The Future of Classroom Instruction

‘‘I really liked doing Second Life. That was a lot of fun, and it was just something cool and new.’’ A student in a Second Life visual communications class.

Studies have proven that there is little difference when it comes to face to face classroom instruction versus an on-line classroom environment. Could this be the future of classrooms? So what are the big differences? The study was conducted using five areas of interest: demographics, student output, computer literacy, attitude, and perceived knowledge. The same instructor taught class face to face and in Second Life. All the students were subjected to the same material, testing, and discussion. The outcome showed students face to face only scored slightly higher than that of Second Life students. If a person took in consideration first time users of Second Life or on-line classes, they would observe slightly lower scores. Getting use to a new style of teaching may take time, but can eventually open a whole new world of learning, while getting a degree.
Is there really that much difference between face to face and virtual, Second Life, learning? Second Life can still offer videos, audio class discussions, instructor lectures, and real class time. All the things surrounding a classroom learning environment can be found within Second Life, without the expensive overhead. Lectures, videos, power point presentations, and student/instructor discussions can be utilized just as in the classroom. Second Life or virtual learning can possibly be the new age classroom using new age technology. Second Life is already a great way to communicate with others from around the world, why not learn with them as well?

Reference:

Lester, P., & King, C. (2009). Analog vs. Digital Instruction and Learning: Teaching Within First and Second Life Environments. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(3), 457-483. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01449.x.

DELIBERATIVENESS OF ONLINE POLITICAL DISCUSSION

By: Stacy Billingsley

‘‘The more people participate as citizens in politics, the closer one comes to the ideal of a public sphere’’ (Schudson, 1992)

For most people throughout the world, the effects and changes created by politics are blatantly noticeable. It would be safe to say that everyone affected by politics tends to hold his or her own opinions regarding certain issues. Human nature makes a person strive to live a content and happy life, and personal opinions are the “blueprint” that many see as the way to achieve this way of life. For example, someone may believe that the recent healthcare bill is a positive change for his or her own personal lives. From this, it is safe to assume that they believe that their opinion (pro-healthcare bill) is a correct formula for a better life. As noted by the article and defined in the quote above, cyberspace has moved the world of political opinions to a place never before seen. Historically, a person’s opinions were limited by the current technology of the era. If a person felt strongly on a viewpoint, they were only able to promote this view to those they verbally communicated with. The “public sphere” in this era was limited by technology. Cyberspace has allowed this “public sphere” to extend to the entire world. Through the use online forums and blogs, individuals can express an opinion that can be viewed by anyone, anywhere, and without limitations. As noted in the article, newspapers around the world that previously would only write the news are now becoming a central forum to users’ opinions by taking their publications onto cyberspace.
The sheer expanse of the cyberspace is amazing. Based on that, I would agree with a majority of the article in that cyberspace is creating a larger public sphere, but I am personally unsure whether I agree with the quote in that this is an ideal trend. Multitudes of opinions shared with the click of a button have become easy, but has it become too easy? It becomes hard to find the line between one who expresses an opinion because they feel strongly regarding the issue and one who merely enjoys expressing opinions. Technology will never move in reverse. The trends we see today with the ability to express opinions with ease will only become easier. I am sure that many advancements and positive achievements will be made from this forward trend of online political discussion, but I truly question whether quantity of the public sphere will, in the end, negatively affect the quality of personal opinion.


Citations:
(Schudson, 1992, p. 147, as cited in Grbesˇa, 2003)

Will the internet really make people get along with each other?

Will the internet really make people get along with each other?

“We’ve expanded to the point where all the world will be connected – We’re going to have to get on with each other” (Tim Berners-Lee commenting on the internet in a Rolling Stones interview).

Tim Berners-Lee made a powerful statement when he implied that people all around the world will all have to get along with each other because the world is a more connected place with the internet. Realistically, will being connected via the internet really make people get along better? Does the web have the power to bring together people that would not normally be able to get along? Yes, technology and cyberspace has made communication and information possible among people around the world but does that mean that people with different values will learn to respect and get along with each other? People with different belief systems, political views and general outlooks may now communicate easily and in an ideal world that may help people overcome differences. Unfortunately, conflicts have occurred since the beginning of time. While, yes the internet may help people communicate in a more productive manner, the ability it has to create a world where everyone gets along must be questioned. Just because people have the means to communicate and learn about each other does not mean that it will be used in a productive manner. The internet is a tool that could potentially be used for positive or negative means. Human nature does not dictate that just because people are connected that they will get along.

Hiatt, Brian (2007, November 15). Tim Berners-Lee. Rolling Stones, 1039, 78. Retrieved from Regis Academic Search Premier

Modern Lessons from Descartes

The only thing of which one can be certain is private subjective experience. ~Descartes
The above mentioned quote is taken from; Dreyfus, H. (2000) Telepistemology: Descartes Last Stand In K. Goldberg (Ed.) The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and telepistemology in the age of the internet (pp. 48-63). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
The above mentioned quote was penned years before the internet. Yet it is the standard by which a responsible individual must live by while communicating in cyberspace. No matter to the extent of which an individual has used the internet as a tool to communicate with another individual, that person must realize that communication is not a private subjective experience. What this means is that because you are not there to witness the other party in your communication, you cannot see the other party, the other party surroundings, along with many other variables unseen, your conversation is more readily susceptible to being partially or completely a farce. This possibility of deception can have many negative uses.
Electronic communication can be used to hide a person's physical features; the most common perpetration would be online dating sites. Electronic communication can be used to hide the number of individuals privy to a conversation, such as blind copies of confidential emails. Electronic communication can cause someone to believe they are talking to one person they may trust, but in reality they are really talking to someone they may not trust with access to the trusted individual's account. All of these deceptions have led to severe negative circumstances. People have been duped into a date with someone they have no interest in what-so-ever, employees have been fired over leaked discussions they trusted to be private, and now one of the most disturbing trends is that kids are committing violent crimes against themselves and others based on cyber bullying from trusted sources of electronic communication violated by would be bullies. An example of this, would be the story of Phoebe Prince, Prince was an exchange student in a Boston High School. Prince became so emotionally distraught from other students cyber bullying, that she took her own life.
With cyber communication, a little goes a long way. I do not believe that the good done by social networking sites, outweighs the negative aspects. It is not necessary for people to know what I am doing every minute of every day. I also feel, there needs to be regulation on the consequences of electronic communication, because the ability one has to manipulate the conversation. But the true lesson that must be ingrained in the thought process of all who would utilize electronic communication is, once you put it out there, you cannot take it back and you have no idea who may come across it. So use technology at your own risk, and understand that unless you can see and understand the exact situation in which your communication exists, you cannot be certain of anything.
Nick

Who is reading this?

Knowing and writing appropriately for a particular audience is as important as using proper grammar in your writing. Just as a writer of a romance novel knows the type of person that will likely be reading their writing, a blog writer needs to know their audience and do some level of research on that audience to understand what style of writing that audience enjoys reading. Included in the style that should be used is not only length of your work, but the choice of words, types of language, and any humor or lack of humor that should be used in the work. If for example you were writing a blog targeting people interested in food and more specifically the food preparation industry, it would be smart if you understood the types of people who were likely going to be reading your blog. What age and gender will the people are who will be reading your work? What type of education and potentially social background will the people have? All of these things are important for you as the writer to understand before writing a word on your blog. The style that you choose to write your food blog in will be much different than the style that someone writing a sci-fi focused blog would use. Knowing your audience is incredibly important to the success of your blog.

References:

Choosing and Writing for an Audience. Retrieved May 3, 2010 from

http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/handouts/audience.html

Ethics in Healthcare on the Internet

Ethics in Healthcare on the Internet
"Organizations that provide health information on the Internet have a special and strong obligation to be trustworthy and to protect Website users' privacy”, (Health Management Technology, 2000).
Drafting a code to protect patient health information via the Internet addresses issues of patient information being disclosed without regard to patient privacy. Some of this information is only accessible to health care providers in organizations, while other information could be made public via the Internet. Organizations require access to records to review previous admissions, prior history, family history, etc. In order to accomplish the drafting of this code, delegates at the eHealth Ethics Summit (Health Management Technology, 2000) met in Washington, D.C. and expect to have the code finalized in the middle of May.
There are some issues that may surround ethics in healthcare on the Internet, such as: voyeurism, curiosity, and habit. Once access has been gained, one can be lead by the findings, such as, viewing photos of persons using drugs or engaging in sexual activity. We, as consumers, must be aware of how our private health information is being presented to viewers who have legitimate access and to those who have the ability to hack into private information.
In conclusion, since the Internet is changing the way people receive and give healthcare information-- patients, healthcare professionals, and researchers, must unite together to create a safe environment when using the Internet in seeking health care information.

Reference

Coalition Releases Draft eHealth Ethics Code. Health Management Technology, 21(4), 10. (2000). Computer Database.

Google's New Wave

Google's Mission – Collaboration


Google's mission: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. In other words, their specialty is collaboration. Recently there were two projects that I was working on that required me to research two of Google's product offerings, the collaboration tools for Small Businesses and their latest Google Wave product.

Several months ago I started a business with which required that document sharing along with other collaboration tools with both my internal customers (my salespeople and management) along with my external customers (clients). As a project manager I conducted the comparison between Google’s and Microsoft’s Collaboration offering for Small Businesses .The tests included both my personal use and evaluation along with online research for outside developer’s reviews of each offering. Although Microsoft’s application was based on the very popular Sharepoint application used by many larger organizations the Google application was, in my opinion far superior for a number of reasons. First and foremost they keep their mission in mind their focus which is collaboration is where their expertise lies.

1.The product offerings were more robust with features that allowed document sharing, the creation of a company intranet and many many more.

2.Ease of logging in to the application. The interface is direct. A gmail account is required and access is given by the administration

3.Completely free for the small business applications but scalable by virtue of a premium subscriptions to grow with you into what hopefully can be your huge enterprise.

A new Google application that takes personal and business collaboration to a new level was announced last year in April and they are still working on it. The group that created Google Maps announced the pre-release of Google Wave. This application is the ultimate application for personal and business collaboration; bringing email, instant messaging, video and other media into a real-time application written in HTML 5, and the whole application runs in a browser. The hour and a half video that demonstrates this application show and application that is simply awesome. See video at http://wave.google.com/about.html. Unlike some of their other applications they released this early, incomplete application to select developers so that by the time this completed project/application is released to the public there will be additional applications, plugin's etc. written for the app. The Google site http://wave.google.com/using-wave.html mentions a couple of ways that the application can be used (organizing events, running group projects, sharing meeting notes, brainstorming, interactive games) but there will be many more because the app appears to be so much fun to use. T

To summarize, the Google applications are clean, well thought out, and robust. Another very key aspect of Google's approach to application development is that, “As with Android, Google Chrome, and many other Google efforts, we plan to make the code open source as a way to encourage the developer community to get involved.” I have requested an invitation to be able to use the Google Wave application in its' beta stages because it just looks so exciting. I can't wait to use it.

References:

http://www.google.com/corporate/index.html

Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave, Retrieved February 25th 2010 from http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html

http://wave.google.com/about.html

http://wave.google.com/using-wave.html

How do you like them Apples? by Jennifer D.

In January 2010, Apple Inc. posted it’s all time highest revenue and I was not at all surprised to learn this (Apple, n.d.). Apple offers top of the line technology products including the MacBook, iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Apple TV. I own an iPod and this is one of my favorite technology gadgets because it allows me to transport all of my songs when I am away from home. A few years ago I made the switch from a PC to a MacBook and I could not be happier with my choice. Apple products combined with various other software and applications not only enhance the use of technology, they also provide opportunities for collaboration.

The iPhone is a unique phone that includes an iPod, the internet, and various applications (Apple, n.d.). By combining contacts, calendar, and email applications into the iPhone, Apple is helping international business team members to collaborate seamlessly on architectural projects (Apple, n.d.). The iPhone Facebook application allows groups of people to collaborate via this social networking website even when they are away from home. Additionally, the movie editing software, Final Cut Pro, allows professional movie editors to collaborate with directors over the final cuts in major motion pictures by discussing the edit in iChat Theater (Apple, n.d.). I was surprised to see that many movies I have seen recently were edited using Final Cut Pro including, 500 Days of Summer, Benjamin Button, and Traitor.

In conclusion, Apple has enhanced technology and made it possible for people to connect with others and collaborate on projects. I look forward to seeing what Apple has in store for us in the future.

References:
Apple (n.d.). Apple reports first quarter results. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/25results.html

Apple (n.d.). Architecture in motion. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/profiles/rtkl/

Apple (n.d.). Facebook. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/webapps/socialnetworking/facebook.html

Apple (n.d.). iPhone. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Apple (n.d.). What is Final Cut Studio. Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/