Reflection

A Walk Through A Slide

With the growing capability the internet has to offer the more safety becomes and issue. That’s what this blog group is all about. In my Pecha Kucha presentation I was designated to the positive aspects of the online world. I started right off with the first idea that comes to mind: how easy it is nowadays to keep in touch with the people you want to keep in touch with. We don’t have to send a letter on a boat across the ocean and wait, pray, months or years for a response. This is the internet’s greatest advantage. Social sites such as Facebook let people keep in touch as long as they want to. In the slide I mentioned David Silver and how most of what people post does not matter anyways, but it is still nice to know that they are doing alright.

What I Learned about my Blog Topic

When we chose “safety” off of the board I thought it was going to be an easy subject to delve into. I still think that, but I realized that there is a lot more grey areas in the world of online safety. It is scary to think that anything that I have ever sent to someone, even if it was back in 5th grade, is still out in cyberspace somewhere. It makes me feel as if I should have been way more careful, even though I do not think I did that bad anyway. It makes me look to the future, where I can either get a job or lose a job by what comes up on the internet. Look at swimmer Michael Phelps for example.

Michael Phelps (Photo credit: jdlasica)

Yes, he did something illegal (did he even hurt anybody), but that one picture single-handedly marked his end. This could have been a photo somebody had of him for years and just decided to show it off now that he was a hot-shot. I’m afraid of what employers will find because now I hear Facebook has ALL of your photos, that have ever been there, still saved in some filing cabinet. I try to avoid pictures if I’m out with a beer anyways, but sometimes it comes as a shock. And once it’s up, it’s not coming down.

Intellectual Revolution

Yes, this blog is dedicated to the safety that one has on the internet, which isn’t much. I’m going to stray from that for this post and rant about how the internet is supposed to be used.

There is a problem in this world. The places, such as underdeveloped countries, that need schools the most don’t have them while here in the United States school is taken for granted, not seriously. But what if the world was full of children who wanted to learn, not just did it because it was normal?

I recently watched a TED talk by Sugata Mitra where he performed an experiment that he called the “hole in the wall”.

Hole in the Wall experiment (Photo credit: TofflerAnn)

In 1999 Mitra and his colleagues traveled to a slum in New Delhi where they literally dug a hole in the wall and set up a PC with internet access in a place where nobody had seen anything like it before. Immediately kids swarmed the PC, and in a few days figured out how to use it, gain access to the internet, and taught each other how everything worked.

This seems crazy enough, right? Now think about the good ol’ days of dreading every aspect of physics because of how complicated it all was. Now think of a 12 year old learning everything there is to know. Doesn’t seem to likely? Well it happened, in that slum in New Delhi. 12 year olds were literally TEACHING THEMSELVES high school and college level areas of study. Why would they do that? Don’t they have Facebook? No, they don’t. What they have is the hunger to learn, to know everything there is to know about what they are interested in.

I’m not saying I’m a prophet of this midset, in fact far from it. I want this hunger, but just thinking of the hole in the wall experiment and the outcomes are astonishing, and this is all because of the internet.

So let’s actually put it to use, shall we?

Video Games – The Future of Learning

The ongoing debate of how video games are harming society sicken me. “Oh, but they endorse violence upon the youth and create monsters.” Yeah, alright. Can we please stop bickering about the negatives and take a look at all the positives video games bring to the table for once?

English: An NTSC Sega Dreamcast Console and PAL Controller with VMU. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While I myself am not an avid gamer, putting aside my Halo days, I know what it takes to be good at one; precision. In an online gaming world where speed is the factor separating the legend from the common “n00b”, one cannot simply pick up a controller and be blessed with the skills to dominate. It takes hours of, dare I say, learning, yes, learning, a game to achieve success. But hand-eye coordination and reaction time are not the only attributes video games can bring forth upon society.

In an article we read in Dr. Tweedie’s module, though I do not recall which one it was exactly, it spoke of how complicated programs such as CADD (Computer-aided design) were actually TAUGHT using a video game. The programs used in classrooms were becoming way too complex and difficult for students to pick up and use while it took months or longer to master. To make the program make more sense, the professors devised a genius plan to make it more enjoyable for the students: make it into a video game. The game brought the CADD peers on a journey where they started with using simple tools in the program to defeat enemies and solve problems and by the end of the game had mastered the program.

This should be a new standard of teaching. Video games are fast-paced enough where it is hard to lose attention instead of sitting in a classroom for an hour listening to a lecture. Why do you think it is a growing philosophy to start children out on such as the Jumpstart franchise? The attention span of today’s society needs more action to stay satisfied, so why not teach the language of spanish through an xbox game where you are in the middle of a zombie invasion and the only way to not get eaten is to conjugate the right form of “bailar” with “nosotros” (we dance)? Now that’s learning.

It’s ALRIGHT to leave some details out…

I have heard a lot in the news lately about people getting arrested. WHOA WAIT PEOPLE GETTING ARRESTED? NO WAY! Ok I do not have time for your sarcastic thoughts, reader. It is not simple about people getting arrested, but how they are. You know the usual story, a person commits a crime and is arrested on the spot because it was witnessed. This is not the scenario for a few unlucky bastards in the news recently.

1) Name: Richard Godbehere. Arrested for: Drunk driving. 

Richard Godbehere posted a video of him cruising along in his car speaking to the camera as if it were another passenger. A couple seconds into the video Richard proceeds to open up a beer, while still driving, and taking a swig. The best quote of the video has Richard saying “We all know that drinking and driving is against the law, but nobody ever said anything about driving and drinking.” This video was posted on Liveleak, an online video site, but was surprised when police showed up at his door to arrest him for drunk driving. Though he says it was made as a parody, it depends on whether or not the jury and judge believes him.

2) Name: Jacob Cox-Brown. Also arrested for: Drunk driving. 

18 year old Jacob had just gotten back home on New Year’s day when he posted a Facebook status that read, “drivin drunk…classic 😉 but to whoever’s vehicle i hit i am sorry :P.” Thanks to a private Facebook message, the police showed up at his house a couple days later. Similar to Richard, Jacob claims that it was again just a joke and he swiped the cars because of icy conditions on the road. We’ll see what the court says. On Facebook, “smoking blunts” is also under his list of interests. Stupid.

My question is why anybody in their right mind would put that private information on the internet in the first place? If Richard’s video really was just for fun, it was kind of funny, he should have said at the end it wasn’t a real beer, but posting your drug use on the internet? That is beyond me. So be careful about what you post, everyone, or you might hear the police come knocking.

Facebook – The Drug of the Internet

We all have our addictions whether it be coffee, cigarettes, chocolate milk, or even certain extra-fine people. Of course addiction can be either a positive or negative attribute, and when it comes to drugs nobody has ever said, “Wait, he smokes pot every day? Good for him, what determination. Keep up the good work, Jimmy boy.” Yet in this age of technology with social networking there IS a threat out there that has already taken the procrastinator’s world by storm, and it goes by the name of Facebook.

Now I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily addicted to watching the news feed change for hours and getting up-to-the-minute-status updates of people I barely know, but there’s something that draws an individual in. Not only from society’s standards, which if you don’t have a Facebook means you don’t have a life, but in a waste of time aspect as well. It is even easier with today’s smart phones that even have internet access built in.

Yes, I said before that I am not a Facebook “addict” per say, but when we were asked to not go on the site for a week the back of my mind was telling me I could not accomplish the feat.

Facebook logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And it was right. I did go on Facebook a handful of times during the week, and am ashamed. I realized that it is just habit to check my phone on certain occasions such as waiting in line somewhere or when I’m by myself. Just like a cigarette, it is part of the routine.

I do have excuses, however. One class that I am enrolled in, Into the Writer’s Mind, used Facebook to communicate to the class what was happening in the days to come. I actually think it is a genius idea, since 99% of people now have a Facebook and I know that I go on there much more than I check my Rowan email. It is all about incorporating technology in the classroom, but that’s a story for another time. Since I have not viewed Facebook AS much, but continue to be a slave to it’s non-educational, brain-sucking tendencies. For now.

 

Youtube – A New Platform for Fame (briefly)

Youtube. A site that receives 9,232 new hours of footage each and every day according to the video “An anthropological introduction to Youtube.” That was back in 2005, however, when the site was just getting started. Nowadays videos are uploaded every second of every day and it would be impossible to watch even a fraction of what Youtube has to offer in a lifetime. The videos are of anything and everything, where anybody can join in on the shenanigans simply by clicking a button. And once uploaded anybody around the world can view it.

I heard recently that the infamous Justin Beiber was actually discovered through Youtube, someone having

Justin Bieber (Photo credit: cukuskumir)

stumbled upon his videos and picking the destined Justin for fame and glory. No, I am not a fan, I actually despise the guy, but that’s besides the point. Once a video goes viral such the evil chipmunk it is hard not to hear about it the next day around campus or from friends, but what becomes of these internet stars once their week of fame ends?

Some fade out with the wind. Others, such as the Numa Numa guy gets a spot on a late night television program and gets the crowd going. For most, they are simply known for a single video which can translate poorly to their real lives, and once everyone has seen a video the one who was part of it will never live it down. Internet famous does not work well with reality.

Although everyone would like to get their 15 minutes of fame handed to them it is not the best route. I’m going to finish this one with a little self-promoting. I have a Youtube band, The Prophets of Musical Genius… of Destiny (PoMGoD) where it is basically Tenacious-D with two ukuleles.  Our goal is to be on Ellen, yet being internet famous, like we should be, is not as easy as it sounds. Gimme a hand here Justin.

For a little uke action:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProphsofMusGenofDes

Reflecting on the Process.

A Walk through a Slide

Safety is an important topic in today’s Web 2.0. It can either make the experience, or break the experience. In my writing arts class, “Technologies and the Future of Writing,” my group put together a presentation about online safety. My topic consisted of the negatives on online dating (for clarification on why I didn’t say anything positives – not saying it’s a complete bad idea). The second slide in my presentation was a very important slide in terms of one of the most important slides on my presentation. It discusses how the identity factor plays into meeting people online and how you can’t determine if someone is being truthful or not if they are presenting themselves to you over the internet. The picture I used (ASL picture to the left) is a picture I made that demonstrates chatting with someone online. I think it was an effective picture because as you can see, there is no indication of who the person’s identity on the other end of the chat room. The person on the left says that they are 18, female, and lives in California – but how can the person on the right be sure of that? And even if the left person isn’t lying, how does she know she isn’t giving her information to some 50 year old weirdo on the other end? Within this slide, I referenced Dick Hardt from his Identity 2.0 video, saying “digital identity is unverified, like verbal information. Like when you meet someone, except there are fewer trust cues because you can’t see or hear the person.” I thought this was an important quote – it’s practically what makes meeting/dating people online such risky business. The most important words are digital identity is unverified. There is nothing saying that Person A or Person B was telling the truth. Overall, in my presentation it was an important step, if not the most important step to online dating – which was why it was my second slide. After this slide, I went further into the process, like people changing their identities and the possibilities of online predators, to the predators having the ability to track people.

What I Learned about my Blog Topic

My topic – safety – seemed to be a pretty basic, common knowledge type of topic. However, there are some aspects of safety that people tend to ignore for the pleasure of the internet’s freedom. In this class, we read an article by Sherry Turkle called “Who Am We?” and in the article, she begins with all the people that are named Sherry Turkle, and continues onto talk about identity online. I think this article was important to my topic because of how important the identity factor is to safety on the internet. Turkle allowed me to look at the positives on having an identity online, and being able to play around with it – it helped me understand that there is always a bad side and a good side to things, even though previously, it would seem that the ability to change and play with your identity could be a bad thing because of how much we equate it to people just being creepy. One thing that I’d like to mention is that during this class, by writing blog posts, and searching for articles online that I could discuss in a post – I came across one article in particular (Get ready for more media hacks, Twitter warns) (my blog post: Twitter Security Strikes Out!) that brought something interesting to mind. Over the process of me writing the blog post about information being stolen on Twitter, I stopped to think – What else is being stolen over the internet? When I put my credit card information to a shopping store online, can I really trust that no one is going to steal my information even though it tells me it won’t share or save it? Sites are getting hacked into daily, and I really don’t think anyone – even me – takes the time out of there day to really worry about these times of things. When you want something hassle-free, why not just order it online, right? But who knows if this is really part of the reasons peoples’ credit cards are being hacked into, or worse, their identities being stolen. I learned that no matter what the internet tells me, we always have to be careful. The internet can be a dangerous place.

Lindsay’s Reflection

Throughout the semester, we have been discussing as a class the affects of web 2.0. My group decided to explore how web 2.0 has affected safety.

A walk through a slide

            The second slide of my narrative I chose to talk about how unsafe many of the different social media sites are in today’s world. Social Media is a form of connecting, talking, and sharing with other people around you and the world. I chose to site Dick Hardt during this slide. In his YouTube video, he talks about a person’s identity. The reason I chose to site him there is because I mentioned another article in this slide that discusses how unsafe Face book and Twitter are in today’s society. The reason it is unsafe is partly because of the freedom given to their users, but also because of someone’s online identity.

Online freedom and someone’s identity go hand in hand with each other.  Because of the freedom to be anyone you want online, sometimes people lie about their identity. You hear about this a lot when it comes to online dating and when it comes to contacting younger children online. People are one thing, like gender, race, age, etc in real life, and some change when they go online.

Identity is a scary thing when you actually think about it, at least when it is based solely off of someone you only know online. Hardt talks in his video about how a person’s identity is always changing. There is many factors that goes into one’s identity.

• Who you want to be,
• Who you are today,
• & Who you use to be.

These things do not come across as the typical “scary” or “dangerous” things, but when you think about what identity truly is, you’ll see that it is very complex. Who a person is, use to be, and desires to be can change every minute. It can also change depending on who you are talking to.

I chose this image of the boy wearing a helmet below for a very particular reason. When it comes to communicating online, or even just researching online, there is no protection for young children. There are many things that can mentally and physically harm them, and there is on way to block what they are seeing and reading when they are online. I think it is important to make sure what they research and view online is watched and monitored.

What I learned about my Blog Topic:

            Our group’s blog topic was about safety. Online safety was something I’ve heard a lot about but never really studied. I’ve heard countless stories about negative things that has happened to people while using web 2.0. Whether it was through social media or falsely researched topics, I always hear stories about children and people getting corrupted from the internet. It was “common knowledge” for me, not something I studied.

One thing that I learned through this was that there are many ways to use web 2.0 for safety. One girl in our group discussed in our pecha kucha presentation about how the web has greatly impacted communication around the world. With communication heightened, it brings a whole new level of safety to our world. It lets people know of harmful, troubling, and unsafe things as soon as it happens, instead of having to wait days to get accurate information.

As a part of the class, we had to read many articles and watch various YouTube videos about the web and how it affects our lives. Probably the most fascinating thing I learned from the readings and videos was how much information about our lives are documented. This can be both positive and negative.

I have the awful habit of always looking at the negative sides of things. I often thing that if something negative, or unsafe, can come from something, that thing is usually not worth having. I have learned that harmful and unsafe things can come from anything, and that there are more positives then negatives when it comes to web 2.0 and safety.

Pecha Kucha : Safety

Lindsay C.

Twitter and Facebook are two of the most popular social networking sites. Bush’s article stated, “Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals.” It is literally a record of one’s thoughts and actions, It is used to communicate with friends. But what if you don’t know your friends? Not only are they two of the most popular, but they are also two of the most dangerous, at least according to Steve Olenski’s article entitled

“facebook and Twitter most unsafe social media Sites in 2010.” How safe is a child when they are online? Safety, identity, and a person’s online freedom to be anyone they want to be is all connected. In the youtube video by Dick Hardt, he talks about identity. How a person describes themselves on facebook or who they pretend to be is yes, their freedom and right to do so, but it is also a danger to everyone who “friends” them.

I read an article that talked about how Facebook started asking people to use their favorite cartoon character as their profile pictures. This escalated quickly and become the new “cool” and “popular” thing to do. This also led to people once again taking things to a new level of low and online predators now saw this as an opportunity to friend young children online and pretend to be someone different then what and who they are.

We have all read the stories and watched the movies where someone “uses” their powers for evil. Well, now, according to Pariser in his “filter bubbles” video, it is now possible for search engines and extremely educated people to find out where you are and what computer you are using from signals going off into the room. So now, if I look something up online, I have the danger of a psychopath knowing exactly where I am.

It is a scary thought to know that someone can know exactly where I am when I post something online, send an email, or take a survey. I don’t know if anyone has ever noticed this, but when someone post something on facebook or takes a picture, it says what town you are in when you post it. What if I don’t want someone to know where I am? Even better, companies are now giving things out at discounted prices if someone will tweet that they are at a specific store or “check in” using facebook.

 

Bria M.

Social media sites like Facebook and Myspace introduce a new kind of threat as well as some other types of online mediums. They introduce to the public, the concept of online dating. Online dating can be one of the most dangerous aspects of the emerging internet, and if not controlled, could result in a range of negative outcomes.

Hardt states in his video Identity 2.0, that digital identity is unverified, like verbal information. Sort of like when you meet someone, except there are fewer trust cues because you can’t see or hear the person. However, younger generations are beginning to rely on these types of meetings, due to their accessibility and increasing usage of the internet.

In the article, “Who Am We?” Sherry Turkle says that “computer screens are the new location for our fantasies, both erotic and intellectual.” People online are beginning to create alter identities in order to satisfy needs – be it creative, role-playing needs, or sneaky and conniving needs – we are using the internet as an excuse to pretend.

The younger generation, who might be looking for significant others online, have to be especially careful when utilizing these internet mediums. When bonding with someone they don’t know over the internet, they are always at risk of the person being a predator. BBC news reports that in Japan, the highest numbers of crimes were directly related to online dating services.

If a person just so happens to stumble upon someone who has very negative intentions, predators now have the ability to even track people to the exact location of their computers systems, as mentioned by Pariser in the TED video Beware online “filter bubbles,”even without knowing any of the target’s personal information.

 

Zach G.

Thank you, Brea, but that’s enough out of you. Not everyone’s a predator, Nancy.

Long lost are the days of pen pals where it takes weeks or months to hear from a

long lost friend or relative who lives on the opposite side of the world. Although it

is not always the most interesting such as a tweet from David Silver that reads “luv

cottage cheese”, it is still nice to keep in touch since we lose half of our friends every

seven years.

It’s disappointing hearing how much cyber bullying goes on in today’s world to the

point that it seems like nobody is safe from people such as “Mr. Bungle” in a Rape n

Cyber Space. Does anybody know how to use privacy ettings anymore? These sites

all have a specific location for privacy settings where you are in control. It’s also

easy just to not add people you do not like, simple as that.

Now who here has an Iphone? I don’t really care, it’s smore of a rhetorical question.

Iphone has an app called “find Iphone where a person can actually locate a lost

phone based on some type of tracking device, as long as the app is installed. This can

be done with laptops as well so even if it’s stolen it can be retrieved.

Web 2.0 not only helps with missing merchandise but missing people as well. If

someone is missing we have the technology to locate their phone, that is if it still

with them and on, and find them. This has benefitted many missing person cases by

using the locator it can give officials details about where the person is or has been.

Has anyone heard of a character named Jacob Cox-Brown? Well one night he posted

a facebook status that read “Drivin’ drunk… classic 😉 but to whoever’s vehicle I hit I

am sorry :P.” Thanks to this facebook posting, he was arrested the next day thanks

to a couple people contacting the local police about the status. Justice was served

thanks to the Internet.

 

 

Nicolette M.

 

Another benefit of web 2.0 is that it keeps us updated with current events and loved ones who live miles away from us.  This information keeps us aware. Vannevar Bush States that Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals.  With our technology we have the power to send and receive information instantaneously.

Information on the internet travels in s a short period of time.  Take Rebecca Rosen’s kids who wanted a puppy but needed 1 million Facebook likes first.  They blew past their goal in seven hours. It is possible to get out information in a matter of seconds and that information could be vital to our wellbeing.

When something happens in the world, good or bad, the way I find out about it is through the internet, mostly Twitter. Steven Johnson says that Twitter turns out to have unsuspected depth.  People are not only tweeting about their personal life but now they are tweeting about current events. I find out what happened miles away from me through one website.

Jamie Bartlett states in his article that big events offline now often spike online shortly thereafter as ‘Twitcidents’.  I found out about the Boston bombings instantly through twitter feed. Social media sites are a good way to keep updated with current news. And also with your loved ones.

When disaster strikes and you don’t have access to your loved ones, social media sites play an important role.  We can see if someone is okay just by their status update.  By one click of a button you can let thousands of people know what’s going on where you live and if you’re safe or not.  Those are the benefits of web 2.0.

Our PowerPoint: project for wolff!

 

My Reflection tfws13

For my class project we had to present five slides each on our respected topic.  My group’s project was safety regarding Web 2.0.  Below I talked about one specific slide that I thought really represented my topic well.  We also had to talk about what we learned over the past few weeks.  I learned so much about safety on the internet. I also learned that there are advantages as well as disadvantages to web 2.0 regarding our safety.

A Walk Through A Slide

Slide number four of my five slides represented how social media sites play important roles when trying to find out stuff that has happened around the world.  My example was the tragedy that happened in Boston.  I chose to use a Pray for Boston picture because that was the first thing I read on my Twitter Feed.  I obviously knew something was wrong after reading that. So I turned on the news to find out more information.  I thought it was a good picture to use because it was a horrific tragedy and we shouldn’t forget what has happened.  I cited Jamie Bartlett’s article, “Is Twitter a Good Source of Breaking News” because I thought it directly related to what I was trying to say.  I think social media can tell you a lot of things, and especially now people are tweeting about current events, keeping you updated.  My five slide presentations were about the benefits of web 2.0 has on your safety.  So keeping updated with current events and where your loved ones are through social media can definitely benefit your safety.  It keeps you clued in on what’s happening and where.  I don’t think I would have done anything different I thought the citation that I used fit perfectly to the point I was trying to get across.

What I Learned about my Blog Topic

My group’s topic was safety regarding Web 2.0.  Throughout the last few weeks I found out even more about what it means to be safe on the internet. Although not all of the readings directly related to safety it was easy to connect them. That is because the web can benefit your safety or harm it and I found that out through the readings.  One article that showed a benefit towards your safety was Vannevar Bush’s article “As We May Think”, he states a great point I brought up in my presentation, “Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals”.  I said that sending and receiving information can benefit us especially when a disaster strikes.  We have the technology to know what’s going on miles away from us.  So I learned from this course that there are some advantages but there also are disadvantages to web 2.0.  After watching Gaylor’s video, “RiP! A Remix Manifesto” I was confused about the rules of copyright.  It got me thinking about the pictures we put up on our social media sites.  They are never truly protected or on a privacy setting.  After googling myself there were my social networking profile pictures on there. I know I have them on private so I was confused as to why they were on Google for anyone to see and take.  I learned that once a picture or anything is on the web it is never really gone. So when managing your profiles just be smart about what pictures you put up.  Try not to put anything too personal because somehow someone you don’t know will eventually see it.

Click Here is Bush’s article.  And Click here for Gaylor’s video.