New Media and Education

Education has been utilizing technologies since its orgins, and without technology it could not exist. The earliest forms of technology are language, reading and writing, and these are the basis of education. As Martin Ryder stated, the leading technologies have "defined its very nature." This is absolutely true, and with the rapid developement of new media technologies, the education system is feeling a strong impact.

One way that education is feeling new medias impact, as stated in "The Stuff of New Literacy's article, is how old tasks are being pursued in new ways. "Tech savvy" people are leading the way in this evolution. For example, Amazon's Kindle is a software and hardware platform that displays e-books and other types of media. With the introduction of this in the classroom, the task of reading a book or doing research can be done at a students desk on their laptop, iPhone, BlackBerry, etc... The argument of educational tasks being pursued in new ways from the "Stuff" article is also reinforced in Lankshear and Knobel's article.

In that article, they talk about web 2.0 and the introduction of blogging. They discuss the simplification of blogging, and how a mass new generation of bloggers has stormed the internet. Our New Media class is a perfect example of this, and as I am typing this sentence in my blog, I am proving that old tasks are becoming increasingly easy with the introduction of new media technologies.

One problem with new media in the classroom is the possibilty for technological errors. However, the use of other new media technologies can be the solution to these "bugs." In Dr. Vanslyke-Brigg's lecture, she talked about how one of her new media platforms that her class utilized bgan to malfunction. There was no worry though, because she used her cell phone to contact an IT person, and used a peer-to-peer website for more suggestions on how to fix the problem. Between these two sources, it only took her class minutes to troubleshoot.

Another problem that Dr Vanslyke-Briggs discussed was how the internet can have false websites, like the one that described the "Tree Octopus." This problem can be solved by filtering the internet, which is a problem that has been discussed on my blog numerous times, but can be easily avoided with reputable sources. Eventually, I believe it will be easier for students to filter the internet.

To conclude, new media is impacting education in several ways. From troubleshooting to how we retrieve our educations, it is evolving the way educational tasks are pursued everyday. As more and more classes are implementing new media like Kindle and blogging, it is not hard to imagine a classroom with a computer at every desk.

Music in the Age of Social Media

Music has always been one of the most important forms of media. As technology advances with new forms of media, the face of the music industry is changing dramatically. In Joe Pignato's lecture, he talked about how the classic model for the record industry is becoming obsolete, and the music industry is now becoming a distribution industry as opposed to an ownership industry. The convergance of technologies, including the open source of the internet, is allowing consumers to get access to all the music they want with a couple clicks of their mouse.

If the music industry is to survive this onslaught of new media, I believe they have to follow the Spigot Model, just as Pignato mentioned. This model involves the consumer purchasing a subscription from a provider for some type of internet service, and through micropayment surcharges the downloading of music becomes "free" consumption for the user. This model will work because it will seem to be "free", and thus far new media's main impact on the music industry has been the illegal downloading that really made music free.

In conclusion, I believe that the initail impact of new media on the music industry was negative, and it caused music companies to loose money because of illegal downloading. Now, the industry is adapting, and eventually it will be alright. With media like iTunes and Pandora, the music industry is taking the first steps to saving itself, and eventually I believe the Spigot Model will be the ultimate savior of music.

Is the news dead?

With the creation and innovations of technology these days, and especially the internet, many people wonder if traditional news is dead. I don't think the news is dead, but people just have to modify the way they gather it. If anything, the news is more alive than ever, and different social media technologies just give you more access to news. And even with these new medias, traditional news outlets like newspapers still have their own benefits.

One thing about older forms of news that give it an advantage, as Sam Pollack said, is the credibility. When a person wants to know the truth, they can count on a newspaper to be a reputable source. If there ever is a wrong fact printed in a paper, like the New York Times incident, the repercussions are very severe. With the internet, there are almost an unlimited amount of rumors published everyday, on both news websites and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. This problem was discussed my Mark Little in his video, when he talked about filtering being a major part of internet news gathering.

In conclusion, I do not believe the news is dead, it's just getting a makeover from new media technologies. Eventually, I hope someone develops an easy way to filter the garbage on the internet so it can have the credibility of a traditional news source, like The Daily Star. By merging the values of traditional news with the convenience and up-to-date access of new media technologies, I believe the news will be more alive than ever.

The Participatory Movement

Back when the internet was in its infancy, and even as recent as a few years ago, the sites were mainly used to go to retrieve information. Nowadays, the internet is mainly used for participation and creation. As Boyd says, we live in a stream on the internet, and we "add to it, consume it and redirect it." This statement is totally true, and one can easily use Twitter as a perfect example. People can use Twitter and participate by following people that are experts in the fields they want to excel at in life. At the same time, the experts are creating micro-blogs that give this valuable information to the followers who are participating.

This new participatory movement is revolutionizing the way people interact, and even how kids learn. As Jenkins said in his lecture, the participating and creating on internet sites actually enhance ones ability to think critically when it comes to reading and writing. Students can look up any information at there own convenience and critique what they learn themselves.

In conclusion, the participatory movement is changing the way everyones lives their lives. Both Boyd and Jenkins comment on how it keeps getting easier to become a part of this participating and creating phenomenon. Anyone can buy a cellphone with a camera and hook it up to a computer to upload a video on Youtube, thus creating a form of new media.