Thoughts regarding the learning outcomes for our class

I’ve been thinking about our final project all week and noticed that I found myself almost confused about what’s old vs. new media. I think that we are in an era where the two are still being used nearly equally (at least in my world) so I had to take a step back and reflect to separate the two from each other. In my reflection, I noticed that I still carry around a planner where I write all the things I have to do but I also constantly use my reminder app on my phone to help me remember all the things I have to do. Another thing I noticed in my reflection was that by working HR I’ve been able to see how we used our LinkedIn page to recruit but we are still paying for our ads to be placed in the Sunday’s paper and this showed me how we are still using old and new media.

So in thinking about what do I want to learn in New Media Studies I think that it would be great to learn new tools that can show me how much better it would really be to use more new media in general as opposed to old media and I would like to learn how much more effective is that if it really is more effective. I hope to learn new skills that I can put into practice with my academic, work, and personal world. More importantly, I would love if what I learn in this class could somehow be incorporated with my thesis work. I’m not sure yet if it’s possible but I would like my thesis to end up being in a digital form rather than just a 30 page paper. So I’ve I can learn new tools here or just expand my knowledge about new media then that would be helpful.

Blog #4 - Chapter 5 and 6 by Rheingold

For this week’s readings we read Rheingold’s chapters 5 & 6. He started chapter 5 by talking about networks and he shared benefits and some guidelines as to basically how to network. As I read his chapter, I thought about how I’ve always heard how important it is to get to know people in person and also connecting with them online via the appropriate platforms based on the type of relationships you are building up with them. After all, it’s always important to build your connections/your networks. It was kind of funny for me to see how he talked about the six degree of separation between us and everyone else in the planet. It was funny because we were actually talking about this last class while we were talking ideas for our class final project. So, as he started his conversation about networks, I thought it was interesting how he touched upon this topic. I also found interesting how he later talked about another study where the following has been said: “according to Fowler and Christakis, friends of friends’ friends have about one-third as much influence as people you know directly.” He also added that the results of this study were tentative until others do more research on this matter. The conversation about the influence people around you have in you made me remember an old Spanish saying I’ve been hearing my entire life: “Mira con quién andas y te diré quién eres” which translates from Spanish to: “Look at who you are hanging out with and I’ll tell you who you are” this saying has the same meaning as the old English saying I recently heard: “birds of the same feather flock together.” I found amazing, based on what Rheingold shared, how people can actually have such influence in us. I think that when networking we should be conscience about this since, to an extent, others are influencing our identities.

Later in his chapter, Rheingold talked about another very important topic and he labeled it ‘Networked Individualism’. In this section, he talked about how parents currently have less control about the interactions and relationships their children have. He quoted a parent he knows saying: “I don’t know my children’s friends anymore. They used to have to talk to me when they called my house, but now they just call or text my son’s or daughter’s mobile phone.” As I read this, I remember when I was growing up because that’s exactly how things were in my home. My friends had to talk to my mom before getting me on the phone. Let alone hanging out with them outside school; my mom had to constantly talk to my friends’ parents before I would go anywhere. I think that it was important for Rheingold to share this because it is something that is definitely happening in today’s society. It’s useful for the parents to analyze what’s happening in their household and to think if they would like to make any changes (if possible) to how their children are building relationships. It is also relevant for those who don’t have any children to think about what they would like to do in these situations, if they are even planning on having children one day. Rheingold touched upon this parenting subject in chapter 6 as well. There, he shared what boyd has to say about this topic. Boyd stated that it is key to communication with our children, this in one of the main ways to be able to find out more about what our children are doing when they are online or using the different technologies to communicate with others. This communication will also help to guide the children into what they should or should not use since you’ll be building a deeper relationship with them.

As I mentioned in prior blog posts, one of the things I appreciated most about Rheingold’s book was the easy how-to details he shares. In chapter 5 he dedicated an entire section to Facebook which is a social media platform that I am not that familiar with. Then, he talked about Facebook again in chapter 6. I liked how he sounded honest about what he was sharing in regards to Facebook. For instance, when he said that we are able to change the privacy settings only up to what Facebook allows us to do I immediately thought, as a non-Facebook user, that Facebook doesn’t really allow you to have a complete private profile. Rheingold shared specifics, which I found necessary, about how to look under places such as “Account”, “Privacy Preferences”, “Customize settings” and so on to give us direction as to where to adjust, if we desired, our privacy settings.

He ended his book with chapter 6 overall saying to watch out for what we post online. He encouraged us to be mindful about what we post and know that people will see our posting. He also mentioned that, while you can, try your best to adjust your privacy settings on your accounts. But to know that you have no control over what your, for example Facebook friends, shows his/her friends about your profile. I totally agree with him when he talked about the publicity of your posts. He mentioned that it has happened that people are actually denied jobs, being demoted or fired over content they have posted online. This really grabbed my attention since I’ve seen how what you post online can jeopardize your job.

Blog #3 - Mozilla’s Teaching How to Read, Write, and Participate on the Web – Web Literacy for Educators

The reading for this week was entertaining and different. At first, I felt like I wasn’t too sure as to where to start but I quickly found my way around the website. I found the website to be full of different activities and useful information we need to know for when reading, writing, and participating on the web. One of the first features that caught my attention from this website was the part where it talked about passwords under the teaching activities. I think this was extremely important to incorporate into such a website since nowadays we are constantly asked to create online accounts that require passwords. I found helpful for this website to have shared data showing the worst passwords created in recent years because this really gives an example about what passwords we shouldn’t be using. I was particularly happy to see that none of my personal passwords were listed in the lists they provided for worst passwords – apparently I have created strong passwords.

Towards the end of the password activity page there were links for you to actually test out passwords and see how weak or strong that password you entered would be. I found this section pretty entertaining because I actually tested a few of the passwords they have listed as weak and they were indeed weak passwords. Before testing them, I thought that some of the passwords were different enough to have as passwords; they seemed to be random words that people probably wouldn’t guess as a password. Then, when I tested them, they were actually coming up as weak passwords. I have to say though, I kind of wanted to test out some of my own personal passwords but I didn’t feel safe enough to enter my own password into that website. I had my crap detector hat on and the website seemed okay to use but my gut feeling was telling me not to enter my personal passwords there. So by only seeing if my passwords had the features needed to be a strong password, like a mixture of symbols and upper and lower case, I feel confident enough that my passwords are most likely strong ones. 

While on the website, I also went through the tools section which I found was fun and welcoming. In that tools section, I found a feature where I was able to alter a picture by what it seemed to be coding. The picture I was able to alter is below. I was able to alter the message in the picture. I always wondered how so many people were coming up with so many different “keep calm and …” fill in the blank messages. It was simple to do and user friendly. I was able to replace the words that show on the actual picture that were embedded into the code and replace them with whatever I wanted to write. The only thing that I couldn’t figure out all the way was how to save the picture that I had actually altered. What I ended up doing was taking a screenshot and saving it in my computer. Overall I found the website helpful and user friendly. Below you can see what the picture I ended up with.

 

Blog #2 - Ch 4 – Social-Digital Know-How: The Arts and Sciences of Collective Intelligence by Rheingold

Reading chapter 4 from Rheingold’s book was very interesting. He started his chapter by sharing how the World Wide Web was invented. I think that it was perfect for him to share in the beginning of his chapter since he then moved on to talk pretty much about online collaboration. I found interesting how he talked about the terms: coordination, cooperation, and collaboration, since I had never thought about these terms the way he talked about them in the chapter. I found fascinating the example he gave from the Canadian person defining these terms. That person put it this way: “you need coordination to dance, cooperation to dance with a partner, and collaboration to dance with a flash mob.” I am no dancer, but reading this explanation really helped me see the difference between these terms. Indeed, when we participate online, we do it in various ways. I see these terms as he explained them as levels in which we start participating online. And to my understanding, they actually happen in the order that he had them. We first coordinate, then we cooperate, and then, when we’re ready, we collaborate.

Rheingold later on talked about the idea of collective intelligence. From what he talked about, it seems to be more powerful when humans put their ideas together to accomplish something. I loved how he said “when all of us can be smarter than any of us.” That said a lot to me because it made me think about all the times I’ve heard that it can be difficult to work in a group together and agree to the same ideas. However, I’ve learned over the years how powerful it can be to collaborate with one another to accomplish something. I’ve seen how the best ideas have come from group meetings. I liked how Rheingold brought in the idea of collective intelligence because it is indeed powerful.

Rheingold ended his chapter by talking about Wiki Collaboration. This section of the chapter was also very interesting to me. Although I’ve been more involved online now than I have in the past years, I still feel like I need a detailed “how-to” when it comes to certain things online. I appreciated how Rheingold took the time to actually go through the details about how to collaborate online. He also makes you feel so confident as he states: “contributing to Wikipedia is simple enough. Here’s how:…” and then he goes on with a detailed yet simple enough list as to how to contribute to Wikipedia. I have to admit, I once was asked by a professor to input information into Wikipedia as one of our class projects, and I have NO IDEA as to how I got that done. I clicked on things and figured it out but I have no recollection as to how I did it, so Rheingold’s list was a helpful reminder for me. Now, I have a go-to list that I can use in the future if I decide to ever post anything on Wikipedia again. 

Blog #1 - Rheingold, Rosenberg, and Postman

In Rheingold’s chapters 2 and 3 we were presented with the idea of Crap Detention and Participation Power while being online. I liked how Rheingold stated in the beginning of the Crap Detection chapter the following: “don’t refuse to believe; refuse to start out believing.” Here, he is referring to the information we find online. I think that what he says is very important to remember because sometimes we can easily fall into thinking that everything we find online in not true. But that is not always the case. There is countless information online that we should never believe but there is also a ton of information online that can be useful and more importantly, true. As Rheingold mentions, nowadays it is our job to figure out what is true and what is not true from the information that we find online. We won’t know how to do this right away though, but with practice, Rheingold says that we will be able to tune our crap detectors.

I agree with Rheingold where he shared from a source that stated that “a search engine is not a human, it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web.” I don’t only agree with this but I find helpful how that source went on to say “use the words that are most likely to appear on the page. For example, instead of saying [my head hurts], say [headache], because that’s the term a medical page will use.” It is more likely that by searching with more direct words what you find will lead you to web pages where the information will be trustworthy rather than fake or irrelevant information. This is especially helpful to know since people are searching for all kinds of things, from what movies are playing at the theaters to finding more information about a disease they were just diagnosed with.

Similar to what Rheingold talked about in his chapter 2, Rosenberg and Postman talked about crap detection in their articles. I particularly found helpful how Rosenberg mentioned on the “Is the content original and unique” section that is good to copy and paste the information into other search engines to see if the information we are finding is unique and original. I feel like this can be helpful so that you can check how valid the information you are finding is and also to expand your research sources. From Postman’s article I liked when he said that “Each person's crap-detector is embedded in their value system; if you want to teach the art of crap-detecting, you must help students become aware of their values.” I can agree with this since very much of what we believe to be true from what we find online is connected to our values. Our reactions towards what we find online are also, in a way, connected to our values. So, I think that it was important for Postman to point out this idea.

            In chapter 3, Participation Power, Rheingold talked about how people online are not only there as viewers or consumers but also as participators. I was stunned by some of the statistics Rheingold shared in this chapter. For instance, he shared that “thirty-five hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Flickr reported its five-billionth photo uploaded in 2010.” I think is amazing how this statistics show that as a society we have evolved so rapidly within the online community.  

I particularly liked when Rheingold talked about bloggers and how by starting with commenting work by people whose publications you admire is a good way of interacting with them. Sometimes, I feel like I am not too sure as to how to start sharing more online or interacting with those who seem to be skilled in sharing all kinds of information online so reading this was interesting to me. Maybe I’ll try more of that and see what happens in the future.

Towards the end of his Participation Power chapter he talked about Footprints and Profiles and he shared that boyd (no capitals in her name) said how she feels embarrassed about work she has not only posted foolishly but also embarrassed about some scholarly articles she’s written and published. This makes me see that in a way maybe many have felt like what they are ready to post publicly or publish is such an amazing work but later on they may feel the complete opposite about it and to an extend that’s okay because if we don’t post anything then when will we post. If we don’t start somewhere, we’ll never start.

See you all tomorrow,

-Maria