Presentations 3 and 4

Mark:

He spoke about online environmental activism. You had a lot of great information in the topic, you even showed examples of an application that helps call out companies on their energy wasting. I think there is a lot to say about environmental activism in cyber space. I would say one of your strong points could be the way in which you describe cyberspace and its ability to stream information in the quickest way possible. Because we can constantly have something on us, like our phones, that can track our environmental footprint says something about how far we have come in promoting environmental safety and awareness.

Sarah:

I think your paper is heading in the right direction. What you want to do is support the idea that, although people often do act different in a virtual site its usually for a particular reason. When you asked me to describe why I took some pictures of my FB I told you it was to eliminate the access factor. Because my potential boss can look at anything he wanted, he might get the wrong impression by the pictures. I’m changing the pictures, not to change that I am online but to skip the explanation part to my boss. In a sense keeping them on a path.

Cassie:

You talked about the use of social networking in the classroom, which leads to a pretty interesting topic. I think it would be interesting to see how kids would react to a blog in the classroom. I think it would give children something they are going to get in the future and could possible be utilized as a great learning tool. Not only would kids learn how to communicate digitally they would learn the fundamentals of networking

Dena:

I think your argument was good but needs to be narrowed down from what I’ve heard. There’s defiantly something to be said about self-censorship issues on the net and how you are defiantly on your own for the most part. There are sights that are governed but are often communities of people that know each other, then you have sights like Chat Roulette which completely give a person full control of their actions. I think Julie said it best with, “ were all alone on the net, all the time”

Michelle:

Good over all information and presentation. I think that the world is defiantly blending into a virtual reality type space. One of the things I was thinking about is the invention of the virtual simulator that NASA uses for training. They can’t train in space everyday so they must enter a virtual world within our own world. On a smaller scale you can talk about the evolution of camera conferencing.


Brittney:

I think you had a lot of information and spent a ton of time researching. Narrow down your argument to one thing and I think you will have a really strong paper. Locative advertisement can defiantly be paralleled to the mobile phone. You had some good examples in there like Foursquare. If you talk about how we as a society are so dependent on our cell phones and explain why we have sites FS it would bridge the gap to why the advertisement is important in the first place.


Mark #2:

I like your topic and there was some good stuff about WOW. I think instead of just talking about the elements in the game you should talk about the community and gaming and how or why it’s so important to are growing society. I defiantly agree that online games encourage teamwork and strategic planning. If you bridge this together with its importance to the generations of online players it will only make your paper stronger.

Kris:

Your like a ninja in the grass, I think you’ve got a really well put together paper. Your issue is that Fragmentation will continue to perpetuate the digital divide, which I agree with. Although, like you said, there are some answers but still a lot of closed doors to open.


Nice work People!

Presentation Day #2

Katie:

I think you are on to something with administrative proposal. Like Julie said in class, it’s hard to pitch a business plan for an imaginary clientele. You’ve done some really good thinking and research for your proposal. I think, like you mentioned in your presentation, after the technology has been implemented into the school system we will need a plan to make sure it is still being properly utilized. Good job

Beau:

Gaming and the bad representation it can take on, is what I came away from your presentation with. More importantly you’ve put some good man-hours in researching the Da Vinci Surgical System. This example alone should support your argument, that gaming is affecting technology and the way it’s developed. I fully agree that simulations of any type can be linked back to simple video games. Good stuff buddy

James:

You need to not suck so bad, make you argument clear and focus on “Representational competence” .


Hans:

You focused on the advantages and some disadvantages of having social networking with us at all times. There is defiantly some interesting content here and I think the three or Four “C” directions are the way to go. I think if you show more personalized examples (like your grandparents pictures) of the bridging between the old and new and the accessibility of old content on the web you thesis will come together nicely. You have all the content its just putting it in the right order. 5 stars for presentational RAD-ness !

Spencer;

Really enjoyed your topic and I feel you had some really good content. There was allot of detail in your presentation, which some of it, I feel could be left out. You were really on to something when you talked about the graphic nature video games have. I don’t think video games can physically prepare soldiers for combat but I think video games have some what desensitized the modern solider. The grenade talk in your presentation also presented a good point. In real life we cant throw grenades four hundred feet with perfect accuracy but effectively that’s where we can draw the line. We learn what the grenade can do, what it looks like, its name and so forth in the video game, but we also know we cant chuck it a million miles. A lot of good content and a very interesting topic.
Nice work.

First day of presentations

Lorena:

China- Communication crisis seems like a great topic, In particular your focus on technological censorship and China’s human rights issues. What really caught my attention was the censorship photo of the little girl being executed and the fact that would not show up on a chinese web server. If you think about westernized censorship, we have a lot more roaming space BUT America itself still has strict censorship regulations, more so than European nations. From what I’ve read this has to do with the vast majority of the country being Christian. Going back to the China issue, it’s no secret that the Chinese government has a sort of Gung-ho attitude with certain issues, which I say, would be from over population and improper economical statues. These above reasons could be why the Chinese government try to hold information back from people on the web. Here is a quick list of things that are very common in Chinese society today and some issues that may impact the governments decisions. (http://chinaview.wordpress.com/10-things-to-know-about-china/
I think if you explain why the Chinese Government harbors its people from its own history or issues, your paper would be as powerful as that execution picture in class. Great job.

Sheila:

Just like I mentioned in class, I think going with the Club-Penguin site as your main topic would help explain your example of genderless sites, which after time, take on gender identities. Here is a good article about the identity’s and the worries about CP from the Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703080167mar08,0,7203137.story
You could even talk about features as simple as, what color you can make your Penguin Avatar or the accessories you choose to dress your penguin in. Obviously the makers of the game made items in the game that people would connect genders with. For example, a girl would pick a pink scarf and generally a guy wouldn’t. I would think that because the sites or games are made by males or females they naturally have to have some gender aspects in them. You could even talk about movies, say for instance the new Pixar flick, Dragons. The Boy Dragons generally have more of an erratic movement and a boyish voice , where as the girls look almost identically the same BUT given a little eyeliner and more of a gentile movement.
Hope that helps, good stuff SHEESHEE

Maurice:

I find this topic super interesting. In particular,( like I said in class) the issue of the weather and how the grower obtains the information in the quickest way possible. This is essential information for me when I receive crop samples from various grower groups around the US. Dealing with recoveries of Pesticide residue I extract from certain crops, we are able to tell if the crops have been over or under stimulated with various weather conditions. Depending on the certain type of crop, this can play a major role in our recoveries of protective pesticide percentages. If the grower has inadequate information dealing with weather conditions they could potential harm their crops and loose safe pesticide protection. This ultimately creates bacteria and viruses, or in the recent USEPA Washington Apple project I worked on, cause Fire blight, which is a destructive bacteria that kills blossoms, shoots, limbs, and, sometimes, entire trees. With the advancements in technology most of the small grower groups, from what I’ve seen over the last 3 years, have been given the gift of smart phones and are ultimately on target with weather predictions, as much as the big corporations. Like you said in your presentation, “ cell phones cut out the middle man”. I think you have a great paper idea to support that statement.
Plus, your Maurice and you know a ton of stuff.
Hopefully that helped.

Here is a recent article from Yakima that will defiantly help you.
This software allows farmers who use mobile devices equipped with a Web browser to access weather data from the network while in the field.
http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2010/03/03/the-ifarm-weather-alerts-sent-to-farmers-cell-phones


Corrinda:

Since we're kind of doing the same paper I like your topic already. We talked in class about Marc Prensky’s book, “Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning” and the good stuff in the book. I’m pretty deep into the book and really like his idea of children being “Digital Natives”. He says the kids of today are programmed differently and need game based learning to move forward. I notice you talked about what style of games confront children with learning opportunities, and I think you can make that message stronger if you first talk about how parents (Which Prensky calls “Digital Immigrants”) should talk about games with there kids and learn the languages of a new age. The example in class of the matching game is perfect, we learn something by just pressing the button. The very first thing we learn in that game is that we need to hit two squares to reveal the items. We learn no matter what. Here is an article I’m pulling ideas from in a recent Wired.com interview with James Gee.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/view.html
I think your paper will come together really well when you tie together the facts. One point I would make is that the teachers must acquire new gaming and technology savvy to teach properly. Because kids are growing up In a technology frenzied culture they will easily sniff out an old style learning lesson and be unenthusiastic.

Good luck


Cynthia:

The topic of how the Internet sways politics is a very interesting one. With the recent election of Obama, we had mass amounts of voters that were provoked from online propaganda. The fact that Obama is the first black president in our history, it was no secret that it was going to stir up the cyber-culture, sending it on a whirled wind adventure. Just like anything that goes “Viral” on the Internet mass attention is usually given to it. In our last blog assignment I talked about how social networking sites are being utilized by modern news stations, In a nut shell, this is what Obama did. And it was Brilliant. He utilized the Internet and its social tools; in return supporters loved the fact that he was doing that. And who uses the Internet the most? Our younger generation. It had such and impact on the people because they felt like they had a closer connection in such a big event. I think linking the cultural statues of the people around the time of the elections to, how the internet helped people spread their opinion, through self journalism, will lead to a great paper

Good luck, Here is an article on some of the ways Obama Utilized the internet for votes.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-internet-campaign-changed-politics/

Extra Credit blog for Post 10

The article entitled, “The internet in the Aftermath of The World Trade Center Attack” describes the way in which the Internet had an effect on the news the world was getting. It also brings up the controversy issue, that the terrorists who were involved in the attacks may have used encrypted porn or even steganography to communicate and synchronize the attacks. The article goes onto explain the ways in which the internet was used as a resource on the attacks for thousands of people, in that present time and after. One of the key sites in where to go after attacks was the Red Cross website. The Red Cross received so many hits on their website that Aol, yahoo and Amazon began to accept donations for the Red Cross to help them during there capacity overload. The article explains how the web really gives people the opportunity to be helpfully in a new way, in the Red Cross example, over one billion dollars was made from donators all over the world.

As much as there is good on the Internet there is also the bad. Events like the WTC attacks stired up controversy all over the web. The article talks about how hackers made fake websites to collect money, pictures were circulating of a man supposable on top of the WTC and hate sites were built. Most of these ended up being harmless but people still found away to capitalize on the disaster by registering URLs like, 09112001.com and so forth. It’s crazy the lengths people will go to make a buck and the Internet essential become the store. People took pieces of the WTC and sold it on ebay, this was obviously banned but after awhile became legal again with all the money being given as donations.

The fact that the Internet holds so much wait over us makes it an almost escapable tool. We are subjected to see things like the WTC Hoaxes sites and sellers who are using disasters as viable profitable markets on e-stores. The article is describing the way in which we are so attached to the internet and the level we get are information. I would agree with the statement made in the article, that the internet “Brings us closer, faster to distant people, but its also a tool of terrorist and others who would sabotage human solidarity” (648). By creating such a powerful media platform, like the Internet, we have to realize that the power it posses can be used for good or bad weather we like it or not.

Blog post #10. Breaking-socialmedia-news

Khan is expressing that our technolculture has shifted its focus from merely “web-browsing” to active web browsing. You can see a ton of examples when sites are used to help with natural disasters. When an earthquake in Haiti on September 30th,2009 killed thousands and left hundreds trapped under rubble, companies and others began making blogs/websites to help the situation. Because the technologies we have promoted self-journalism, it gives us the chance to better record ourselves and impact others. We cant go to Haiti or have any real effect on what the government was doing about it but through the use of the internet we had an outlet for the “Peoples” ideas. Kahn states, “The Internet thus a contested terrain, used by left, right and center both dominate cultures and subcultures to promote their agendas and interests” (633). We can say what ever we want and on the web, in some ways, we are self-governed. Theirs obviously places we can’t go inside of the Internet but we generally get to do what we want. One self-governed example would be the online community 4-chan. Mostly known for there programming tricks and moding interests, they set out on a quest to filter youtube with embedded porn (which they dubbed, “pornday), after they herd youtube was shutting down one of the most subscribed to, “youtubers” channel. This happens all the time on the web. With internet savy any body can promote or de-promote what ever they want in internet cultural –politics. (http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/4chan-members-declare-porn-day-attack-youtube) Full story

It really shows as a culture that, when given the opportunity to have some power, we usually focus it. Political activism through the use of digital technology has become huge and has filtered into the realm of the mainstream media. It’s pretty easy to spot when Good Morning America and CNN sign off with something like, “ and check are twitter feed and facebook for more information” and even in the tri-cities when see the local Benton county candidates with social networking emblems on their posters. The Internet is kind of like the Guttenberg press, its revolutionizing the way people can conceive and distribute information across the planet.