Brainstorming online

Claire, Cara, Kerry, Lucy, Hannah T and I all decided to go on msn and brainstorm all of our ideas online. We all were talking on msn via a group conversation which allowed all of us to view and talk to everyone online. The benefit of brainstorming online is that we were all able to stay at home and do it, some of us were extremely busy and to have to organise a meeting face-to-face would have taken up too much time, therefore by online brainstorming it saved us a lot of time.
However there were some negative aspects to it. Because it was online you sort of had to take turns to say something, and occasionally it was difficult to understand and follow what people were saying. Where as brainstorming your ideas in 'meat space' you would be able to follow peoples ideas easier. In addition, it was also difficult to understand what people were saying sometimes. And at the same time it was harder to express my ideas on the inet than it would be in 'meat space'.

The experience of a fictional technophile student in 2020

A student in 2020 would experience it differently as to how students do today. One could argue that distance learning would be a lot easier in the fact that all lectures and seminars would take place through a computer. There would be no need for university buildings because lecture and seminar rooms will be a thing of the past, instead you could view the lecture from your own bedroom. However, this could comprise friendships because face-to-face contact would be limited. Mobile phones will be slightly bigger and have many more applications than it used to with full access to the inet and microsoft applications allowing you to write essays on them. In addition, paper will be a thing of the past. Now that blackboard is now being used in the university of Lincoln, some units and courses allow their students to send their work via the inet - this will progress to being all courses and units. In addition, one could argue that libraries would not be needed anymore and every book could be accessed via the inet.
Although this seems quite interesting for me this is as far as i can see at the moment, when in fact i think that because it is way ahead in the future it will be far more advanced than what i have predicted.

Daily frustrations of a fictional neo-luddite at university

Fictional neo-luddite's are people who do not like using technology. Daily frustrations of most university students would involve having to watch lecture slides and taking notes from that, in addition because most units require essays to be typed up they would have to use a computer, plus if they have to look for specific online journals, or information on the inet, they would have to go online and find them - something which they would find hard to do.
In addition, speaking from personal experiences the way most students communicate with each other is via technology. Mobile phones and facebook are essential if you want to keep in touch with and communicate with others. Again something which a neo-luddite would find difficult.
Whether we are to question Prensky's generalised notion of 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives' or not, one could argue that technology is vital to not only pass your university course, but to communicate with fellow students and keep in touch with friends. Do you think you would survive as a student without technology?

A person known to you who threatens the notion of native/immigrant in digital culture

Through previous blogs the same issue keeps on occurring when discussing about Prensky's notion of 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives'. The same issue that keeps on occurring is that his notion is such a generalised view - 'digital immigrants' are people who were born 'pre digital age' and 'digital natives' during and close to the beginning of the 'digital age'. However, Prensky does not take any other factors into consideration i.e what about 'digital immigrants' who work in the technology industry e.g. Apple?
Therefore, for me the person who most threatens Prensky's notion of 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives' is that of my Grandpa. He was born way before the 'digital age' and can write absolutely perfectly pen to paper, however in addition, he can type perfectly on a computer, surf the inet and send numerous of emails without having to look for the manual for help. He himself has allowed the software to teach him without reading a manual or information booklet - something which Prensky believes to be a positive trait of only 'digital natives'.
On many occasions i have emailed him telling him what i have been up to and he is now starting to use the 'lingo' that us 'natives' use also - replying to my emails with 'lol' and 'atm.'
In addition, i think it is great that he does threaten Prensky's notion because it allows me to communicate with him easier, cheaper and faster and i can keep him up to date with what i have been doing by sending him pictures. At the age of 75 i think that is pretty impressive.

The youngest digital immigrant you know

The youngest 'digital immigrant' i know is the same age as me - 20. The reason as to why she would fit under the generalised view of what Prensky believes a 'digital immigrant' is because she does not speak the 'language' that she should because she should fit under the category as being a 'digital native' because she was born and brought up in the 'digital age'. She does not have a facebook account, does not use msn or hotmail, and hardly uses the inet at all. In fact she states that 'she does not like computers because they do not like her.' This is not the kind of 'language' that such a 'digital native' should be using. Instead, she should be well aware as to how to use a computer and know how to use the inet also. Or should she?

The oldest digital native you know

The oldest digital native i know has to be my dad. He has facebook, hotmail and uses msn. In addition, he knows so much more about computers and technology than i do. When i come home from university i give him my laptop so he can upgrade my computer to make it better, but also to protect my computer from viruses. Personally, i feel that he is more of a 'native speaker of the digital language,' than i am. In addition, he owns the latest mobile phone, has the latest gadgets (televisions, dvd players etc.) and also knows how to play on the latest games consoles. Yes, i might be a 'digital native' due to the fact that i am aware as to how to use the inet and it what it offers me at the moment, and additionally i would say that i do speak the 'language' that other natives do. However, to me it seems to me that he is a lot more 'native' than i am.

6) Web 3.0

The inet and its functions right now are said to be at the height of 2.0/the beginning of web 3.0. Web 2.0 features many more different functions that web 1.0 with it offering such sites as facebook and myspace - social networking sites that enable interacting on the inet so much easier and faster. In relation to the question, as to how does the semantic web differ from web 3.0, one could argue that the semantic web is not necessarily different from web 3.0 instead once could argue that it is incorporated within web 3.0 to be part of its progression. In other words, web 2.0 introduced it users to such things as hyperlinks where as the semantic web would differ from that providing you just the answer that you need. In addition, as Sonia Livingstone questioned as to whether reading is the same as it used to be now? I think the same question will be asked again with web 3.0. One could argue that the way people read and view the web will change again and maybe the semantic web will be a factor which influences this.

5) Semantic web

'The Semantic Web is the extension of the World Wide Web that enables people to share content beyond the boundaries of applications and websites' (semanticweb (2009) 'Main Page' semanticweb.org. http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Main_Page) The semantic web is not supposed to be different from the world wide web, instead it is seen as an enhancement. You could argue that it has similar qualities to that of a super search engine. If you wanted to know something about a certain topic, or you wanted to know the exact answer to something, the software would immediately find you the one answer you are looking for. Unlike google that would provide you with many different answers and it would be up to you as a user to find your answer, instead this software does it all for you.

4) Education and personal preferences

I do believe that if education was tailored around students and their cultural and personal preferences it could cause many difficulties. Firstly, if every student was to be taught differently then you could say that each student could have been taught not only differently i.e in the way that they are taught, but they would all learn different information. Therefore problems that could occur would be things such as the exam board and their boundaries for the marks would have to change every year. How would you grade them? In addition, if the education system and what it teaches the students were to change every year how as a country, and globally could you progress through education?

I think there are many different negatives that could happen if you were to change the actual information that was educated to students, however as Prensky states, he thinks that 'learning new ways to do old stuff' would be beneficial. Technology is forever up dating, e.g. the type writer - the computer etc. therefore incorporating such modern technologies into education could be beneficial. What do you think?

3) Education

When one of this weeks blogging task asked the question, should education 'stretch' a person? I immediately came to the conclusion that when you say 'stretched' one could argue that it literally means to 'stretch' both mentally and physically. In which case, one could argue that yes education should 'stretch' a person. If education came easy to a student do you think they would have as much satisfaction than if they had to find out and discover things through different ways?
Take this unit for example. Speaking from my personal opinion, and probably speaking for others on this course also, i have never had to do such a thing as blogging for a unit. I have had to learn a. how to use this system b. how to incorporate the knowledge that i have found out to the blogging & c. to get used to interacting to my fellow group members, where as previously we would meet face-to-face and discuss our ideas and issues. For me personally, this form of education has 'stretched' me because i have had to learn and educate myself to use such a system. In addition, no lecturer (or one could argue a 'digital immigrant') has been there to tell what is right and what is wrong. Instead that has been up to us to find out.
In addition, by taking Prensky's notion that he thinks that 'digital immigrants' should 'learn new ways of teaching old stuff,' one could argue that this could be a positive thing. Surely, such a change would 'stretch' the so called 'digital natives' through educating them through a different medium. Looking back to my early school days, as soon as a teacher did something different to educate us it was interesting and made me want to learn more, even if i wasn't used to learning via such thing. What do you think? Do you think that this course of blogging has 'stretched' you? and if so/if not, do you think it has helped you learn more about this topic? or do you think normal lectures and seminars in 'meat space' would have helped you more?

2) The 'digital divide'

b) When thinking about what difference Prensky's 'digital divide' will make to global access issues across countries and regions i think that it could cause a serious problem when it comes education. In one of the earlier blogs i discussed China and its education system that came into place in the 1960's (http://hannahbellv.blogspot.com/2009/03/china-distance-learning.html) which has proven to be rather successful. However, once again, if you take Prensky's generalised view of the two, 'digital natives' and 'digital immigrants', would such a programme be successful now? If such a programme was in place would a 'digital immigrant' be able to educate its students even with their lack of knowledge of the 'digital natives' 'language'?
Plus not only is there a 'digital divide' in the case of 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives', one could argue that there is a 'digital divide' globally in the fact that there are the people who have access to such mediums as the computer and the inet, and then there are the people that do not. If all education was to be taught via such a medium then how would the population without access to the inet be educated? In addition to the previous blog, if all communities were to be virtual by being online then again, what about the population who does not have access to such a medium?

2) The 'digital divide'

a) This 'digital divide' between the two, 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives' can prove to be quite a significant divide in relation to socioeconomically issues within society. If we take Prensky's generalising view of the two within this 'divide' and in addition also take Wenger's notion of cop's this could create an issue to such organisations such as online, virtual communities. In a previous blog, i discussed Blanchard and his reasons as to why he believed virtual communities were important (http://hannahbellv.blogspot.com/2009/02/topic-1-blanchard-and-communities.html) however if you take Prensky's generalisation of this 'digital divide' how can a community come together and educate each other if such 'digital immigrants' find it difficult to access and interact via a virtual community? How would this them help the social community progress economically?

1) Wenger & Prensky

To try and give a brief definition of what Wenger believes a 'community of practice' is, i will give you the definition that i stated in one of my blogs in February :

Wenger believes that a community of practice is about a 'joint enterprise' that is 'understood and continually renegotiated by its members'. (http://hannahbellv.blogspot.com/2009/02/communities-of-practice.html)

In addition, Prensky's concept of education in relation to 'digital natives' and 'digital immigrants' is whether or not 'digital immigrants' should continue to educate the new 'digital natives' the same way as they were educated, or whether they would be successful in teaching the 'digital natives' through their 'language'.

However, how do the two relate together? From previous blogs, i found a website that helps students in higher education on the inet by providing online cop's. (Check the blog out http://hannahbellv.blogspot.com/2009/03/open-educational-resources-in-africa.html) And this online cop did seem very successful.

Although, if educators (also known in Prensky's terms as a 'digital immigrant') were to teach students through their 'language', and say for example there was such thing as an online cop for each class and subject to discuss their thoughts and ideas, i think that this would be a great idea. Students would be able to share their ideas and at the same time they would be interacting with each other, with the same goal in mind - to learn about that certain subject.

However, one could argue that many issues could arise from this. Firstly, would this online cop be useful if the 'digital immigrant' itself could not use and therefore not interact with their students? What if none of the students could successfully educate each other about a certain topic? Would an online cop be then successful?

In addition, like Kenyon states on mchome, what about plagiarism? Taking others ideas, how would you monitor such a cop if the 'digital immigrant' could not interact and see who has put what? Additionally, if the 'digital immigrant' could not use the online cop and therefore allow the 'digital natives' to 'roam' around freely, and use the online cop for alternative forms of communication would it then be as successful?

Prensky does not know which one would be harder 'learning new stuff' or 'learning new ways to do old stuff.' However, he did state that he thinks the latter would be more successful. To me, i think that an online cop would be a great way in which to 'do old stuff'', although i think that 'digital immigrants' would have to be taught how to monitor and handle such 'new ways'. There is a future for education, and i do believe online cop's would be able to help educate students of all age but i do believe it would only be successful with rules and regulations and until such 'digital immigrants' are educated in the correct areas, one could argue that they would not be as successful.

6) Disagreements with article 5

This article discusses how we as teens are using social networking sites which are 'helping to "democratise" the music industry' because we are no longer listening to music via mediums such as the radio and the television. The article also discusses how many users are downloading music illegally because legal downloads are seen as too expensive. Now this article was written in 2007, therefore it is not so much up to date with the latest trends with music downloading, however, one criticism of the text is that it states, with 'Four out of every ten social network users have music embedded in their personal profiles, rising to 65pc among teenagers,' Russell Hart, chief executive of Entertainment Media Research see's this 'as the democratisation of the music industry.' If anything, one could argue that social networking sites such as MySpace do not 'democratise' the music industry, if anything they promote it allowing more users to enter the music industry on a more personal base. Teens no longer buy CD's anymore and one could argue that now artists and music companies earn most of their money through tours and brand merchandise, not their actual music. Therefore, aren't social networking sites giving them more publicity? Take singer/songwriter Sandi Thorn who became popular via such social networking sites, and not to mention The Artic Monkeys. As stated above, even though this article is quite out dated now, one could argue that the music industry needs to 'up its game' and try to adapt to the new 'digital age'.

6) Disagreements with article 4

This negative article already has many disagreements in relation to teens using the inet. It discusses how teenagers are spending more time looking at the 'bad' things on the inet and less time for homework. It states that '1,000 children shows they spend one hour and 40 minutes a week on average looking at porn sites.' And they are also looking at sites with 'Information about cosmetic surgery.' Sonia Livingstone questioned 'whether reading is the same as reading used to be?' and i think that the majority of us answered that reading is not the same on the inet as it used to be. With the use of hyperlinks, users can be taken anywhere on the inet - something which one could argue is an amazing thing that web 2.0/web 3.0 offers us as a user. However, the question that i have to ask is do you think that these teens have purposefully gone onto the inet to search for porn sites or cosmetic surgery sites? Or have they been directed there via links from other pages? Are teens bad people even if we do look at those sites? If anything one could argue that it is education? Maybe that is taking it a little too far, however i feel that teens are not to be blamed for this sort of behaviour because the inet itself does allow us to access these sort of sites, and without the software there there isn't anything stopping these teens from viewing such sites.

6) Disagreements with article 3

This disagreement stems from the fact that these teenagers discussed in the article, decided to create a YouTube video because 'they were bored after school and didn't want to go outside' Even though i am a 'digital native' myself i feel quite sad and can understand how a 'digital immigrant' parent would feel about this. When my parents grew up they used the outdoors to their limits, and i feel that even though 'new technology' has taught me a lot, i feel that the outdoors should play a lot in a young person life also. In addition, one could argue that in cases such as these relate to the debate as to whether 'new technologies' has a link to obesity. I'm not saying that ever young person, 'digital native', that is involved with all of this 'new technology' is obese and as stated above, i do believe that this 'new technology' has a lot to teach everyone, however in most cases in this digital era the only exercise related piece of technology is the wii. Do you think that modern technology is going to continue to create inventions that combine the two, technology and exercise? Or do you think it is a one off? In addition, does it matter? Or should we be educated more to exercise?

6) Disagreements with article 2

The author of this article enters into the relationship of 16 young girls and their identities online. An article which i found very interesting. However, do you think that it is a bad thing to look in to someones identity too much? This article was not suggesting that these girls were interacting through 'bad' activity, by bad i mean being a paedophile etc., however, it was saying how they were pretending to be someone who they weren't - experimenting. It stated that:

• 'one had switched race (i.e., Mia, who was part Chinese, part White-Jewish, pretended to be blonde and blue eyed);
• two had switched sexuality (by becoming heterophobicgay men);
• four had become beings with supernatural powers (two half-vampires, one demon, and one who could “disappear in a puff of purple smoke”);
• and five had switched their gender.'

To me, these identities seem quite harmful, and in addition don't you feel that being able to express and experiment yourself in a different way on the inet, without having to be faced with bullying and teasing for doing it offline, is a good thing? Indeed, Turkle did say ''computers are not just changing our lives but changing our selves.' however in case's like this, one could argue that computers are not just changing our lives, but also giving us the ability to experiment with our selves. Computers, therefore can enable us to experiment with identities before we try them out offline.

6) Disagreements with article 1

This article discusses the negative things that can come with teens using social networking sites. It descirbe's them as being 'time wasting and socially isolating' something which i do no agree with them, if anything i strongly disagree. When learning about Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger idea of communities of practice it became apparent to me that not only can cop's take place offline, but also online too. Some teens may find it hard to communicate offline with others, however they may find communicating with many people from many different backgrounds extremely easy. Having learned about 'digital immigrants' as placing the author under the category as one, one could argue that they have no idea what it is like communicating online, and that we, as teens, may find it easier.
In addition, if business' and education are wanting to take it a step further by using this new technology to the extreme then is it really 'time wasting' at all? Are we as users doing anything wrong if we are familiarising ourselves with today's modern technology and using web 2.0/web 3.0 to the extreme?

5) Abstract for article 5

This article discusses how the music industry is suffering from social networking sites providing music (i.e. MySpace having profiles for musicians sampling their music) and teens illegally downloading music. '43pc of those questioned are downloading tracks illegally, up from 36pc last year.' This was taken from the '1,700 13-60 year-olds questioned'. In addition, with the percentage of the amount of teens that are illegally downloading music, the percentage of legal downloads have dropped. Mr Hart, chief executive of Entertainment Media Research, states that this is because these teens see the music too expensive.

5) Abstract for article 4

This article from The Independent, shows more of a negative aspect to teens and the inet. The article tells the audience how many hours teens are actually spending on the inet and how many of them are wanting to hide their computers away from their parents. In addition it states that 'they spend one hour and 40 minutes a week on average looking at porn sites.' In addition, it also tells the viewer that teens also look at cosmetic surgery sites so that they can view sites that advertise enlarging breasts and collagen implants.

5) Abstrct for article 3

This is a short artice discussing how youngs teens have used Youtube to create their own stardom. The short article states that 'Ryan Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi's YouTube videos have garnered more than 150 million views.' and with this produsers in LA have seen it and want to create feature film for them - "Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure." From this, their site has now got 623,000 subscribers which is 'the second highest number on the video-sharing site.' Something which to me is an acheivement.Their reason's as to why they decided to make a video on Youtube - 'because they were bored after school and didn't want to go outside in the rain.'

5) Abstract for article 2

'This article explores girls’ learning about issues of femininity that takes place in the presence of others online, connected through chat rooms, instant messaging, and role-playing games.' (Kelly, D et al :3) The article explores the 'interviews with 16 girls in Vancouver, Canada' (3) (when they say girls they means girls that are of a schooling age) and again explores how they 'experiment' with themselves and their identities online. Numerous things were found out about these girls, how some experimented with their identity online which would have been taboo in the 'real world', and some even took the time to 'attack' male identities online and take a strong role in true feminism. In addition, the article enters in the discussion as to why these girls have certain profile names.

5) Abrstract for article 1

This journal article discusses teenagers and how social networking sites are taking over their life's. Livingstone see's these sites as being all about 'people construct their ‘profile’, make it ‘public’ or ‘private’, they ‘comment’ or ‘message’ their ‘top friends’ on their ‘wall’, they ‘block’ or ‘add’ people to their network and so forth.' (Livingstone:394) and yet within this article she tries to show the connection between 'opportunity and risk' (393) with these sites. Many of the facts and figures that she presents to us show how many children as young as 11 are using and viewing these sites however, i get the feeling that even though these sites are 'creating and networking online content is becoming an integral means of managing one’s identity, lifestyle and social relations' (394) she see's this in a negative way - 'social networking is time-wasting and socially isolating,and at worst it allows paedophiles to groom children in their bedroom1 or sees teenagers lured into suicide pacts while parents think they are doing their homework.' (395)

4) Five different Articles

1) Livingstone, S. (2008) "Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers' use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression"New Media and Society, Volume 10 (3): 393 - 411
http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/10/3/393




2) Kelly, D et al. (2006) '“No Boundaries”? Girls’ Interactive, Online Learning About Femininity's' Youth and Society, Volume 38 (1): 3 - 28
http://yas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/38/1/3


3) Kitv.com (2008) "Teens Use YouTube Stardom To Make Film." Kitv.com. http://www.kitv.com/news/17943361/detail.html [13/03/09]




4) Garner, R. (2009) "Teenagers online for 31 hours a week". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/teenagers-online-for-31-hours-a-week-1604654.html [13/03/09]



5) Bland, B. (2007) "Illegal Music Downloads Hit Records High." The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2813135/Illegal-music-downloads-hit-record-high.html [12/03/09]

3) Criticism's of the websites - 5

5) This is one of the most recent site pages discussing the topic of 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives'. However it doesn't actually conjure up an argument, instead at the end he questions 'If digital natives really do have different learning styles, is that something that should be accepted or attacked and changed?' That made me then think about all of the possibilities. In fact i think that this is a good question to end on after reading all of the other websites discussing their views on 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives'. It has been said that the future is in our hands, in which case i feel that as long as what you are being taught depends on whether you are willing to learn it or not, not dependant upon what medium it is from. What about students who hate computers and technology? What happens to them? Are we going to be 'forced' to use new technologies? I think right now it is too early to tell, but after all things are always changing in time and who knows in 10 years time students studying media will be discussing what the NEW 'digital natives' are about? Will they even be called 'digital natives'?

3) Criticism's of the websites - 4

4) This was written in 2007, again another fairly up - to - date site. However i doubt any site discussing this topic will have been written before 2000. Carrying on, i have to criticise a question that they ask - 'Our students have honed their skills in retrieving and analyzing information rapidly, so why don’t we advise and teach in the same way? ... - they explore their world as burst thinkers' Is every single student now 'a burst thinker'? Relating back to the first blog that i wrote on these sites http://hannahbellv.blogspot.com/2009/03/3-criticisms-of-websites-1.html again it seems that it is generalising again. what about people with dyslexia, and learning difficulties that can't learn quickly? How will they be affected if a new type of schooling is formed? In addition, one serious thing that i have to point out is the fact that he discuss how 'Students increasingly want to contact us via email, text messaging, and instant messaging rather than meet with us in our offices.' Not only do i think that this could be quite un-professional, but also could lead to other issues. I know that this is a negative way of thinking, but these days you have to be careful texting and emailing teachers, you could get into so much trouble. In addition, the sense of authority slips away. To me, the idea of texting is on an informal base - texting your friends for example. Not asking a teacher if 'u cud elp me out m8'. Do you understand what i mean? and could you imagine texting your school teachers?

3) Criticism's of the websites - 3

3) When you know which site this information has come from you will be able to understand why they have put this techno-deterministic view about 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives'. It states that 'digital immigrants' speak 'DSL - digital as a second language' and that 'the current school system was designed for an agrarian and manufacturing world,' and with this the site continues to discuss the differences between the 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives'. However, I'm still not convinced that the current schooling system is wrong, in fact aren't the students graduating from this current schooling system creating these new technologies? This is a really tough one for me because my opinions are tied to both arguments for and against both subjects. Although, in conclusion once the site name for this blog is announced can you understand as to why they are for 'digital natives'?

3) Criticism's of the websites - 2

2) This website not only discusses the difference between 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives,' but also discusses why businesses 'Wanting to create a nimble and highly versatile organization' should not employ 'digital immigrants'. The site states that a 'digital immigrant may still print out important emails and put them on file.' In addition to gain this 'highly versatile organization' you must ' weed out the people who are digital immigrants and really are out of their depth working for a "wireless tech" type of business.' This is something that i do not necessarily agree with. With this article being fairly recent - May 07, 2007, i understand what they are trying to get at, but right now there are many 'digital immigrants' still working within 'wireless tech' kind of businesses. What does it mean for them? Get rid of them. I feel that not all of the people within the 'pre-digital age' has no idea how to use this 'new technology', in fact i feel that some 'digital immigrants' are in fact more up to date with the technology than i am. In addition, i do not oppose to people printing off emails and putting them on file. What if the computer breaks, or even worse what if the computers and software's get stolen and you do not have the saved emails? And they are important. Sometimes these 'old ways' can be beneficial, I'm not saying to that 'wireless tech type of businesses' are not the way forward, i just think that sometimes we ignore what was good about the 'pre-digital age'. what do you think? do you think that your parents and relatives aren't worthy of a 'wireless tech' job?

3) Criticism's of the websites - 1

1) This page was written in 2003 and even though we are supposed to be criticising what it says i in fact agree with most of the things he said. One of the first things that stood out to me was a question that he asks - 'Are all students,..., exposed to information technology and video games to the same extent?' Due to the fact that i am part of this 'digital age' i decided to question not only my skills with technology, but also my friends skills. And in conclusion i found that not all of us know thoroughly how to use the computers, some more than others. In addition, he also states that 'Education does need to adapt and evolve with the times and educators need to understand the learning styles of their students' which is something that i also agree with. But, there was one comment that he stated that i had to question - 'The computer may be an effective trainer but is it an effective teacher?' to that he answered 'The computer is a medium whereas he learner and the teacher are the mediators.' From my own experiences of using the inet for practically everything possible i believe that it has taught me many things, many things that i believe a teacher would not be able to teach. And that is the ability to do it for yourself. Don't you think that when you are on the inet you have to find things out for yourself? you don't have a teacher there to help and guide you. Do you think that helps you learn more?
In conclusion that this site does give a thorough argument, giving examples for and against Prensky theory.

2) Five websites dealing with Digital Immigration and its counterpart

1. 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants:Some Thoughts from the Generation Gap' by Timothy VanSlyke - http://www.wisc.edu/depd/html/TSarticles/Digital%20Natives.htm

2. 'Digital Native or Digital Immigrant' Tech Without Wires - http://www.techwithoutwires.com/50226711/digital_native_or_digital_immigrant.php

3.' The differences between digital native learners and digital immigrant teachers.' Apple - http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disconnect/landscape.html

4. 'Digital Native or Digital Immigrant, Which Language Do You Speak? ' by Brad Cunningham http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Digital-Natives.htm

5. 'Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants Is Technology Creating Changes in Learning Styles?' by Greg Cruey - http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/digital_natives_and_digital_immigrants

1) Digital Immigration

When trying to find out what Digital Immigrants actually mean, it took me such a long time to find a journal or any website on the inet that actually stated what it meant. However, one document that i came across was 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants' which is written by Marc Prenksy.


In this journal, Prensky talks about 'the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century.' He states the today's students spend 'their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age,' I'm sure you that are reading this can probably relate yourselves to have used many of them, i sure have. Due to this, Prensky describes us being as 'native speakers of the digital language.' However, what do we call the rest of them who were not born in the 'digital age'? They are in fact, as Prensky calls them - 'Digital Immigrants'; who are 'fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology'. Additionally, Prenksy states that these 'Digital immigrants' have there own 'digital immigrant accent'. He tries to give an understanding of how this 'accent' works by describing how these 'digital immigrants' would 'print out an email to edit it rather than editing it on the screen'. But, what is the problem with this?;





'Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of a pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.'





The general attitude that Prensky discusses about the two is whether or not 'digital immigrants' should continue to educate the new 'digital natives' the same way as they were educated, or whether they would be successful in teaching the 'digital natives' through their 'language'. Prensky can not decide which one would be harder - 'learning new stuff' or 'learning new ways to do old stuff.' He thinks the latter will be more successful.



However, think back to when you were educated. I can remember using text books and most of the time i was quite bored, however as a child i always thought school was quite boring. Do you think if our 'digital immigrants' when were at school would have used our new 'native language' that we might have been more interested in education, and would have learnt more? After all, i am not doubting the way i was educated because i would like to believe i have been well educated and have been successful, i myself have got to university whilst still being educated at school via the 'digital immigrants language'.



The article in which i got this inofrmation from is:

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

China & Distance Learning

When television broadcasting developed in China in the early 1960's, TVU (Television Universities) began in the capital - Beijing. Between 1960 - 1966 over 8,000 students had graduated and 50,000 students had completed single courses.

However it changed historically for China in 1976 for the Socialist Modernization Project came into place which meant that so many people within the 'modernization of industry, agriculture, national defence and science and technology' had to become trained, which would result in 3.5 million teachers to be trained - 'Such a huge task of training so many qualified people cannot be fulfilled by relying solely on conventional colleges and universities within a limited time-scale.' Due to this and to the fact that the TVU would require less funds, the state council approved of higher education to be taught via the CRTVU - 'the Central Radio and Television University'.

The CRTVU run at five levels:

• 'The CRTVU, at the highest level, is under the direct leadership of the State Education Commission (formerly called the Ministry of Education).
• The PTVUs, at the second level, are under the auspices of provincial governments.
• Their branch schools, at the third level, come under profectural/civic governments.
• Work stations, at the fourth level, are run either by district/county education bureaux or by a particular industry.
• The teaching and learning classes (usually called television classes), at the lowest level, work directly with TVU students'

The CRTVU 'has offered 150 courses in the subject areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, economics, accounting, statistics, finance, banking, industrial management, commercial management, archives management, journalism, law, library science and Chinese language and literature, etc.' These courses that are presented to the students are all at undergraduate level, however there are some short courses for continuing students - are they short courses because they want to get them educated and into the industry straight away?

'The TVU courses are multimedia, consisting of radio, television and printed materials,' and although in 1986 audio and video cassettes became available to me when you are studying a course to do with science and your are trying out experiments, how does it compare to the real life teaching? How do you really know if you are doing it right? And what would you do if you are doing it wrong?

It seems that people of all ages are/have taken part in this sort of distance learning - 'The TVUs' target students are in-service adults, secondary-school graduates and young school-leavers waiting to be assigned jobs.' However, i might be wrong, but don't the school children start schooling at such a young age, thus what are the age of these 'young school leavers'? In addition, although i feel that from that reading there does seem to be many positive aspects to the TVU, it alerted me when the premier of the State council was discussing the TVU - 'The development of television universities is suitable for China as it is an effective way of training more people at lower cost in a shorter period of time.' To me right now, i don't see how i could have benefited from distance learning learning only and although the TVU was needed at the time it was created is it still needed now? Or is education such as the TVU the way forward? To me, I'm not convinced, what do you all think?

Distance learning in other countries

When searching the inet i was amazined as to how many links there were about this subject. It seems that distance learning really is popular. I am not neccesarily focussing on one country in particular, however i came across a website that allows distance learning throughout the world and seems to have at least 1 distance learner in most countries. This website is the Edinborough Business school - http://www.ebsglobal.net/who-we-are/about-ebs.

They state 'This is your MBA. Not ours. That means you can start when you like, and finish when you like.' Therefore the students can study when they wish to and take their exams when they wish to, which woud benifit people who are already working in another job, but also for companies wanting to educate their employee's. In addition, the programme allows it to accessable gloabally because the courses are also available in many different languages. Students who decide to take up distance learning will benefit from:

• Comprehensive course text.
  
• Interactive course website.
  
• Web access to Faculty.
  
• Full use of the EBS Student Services website.
  
• Optional contact with fellow students.

In addition, the business school also offers the distance learners approved learning partners, or ALP's. These 'partners in the network may be public-sector institutions, or they may be executive development centres catering for business professionals'

However, although this type of distance learning does seem to be quite proffesional i do not think that it is a modern way of distance learning. When learning how the company in Africa had taken on the idea of a cop to learn, it seems that this business school is lacking the modern technology and the 'modern way of leanring'. Even though it seems to be very successful do you think that it needs to modernise their way of distance learning? It mentions there is an'Optional contact with fellow students', well when i have an issue i get in contact with my peers and discuss our ideas, which i find affective. What is their isn't a APL in a students country and no contact with fellow students? How can that be effective?

Open Educational Resources in Africa

OER, seeks to improve teaching and learning within Africa’s institutions of higher education', having read what Catherine Ngugi had to say about the movement - 'Not only do we provide spaces for interaction on the OER Africa website at www.oerafrica.org, we support each other via face-to-face meetings and interactions via Skype or other cost-effective communication tools with other individuals and project leaders involved in OER working on the Continent' - i immediately got the impression that this seemed like a cop, one thing that i think people taking part in distance learning would benefit from because they would be able to share their knowledge, problems, and goals with one another. And indeed, when actually accessing the website www.oerafrica.org, they had a section of their website dedicated to cop's, in which these cop's had different sections to it - ACEMaths a cop for maths, HEALTH OER a cop for users studying medical sciences.

However, the most interesting aspect in the interview for me was that 'OER Africa seeks to showcase the Continent as an active producer of knowledge and not merely a passive consumer of the global knowledge economy' thus, when looking at the OER website it stated 'by Africans for Africans '. It seems that OER is not just a type of distance learning, but it is also there to create a new ideology for the African knowledge and to not be subjected to the 'global knowledge economy'.

Although it is stated that this is a fairly new project, it seems that they seem to know what they are doing, and that hopefully the outcome will be pretty positive. It is trying to create a name for itself, however will it be as successful if the knowledge is only of the Africans? Surely, an open view of global knowledge would be more successful?

Distance Learning Lecture

This lecture went into detail of the topic distance learning. I was amazed to find out that distance learning started many years ago, and there was me thinking that the open university had started not that many years ago. Sue stated that the earliest form of distance learning took place in Australia in 1909 - School notes were sent to students who were unable to get to a near school and their parents felt that they wanted their children to be educated also. However, when telephone became mainstream, group telephone lessons took place - it became part of the culture of Australia. In addition, Sue explained that when she watched old episodes of Skippy, she saw kids with headsets on their heads and she know realises that that is what they probably were - group telephone lessons. This makes think what my school life would have been like if i would have had this type of schooling. Do you think it would of had a more positive or negative effect on your schooling?

Although it seems that distance learning has been going on for many years, it is still seen as alternative rather that traditional. Sue described that the discourse around distance learning is that it is something alternative. And as technology keeps on evolving, different ways of distance learning are evolving also. For example, this blogging system is a type of distance learning. Do you think it is 'radical'? For me, i don't believe it is 'radical' because i am used to web 2.0 which offers thing such as facebook and myspace, therefore blogging wasn't as 'radical' and others might think.

Distance learning might be the future and the way forward, but right now distance learning that takes place on the inet is not available to everyone in every country. As Sue pointed out the poor people in English speaking countries could probably have access to computers, one could access a computer in a library, however other countries such as India, the opportunities for the people seemed to be labeled as 'poor' in that country is minimal that they have chance to get to a computer. Therefore can distance learning really be the future??? Technology will always continue to adapt to the western model world and the rest of the world will probably stay behind, so will it be successful?

Website Analysis

The site that i have chosen to analyse is the Google homepage website. (http://www.google.co.uk/) It has been said that 'Google is not just an Internet search engine, but has become something of a phenomenon.' (http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jun04/piper.shtml) And indeed i believe it has.

When you first enter the site the structure is pretty basic. It states the name of the site and has a text box for you to enter the subject you want to know more about - the search engine. However, there are more choices for you to make you can enter the subject you want to know more about either in the web search engine, image search engine, map search engine... the list goes on and on. Anything you want to know more about, Google will most definitely have a link about that certain topic.

In a way you could say that the user is in control for the fact that they type in the subject in which they want to know more about, however Google decides as to what links they want to show to you. Due to the fact that this generation of web users are subject to web 2.0 or arguably the beginning of web 3.0, these users are subject to what Lister would describe as a 'multi linear experience'. And indeed it can be argued that Google enhances this experience. This is because not only does the search engine provide you with links, but those links then also provide you with other links, again which Lister would describe as being 'Hypertext'. 'We may define a hypertext as a work which is made up from discrete units of material in which each one carries a number of pathways to other units' (Lister pg 24)
One positive aspect for the user is the fact that the site is only there to help you, there are no advertisements, no pop ups, nothing there that the user doesn't want to know, this the re-enforces the fact that the user is in control of what they wish to see.

On a cultural level, the site functions as a search engine which allows many different users to search what they want to search. However it could be argued that the company itself has a 'finger in every pie'. With that, i mean that it has something to do with everything. If you take a look at this website http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/options/ you will see how many different options there are for google. Therefore on a cultural level you could argue that the name Google has created itself a 'cultural niche' (http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jun04/piper.shtml). However, expanding on what Turkle's said about computers - 'computers are not just changing our lives but changing our selves.' You could apply that to the fact that the company Google is not only changing our life's, providing quick and easy access to information, but also changing ourselves because maybe we relay upon these types of search engines too much. Could there a debate in the fact that we, as humans, are becoming lazy? And if so, does it matter?

However, for me, as a user this site enables me to access information quick and easy something which as a student i appreciate. And, as i said above with the use of 'hypertext', i can sometimes find myself accessing a completely different site, about something completely different. Although with this it allows me to access even more knowledge. In addition, taking what Turkle said about 'freedom', Google allows me to have the 'freedom' to search what i want to search, consequently being who i want to be.

Topic 6.4

It is arguable to say that the forum in which we use and the blogging system that we have could be a cofp. The forum and the blogging allows the each member of the group to interact with the others - 'Members of a community are informally bound by what they do together.'
The 'joint enterprise' is that we all understand that we have to blog about the certain topics each week, that we are aware that we are to comment on each other and to use the forum to discuss any problems and alert members that we have blogged - in order to pass the course. In addition, the 'mutual agreement' is that each members understand what the joint enterprise is and that we are all online to read each others blogs and discuss our knowledge and understandings. This then allows us over time to have a 'shared repertoire'. We have learnt the different knowledge for each weeks topics and through the help of other members of the community we have all worked together in discussing them. In addition, we all have the same goal - to pass the course by all means necessary.

When deciding who fits into which role, although i do think there is a slight hierarchy there aren't any particular roles within my certain group. However, many members of the group seemed to help if found any particular topic difficult, or if i hadn't quite understood it and mentioned it within my blog they would comment and shed some light and discuss their knowledge. Claire continuously did that throughout the weeks.In addition, Alison, even though she didn't always comment on every blog she still would discuss her knowledge of the certain topics which i would find useful. However, the tutors in the course do have some kind of power because they do decide what topics are to be discussed each week, and will asses the blogs.

The only thing that i don't believe that this online cofp allows us to do, is to feel the sense of 'togetherness,' due to the fact that we are online and it is not necessary that we meet up during seminar time face to face 'togetherness' for me is not there. But does it need to be?

Although, all in all, I believe that this topic has helped us to enable a cofp within the member of our groups and that probably will not end. We will continue it through to the end of year 3 due to the fact that we will all share our knowledge of the units coming up that we will all have to face.

Topic 6.3 Organizational units

'We frequently say that people are an organization's most important resource.' And indeed when Wenger mentions an 'organizational unit' i believe he means a large business or chain of business's where there is a huge hierarchy, and even though there might be a goal that everybody needs to meet, instead of the feeling of 'togetherness', instead this goal tends to be to hit the business's targets. Not a goal that they all have in mind. However, with this there seems to be no 'mutual engagement'.

Wenger states that 'communities of practice are mostly informal and distinct from organizational units' however, at the beginning of Wenger's reading (Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System) he describes two different stories of two different people with different job roles. The first one is the one that i want to discuss. Wenger describes an engineer who what i seem to believe is working within a large organizational unit, however it descries how if he struggles and face's a problem 'that stretches your knowledge' he turns to his teammates. Wenger states that they 'all go back many years. They understand the issues you face and will explore new ideas' with him. It seems to me that within this large organizational unit, there does seem to be some type of cofp within a group of them. To me, this seems to be what Wenger means as 'togetherness' and that they have a 'mutual agreement' even when it comes to helping each other, they have mutual respect. In addition, because they have all worked together over time they may have created a 'shared repertoire'.

What do you think, do you believe that an 'infromal and distinct' cofp can be developed within a large organizational unit?

Topic 6.2 Joint Enterprise

As stated in the question for this blog 'It is easy to belong to a community on the web' which if you are a regular web user you will understand and probably be part of a community yourself. However to be part of a community of practise a joint enterprise needs to exist within the members of each community.

As stated in the previous blog a joint enterprise is something that is 'understood and continually renegotiated by its members' (http://hannahbellv.blogspot.com/2009/02/communities-of-practice.html) therefore, the members of the community need to have not only a similar interest, but also a goal in mind, they should all want to have something that they all want to achieve.

Take Facebook and this site itself Blogspot, do you think that this is a community of practice? After all we do have similar interest - to provide the members of this community with our information that we want to put on our blogs. However, do we all have a goal that we all want to reach?

You have fan websites that the members of the community all have the same interest in the fact that are a fan of the individual/individuals although again is there a certain goal that they all want to reach? If not, how could they change to allow their community to become a community of practice?

Wenger's model describes that 'A community of practice is something more than a club of friends or a network of connections between people. It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest.' Can you think of an online community of practice? In addition, when i discussed in my previous blog about my community of practice, do you think that there can be such a thing of a community if practice when you don't meet face to face?

One example that i can think of is online dating communities. I believe that that is a community of practice because there is a joint enterprise, each member has a similar interest - to find someone to love. (up to negotiation) In addition, there is a mutual engagement because they all engage in talking to each other about their hobbies and their life outside this community and they all discuss this online. Also,the shared repertoire could be that over time the members of the community learn how to communicate on the site and how to interact with the members. Adiitionally, they all have the same goal in mind - to find their loved one. Do you agree?

Communities Of Practice

I was unable to attend this weeks lecture, so instead i have read the required readings and i am putting my knowledge of what i have learnt from these readings into what i believe what a community of practice is.

'The basic argument made by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger is that communities of practice are everywhere and that we are generally involved in a number of them' and it didn't take me a long time to realise how many communities of practice i actually belong to. One community of practice i have been part of was when i was 17. I was part of a the town's council Soul Band. I was a singer, and the other members played various instruments. As Wenger states - 'Members of a community are informally bound by what they do together' and that was exactly what we did. We met up and created music together.

Wenger believes that a community of practice is about a 'joint enterprise' that is 'understood and continually renegotiated by its members'. Initially to be part of the soul band you have to have a talent with your instrument. For me, it was singing. Everybody in the band attended the classes to create music with a soul sound and to enjoy this experience. Wenger also states that is functions by 'the relationships of mutual engagement that binds members together into a social entity'. The mutual engagement is not only that it is mutual that all of the members are meeting to create music but they are engaging with each because they have to engage together to create the right sound. Wenger also stated that for a capability to be produced there must be a 'shared repertoire of communal resources that members have developed over time'. When every band member initially started we all had knowledge of how to use our instruments, however over time we all learnt together how to play and perform songs, also, we all learnt how to interact with each other to create these sounds. In addition, we also learnt each others strengths and weaknesses and we all communicated with each other so we could find the best practise to resolve them.

Wenger states that a 'Community of practice develop around things that matter to people.' The soul band practices that i attend fits into that category because we attended the practices because soul and music mattered to us. Which 'as a result, these practices reflected the members' own understanding of what is important'. (Wenger pg 2) Althouh there isn't a hierarchy set out within this community of practice because everybody gets together and we all create the music ourselves, however in some cases there are some members of the group that have a better knowledge in some fields than others so there is a small sense of power athough it isn't a big issue. With this, it then allows all members to have a mutual respect for each other and we all end up being educated as well as educating others when we attend.

Topic 1 - d) Open News

I think that when you are looking at news on the inet you have to see where it is actually coming from, in addition when asking - is news on the inet quality news? then i think that every one's opinion will be different. Some people might not be interested about the downfall of the economy however they might be interested in what a produser of the web has to say about a village in Africa. What i am trying to get at is that open news allows produsers of the web to publish what they think is important to them, hopefully then someone with the same interests will be educated by it.
However, open publishing - 'the process of creating news is transparent to the readers. They can contribute a story and see it instantly appear in the pool of stories publicly available.' this is what creates the issue. Take wikipedia for example, even though it is seen as a source of education, people are weary of quoting it because users of the inet are allowed to change and contribute to the information given. This then creates the question how do you know if the information is true? I think that this is the same issue with open publishing. However, this then makes me think why do i trust inet websites such as The Times with the information that they provide, even though they are a large company why do i trust them, in comparison to open published news?

Topic 1 - DIY news online

In my personal opinion i do not believe that DIY culture is part of an alternative culture, instead i believe that things like that are becoming more popular as technology progresses. Even though it was not as obvious to me at first, i feel that social networking sites acts as DIY culture. The example that i am going to give though is Myspace, for i believe this social networking site plays a major part in DIY culture. Myspace is not only open to users making themselves a profile to communicate with their friends, but also to create music, and other creative profiles. Myspace, creates 'a blank generation' in which they can create 'their own self-definitions and to create their own media networks to do it.' In addition, Myspace provides a blank canvas to allow produsers whether it is through music, poems, film scripts, anything, they are able to create their own DIY culture. This again, also shows Turkle's idea of freedom, this site allows the produsers to create any culture they wish alternatively it allows the produser the freedom to create any news they wish.

Additionally, to me news isn't just the major events that are happening around the world, news can be anything. The mchome weekly forum acts as 'news' to alert the rest of your group what new blogs you have put on, or what problems you have come across. Can it therefore be said that we are part of 'those who want to make DIY news online'? Are we then part of an alternative culture?
In my personal opinion i believe the answer is no. Instead i feel it has created 'a shift in the production of news, as well as in its reception'.

Topic 1 - Meikle a) + b)

Robert Burnett and P. David Marshall argues that news has become “a subset of a wider search for information by Web users” (206) This argument makes me think about how i try to find news that i want to find out on the inet. As we have learnt in previous blogs Web 2.0 is hyperlinked everywhere, a user will go onto one website and can find itself being on a completely different website due to hyperlinks. Hyperlinks enables us to search wide across the inet to allow us to find the news that we want.
However, i feel that it can be argued that news such as CNN and the telegraph might require 'original journalists,' i believe that the inet doesn't. In relation to question b) i do believe that the inet uses ‘new kinds of journalist'. With this i do not mean that they need to be educated in this field, instead what i believe is that all web users whether they realise it or not can be a produser of news. As Burnett and Marshall state - even newsgroups and Weblogs are considered as additional sources for information retrieval, rather than as new avenues for new kinds of journalists to develop and publish new kinds of news. Therefore, does that mean we can be one of the 'new kinds of journalists'?

Week 5, Lecture 5

This lecture revolved around the idea of freedom vs control. It dealt with the issue of copyright throughout the inet. Dave described copyright as being the notion that it protects creative peoples work.

To be honest the issue of copyright has never been an issue for me on the inet for i feel that i do not have any intention to copyright anybodies creative work. However, i am aware that this is an everyday issue that i believe needs to be resolved.

Laurence Lessig, a politician, promotes open source software and open publishing. He claims that the two should be freely available for people to download and manipulate as long as this is then uploaded for free download, again for people to manipulate further etc. This therefore is republication relay - passing on your products so that they can then pass it on also. (copyleft) Although i think Lessig does have a point, it can be argued that it will never work.

In addition, i was fascinated by a girl called Brittany from the site p2p. I think that this site is fantastic. She described that she is in college and that the Big 4's RIAA wants $8,100 of her because she has downloaded music. The Big 4 are Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but run by a Canadian). This site was describing how she downloaded one or two songs and is now being branded a criminal for it. If you want to read the rest of this story http://www.p2pnet.net/story/18413. It really was interesting to know that a girl practically the same age as us, is under threat by these big companies. Once you have read the story, who do you agree with the most? The RIAA, or Brittany?

The Web

This is actually a random post of which i wanted to hear your opinion on:

In the lecture i remember Dave discussing about Web 1.0 and that websites were not usually connected to other - hypertext wasnt present etc. and that we are now at the 'height' of Web 2.0/ entering Web 3.0.
I just want to think what people think Web 3.0 will bring to the inet and its users?

Topic 2 - Social Networking Sites

I have been a member to many of the popular social networking sites. Facebook, Bebo, Myspace etc. However even though i tend to you use Facebook most of the time, Myspace is the social networking site that strikes me the most as being adaptable to almost anything and anyone, and it could be argued that many communities have been created via this inet webstie.
Myspace allows members to interact whether it is sending them a private message or posting a message on the wall - it seems to have the virtual structure of what Jones seems to believe that a community would not exist without one. In addition, people from all over the world can see your profile and if they want to become your friend they send a friend request. Myspace not only allows you to see your favorite artists, see what they have been up to and listen to their latest songs - Tulloch and Alvarado 'fan culture'. But it also allows users to create their own culture by uploading music or videos you have created, something in which Turkle would see as the inet allowing you to have this freedom.
Although, leading on from Turkle's idea of freedom, one negative aspect that can from social networking sites like Myspace is the sense of false identity. I have already expressed my views as to deal with this. It can be argued that as long as you use the inet safely and don't accept friend requests of people that you don't know then the things that seem 'dangerous' should not happen.
All in all Myspace is a world wide site that can positively create communities and already existing friendships closer together. You just have to be aware of the people that do mistreat the freedom of these sites.

Topic 3 - Music sharing online

Filesharing, online downloading and the 'networking of new material has changed the way in which music is consumed for the better. It enables the user to obtain their music easier and cheaper. Filesharing can easily be done either via email, or even by the means of msn, however i think the biggest improvement of technology for the user to listen to music is by the means of 'networking'. Sites like Youtube and Myspace allow the user to listen music that either produser's or even the artists themselves have loaded onto the inet. Songs that aren't even available to purchase are loaded on these websites for the fan/fans to listen to.

When music is shared via the inet and does not have the copyright holders consent, this is seen as illegal. Sites such as Limewire and Napster are 'filesharing' sites that allow the user to share files via the inet however even though music files are being shared on these sites why isn't anything been done about these sites? Again this can relate to Turkles idea of the inet and how it allows the user freedom. What do you think about sites such as Limewire and Napstar?

In addition, if even artists are now uploading their songs onto the inet do you think there will be a market for fans to purchase CD's anymore? I believe that sooner or later artists music will be free to download on sites such as Itunes and Myspace - what do you think?

Topic 1 - b) Blanchard and virtual settlements

Jones argues 'that we should first consider the virtual settlement within which virtual communities exist,' he defines a virtual settlement as 'a minimal number of public interactions with a variety of communicators in which there is a minimal level of sustained membership over a period of time.' Although Jones argue a strong point, for me it seems that Blanchard and Markus (2003) focus on the better understanding of a virtual community. They focus on the feelings - 'the sense of the community' and state that that is what is necessary.
I agree, with their argument for doesn't a virtual community start when users have the same interests? Once this is established, then the virtual settlement takes place. In addition, do the users have to interact with each other to be part of the virtual community? If so, and the 'postings, structure and content' don't exist, then is it not a community?

Topic 1 - a) Blanchard and communities

Blanchard stresses quite a few things as to why virtual communities are important.

• help replace the relationships lost as people became more isolated from their neighbors (Rhinegold & Schuler)


• allow people to connect with others from around the world who share similar interests (Wellman & Guilia)


• virtual communities can increase involvement within people’s face-to-face communities by increasing democratic participation and other community activism


• participation in virtual communities can increase participation in face-to-face communities (Blanchard)

However, the one issue that i agree with the most is that 'calling any online group a virtual community represents yet another example of the overuse of the term “community” to the point that concept has lost any real meaning '. I think that as you can see above, there are so many reasons as to why they are called virtual communities in which case it seems that the word 'community' is now so broad.

'Jones (1997) argues that researchers need to differentiate between the technology on which the virtual group exists and the actual virtual community. ' However, i personally believe that all CMC groups should be given the status of a community. In personal opinion, i see a community as sharing an enviroment. No matter where/what that enviroment may be. In addition, i don't just think that blogs should be seen as communities but most websites too. I'm a member of the website asos.com which is a clothes website. I receive weekly news letters and i can enter the site and view all of the clothes at any time. Although i don't interact with other member, when i visit the webstie i feel a postive emotion, a sense of belonging. As said above, i do think that the term is so broad that it can be argued that now almost anything can be described as a community.

Week 4 lecture 4

As discovered from the lecture Dave said that a community is a network of relationships, and when you have people with the same interests in either forums, websites, or social networking sites, these shared characteristics create virtual communities. Although, i do think there are lots of different types of communities online that are different to offline communities.
Online you can expect there will be a forum which would share your own interests, take for example 'the worlds largest birding and wildlife community' from http://www.birdforum.net/, on this site you can discuss anything about birds with people around the world.
However, if you take the offline 'original' communities (i say original because this is what i believe it to be) where you would have the vicar there and the elderly and members of the community discussing and sharing their views and opinions. You do have forums online for people that are part of Manchester and other big cities like that where people can voice their thoughts about their community, although i believe that this then leaves quite a majority of the people that care about their communities - the elderly.
My grandad has just realised how to turn a computer, never mind entering a forum and voicing his opinion, in addition my gran probably doesn't even know what a computer is. In the not so distant future, yes i believe that off line communities will probably take place in online forums because not only will they understand how to use the inet, but also because people just don't have time to arrange meetings that everyone will be able to come to. People are too busy, and that is when i think online communities will be very successful.

Topic 1 - d) Culture pg 184-5

I don't 100% surely know if i understand this question, so if anybody agrees or disagrees with what i am saying, please would you comment me and say what you think?
However, Lister's book mentions that in 2000 when Channel 4's BB started there became a 'demand for access to the chat rooms to talk to the recently evicted member of the household.' The book describes that these chat rooms were overfilled with fans wanting to discuss their opinion and ask their questions to the newly evicted housemate. Although, Barker, Jenkins, Tulloch and Alvarado believe that t his is to do with 'fan culture' and wanting to be 'part of it'. However, to me i don't feel that that is an 'ordinary user' being producers of culture. I think that since 2000 Channel 4's BB started there has become a huge rise in 'ordinary users' becoming producers of culture through the means of MySpace, Youtube, Facebook, Blogspot etc. Take MySpace for example allows even just an 'ordinary user' to create a profile. Now whether it is about how much you love bunnies, or if you are a singer songwriter this is a way of yourself creating culture. Many singers have become successful from being 'spotted' on MySpace. Also, with MySpace you can add friends, the more friends you have then the more people you will have viewing your culture. Like for example the Artic Monkeys, they became popular through MySpace and created a huge fan base for themselves. This site then allows other users to respond to this culture. In addition, you can pay a small fee to create your own website and feature anything you want on there. This then allows other inet users to view the site and if their is a forum can then respond to that culture.