whole lecture. I also think that we as a whole have become far less social as a result of cell phones, text messaging, myspace, facebook, AIM, etc. I can remember being a kid and going to my neighbors house ringing the doorbell, talkin to their parents, and all that fun stuff. Then, later when I got a cell phone I used to call up my friends to talk or hang out, and now it's gotten to a point where I don't even call my friends much, I just text message instead. The interactions have become less emotional in a sense where talking to someone online and in person are two completely different methods of communication and I can only imagine what 5 years from now technology will bring us.