The article on Teen Consumers by Lenhart & Madden (2005) brought a lot of questions to my mind. None of the statistics regarding internet use, movie/music downloading, or content creating really surprised me, but the attitude towards music downloading was disappointing. The attitude that "everyone is doing it" and that it's so easy to do, why shouldn't they do it is a very dangerous trend, and you can only wonder how long it will be until that attitude carries over into other aspects of life. There is no sense of personal responsibility, they even blame the availability of DVD and CD burners for sending mixed messages on whether you should be downloading. I think one way in which this attitude will continue to have a negative trend is in plagarism. The pervasive attitude out there is that if you find it on the internet, it is open season to use as yours (music, information, research).
I also read the tidbit on the ETS developing a standardized test on digital literacy; but sadly its use is not yet widespread. I think this is a great idea, and could possibly be considered even more valuable for today's generation than the SAT. I think that the most important digital literacy skill is to learn how to responsibly use the wealth of information available online. It was mentioned in several of the readings this week that this generation of internet users are fully capable of accessing the information out there, but don't quite know how to interpret that data and determine its validity. Although this is a skill that should be focused on in the K-12 learning environment, it also carries over into the corporate or higher education worlds as well, since today's workforce isbeing increasingly called upon to use the internet to obtain information. As the article by Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan (2006) pointed out, the current American economy depends on how efficiently Americans can obtain a new level of digital literacy. At least in the K-12 environment, often the student is more tech savvy than the instructor or the organization as a whole, which does not bode well for our ability to compete in the global marketplace.
As the Lenhart & Madden (2005) article noted, a huge amount of America's "E-Generation" are now content creators in that they are blogging, creating, and remixing information online. And that article was published in 2005, 3 years ago. The key to innovative instruction which will promote responsible digital literacy is to create learning environments that will allow students to take advantage of what they are already doing in their free time for educational use (similar to our blogging assignment for this class). I think the trend is out there, but is not as widespread as it needs to be.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Week 3 - Artificial Intelligence through google?
“Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” (Carr, citing Page, in Is Google Making Us Stupid?) No, no, no...yes, the idea of having all of that information so readily accessible it intriguing, but there is no way that humans can make all of that information meaningful. And if it is not meaningful, what good is all of the information? I won't even classify it as "knowledge", because it has not been processed. Maybe I am missing the whole point, but I don't see how anything like that would make us "better off".
What I am more concerned about, and the article didn't really focus on this, but what is all of this time spent online and texting doing to our ability to communicate? And again, by communicate, I am inplying meaningful communication. Sure, you can say that we are communicating more and better than ever before....you have news? Send a mass email out to all of your email address book? What could be better than that? Your friend's dog dies? Shoot her a quick text, that way you don't have to bother her (or you) with a phone call. Surely our communication has improved! But like all of the time spent online is reshaping our neural circuitry, all of our time spent communicating in such a trivial, superficial manner is surely reshaping our ability to be able to engage in meaningful conversation and really communicate with one another. I can't remember where I read this, but some article I read recently talked about how the first few minutes of most mobile calls are spent discussing where each party is located. The article pointed out, why?? and who cares?? Since when has a person's present location become a hot topic of discussion? We are communicating too much, just for the sake of communicating, but it is not meaningful.
What I am more concerned about, and the article didn't really focus on this, but what is all of this time spent online and texting doing to our ability to communicate? And again, by communicate, I am inplying meaningful communication. Sure, you can say that we are communicating more and better than ever before....you have news? Send a mass email out to all of your email address book? What could be better than that? Your friend's dog dies? Shoot her a quick text, that way you don't have to bother her (or you) with a phone call. Surely our communication has improved! But like all of the time spent online is reshaping our neural circuitry, all of our time spent communicating in such a trivial, superficial manner is surely reshaping our ability to be able to engage in meaningful conversation and really communicate with one another. I can't remember where I read this, but some article I read recently talked about how the first few minutes of most mobile calls are spent discussing where each party is located. The article pointed out, why?? and who cares?? Since when has a person's present location become a hot topic of discussion? We are communicating too much, just for the sake of communicating, but it is not meaningful.
Week 2 - Why are we so behind?
Ideas are spreading faster than ever, we have the ability to learn with people across the globe, and learning environments continue to become more open. These all have advantages, as the accessibility of education is astounding, but you sometimes have to question the quality. Are we sacrificing quality for quantity? I don't know the answer to that, but I do think that people should be more hesitant about accepting the validity of online knowledge that they are.
However, what concerns me more is that America as a nation does not seem to be keeping up with other countries in terms of e-learning. This is where the future of learning is, and we seem to be very slow to adapt.
On a side note, I spent some time on scribd the other night after class and I am fascinated by the amount of information on there. But again, you have to be careful about examining the quality.
However, what concerns me more is that America as a nation does not seem to be keeping up with other countries in terms of e-learning. This is where the future of learning is, and we seem to be very slow to adapt.
On a side note, I spent some time on scribd the other night after class and I am fascinated by the amount of information on there. But again, you have to be careful about examining the quality.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Wow! I'm a little behind the times....
Overall, I am excited to begin this journey through the world of Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning. There is so much out there right now that I couldn't begin to scratch the surface if I tried to discover most of it on my own; and I feel that even after a full semester immersed in it that there will still be so much left untouched. The world of YouTube, TeacherTube, moodle, wikibooks and wikipedia, blogging, etc... They are changing the landscape of the learning environment is such significant ways.
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