online education documentary

I thought the documentary during our last class was one of the more well rounded ones we have watched.  Although it sided more towards online classes being a helpful tool, it showed evenly both the positives and negatives of the idea.  I think online education effects each person individually, as some people may love it while other people may not be able to adapt.  Me being a hands-on and visual learner would probably find it hard to gain any knowledge from taking an online course.  Some people, on the other hand, cannot afford driving to a classroom or has work hours that does not fit their school schedule may find it easier to take online classes that work around the hectic things already occurring in their lives.  One man that spoke in the documentary was explaining that face-to-face learning with a professor cannot be simulated or get the same benefits as a computer.  I completely agree, but I also realize that some people have to settle with less than perfect to get what they want out of life.

Risks of the Internet

Parents believe that children having access to the Web is very important, yet many parents believe children will come into accounts with something they should not see. Clearly the benefits outweigh the risks in the Internet, but parents need to worry about children finding explicit images or hackers breaking into the family household computer. They need to be aware of these risks in order to prevent them from happening. Items, such as credit card numbers, are stored into families databases. Databases are something a hacker could easily gain access to. Like anything in life, there is always a little bit of risk involved. Having a bad mushroom could kill someone, yet we still eat them anyway regardless of the risk involved. As a society, we balance the risk in different activities with the benefits they provide to us.
According to Paul Slovic; risk is broken down into two factors: how unknown the risk is, and how dreaded the risk may be. Both of these factors go hand in hand. Internet risks are unknown to many people because for one thing many common users of the Internet are still learning new things about it everyday. The technologies and advancements we have been achieving are moving faster than we are able to keep up with. For that reason, some parents believe it is too dreadful for their child to go on the Internet. The dreadful concept comes from the fact that as parents they are responsible for keeping their children safe. For the same reason a parent may not allow their child to visit a friends house before they meet their parents, is the same reason they feel uncomfortable letting them surf the web; they have a sense of fear for the unknown. If they themselves are still learning new things about the internet, it is unlikely that they will let their own child discover these things on their own.
Others see the Internet as an escape for children from other technologies they are consumed in, they find the internet to become a good balance amongst everything. Also, they find the internet a good source for education and school work. It's not unlikely for these children to have more experience with the internet and use it to their advantage, not to spoil their minds. The Internet is still very much unknown and we as the users are vulnerable to the media. It is not only important to learn about the new technologies emerging all around us, but it is also important to understand the risks involved so we are able to gain the best possible experience from our medium.

cyber-social creatures

In response to Michael, I agree that the dynamic of social relationships has changed immensely; there are some ways in which we have become less social, in the sense that people do spend a lot of their time in front of the computer playing games, surfing the web, etc, but I beg to differ that people are as a whole less social due to all of these social network sites and means of mass communication. I can see how less face-to face interaction can be seen as such, but I just feel like it is simply a different, and perhaps more relevant social behavior that has replaced it.

For example, Drucker mentions the hot topic of artificial intimacy, which got me to thinking about the prominence of online dating, in this day and age, which was once seen as unsafe and rather taboo. I think this kind of social site alone, is demonstrative of how "cybersocial" we have become, and how trusting we are in sharing our personal information, and developing relationships with people we meet on the Internet. Furthermore, he discusses the need for cyberlaw, which is an important and necessary response to technological advances and being able to control all of these outputs and social interactions on a completely different playing field. People want to feel safe on the Internet and I believe more than ever they are able to. There of course is going to be some debate of how much control is implemented and by whom in order to maintain this feeling of safety and preventative measure from hacking and unwanted, negative mass persuasion as mentioned on page 63. But I think overall, we have become more social creatures and have developed a stronger trust in cyberspace.

online education

The documentary about the use and growth of online education was jammed packed full of information. I found it interesting seeing the different benefits from online education. Some of the benefits were that online education was cheaper, more easily accessible, and in some cases even produced a better form of education to some. I however have taken online classes before and it wasn’t my favorite to say the least. I personally like my education to be in person, but that’s just me. However for people who do not have to time or funds for traditional education, it is very beneficial and therefore should be further explored.

The Digital Divide

During the year 2000 there was a leap of 201 million to 3003 million internet users in the span of two months. This seems like a large number but in fact it is only a small fraction of the worlds population. One statistic said that in early 2000 there were still about 96% of the worlds population offline. In the span of 11 years I am sure that number has changed quite a bit, but my guess is that it is still a minority percentage.

In a 1999 white paper from the US Department of Commerce, it was suggested that in the time since the 1997 preceding 1997 white paper the “access digital divide” had become more evident (National Telecommunications). In the document it shows that the people who have been using computers for some time are getting far more advanced than the population without access to computers. In the paragraph below you will see the gap broken down in five different ways.

Income: Email usage had increased over the time period of this study as well as the income level. Of the people in upper level incomes about 44% used email in 1998. In the lowest level only about 6.2% used email during that same year.
Race/Origin: All groups growth increased by about 3.5 times or more. Whites led the way with Hispanics and Blacks following behind. Whites led all areas of the country whether it be urban or rural.
Age: Senior citizens used email the least amount but over the span of 4 years the usaged quadrupled.
Education: There was a huge correlation between email and the level of education. The digital gap between elementary school-educated and college-educated households grew from 8.7% in 1994 to 37.5% in 1998.
Household type: All household types increased except male householders with children. Usage by households with married couples and children led all categories throughout the period by a substantial margin and equalled 25.9% in 1998. During the 4 year span, rural area usage trailed other areas of household types except for the female householder with children category.

Anti-Social Networks

As I was reading the first chapter in “Communications and Cyberspace,” particularly page 35, I started to think about the effect that new media, including social networks, have on our social lives. In one particular passage Gumpert and Drucker talk about the way social life used to be, and how they “played and watched others play,” and “conversed with strangers we might not meet again…” This passage really made me think about how much the average human social life has changed due to new technology. Nowadays a good amount of social interactions happen online, whereas in former generations there was no such think as online interactions. It appears as though we are becoming more antisocial, sitting in front of a computer screen talking to people via web rather than going out and actually seeing that person or doing some sort of activity with them. Many people’s social lives seem to have been consumed by facebook, even though facebook is supposed to be a way to enhance our social lives, not hinder it. In addition to social networking sites causing a decrease in face-to-face interactions, another media that does the same thing is video games. It looks as if many kids are now spending a lot of time indoors playing video games rather than going outside and participating in sports or other activities with other people. New media does have many tools that make it easier to interact with other, but we have to be careful to make sure we don’t use it as the only way of interaction.

cybertime

Due to the fact that space and time are independent of one another it makes perfect sense that their counterparts, cyberspace and cybertime similarly exist on their own. Truthfully I have never thought to separate cybertime from what I percieve to be real time. Time is still passing while you are in cyberspace, but after reading this chapter, it has made me realize some significant differences, and be able to disassociate the two. Strate mentions three important components of cybertime, which include the computer's time function, the medium itself as a symbol of time, and our perception of time in our interactive experience spent on our computer, and with an online community.

I think the first mentioned of the time function is very clear cut; it allowed the intrinsic and extrinsic time of the outside world to be measured and coincide. Furthermore, the comparison to the clock has made it more tangible and easier to understand; they both produce pure information. An important difference though between a traditional clock or watch and digital time is that it focuses on the present whereas a clock is additionally representative of the past and the future. In a previous class we had discussed it in a way that really put this into perspective for me. At a certain point, say 7:40, it is easy to say that 7:38 is closer in time than 7:50, because visually and spatially it is. But in the scheme of actual time it is so much further. I think this idea of digital time, is synonymous with cybertime, and perhaps explains our difficulty in perceiving it as separate from real time. It is hard to understand it as on the same playing field as cyberspace, because you cannot see the greater picture; you are living in the moment, and do not feel like you are existing inside of it.

After watching the South Park world of warcraft episode (since I have never actually played the game) it definitely put cybertime into perspective, just as Strate describes it in the computer as a medium. Although real time is passing while one is playing a game, there is a definite sense of virtual time, where one is completely absorbed in a different world, and is practically a different person. The immersive quality of virtual reality coupled with a variety of modes representing time, give me a much better sense of not only time spent on your computer or other media, but in it.

now generation

While reading Professor Strate’s chapter about time and cyberspace I thought it was very clever how he made the comparison between the clock and the computer. The clock gives the information of time in a fast and accurate way, the same way a computer gives information of other subjects in a fast and accurate way.  Also I agree with both Professor Strate and Michael Raganella when they talk about the part of the chapter when Strate says  "When sitting at a computer terminal, delays of a few seconds seem interminable and five minutes an eternity." This delay does not only affect life through a computer but also real life as well. I believe it has turned and fueled our generation to what is known as the "now" generation. This means that we need instant gratification. Right here right now, but is this a good or bad thing?

Computers = Clocks

Chapter 22 of Communication and Cyberspace discussed the links between computers and external clocks. One interesting point Professor Strate pointed out is that computers developed in society the same was that clocks did. Time is human-made, meaning that it is completely objectory. Seconds, minutes, and hours were created to give people settings or schedules throughout their existance. Clocks started out being very expensive and only few were available, but they quickly became popular and widespread throughout society.  Now it is virtually impossible to find someone who doesn't own a clock or a watch of some sort, at it has become the building block to sustain the schedules of people around the world.  Almost the same things has happened with computers.  First computers weren't seen as a necessity and they were scarce throughout society.  As years passed, the people became more reliant on the abilities of a computer and now it is found odd if a person does not own one.  It was also discussed in the chapter how computers have their own internal electronic clock, and how every program is run on this aspect.  It was interesting although a little confusing reading on how complex the time that computers run on and the type of world it creates.

In the reading I would have to completely agree to the fact that the internet sped up the way people live and also affects the way people live. As technology sped up so did our way of life. We become so involved with our cyber lives that it transfers over into our real life. Since the internet is fast, we expect that aspects of our real life should be fast. Cyber life can have an enormous impact on the way people live; in fact it may even take over some people real lives. For example, the people that are addicted to video games have sometimes completely abandoned their real life just to focus on their gaming and cyber life. Another example would be of people so into their computers that they never leave their house because they have lost all forms of social interaction. The only communication that they have with other people would be only through cyber space. Now that video games are becoming more complex people are able to customize and almost create people in their own images making it easier to relate to the game. They are even some social networks that allow people to create avatars. Unfortunately, this might also make is easier for people to lose grip on their real lives and become completely indulged in their cyber ones.

Philosophies of 'Cybertime'

The reading for today's class discusses 'cybertime' and all of its implications as an idea. "Cybertime is absolute time, and it is digital time...something more than digital clocks and watches." There are important negative aspects that are associated with this notion. The reading talks about how "a digital timepiece displays numbers in a vacuum--time unbound to either a circadian reference or the past and future." This lack of connection, referred to as the lack of "[this] circle," results in the elimination of a very important idea/understanding -- of time as being a cycle; the reading call this the loss of "...the notion that time is cyclical and related to the larger rhythms of the earth and solar system..." If our society is constantly losing connection to this seemed reality and truth of our ecological systems and celestial place; the question isn't 'What's the problem with this?'--but rather 'What isn't wrong with this?'
The reality of time, or at least an arguably much more healthy way it can be perceived, is that it's seamlessly flowing, "...Rather than hiccuping periodically." In contrast to this, 'cybertime' is based on a series of individual, separate "...and distinct electronic pulses; just as is the case with the microworld's absolute time...they are what passes for time in cyberspace."
In my opinion, 'cybertime' has some very disturbing implications and repercussions; especially in regards to the offsetting of our human circadian rhythms, as well as the generic distortion of the way we all interpret the entity that is time.

Lost in Time

In this chapter, “Experiencing Time,” Professor Strate explains that human interaction through computer media include our use and experience of time with cyberchronemics. For example, email and computer conferencing are asynchronous forms of interaction. This makes email highly flexible and an efficient way of interpersonal communication. The dictionary definition of asynchronous is, “requiring a form of computer control timing protocol, in which a specific operation begins upon receipt of an indication/signal that the preceding operation has been completed.” The asynchronous character of email eliminates many time-related issues that may create loss of control over the groups output, and even a loss in time it takes to complete the task. Asynchronous forms of interaction allows for increased participation, creativity, and satisfaction.

In cybertime, distinctions between past, present, and future start to fade and our sense of time becomes distorted. For example time flies by when engaged in computing and gaming. This is particularly evident in video gamers who are capable of blocking out their sense of time in order to enter only the world of the game. Now whether this underlining feature is positive or negative is up for further debate. I personally find that with the advancements we are making with video gaming, falling into a virtual reality while playing is a natural tendency. The ability to differentiate the two is for the gamer to decipher. Often times long-term computer users jolt back and forth between the two worlds of game time and reality time. This is called, “temporal schizophrenia,” which is when a user is caught between two distinctly temporal orientations.

As said by G.S. Kirk author of The Nature of Greek Myths, “cybertime is in someways a form of sacred time, a mythic time or dream time.” I found his observation directly on point. If you have ever engaged in gaming, even if it was something as simple as Atari, you will notice that when playing that game you are unable to accomplish something else successful. This was because you had entered an alternate reality. When engaged in the game, you became the figure on the screen that you were controlling with your hands. No other medium provides the same sense of active personal presence like the computer; no other medium allows us to construct and encounter other versions of ourselves. Computer mediated communication has also led to the discovery of multiple roles, personalities and identities. Through VR technology we can see our dream selves or fantasy selves. Our cyber-selves are digital creatures made of data and information and are unaffected by time.

cybertime and impatience

While I was reading chapter 22 in "Communications and Cyberspace," I came across a passage that stuck out. The passage can be found on page 367 and says, "When sitting at a computer terminal, delays of a few seconds seem interminable and five minutes an eternity. Hyperspeed breeds impatience, haste, and intolerance, both online and in the real world." After reading this passage I began to think about how long it used to take a page to load when the Internet was in its early stages. When I used to go on the Internet as a kid the time it took for a webpage to load up wasn't nearly as quick as it is today. It usually took a couple minutes for each page to load up, but at the time it seemed like nobody saw no big deal in waiting the couple minutes. Now, if a page takes a mere 30 seconds to load up we all seem to have a problem with it. We are so used to getting information at the instant we demand it that it appears we have lost a lot of the patience we once had. Even in the real world, as the passage says, when it takes a couple of minutes to receive certain information we become anxious and impatient. I have never really thought about how or why my patience has changed until reading this passage. I never even really thought my patience had changed until I thought back to the days when the internet was first introduced to everyone, and it was then that I realized how much things have changed.

Is the computer our second self?

After reading the chapter on cybertime I realized that through virtual reality and computers we can seek our more ideal and fantasized self. Within computer-mediated communication there has been a great deal of play experimentation with multiple roles, personalities and identities. To put this into perspective, take any sporting game or battle game now-a-days. While making your character the player has options as to what the player looks like by changing qualities such as the hair color, weight, muscle tone, and so on. When we play these games we are altering ourselves into a new community. According to Carl Jung over time a new synthesis between the conscious and the unconscious may well emerge and a new consciousness may possibly emerge through a synthesis between our physical personal and the dream selves we generate in cybertime.

Virtual Technology and Reality

Virtual reality is a computer interface that enables people to participate in 3-D environments that have been set up from computer-generated environments, digitized images of people and objects, or imported video. Computers are able to generate people interacting in person and then place the images on a computer offering the user to feel as if they are in a different place.
Currently developments in virtual reality focus on entertainment in gaming. To me I find this stuff to be really interesting. Being the youngest of three brothers I have seen a lot of military application type games over the years. In the new VR technology it appears on the screen like we are actually playing it ourselves or in the game.
The human factors of VR refer to human performance, behavior, and desire that must be applied when designing an information system. When making these new VR’s , we know from experimentation in psychology, sensation, perception, and experience are some of the related issues. Some of the normative factors include cultural variation in communication expectation, performance or norms, and ethical considerations. Among other factors listed are expressive, instrumental and cognitive interfaces.

eeeemial.

Judith Lee discusses how email has changed the way we communicate and has made it easier to write and send letters. She also goes on to say how email has also changed the level of formality of the way we communicate when it comes to letters. She discusses how we have evolved to writing the way we would talk to each other. This could be looked at as both positive and negative. She says that the “memo” has become the new formal letter when communication with in organizations. Within a memo includes the to, the from, and the subject line, along with the body or the note part. This way it is to the point and quicker, the reason email was created in the first place.

online classes

I think the advanced of students being able to use online classes is definitely an advantage. I agree with Charlie, however, that there is negative aspects to education via technology and computers. As we discussed in the last class, e-mails have sprouted in the electronic industry as a way of sending letters more quickly and more efficiently. They have come up with "cc" and "bcc" options, that make sending letters even more complex and more convenient to use. The most important part of e-mails is the speed at which they reach the person we are trying to communicate to. Even invites to numerous people for a large party can easily be done quickly through e-mails without spending extra money or time. Have e-mails made sending information too informal? I believe at sometimes, yes it does. The reason hand-written letters are so valuable is because the person receiving it appreciates the time and effort that went into creating it. Also, each hand-written letter is different and more intimate then sending an e-mail, as they all look the same and are sent without emotion. Online classes however, are beneficial for the students who cannot afford housing or to quit their job but still need to catch up on credits to get a degree. In a more negative light, online classes are much less informal than a lesson held in a classroom by a teacher, meaning that people could not take it as seriously and not pay attention as much. Students who need hands-on, visual, or hearing to learn any type of subject could have major trouble actually being educated from an online class.

mcluhan and virtual reality

I think these past few classes have been the most interesting thus far. We started with the idea of cyberspace, and the fact that the internet and everything involving it has its own world surronding it. Virtual reality is a simualtion of another life external of our own. Virtual reality, although it looks simple, is rather complicated. Professionals will take a computer-like device that usually covers the eyes, and send a person or numerous people off into another dimension that feels as real as the one were in now. We talked about a word in class related to this subject called immersion, which a stem off of the word emerge. An immersion of virtual reality literally means to engulf yourself in this electronic simulation, having all your senses and everything around you look and feel as real as humanly possible. With the advancement and control over all the videos games out today it is not a surprise to me that virtual reality is becoming more intense and more popular. What most people do not realize is that virtual reality is an augmented state, meaning that you can become attached to it although it is not technically real. Like in the video we watched, professionals created a virtual reality that simulated the thoughts and actions that go through a skizophrenic's mind, and patient's agree that it is almost identical to how they felt in the past. The other documentary we watched about McLuhan was interesting and confusing in the same sense. McLuhan believes that content of a medium in another medium. The video definitely showed how influential McLuhan was on the idea of the introduction of new media to our society throughout history.

Online Education

Online education is used at almost every school across the country, if not all. At bigger schools where it is hard for students to fit into the class schools have made online classes an option for credit. there are some drawbacks to online education but i was lucky enough to find enough reasons for online to still be a popular and resourceful way to learn.
Geography: If we could fly anyplace in the country in less than 20 minutes that would be great, but unfortunately we can't. With online courses I am able to take a class at the prestigious school Stanford while living in breathing in the New York City air at the same time.
Timely manner: Timing is everything to life. But what if timing was a restriction on something that needed to be done. With online courses students and teachers can grade and learn in a leisurely manner. In a school setting if the teacher had to cancel class that would leave all the students feeling as if they had just wasted time out of their day. This is not the case online classes, you have no excuse not to finish the course.
Note Taking: Being a slower student myself taking notes in class sometimes can be a pain in the butt. With an online course I am able to go at my own pace and retain everything within the scripts of the material.
Price: People need to make a living and making. Making a living can be tiring on top of going to class for three hours a night. Online education can fix these problems. If a student works better in the morning then they have the option to work on the assignment or read the chapter before work.

Informality: Good and the Bad

Lee discusses email as a new medium; educating us readers about its origin. The cultural mindset of those who use it is all too often informal. There is the speed of this new medium, or 'hybrid medium,' as it moves in hyper speed when compared to 'real mail.' It may just be this hyper speed that has made informal dialogues, messages, and so-forth (pertaining to email or digital messaging of any kind) absolutely commonplace. The good things that communication via email and these other new mediums bring us are obvious: a massive amount of information is being shared and its being done so at an exponentially faster pace---thus progress is bound to occur in many places as a result.
The bad things don't always steal the spotlight. As we discussed, informality can lead to questionable behavior/relationships in the workplace. Other issues can emerge in the workplace...like the 'bcc' option in email...which has tons of potential for malicious use. The informality in email and other similar mediums can lead people to misunderstand others. These are just some of the basic, fundamental 'bad aspects' of informality in email and other new mediums of communication. Its kind of corny to quote Spider-Man, but here it is anyway: "...With great power comes great responsibility." Email (and the other new communicative mediums) certainly give great power.

e-class

As we had discussed yesterday, electronic mail has been such a groundbreaking invention that has practically rendered letter-writing obsolete. Similarly newspapers and other print media is disappearing due to the fact that everything is available online. I thought it was interesting that these hypertexts are created online to simulate flipping through a magazine or book; a very literal form of remediation. Gibson contemplates this idea of hypertext ultimately replacing books, as being an inevitable shift. Particularly in a classroom setting, the need for books would diminish, but the effect of reading one can still be achieved in utilizing this hypertext. Furthermore, virtual reality poses an even greater question of whether or not classrooms, in the literal sense, will continue to exist.

Although virtual reality may be viewed as serving merely entertainment purposes, it has many practical applications as well and may be an important tool in educational organization. It is an immersive learning experience that would be able to be tailored to individual needs. it would allow students to not only utilize a more fun, interactive environment that can simulate real world situations, but according to Levinson, it gives on the opportunity to participate in class without the constraints of geography or time, which is pretty remarkable, and quite appealing. I particularly agree with the potential result of this in which he describes that people will "tend to participate at their best, when they are likely to derive the most benefit from the experience." In a way it is similar to a class like this, in which we are able to blog and share our ideas as we think about them on our time, or we stumble upon something that provokes a relevant thought. Although there are some constraints due to the timeline of a course and assignment deadlines, I believe that this form of education could really be conducive to a more productive, effective, and importantly, a desirable learning environment resulting from the freedom that it provides.

The New Medium Process

What other medium does email re-mediate? Like we discussed in class the obvious answer would be writing letters. But writing a letter and sending it in the mail is a form of contrast to what we now know as e-mail. In Judith Lee’s chapter she states that email re-mediates a simpler format for communication within the organization, known as memorandums or popularly known as memos. In memos you don’t need the whole address, you just need the: to, from, and subject line. She says that the email format copies the memo rather than letter writing. The memo became the major medium in inter-organizational communication. Lee goes on to explain e-mail as a new medium. She says that email is a lot less formal than other mediums; in that sense, it’s compared to conversational speech. She says it has elements of both written and oral conversation. Part of the difference between written and oral communication is that in writing we are much more tolerant, but at the same time you can’t always tell the boundaries. She also points out part of the problem with this mode of communication is the general tendency to be much less formal with email. The difficulties people face with it is that in oral communication your engaged, with writing you tend to take more time, edit even if you want, because of this it becomes more informal. She also mentions that email is a hybrid medium; the tendency to use abbreviations goes along with American culture. This emerges because it is a fast medium. Although Lee has made strong points that are very true at the same time but getting a new medium and the idea of remediation is only part of the point. On top of everything that Lee has stated, a new medium is created and with time it is inevitable for it to start to develop codes that didn’t exist before. I find that the changes that come along with new mediums should not be consider in-formalities as much as they should be considered a part of the new medium process. Part of the convenience with internet access is the speed in which words can travel. With that being said, it is only necessary to use this medium as much as we can to its advantage and part of that is discovering new forms of communication. This is not just the case for e-mail. This idea has continued even to this day with the many different forms of communication continuing to develop.

Education and VR

In chapter 12 of "Communications and Cyberspace," Terri Toles Patkin talks about having VR as a type of learning experience, such as having a VR internship or VR environment pertaining to certain subjects and classes. I think this idea is brilliant although it may never be possible due to how expensive it would be to create various VR environments for different classes and internship experiences. If it were possible to create these VR environments affordably and actually have them at schools such as Fordham I believe it would revolutionize education. It's commonly known that the best way to learn something is hands-on, and VR would be able to offer that hands-on experience that would enhance education. Patkin focuses mainly on the education/experience of communications students, but she acknowledges that VR would be beneficial to all. One field I think it would enhance the most would be foreign language classes. Most people say the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself the culture surrounding the language, but in order to do that you would have to travel to another country. With the VR environments you wouldn't have to travel anywhere, it would all be right there for you. The VR environment could be a copy of different cities for different languages. For example, a student taking Italian could choose a VR environment of Rome while a student studying Spanish could choose the city of Madrid. This type of immersion into an environment where the VR people speak only the native language would be ideal for these students. If VR environments actually become a reality there really are no limits to what we could learn.

Edgar Allan Poe

I found there to be many parallels within the many ideas represented in the film we watched in class on Marshall McLuhan. I believe that the director used Edgar Allan Poe’s story as the main theme throughout the film and continued to refer back to it because it went well with the narration of McLuhan’s life. In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem the idea is that there is this shipwreck and its told from a sailors point of view who survived. It’s a whirlpool sucking everything down and it looks like the sailor is a goner. While he’s waiting for the piece of debris he is holding onto to be taking down, he is watching what else is going on around him. As he is watching he notices a pattern. This anticipates the chaos theory before they had the theory had ever existed, and it is brought about in Poe’s poem. The sailor notices that there are some things instead of being sucked in are being pushed out. The normal strategy is to stay on the debris which is keeping you afloat, but instead, because of his pattern recognition, he lets go and is saved from the whirl pool. When he is picked up by an oncoming boat, no one believes his story. With this being said, I also found that the director used the representation of Poe’s story because the story represents this idea of pattern recognition going back to Poe’s era. The analogy of no one believing the sailor along with overlooking this idea of pattern recognition is just like how no one understood or bought into McLuhan’s ideas. I think the director of the film continues to refer back to Poe’s story in order to tell the story of McLuhan’s life because they complement each other well. The director is making it a point to state that when Poe introduced this idea hidden in his poetry it was over looked, just like no one believed the sailors story and just like McLuhan ideas. Although McLuhan seemed to be ahead of his time, it’s unbelievable to imagine the advancements we could have made if we bought into McLuhan’s ideas and if we took them more seriously no matter how perplexed they might have seemed at the time.

Digital Classrooms

There have been a lot of predictions that the digital world will make it easier for you to be in an independent place and still 1) communicate with friends 2) go to work and now 3) go to school. This section of the class is really interesting because digital classrooms have already started to become popular - classes you can log into, class discussions that can continue online, etc. I found an article that talked about the pros and cons of communication mediated education and thought I would add a few ones from the standpoint of a college student:

Pro: You don't have to show up to class anymore - you can access the material, discussions, and homework on any day and any time of day.
Con: For some of us procrastinators, this gives a lot of freedom to continue ignoring assignments and "skipping class."

Pro: Students get the most benefit from being taught by a forerunner in the specific field. But those industry leaders typically have a lot of work to do besides teaching and giving out homework. This education system allows the professor to continue making strides in his field without sacrificing the knowledge of the minds of tomorrow.

Pro: Researchers have found that these digital classrooms actually encourage class participation. In class you can always nod along or answer in as few words as possible, but online they found that students are more likely to type more about the subject than they would have said in class.
Con: Based on what we talked about yesterday, about how digital writing has become more and more relaxed, casual, and conversational, you have to wonder how much actual substance can be found in those longer paragraphs. Especially when you consider how many kids ramble in their essays just to fill the word count.

Pro: Sometimes students don't speak up in class for fear of the teacher or the other students judging their comment. With this new educational system, there will be no way to tell that because there will be no body language to interpret and no way to hear the snickers, so more shy students will feel comfortable sharing their opinions.
Con: Not having a physical face to talk to (no facial cues or tones of voice to go off of) does cause people to learn differently, and in some cases, less than they would have. It also opens the door to "flame wars" which we discussed yesterday - when things you wouldn't read into too much if they were said in person, when read online make you mad.

So, is it the way of the future? I actually think yes. It will definitely change things: classroom discussions will be more casual, we'll have more opportunity to follow career paths and go to school simultaneously, and there will more student participation. However, maybe we have to take a step back for a second. After all, we've already dismissed cursive from school curriculum, as found in USA Today, and added LOL and OMG to the Oxford Dictionary, as found in The Huffington Post. Kind of does make you wonder though, is all this change too much, what was really that bad about the old systems? Are we encouraging kids to go to school by sacrificing the standards of education?

e-mail formalities

In chapter 19 of "Communications and Cyberspace," Judith Yaross Lee writes about how communication via e-mail is its own type of communication and is more informal than most other forms of communications. I do find this to be true, but to an extent. I think the formality level depends on who the sender is writing to. If I am writing a letter to a professor here at Fordham University, I always make sure I use proper greetings and endings, and always check to make sure grammar and spelling are correct in my e-mail. On the other hand, If I am writing to a close friend I usually get a little careless with spelling and grammar and use abbreviations and other phrases that I would never consider using if I was writing to a dean or professor here at Fordham. Lee states that even in e-mails that are meant to be formal there is a common omission of an opening greeting and a proper closing good-bye phrase, but I would attribute it to the way the sender writes normally rather than to the fact that he or she is using e-mail to communicate. Though I do agree with some of the points made in her writing, I do not believe that e-mail should be considered less formal than most other forms of communication because every sender has a different style of writing.

The Medium is the Massage

I thought it was clever that McLuhan chose not to correct the mistake of the title of his book. Instead of message he used the word massage. By this he meant that the media pretty much "massages" and influences people to do a certain thing or even change their way of life completely. His main argument was that the media was an extension of our human bodies, senses, and minds. In the movie i wrote down something that McLuhan had said,

"the medium itself is the message; the medium itself is the greater influencer of society - more than the messages it is carrying."

I am pretty sure that he is saying that the whatever gives you the message is greater than the message itself. For example, the computer is the medium and it gives us messages but the computer itself has became a greater fixture in our lifestyles than the message.

Understanding McLuhan

I believe that Marshall McLuhan was underrated, under-appreciated, and most importantly: way ahead of his time in terms of progressive communicative thinking. The fact that he was not taken seriously by many people is just more of a testament to his unorthodox ways of thinking, rather than being a means to discredit him in any way. The film was a good history of the ups and downs in his personal life; as well as his evolving philosophies and ideas. It was incredibly funny to hear McLuhan talk about how his kids would ask him: 'why don't you have a real job, dad...like all the other dads'? Learning of his personal battles and life struggles definitely aids in the process of comprehending his true motives, ideas, and in turn--ingenuity.

McLuhan

The video was exemplary of how revolutionary McLuhan's idea were to media and communication. McLuhan put so much emphasis on the medium of a message rather than its content, which is often mistaken as the part holding most importance. With that said I recall a particular comment in the documentary made about his preference and passion to speak in person directly to someone or an audience, where they are able to have a dialogue and pose questions. His placement of lesser importance on written media or his books parallels this idea of medium as a message, and the need for it to be able to be easily interacted with, changeable, and most importantly not have a definite endpoint. In realizing this, one can come to understand the extensions to the human body that all of these mediums serve as, in a physical sense, which overrides the importance of the content, which we can easily get blind sighted by. The content exists without new media and advanced technology; they are separate entities. This alone helps us see the increasing transformations to our environment and lifestyle that these mediums alone bring about.

r/evolution.

The documentary we watched last class was at times confusing but also very informative. I found it interesting when they showed the young children in the class room learning the twenty six (in Charlie’s case the twenty four) letters of the alphabet. The narrator went on to say how the letters by themselves don’t mean anything until they are paired with other letters. Those paired letters make words which then make sentence which then communicate ideas. I also thought McLuhan’s idea that technology ultimately is an extension of our bodies is also very accurate and kind of reflects the idea of evolution. Many people who do not have access to technology do not live as long as some one who does.

Second Life - A New Place for Marketing?

This is a little random, but today at work my boss was telling me all about this interesting new tactic companies are using to get extra public relations: they're building their stores in the game Second Life and selling merchandise. The clothes and products they sell in the game are only virtual and for your avatar. The idea is though to spread awareness about the brand and make people shop their when they turn off the computer. It's almost like a new form of product placement. So far Second Life has housed brands from Rebok to Toyota and until recently, American Apparel. Kinda cool, you can read more about it in this New York Times article: Second Life's Real-World Problems.

What McLuhan would think today

McLuhan's radical ideas couldn't have been introduced at a more perfect time as it reflects a pot smoking, revolutionary rhetoric time period.

McLuhan's central thesis "the medium is the message", was that the technologies through which we take in information - the media, broadly defined - become "extensions" of our bodies, exerting a profound influence over us. When an important new medium arrives, it can reshape who we are as individuals and as a society.

The electric media of television and computers would liberate us from our dependence on the printed word. Print was what he called a "hot" medium, one that absorbed all of our attention and left little room for participation. A "cool" medium is one that left plenty of space for participation.

The internet does seem to represent the fulfillment of McLuhan's vision, at least in some ways. As we've seen with the explosion of blogs, podcasts and homemade videos, the net encourages media participation on an unprecedented scale.

But it's hard to imagine that McLuhan would be self-assured about today's "electric media". In fact, he'd probably have a hard time even recognizing them. Television, which McLuhan saw as cool medium, is rapidly turning into a hot one, with enormous screens, high-definition images and surround sound. And computers, rather than freeing us from the printed word, have made text more widespread than ever. Whether surfing the web, typing messages on our phones or checking our BlackBerrys, we are wrapped in a world of text that would have boggled McLuhan's mind.

McLuhan understood that as media become more interactive, they also become a more potent tool for control. They not only transmit information to us but gather information about us.

Algorithms

Most of what people were using the personal computer for was something like word processing. After the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee, the ideas for uses of the internet became endless. It was a way to connect using telephones. Using a modem allowed you to do data transfer through telephone wires; you could dial up a main frame. Prodigy Communications Corporation allowed access to an online service that offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services, including news, weather, shopping, bulletin boards, games, polls, expert columns, banking, stocks, travel, and a variety of other features. American Online popularly known as AOL, allowed internet access to other people. AOL introduced the social aspect of the internet. But it wasn’t until Google that the internet experience would be altered. What set apart Google from all other search engines was that it had the best algorithms. It had the best logical sequences for searching. The search didn’t just happen as soon as it was plugged in; Google team members would search the web and find the best possible results so that when it came time for a user to search for a specific thing, Google would have already found it before its users were looking for it. Google changed web browsing. Search engines made the web a different environment. In new media work, search engine optimization is the big thing. Google is now working on how to get things up in their rankings. They want to maximize the positive things and minimize the negative things. As many of you already know Google is in the process of perfecting their newest development called Google+. Their plan is to utilize a users profile in order to relate their searches on the internet to be more specific and personalized although this is just one of the many features that Google+ will offer. With other unique developments still in the process, Google has high hopes for the network in these next upcoming years.

Where are we headed?

In class yesterday we talked about the internet and how it grew into what we now use today 24/7. Talking about Internet Explorer, and Firefox, and the many apps Google now comes with, I started thinking about what's next for the internet. People are using it to get directions, for research, to socialize and it seems like we haven't even tapped into all its possibilities yet. One article I found from The Next Web was called Bill Gates Brilliantly Accurate Predictions for the Internet...in 1995. In 1995, Bill Gates predicted some of the amazing things we could expect from the internet: real time streaming, broadband internet, and collaboration across formats (compatibility between Macs and Windows). So, I started looking more into what we could expect in the future. I found an interesting article from Network World called 10 Foolproof Predictions for the Internet. The internet is actually kind of crazy, there's new stuff popping on every day. Who knows where we'll be in a decade?

The Internet, Capitalism, and One Front of the Fight for Digital Freedom

If we trace the roots of what we now call the internet, as we did in Yesterday's class, it is easy to observe that business and corporate profit/marketing were not the initial intended uses [for it]. The young man from the U.K. who "gave away the world-wide-web," was definitely part of a small group of selfless people involved with the web or internet. I believe that he had the right idea...he was almost a Nikola Tesla of sorts; far more interested in progress and betterment of community, far less interested in mundane profits and astronomical wealth. I believe that the decentralization of the internet will help to keep the power in the hands of the people, and I also believe that hacking groups like 'anonymous' and others alike are fighting a righteous battle. Here is an article that really paraphrases (if that) some of these groups' motives, but I picked it because of its relevance:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/20/arrests-unlikely-to-slow-anonymous_n_904747.html

If you are interested in anonymous or groups similar, I suggest doing some more reading; many credible people/institutions are even doing in depth studies on them.

The Future of Robotics is Changing Thanks to 'Kinect Hackers'

The Kinect is absolutely the most jaw-dropping achievement in the "Virtual Reality Realm" that any mainstream console company has given to the masses of consumers. If you compare the Kinect to the PS3 Motion, or the Nintendo Wii, you will most likely agree. Microsoft really outdid itself when it began shipping these $150 add-on hardware units, which work through use of any Xbox 360. In only a few weeks, youtube was loaded with videos of "Kinect enabled robots." The article points out: "None of these projects were sanctioned by Microsoft ... Indeed, for the past few months, if you wanted to use the Kinect on anything other than an Xbox, you had to install homemade drivers cobbled together by a dedicated group of hackers..." It is truly amazing to witness what the network of sharing gives us, especially when the community is driven almost solely by self-motivation and dedication. On an even brighter note, Microsoft has changed any initial negative attitude towards all of this...which will most likely bring some ground breaking discoveries: "...Yet the company’s official response to all this activity has gone from hostility to acceptance to vigorous support. In June, Microsoft expects to release a software development kit that makes it easier for any academic or hobbyist to build Windows applications using the Kinect’s camera and microphones. The company is also granting access to the high-powered algorithms that help the machine recognize individual bodies and track motion, unleashing the kind of power that was previously available to only a small group of PhDs. (Microsoft is also working on a commercial version of its software development kit, which will allow entire new businesses to be built using the Kinect’s technology.)" Pretty interesting stuff...

http://newsmixture.com/2011/07/13/kinect-hackers-are-changing-the-future-of-robotics.html

The pros and cons of the internet

Generally when people talk about the Internet they talk about how amazing it is and how much it has improved everyones' lives. Yesterday in class when we talked about the World Wide Web we talked about all of the improvements it has brought and the new possibilities it has opened. Yes, the Internet is a media that allows us to do almost anything, but doesn't it have some setbacks? I would say the Internet definitely has its downfalls. First off, though it has helped us with communication all over the world, it has also seemed to hinder human to human interactions. It seems that people communicate more via the Internet (e-mail, facebook, instant messaging, etc.) than they do face-to-face. It seems to have made many relationships and interactions less personal. Another con about the Internet is that it has caused a lot of distraction for just about everyone. I find that when I have to do an assignment online i often get sidetracked by links that I see or even by just knowing that there are tons of different things I could be doing on the Internet instead of my assignment. This isn't the case with just me either, many of my friends procrastinate doing work by surfing the web or even just going on facebook, getting just about nothing achieved. Another setback of the Internet relates to a previous blog post I did about the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" In that blog post I wrote about the article and how I myself find it to be true. The article basically says that the Internet has shaped our minds into wanting information quickly and easily, not involving any critical thinking. Not that it kills all critical thinking and analytical skills we have, but it does seem to have a hindering effect on them. The list of cons could go on but I'm gonna stop myself here and see if you guys can think of any other negative effects the Internet has on society.

The Virtual Reality

In our class discussion I found our debate on crime in the virtual reality to be very interesting. Professor Strate proposed the argument that killing another player in a virtual reality is like cheating on your spouse by having cybersex with another person. I find this argument to be very intriguing because when I’m playing a video game and I kill another player in the game I think nothing of it; on the other hand, when someone is in a relationship and has cybersex, I find this to be cheating. It is a very interesting topic for debate and our class discussion hasn’t been the only time that people have been indifferent on the topic. I think that until virtual reality is accessible to us like a gaming console is, there is no way to find a common ground for this debate. Only those developing the virtual reality have enough information to touch on this topic. I personally would like to see years from now what comes of the virtual reality.

clocks.

Is it important for children to learn the skill of reading an analogical clock? I believe the answer is yes. Though these types of clocks are slowly becoming extinct, it is still important for young people to learn how to read them. Children need to learn this simple skill not only to be able to read a clock but to warm up their brain for others things as well. The same argument could be made about children learning simple math. Why learn it if you can simply use a calculator? What if something was to happen to the technology we rely on every day? Again, we cannot just stop teaching ourselves and our youth because we rely on technology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yfTibc5Vdg

The link above is an advertisement for Prodigy Services in 1995. Prodigy was the pre-internet service that didn't live up its expectations, similar to many child prodigies that don't succeed when they get older. Back in 1995 people who wanted to go online had limited choices. you either had to use a local BBS or pay a service for nationwide access. Prodigy was a big hit at the time because of its premium service. It was the pre-web service that succeeded in spite of weak long-distance usage. Prodigy had millions of users because it was most people first online experience. people were thrilled because the server offered news, weather, references and sports reports, including emails and advertising.

Prodigy was designed to succeed up until the management decided to censor its content. This began as a good idea to probably reduce traffic, but Prodigy began to start banning negative content such as the word "bitch" as well as take negative comments about advertisers. This eventually got so bad that Prodigy eventually started charging members $.05 per email and flat rate went up to $14.95. Eventually competitors such as AOL took over and was free for users to use.

I see this as a success and failure for Prodigy. Ultimately they failed because they couldn't stay competitive with the newer tech companies, but what they did do was open the eyes to millions of people about online services and to the Internet.

rules of the MMO world

In class yesterday we talked a lot about MMO games and the types of behavior people display while playing. We talked about what penalties, if any at all, should be taken for certain behaviors and actions during gameplay. I did a little bit of research after class to find out what the rules are for some of these MMO video games and found out some things about what people are and aren't allowed to do while playing some of these games. So it turns out that there is nothing to be done about killing in some games, such as the video we saw of world of warcraft. That actually is all part of the game and many people engage in attacking one another. Some things that are not allowed are in these games are harassment of other players, excessive use of vulgar language, use of offensive language such as racial slurs, and the use of outside programs to manipulate the game. Some of these offenses, including the ones involving language, can result in a temporary suspension of someone's account, while major offenses such as using outside programs (hacking), can result in an permanent suspension of someone's account. It seems that although it is a game, people cannot go around doing and saying whatever it is they want to and that there are punishments for people who commit these offenses in the MMO games.

VR

I accordance with what Jamie had mentioned, I personally do not take any interest in the act of killing someone for entertainment purposes in a video game. But with that said, I do see its appeal to some people, and take its nature of simulation with a grain of salt. I can see how video games can evoke moral issues when they parallel real life in so many ways, but I do believe a line must be drawn when identifying oneself with characters in video games and becoming so emotionally invested in these games that are clearly not real life, and should not be treated as such. Furthermore, I think it is absolutely preposterous that people would host a funeral via video game and expect everyone to treat it with respect that they believe it should have. It is far too unrealistic to hold everyone to the same moral code, especially when dealing with something like video games that is seen by many, including myself, as not having a very serious undertone.

Aside from this, I believe that virtual reality is making positive strides in many ways including telepresence, which i thought incredibly fascinating. Wouldn't it be remarkable for a doctor to be able to control a robot or device that performed surgery for him? I think this is a technology that would be so beneficial, and revolutionary for the medical field; it has the potential to change so many lives by providing more precise and less invasive procedures, as well as offering immediate medical attention in absence of a doctor/surgeon. Now that's pretty sweet. (and frankly much more important than video games : )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSF1bVXtdbk&feature=related

killa.

I thought it was an interesting when we started to discuss if murder was a morally wrong though it is in “just a game”. I believe that in some sense it is. I find it disturbing that some one would get joy out of killing someone even though it is through a game. Also as time goes on games start getting more violent and graphic. With this being said I understand what Chelsea was saying about how no one wants to play a game where you volunteer and make donations. However I believe there is still fun in games where killing is not the main objection.

Losing whats most important

As technology advances further and further are we eventually going to forget how to use valuable instruments? Take socializing for example, people are are becoming more antisocial and lose their personal skills through all these new sorts of communication.With this increased access to knowledge also comes a probable loss of communication skills and interactive abilities between students and teacher, and students to peers. These skills are not as necessary in a classroom of computers, where individuality is a component of learning and is encouraged. Aside from learning, conflict resolution and socialization used to be two prominent reasons children came to school. The emphasis now has shifted away from these areas.

The Cyberspace Age. Healthy?

I would guess that the average American person, ages 5-30, sits in front of a computer screen, phone screen, television screen, or any other 'cyberspace related screen' for 4 to 5+ hours per day. I know I am guilty of far higher numbers all too often. What are the consequences of this? There must be a mix of both positive and negative effects. Were our bodies designed for this nearly constant atrophy of most of our muscles? Do we even realize as a national (and in turn global) community what this may mean for the average person's health? This topic needs to be studied more densely and far more often, being as that we are clearly in the midst of what I (along with many) like to refer to as "The Cyberspace Age."

Since Cyber culture is so flexible, people are finding many ways to come up with then next best thing. In class we talked about Machinima and how people are finding ways to use something such as video games, which is so popular in our culture today, as a form of communication. I even rememeber a couple years ago, in high school, I was taking a drivers education class we had to complete a group project. For this project we were required to make a alcohol awareness commercial about not drinking and driving. One group had actually decided to make a machinima using Halo. Back then i just thought that nothing of the video and just looked at it like it was just anyother school assignment. Communication is usually used in commercials to sell a product, but with people being innovators and "remixers", we are able to turn that consumer software into another form of communication.

CyberCulture Take Over

Cyberculture has been mentioned a few times in class and I have found the whole idea really fascinating. Yesterday when we watched the video about the Android who couldn't remember life outside his virtual world, I started thinking a lot about whether or not this is a philosophy that will take over: live in the computer world. Even though I know that video was an exaggeration, I could see something like that really catching on, especially since we're all on the internet all the time anyway. I started doing some more research about cyberculture and found a ton of articles. What amazed me the most though was how long cyberculture has been around. I mean I had heard of Machinima and I played The Sims computer game when I was a kid but it gets so much more in depth than that. Hackers are now referring to themselves as "future culturists" and they have a Future Culture Manifesto. Cyberculture is meant to be information culture, and hackers consider themselves to be information freedom fighters so to speak. The article I read Cyberculture, Technoculture, Future Culture said that this culture is still in its infancy because we still live in a money controlled world, but predicted soon we will supersede that lifestyle. It was pretty interesting in case anyone wants to check it out.

But in case that was way too much like a sci-fi script for you, I found some more funny Machinima Videos :)

space

Cyberspace has several building blocks that allow us to define and better understand it. Looking behind the physical cyberspace that deals with wires and monitors and allow us to equate it to something tangible, the conceptual cyberspace is more difficult to grasp, but rather interesting to explore. Conceptual cyberspace can be explained through a wide range of metaphors, but I personally liked the comparison to a place; although we are not physically transporting ourselves somewhere, we are attempting to reach some sort of destination. Mentally and emotionally we are invested in a a phone call, or a chatroom or skype session with a counterpart, and that live interaction connects us in a way that we are no longer individuals in different rooms or separate cars; we are bound by that means of communication, this particular transaction that creates a very real space between once were moments before, two entirely separate entities. For a certain amount of time that elapses, validating that space on an even greater level, you are coexisting with that person, just as if you were conversing with them next to you, in your personal space. This idea may be better categorized in interactional, or relational cyberspace, but they are all inter-related.

http://www.cybertherapy.info/pages/cyber.htm

I found this psychology article online that defined cyberspace as " the fertile ground for new social, relationships, roles, and a sense of self," which I particularly liked because it specifically deals with this type of interactional cyberspace. I believe it has played such a pivotal role in defining and altering the way we view the internet, and where we place ourselves and others in it. It has changed the dynamic of social interaction and relationships, and broadened our networks so immensely. And I think looking at this relational component of cyberspace gives it much more clarity; recognizing the metaphorical space created between people, makes it seem that much more remarkable.

The Internet and Our Thought Process

During the first half of class Professor Strate mentioned an article by Nicholas Carr titled, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?," which is an article i found particularly interesting. I had to read it for my philosophical ethics class last semester and actually found it very easy to relate to, and maybe you guys would too. The main idea of the article is that the Internet is changing the way that we think as human beings. In his article Carr mentions how he used to be able to read lengthy articles and books quite often and had no problem with it, but ever since he started spending a lot of time online surfing and browsing the web he has noticed a change in his mental patterns. Those lengthy readings which used to prove very easy for him now become a struggle as he looks for something new to do after about three pages or so of reading. His attributes this change in his mental patterns to the way the Internet has shaped it. In the article he says, "As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought." He then goes on to say that the Net is chipping away at his his capacity for concentration and contemplation. Personally, I have always found lengthy readings to be quite a bit of a drag, and after reading this article I can definitely relate with Carr. Whenever I begin a reading I start off alert and able to analyze what I am actually reading but after a couple of pages I begin to lose interest and drifting off, reading the material but not actually thinking about what I read. Instead of staying alert throughout the reading I find myself wondering what I could do besides reading. I definitely agree that the Internet is a huge part of why I find myself unable to concentrate. Not so much because I would rather be surfing the web than reading a book, but because of the thought process that the Internet shapes. We have even mentioned in class how the layout of a web page grabs your attention in a hundred different ways at once. I could be halfway through reading an article on the internet and see a link on the side that interests me, and instead of finishing the article I will go straight to the link and see what it's about. Personally, I feel that the Internet definitely fosters a mind that likes to get information quick and easy, and not spend time reading through a long passage to find out certain information. I wonder if this is the case with most of our generation, having grown up in the age of the Internet. Let me know what you guys think.

Remediation

In the world of digital media, things are happening faster than we have ever imagined. In the beginning of the 90’s we started seeing our first Web browsers, almost five years after that people were making their own web pages and online sites. Soon after came even more advanced work such as computer graphics, virtual reality and social networking. Social networking used a many-to-many level, with groups such as MySpace and Facebook. If we look back to the beginning of communication we would find that it started with speech. Writing was introduced as representations of spoken sounds. Writing becomes the recording for someone’s speech, these characters, letters and symbols aren’t actually “words” per say, but rather representations of words. It is clear when you look at the evolution of media, that when a new medium is introduced no one is quite sure what you can do with it; therefore, everyone does what they did with the old medium first. The idea is known as remediation.

According to Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin this understanding of new media is called remediation. Remediation is the incorporation or representation of one medium in another medium. According to their book Remediation: Understanding New Media, remediation is a defining characteristic of new digital media because digital media is constantly remediating its predecessors such as radio, television and other forms of old media. Bolter and Grusin are continually commenting on, reproducing, and replacing each other with newer media. When a new medium is produced, many people will produce upon the negatives of the preceding medium and will deliver meaning almost immediately. This in fact is not true. Yes, they are improving, but it takes time. Look at our newest media Google+, a social network attempting to replace Facebook. Google+ is at its preliminary stages, and as it appears they are in no way ready to take over such a powerful company and always improving group such as Facebook. In fact, Facebook was in Google+’s shoes seven years ago when they were competing with MySpace. By improving upon a predecessor, new media justifies itself. The rhetoric of remediation favors immediacy and transparency, even though as the medium matures, it offers new opportunities for hypermediacy.

Still in Aw over Machinima

Did you know that Machinima.com had 2.3 Billion web hits in 2010? And in June alone this year had 700 million hits? How on earth had I never heard of Machinima class knowing how popular this medium is?? Machinima is the next generation video entertainment network for video gamers, providing comprehensive gaming-focused editorial and community programming to the hard-to-reach core 18 – 34 year old male demographic. Machinima.com is the the number one all-time Entertainment Channel on YouTube. Machinima.com properties are found across the largest global distribution platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, iOS and Android.

So what exactly is Machinima? Machinima is filmmaking with a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video game technologies. It is the convergence of filmmaking, animation, and game development. Starting in the 1980's software crackers added custom introductions to programs whose copy protection had been removed. As a result of these hackers new ideas were prompted for gaming companies to make 3-D demos in real time with little amount of software code. However, during this time period there was little disk storage was available which created a lag in the graphics.

The term Machinima was coined in 2000 by a man named Hugh Hancock, founder of Strange Company. A misspelled contraction of machine cinema(Machinima)was intended to define the actions of in-game filming from a specific engine.

What blows my mind so much about this whole idea of Machinima is how quickly people are able to create these videos within a video game. This stuff just blows my mind that people are able to move characters, such as the ones in Halo Red vs Blue, in a game that is already created. This stuff seems like it would take years to create if possible to at all. I'm in aw every time I watch this kind of stuff.

The rise of digital media

In class on thursday we talked about how most analogical media are being replaced/have already been replaced by digital media. One effect of this replacement which we talked about was how some people are no longer able to tell time on a mechanical clock because they are so used to reading it off a digital clock and never took the time to learn how to read a mechanical clock. This can also be compared with the way people used to do math. Before the electronic calculator came along people had to learn many formulas and methods of mathematics, but now that it is all compacted into the calculator people see no need to learn those formulas. Even some simple math methods that we used to learn as kids, such as long division, are becoming lost along with the ways of doing math without an electronic device. It seems that along with the replacement of analogical media with digital media come the loss of certain skills that were once fundamental to human knowledge in order to complete various tasks. Although digital media does make everything more convenient and easier for almost everyone, is it really worth the loss of these skills?