Week 8 - Website analysis 2

In your blog criticise each website (without giving details that would send a reader directly there) in terms of up-to-dateness, usability and practicing what it preaches.

Website 2

Website 2 is a blog from an established academic with a book on sale surrounding convergence culture and many other aspects of new media. The overall look of the page is very professional, graphics are clear and he adheres to the “good website rules”. He clearly references Prensky’s On the Horizon, then adds his own views on the subject. It is a useful website, not only to the insights of an academic on the subject, but also the good blogging style he adopts.
The author of the website is relatively balanced in his musings. He does use a lot of quotes, which can sometimes override his own views; however, they do seem relevant to the topics he chooses.


One of his most pertinent ruminations is that of the concept of ‘digital immigration’ masking the different degrees of immersion that children and young adults have. The digital divide is something that keeps coming back in my research into ‘digital immigration’. It was an issue for the author of my ‘website 1’ and for others that I have discarded for various reasons. I think it is important that we recognise the digital divide when looking at digital immigration.

He also references another website (which I will be using as website 3) who are keen to make the changes to learning outlined by Prensky. The author would rather see a mix between old styles of learning, whilst incorporating new technology. He sees a complex relationship between the traditional and new media. I think this is key if we are going to head in a different direction with learning. There may be unforeseen problems with new kinds of learning, which some children may not adapt to, it is important to keep some sort of conventional proven techniques. As with this unit on our course, some struggled with it and others flourished, I think it is important that we kept some other units as more traditional.

Overall the website is a great insight into the complexities of the theory, with an opportunity to comment (I’m ashamed to say that thus far I have only lurked on this particular site). You get a feeling that the author is credible, he has a photo of himself and a list of the books he has written. On the whole his ideas are well thought out and inclusive of different aspects of theory.

Week 8 - Website Analysis 1

In your blog criticise each website (without giving details that would send a reader directly there) in terms of up-to-dateness, usability and practicing what it preaches

Website 1

This particular website offers many articles, one in particular that directly references Prensky featuring the writer’s thoughts on digital immigration. The articles are written from an academic perspective, referencing clearly and in the appropriate style, so it would be useful for research purposes. This website offers a different view on the Prensky’s ideas, but is still written in a balanced and thought-provoking way.

One of his main issues surrounds the way in which Prensky homogenises the young and ignores their (or our?) different demographics. He believes that the young haven’t been subjected to the same amount of technology as each other. Throughout this course my eyes have been opened to the impact that technology has on our learning methods and think that social demographics feature highly as a variable in the effect of ‘new media’. Will a child who has been brought up in an environment where the family can afford the best and most recent technology, video games, computers and phones have the same “accent” as a child who was brought up having only library resources or school computers to ‘keep up’ with this fast paced way of learning? Although I can also understand Prensky’s view in that as a whole the younger generation has changed.

The author also finds it difficult to believe the impact of new technologies on our neurological structures will be as great as Prensky infers. He believes that we are de-emphasizing older ways of learning that are still relevant and essential today. He recognises that the way we learn is changing but thinks that we don’t learn from computers, we learn through them.
The website is an attribute to itself. The author makes it clear how he believes children will look at the internet as a main resource to learn with, but will not want to leave old ways of learning behind. This website isn’t a particularly new way of learning, it’s a non-interactive, linear article, but it can be found in a new way.

On the whole, I agreed with his main ideas. I do not think that a video game can be an effective teacher, and neither does he. He outlines how teachers need help in adapting to these changes and I agree. Although games and technology can be effective, they aren’t as interactive as teachers, they can’t sense the mood of the room or adapt their ideas to struggling children. They can’t give personal help or guidance in the way that a teacher can and I think the only way that we can use this technology to our advantage in learning, is to get teachers involved with it and to use it as a part of their overall lesson plans, but not as a replacement.

Week 7- main task

Distance Learning in America

“The development of new technologies is creating a revolution in education and training in the United States” (Strehle: no date)

Distance learning has been used as an aid to studying as well as a primary resource of education in America. Most of the ‘on-campus’ programmes offer an increasing amount of online information for students. The use of distance learning technology is controversial in America, some academics view this as a threat to the quality of higher education. Distance learning uses a lot of new technologies and they are rapidly expanding in America. This has caused the obsolescence of ‘early teaching methods’ worrying the ‘old school’ style of teachers.

There is question whether distance learning is taking over ‘on-campus’ learning, or whether the number of students is simply increasing. The opportunity for students to learn in their own time allows them to have jobs at the same time, whilst gaining an invaluable qualification that is revered by many American employers. Strehle argues that there are simply more people applying for higher education and that there are still enough benefits to on-campus learning that people will apply for on-site University regardless.

It is the public institutions that are responsible for a lot of the distance learning, with 90% of them offering some sort of distance learning course. This does not include highly selective Universities (Harvard, Yale, etc.) They think that learning starts in the laboratory.

Employers are particularly keen on distance learning, as employees can get new qualifications and skills with fewer costs for travelling and lodging. The military are also keen to use this type of distance learning for their recruits, to cut costs and use time effectively.

Whilst a lot of Americans are worried about distance learning and it’s effects on the education system, I think that it has provided a good alternative to conventional learning and it has a lot of positives, such as learning in your own time and space with less costs. I don’t see this new system encroaching on campus based universities, but simply offering those who for some reason can’t attend, an alternative way to learn.

Strehl, G, (no date) Ingeta, Distance Learning In America, http://www.ingenta.com/institute2000/strehle.pdf [06.03.09]

Week 7 - Distance learning in China

Distance Learning in China

China defines creative education through their Television University. They meet the need for cheaper, more effective education systems in their over-crowded and under-educated country. I can see distinct advantages and disadvantages for this unique way of learning. This kind of learning could have set the standard for a new way of working and learning with technology, like learning through the internet and computers

Advantages

The advantages, which are set out throughout the text, are that it answers some of the problems that China has had with its higher education structure and statistics, adults who have little time or resources to learn have become able to join these flexible and wide-ranging courses to the ultimate benefit of the economics of China.
“Most of them went on to make valuable contributions to industrial and agricultural enterprises or to cultural and educational institutes”
Learning through TV could possibly be more visually stimulating and easy to follow. I imagine that this universal standard of teaching would be of a high quality, so there would be little to no
issues with its worth, and it has been received well in China.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage that I can see with this type of learning is that it is impersonal and not interactive. Although there may be people on hand to answer questions, the television can’t read the mood of the room or explain things in a different way that would be more useful to a group of individuals. There is little interactivity with a television. The tutors wouldn’t (I imagine) be on first name terms with the pupils and I think that you may feel that the service you get is too formal. I imagine you’d feel a little bit like a learning machine?

Week 7 - Distance learning in Zambia

The main concern of any school is the wellbeing of the children who attend. I admire the schools in Zambia for being so forward thinking in this initiative, in which children who live in areas affected by floods, Cholera, and even ‘political unrest’ can continue to learn their curriculum through ‘eLearning’ on computers or even, for younger children, on the radio.

In my ignorance, I didn’t think that Zambia had the kinds of resources outlined by John Zulu, such as iPods, flash disks and mobile phones. Upon learning this, I think that eLearning is a fantastic solution to the country’s problems. I am aware that technology is not quite as up-to-date as here, and children may have to travel to internet cafes to use computers, and as long as they continue to have the drive to succeed and continue with the work everyday, the initiative should benefit the country immensely. It will also tighten the education gap between people in poorer areas and people in more affluent parts of the country. It seems that children in African nations, as a generalisation, have much more of a desire to learn and don’t take education for granted as we so often do here.

I think the internet as a tool for learning both the dangers of Cholera and the steps to take to prevent it will help the country immensely if it develops. The steps that they are taking now to make the information known on the TV, radio and through mobile phones may help prevent the disease from taking over the lives of children and allowing them more face-to-face interactive learning, which is important for their development.

I think that as a nation we could learn from this kind of programme, it wouldn’t need to be on such a grand scale as we don’t suffer the same kinds of problems, but I think that all children and young adults should have a school or college email address that they can be contacted with any work they miss due to sickness or on those weeks where we get a bit of snow and everything shuts down. Saying this, there are actually some good eLearning websites that children can look at for revision purposes, but they are run by different governing bodies so cannot follow the curriculum as closely as the different types of eLearning does in Zambia.

As with China, there are drawbacks to this type of learning, such as the availability of resources and the fact that the system is not complete on all mediums. Also, I feel that interactive learning with a real teacher would be more beneficial for a child (although in no way am I a child psychologist or development expert) but when the choice is between eLearning and falling behind, it is the clear choice for a better educative system.

Week 6 post 2

The forum in which you are working for New Media Cultures is arguably a Community of Practice. We have shared goals, a joint enterprise, experts, newcomers and those with power. Try to put together some thoughts and reflections on which members fit into which category from our work so far and discuss your ideas of what is our joint enterprise and who fits into which role.

I was unsure whether the tasks given and the fact that we’re being marked for our inclusion may affect our behaviour and level of participation and that would mean that we wouldn’t fit into Wenger’s theory but the spectrum for a community of practice is quite large and all-encompassing and I can see the ways in which it could be described as such. The goal of the group is definitely to get the best marks possible and others include supporting each other’s projects and giving them help, and learning new computer and net-iquette skills. The role of the forum is in it’s simplest form, a shared repertoire of communal resources, in which we know the codes and conventions for successful communication and encourage fellow users.

Although we came into New Media Cultures with varying blogging or forum knowledge, we are learning at the same pace, and doing the same tasks, so the students have equal power in the forum (although it could be argued that the people who post on the forum more, have more power as they are seen as more experienced). The tutors have the most power as they are there to answer questions and ultimately mark the threads posted on the forum. This, it could be argued, changes Wenger’s Community of Practice, to an Organizational Unit, however the power of the tutors is not heavily asserted onto the students and rules are not strict. I would say that many of the students entering the unit (including myself) had never worked on a forum or a blog before and are therefore the newcomers. The experts are difficult to distinguish as we are all blogging and posting at a similar rate on the same topics, and there isn’t too much to learn in the ‘how to’ of blogging there are no real advanced styles (it could be argued that at this point we are all experts)

I can’t see any more big differences than that of the students and the tutors, who monitor the forum, can anybody else?

Week 6 post 1

A community of practice that I have belonged to is Clifton’s Dance Academy, in Grimsby. Not only were the lessons structured into different teams which had their own unique identities, but simply belonging to the same dance school gave us a sense of community. The dance teams took the idea “community of practice” literally, meeting up once a week for the lessons but also practising in our spare time at competitions and after school. We knew our own strengths and weaknesses and whilst some girls would come to me with help remembering the routine, I often looked to others for help with stretching and more acrobatic elements. Wenger described this as a “shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artefacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.)”. The team wouldn’t work if some individuals weren’t as committed as others. When you joined, you are obligated to attend at least one dance competition a month, and others if you can. It took a huge level of mutual engagement for the team to work and win trophies. The “joint enterprise” of the group changed throughout my time in the team. The goals and aspirations changed as we grew as a team and grew up. The first – to win a competition, then what it was about would change until the aim was to win a regional championship. Our reasons for joining may have been different, to get fit, to advance our dance training, but ultimately, our ever-changing goals gelled us together. Even though we were brought together and structured, the team was entirely voluntary; we worked through different systems and compromises.

Week 5 - Bruns

As a trend, do you think produsage will last? Do you think commercial forces will find ways of exploiting it, or perhaps the ways people are involved will end up being short-term? Conflicts in the communities? Flagging energy/interest? Successful sites get bought out? Just a trend? Or the future of the Net? – What does your crystal ball say? (we must bear in mind this is speculation!)

Whilst I understand Bruns point that people will get tired of contributing to various websites for free, I think that a lot of people make the choice knowingly to contribute in the first place and will continue to. Although people don’t get credit for making their contributions, often what they choose to contribute on is surrounding their own interests. An example of this is Wikipedia. The contributors don’t get paid, but they get an opportunity to show off their knowledge and write about something that they are interested in. As more and more people get comfortable with technology, the ones that do get tired will be replaced with more youthful well-informed produsers. If not, people will find new and interesting ways to produse to their advantage.

I think that the biggest danger to produsage will be commercialisation. I wouldn’t know how many pop-ups or junk would get through to my computer without the blockers or antivirus, because so many still do. I think people will get sick of feeding into the hands of big corporations once they start to take over small but successful web.2 sites. A loophole in the terms of use of facebook has been revealed this week that once you upload pictures, they belong to facebook to use however they want. People are recognising that huge companies can exploit people through the internet and thousands have boycotted facebook for that reason.

I think that when the internet thudded down upon our lives in 1989, the impact was huge and it still continues to grow and adapt at a great rate. I think if produsage gets too big or even runs out of steam, another huge technological phenomenon will occur with the internet that may be beyond my imagination, as produsage was years ago. I have faith in the technophiles to keep things interesting for us, and give us new challenges.

Week 5 Meikle

Is open news quality news?

There are problems with news that has no proof of production. This blog will deal with two main problems. The first, as mentioned in the text, is that there is no control over the value over the news put forward. Something that is newsworthy to one person will be irrelevant to another. This will inevitably result in a large number of news stories “One issue was the large number of items being posted to sites, which meant that even especially well-researched or significant stories would be replaced quickly on the front page” (Meikle 2003). The second is the verity of the news being put forward. Newspapers and television news have a strict editing process but the internet allows for many rumours and myths to appear like fact and stories that haven’t been properly investigated into or which have bias, opinionated slants. Although you do get a huge range of news from different sources, and learn things that you may not have got from other informers. This opens up a range of opportunity for learning, but the quality of this news cannot be established (although there is obviously dispute over the quality of television and newspaper news as well)

Are there ‘new kinds of journalist’ online? If so, how so?

In ‘new’ media terms, anyone can be a news journalist. According to the text, blogs and newsgroups are considered news. The ramblings of a self-important daily blogger who regards their breakfast habits as interesting can be thought of as news. This opens up the news to anybody which will have some advantages, such as the vastness of niche news that is relevant to you, and readily available news, however, this could swamp the internet with news that is irrelevant to the masses.

Website analysis

The site I have chosen for my website analysis is http://www.asos.com/, as seen on screen offers a wide range of clothing and beauty copied from the styles of different celebrities.

The homepage is updated regularly, featuring different clickable outfits that are available for purchase and offering different styles such as, “Peggy’s vacation: resort wear goes retro”. Along with adverts for various companies promoting to women 16-30, there are different hyperlinks to child pages taking you to different departments, such as women’s wear. Within those child pages there are other hyperlinks such as ‘day dresses’. ASOS allows for both specific searches or general browsing which corresponds with the real world shopping paradigm. There is also a search engine for convenience in which you can enter the magazine code from the corresponding magazine. When you find an item through clicking on a thumbnail picture which displays the price, you are taken to a page which displays a catwalk clip, pictures from different angles, size and colour availability, information about care and returns and also a section titled ‘complete the look’ in which shows the user clothes which the producers think would match the item they’re looking at.

It would be impossible to analyse a clothes shopping website without considering the consumer culture of our society. According to Goodwin et al, “The modern consumer society employs five cultural factors to promote the desire to consume: Social pressures, advertising, shopping, government and the mass market.” Focusing on social pressures, advertising and shopping, the new media cultures are a exacerbating these factors and perhaps increasing our desire to consume. ASOS regularly updates it’s photo’s and looks often naming them after personality traits, it also allows consumers to see what other people are buying in their product range in a small section “other customers also bought”. The internet has obviously revolutionised the way that advertisers reach a target audience. ASOS.com is advertised on similar sites and also on the hugely popular facebook.com. ASOS has tried to make our online shopping experience somewhat close to the experience we get in the real world. They use ‘view basket’ to let the user see the items they wish to purchase and ‘check out’ for the end of shopping.

There is a very low level of interactivity on ASOS. There is no kind of self identity or persona on the site, the only way to interact with the site is through buying clothes, and this comes with no personal message or feedback on how/what you’ve bought (this is consultational interactivity at it’s lowest level) . The user also has to put a high level of trust in the producer, passing over a large amount of personal information is difficult but people tend to feel better doing this with a well recognised brand which is what ASOS has established itself to be. They also allow the user to track their order and get in touch if they have any problems. The producer is in complete control and there is no level of ‘produser’-ism or web2.0. The users don’t get a chance to interact with each other.

The appeal of the site for the user is it’s quick and easy nature, convenience is a major factor in all online shopping. The site is very easy to navigate allowing for browsing as well as specific searches. People can often find real life shopping stressful with the queues and sizing issues, but the massive range and instant gratification of online shopping is appealing to many. The difficulty with online shopping is that the user can sometimes not register how much money they are spending, we associate spending with tills, and the seemingly harmless clicking of a computer screen can sometimes lead us into making purchases we wouldn’t have made otherwise. ASOS is constantly updated and use words like “trends” and “the look” to make the user feel like they are ahead of the pack. The shop is online and therefore have small costs compared to big highstreet names and often sell clothes cheaper than a real life shop would, which is a major factor in many people’s consumer choices.

Goodwin et al (1996) The Consumer Society Island Press