Thoughts on Class 4/7/11

I wanted to comment on Jaheem's response about different ways of learning, I think there are various ways in which people learn. Whether it be a problem with memorizing text, and that person learns better by hands on, there are different ways in which students can be taught, and different ways they can learn. For instance, someone who may have a short attention span may fare better by participating more and doing more hands on things that will keep them constantly involved with class. Coming from a person that's been in the teaching program at Hobart, it is important for teachers to learn from their students so they know how to approach the situation.

Thoughts on Class 4/5/11

Touching more on the freeness of Google and the internet, I feel like there are less safe guards now then there were ten years ago. Take for instance the comment about porn on the youtube page, that person is kind of right when it comes to material on the internet that young teenagers and under should not be seeing. Whether this is porn, vulgar blogs or what have you, I think our ability to file share has made anything and everything free on the internet. It's more than just instant gratification, it's perpetual gratification. Thinking about it,it must be kind of scary for parents. Let's just skip the birds and the bees talk and let them do some research online! They say knowledge is power, but I also think too much of a good thing is not good.

Thoughts on Class 3/31/11

Coming from the victorious side of the open source debate, I am a believer in Wikiality! Peer to peer learning is the way to go. I liked how we had a debate today and divided the class. I had an education class two years ago where we had to debate once a week on history and ethics so this was quite engaging. Well done.

Network Drones?

After thumbing through the Movements.org site, I began to think what exactly are they trying to do. Identify, Connect, Support. It seems to me that people are being swayed by networks these days, which I think is a clever idea. When you hear the word network, most people think that there are thousands, maybe millions of people connected. Maybe or maybe not in the case of movements.org, but I think people are being swayed by key words without fully looking into what the organization or company is about. Let's think about the keywords on Facebook: Connect, Share, Life, this is a more realistic network because you are connecting with people that you actually know. My question is: if something sounds right, are people more likely to join an organization because they are throwing products at them that are associated with their demographic, or is it because they have read into what they are about and want to get on board?

No professor,no problem/Class discussion

Class today was mainly full of discussion about Ispy. We formed a circle like usual, one or two people started the conversation and people chimed in their thoughts at their leisure.
What I got out of chapters 6 and 7 of Ispy is that the government is trying to look more into our private lives in order to persuade our beliefs as a consumer. One example of this is when President Bush was in office, the government was encouraging civilians to buy war products as a way to support the war. I think the government is trying to have a say in what we buy in order to control us. We think we are in control because we are the ones who buy and do things based on our own beliefs, but these beliefs are actually influenced by others.
Chapter 7 talks more about the internet and surveillance. I think government monitoring or any kind of monitoring is a way of getting control. My problem is, it has not been made that big of a deal. I will never forget the scene in the movie Men In Black where the guy is spying on a past love through video surveillance on a computer. Thinking about it now, that is quite disturbing, because our government does have that kind of technology and we would be naive to think that they wouldn't use it on their own people.
In class today everyone chimed in, in the half an hour discussion we had, and then people blogged and left. I feel like having a professorless class was good in the fact that we able to discuss things amongst one another in a pace that was comfortable with everyone.

Thoughts on Readings 2/17/11

Chapter 2 of Terranova's book has been quite interesting for several readings and in my opinion has been easier to sift through than chapter 1. The first thing is when the author talks about establishing a connection, getting from point A to point B in cyberspace. Going off of my previous post, I don't think it is this easy. When we talked about noise, it makes the process of one connection difficult. IF eight people are standing in a room and they are talking about different things, but at the same noise level, how is it possible for someone to fully comprehend an individuals conversations. Relating this back to the internet, it is impossible. There is always more than one possibility when it comes to getting information, and hearing opinions and ideas. When I read the first few pages of this article, I thought of the telephone game I used to play as a kid where I had a cup with a piece of string tied to it, and on the other end a friend had a cup with the end of the string tied to it, point A to point B.
Terranova's interpretation of the internet as a "hyper network" got me thinking...something that is constantly accelerating can attain this acceleration by the amount of traffic in this universal address space we call the internet. Let's look at the net like real estate. The infrastructure provides acres of land to a limitless amount of people, and they never run out. That to me is amazing. A space that will never run out of room, and will never turn away another member. It's like a hyper club, a nonexclusive collection of hopefuls looking to spread ideas, and manipulate it to a certain extent.
Lastly, the real time of the internet allows people to connect on the same time, though they are separated by time zones in real life. Fifteen years ago, virtual reality was something used to describe a world that a human being could not live in, but in reality, the virtual aspect of the internet has been embedded into the DNA of society so deep that it is hard to establish what is "real" or "fake". If your talking with someone it's real, so I guess virtual reality is reality in this present time.

Thoughts on Readings/Class Thoughts 2/15/11

Class today provided clarity to a reading that I had trouble digesting. The concept of noise made me think about the constant streams of information coming from people and places. So many people make so much noise that I am surprised how much is translated into information. It reminds me of a ball of yarn or a ball of rubber bands, you see it as a whole instead of them as individuals strands or bands.
One of the most interesting ideas in the book so far is that network culture is constantly accelerating, not necessarily positive or negative, but it is moving forward. I am curious as to what exactly separates those that make noise from those who can interpret others. Using the internet as an example, sometimes I don't understand how so much of the same information is ranked and put in a pecking order. I am very curious as to whether the internet will become confusing because of the amount of information. Will there be more illegitimate information than legitimate? Will the trust factor always be there?