apologies

im sorry about the weird order that these are in, it because i have had them saved in my draft box for a little bit, untill i had completed all of question 9, i hope this is ok and not tooo comfusing for every one!

Week 9 -Question 1

I found it very difficult to relate Wenger and Prenskys theories, as initally they seem about two completely different ideas, But after thinking about it carefully i have realised that there are some similarities. For instance Wengers CoP is about learning, learning from people who are on your wave length and no trying to be above or the boss of you. Prenskys theory is about education in a world where there are two different types of people, digital immigrants and digital natives. So the main concept of both theories is learning. This can go deeper though, because the digital immigrants and digital natives, have to come to some sort of agreement, in which not one of them is better than the other, it is about adapting to each others needs and coming to a compromise. For instance digital immigrants have to understand that digital natives are developing in a different way to the way that the immigrants developed when they were younger. This means that the immigrants have to learn from the natives as well as visa versa, which is similar to what a community of practice is, everybody is learning from everybody to increase there knowledge.

Another underlying theme in both of the theories is the use of technology, Prensky maybe more than Wenger, but CoP can definatly develop more with the use of technology and communication through technology.

i am not sure whether this is correct or not, but these are the main points that i felt worked in favour of both articles and theories.

Week 9 Blog e)

I Believe that by 2020, the majority of our lives will be controlled by technology. I still think that we will probably have face to face lectures, and maybe take notes, but we might have special computers or something, i dont know whether we will still use pen and paper to take notes, although i think it will still be encouraged at schools. I do not think that we will have gone compltely online, therefore i do not think that blogging is going to be come the new form of learning. but i do t believe that this will play a bigger role in more courses, than just media based ones.



I think maybe by then there will be the semantic web as well as other theories around web 3.0, for instance quicker graphics etc, so this may make life alot easier and it maybe be easier to find what you want on the internet.



I think we will probably rely on the internet alot more as well, for hand ins and essays, a sound system will probably be created, so that you can email your essay across, with the guarantee it is going to get there in time and not get lost.

Week 9 Blog d)

d) neo luddites is some one who secretly despises technology, in todays society this would be extreamnly hard to live by especially at an instituition like university. Every Single peace of work that is handed in has to be written on the computer, it can not be hand written. This would probably frustrate a neo luddite because they wouldn't necessairily have ever used a computer enough to be able to create a peace of work that was easy for them to create.




Also many lectures are done with the use of the power point, instead of maybe black boards or something similar. It would probably frustrate them even more if they had to do a presentation, because you are expected to use powerpoint for them as well, where as a neo luddite might prefer to just speak or again use non technical visual material.


The neo luddite also probably would not like it when so many people communicate through facebook, msn and text. I am the head of the dance society and the main ways i keep in touch with people is through Facebook and text. A neo luddite might not have a mobile or the internet, therefore they would find it hard to keep in contact or get information that is being passed around.





The fact that alot of supplement material is online, for instance library resources, journals, seminar notes, lectures slides, essay questionsand alot of other resources are posted online first and foremost, before being given out in hand, if being given out in hand at all, would probably also aggrevate the neo luddite severely.

Week 9 Blog c)

c) A person that i know who most threatens the digital Native/ Immigrant Approach, is still probably my dad, but the thing is that because of his age he should really be an immigrant, but because of his job he is really native, he has pretty much grown up around the developing technology. Unlike my mum who is a real digital immigrant, they are exactly the same age, and yet my mum has trouble navigating a mouse around the computer screen. Other people in my dads social circle are actually immigrant, but still become involved in things that you would expect a digital immigrant to understand, for instance my uncles partner, is fully functional on a computer and like my dad has facebook, as well as a few or my dads friends havign facebook as well and playing virtual scarbble against each other over the internet, which many digital immigrants would not know exists.

Week 9- Blog b)

b) The youngest digital immigrant you know.

It was hard for me to think of a young digital immigrant, probably due to the course that I am taking and the family that I have. Though there are a few of my friends that are probably more like digital immigrants than say I am, because they still struggle with computers and new technology, for instance talking to my friend yesterday she didn’t know how to copy something across from a usb on to your hard drive. I think it is quite hard be a young digital immigrant in todays society, especially as so much of uni and school work has to be done on the computer and on the internet, it is bard not to become at least partially adapted.

Week 9- Blog a)

a) The oldest digital native you know.

The oldest Digital Native I know is defiantly my father, I believe that this is because he is an engineer. Originally he worked for the RAF, this was when he was about 17, so he has basically been surrounded by the developments of the computer age as they happen. Because this was his job, we were quite advantaged with technology as children, I was one of the first people in my class to have a computer of my own and to have msn. My Dad is quick to catch up with new emerging websites and computer based technology, for instance he has a facebook and is very able to use MP3 Player, I got the same one as him and he had to teach me how to use it and create playlists, because it didn’t say it in the instructions.

Week 9- Question 6

6) How does it differ from web 3.0?

The semantic web is a string of web 3.0, as far as I could tell web 3.0 is the latest development of the web, it is a theory about how the web is changing from 2.0. For Web 3.0 it does not necessarily mean in the semantic sense. With web 3.0 it is mainly about the development. For instance there are theories about it developing in a way in which they are going to develop 3D and virtual reality or maybe advancing graphics, or the way that we will be able to view our new media, there are ideas that we may be able to view it through our bathroom mirrors. So the main difference is that it does not focus on Semantics.

Week 9- Question 5

5) What is the 'semantic web'?

The Semantic web, was coined by Tim Bernes- Lee, it is a developing technology through the web in which the web will be able to understand and satisfy the requests of people, it will be easier to troll the net and find exactly what we want to find, instead of things relating to what we want to find. There are already a number of semantic data bases set up on the web, including the semantic web coordination group. Also I think that what Andrew Frasers lecture was on was a development of Semantic Web, after all he was trying to find ways of giving people exactly what they want. For instance the point of the holiday search website was to find people a holiday that they would actually really like to go on, it was not to do with price range, or where you come from, it was about your personality. He was also trying to develop something similar for sites like Amazon, for instance in the recommended section it would not be about similar products, it would be products, that through a series of questions, amazon would realize that you would actually be interested in and buy. This new web form focuses on the information rather than the processing.

Week 9- Question 4

4) Is there a potential problem being stored up for people if 'education' is tailored to fit into their cultural and personal preferences?

I do not see initially that there is a potential problem being stored up for people if education, is tailored to fit into their culture and personal preferences, after all it makes sense. It would not make sense for every one around the world to be taught in exactly the same way, after all this may mean that what they are learning will not have any relevance to their later lives and education may be pointless. The only problem that I can see is that with the personal preferences, there personal preference maybe to not learn certain key legacy skills and therefore they may not have the basics for life in general.

Another potential problem might be that people become to complacent, like I mentioned in the previous blog about you being stretched. I don’t believe this would happen if everything is tailor made, if every body got exactly what they wanted and needed all the time.

Prensky would probably say that this is a good thing as the way we are processing information is different, and so maybe changing education to fit this new culture of new media that is evolving would, according to Prensky make sense and work.

week 9- question 3

3) Should education 'stretch a person do you think? (What do you mean by 'stretch'?)

I think that education should stretch the mind. I believe that in order to do that people maybe should learn in ways that maybe they are not used to. So Prenskys theory of learning through computer games etc, may not actually stretch peoples minds, it may make them become complacent. As they will always be learning in the same way. I do think that doing this blogging has stretched my mind, as I have had to express my opinion and really think about what I have read and what that means to me. When you are in a seminar it is easy to sit back and not say anything and just listen to what other people think. Where as on this module, it is not that easy to do that. I think when saying that education should stretch a person, it should not just be in the learning sense, therefore the fact that we still have seminars and are not completely online, does try and encourage people to speak out face to face with there colleagues, where as blogging maybe doesn’t. So I still believe that a combination of new media learning and face to face “legacy” learning is the way forward and that this would stretch me educationally.

Week 9- Question 2

2) What difference to all this might the 'digital divide' make? a) To socioeconomically related access issues within a society? b) To global access issues across countries and regions?

A) The digital divide means that people within societies use new media in different ways. People access differently due to mass media. If there is a topic within there social circle that is talked about often, eg within my social circle it could be musicals, then I am more likely to access the internet to gather information on this subject and then pass it on to other people in my social circle. Therefore people within my society who do not have a favourite topic, or subject may not go on the internet as often as they have no reason to find out more information for instance. According to Goldfarb, A and Prince J (2006), who did a survey on 18,439 Americans, Higher educated people are more likely to have adopted the internet by 2001. Though this is the case it was also found that low income and less educated people may have taken longer to adopt the internet, they actually spend more time on the internet. Internet adoption is higher for, younger, married and city dwellers.

B) The Digital Divide across countries and regions mainly occurs due to wealth. Obviously the richer communities can not afford to have the internet on tap and access it as often as possible. Other people in poorer communities will not have this privilege. This may not always be a bad thing, because some regions and countries may not be as aware that the internet is such a big phenomenon and so to them it may be irrelevant. It was also found that white people had higher internet adoption, but also it was found that there was not a significant difference between people spoken in different languages.

week 8 question 5 revealed abstract 5

Abstract 5

This article is about whether there is a place for traditional learning methods of design drawing, that which Prensky calls Legacy, in a CAD (Computer aided drafting) world, It talks about what measures have been taken in Scotland to incorporate CAD in to the curriculum. It was found that it was helpful to have both manual and computer aided drawing training, so that the students were able to understand the basics. A number of different people were asked including, industrialists, teachers and students. They were asked through E surveys and scale questionnaires. It was found that only 1 in 5 industrialists continue to do manual technical drawings, it was found that manual technical drawing developed spatial awareness, visualisation and thinking things through! So in conclusion it was found that there are still many benefits of learning to draw manually. But increasing the time spent on CAD would defiantly create more efficient drawers, but at the expense of deep understanding.

Key Words: Computer Aided drafting, Manual Drawing, Education. Curriculum.

week 8 question 5 revealed abstract 4

Abstract 4

This is a report on a study done on 72 student who are actually digital immigrants, and have experiences the development of the internet at first hand. Studies support the idea that young adults spend a large percentage of there time on line, for social and educational reasons as well as for fun. In this study collage students wrote autobiographical essays on there experiences on the internet both in the past and in the present. Some participants believed that the internet was being used to change there identities, other believe that it has created many more opportunities for them and for many it has changed the way they think completely. It looks at four sections, internet and the self, family, Real communities and the virtual communities. It looks at the dependency that we have developed as a society for the internet, apparently filling a void that we never knew we had, others believe that it is an addiction.

week 8 question5 revealed abstract 3

Abstract 3

This is a study into 15-24 year olds who seem to be the key demographic in consuming telecom and media services. It has been found that media consumption has increased considerably over the past few years. Gaming being the single biggest contributor to the increase in time spent on media. Teenagers are also the ones that access the internet the most especially forms of communication such as IM. The 15-24 year olds are the digital natives, they have grown up around technology all there lifes. It is believes that Digital natives can be characterized in four ways: Control, which is due to the fact that they can access things when they want to, for instance watching television programmes on the internet. Impatience, an example of this is the fact that young people avoid watching adverts and do not actually pay attention when they are on. Community interactions, such as the increase in uses of blogs and wiki sites. Originality, for instance creating your myspace page in and interesting and fun way that reflects you, also sharing photos and art work. The fact that community interaction has increased has meant that people are commenting more openly on new products, especially if they are not working properly. This article suggests some ways that this can be improved for instance are “ideas blog” where people post there ideas to make the products better.

week 8 question5 revealed abstract 2

Abstract 2

Another article by Marc Prensky. This article is explaining what digital natives and immigrant are, that the natives were brought up surrounded by all these technologies and so this is how they think, where as the immigrants were not and so have had to learn later on in their lives about computers etc. Again he is talking about educating and how the digital immigrants do not understand that the digital natives will have to be taught in a different way, as they have been brought up using different parts of there brains. Marc Prensky believes that they should be taught in a way that relates to the digital world, for instance instantaneously, not step by step, and random access like hypertext. Teachers should not go back to there old ways of teaching they should take a step forward and take into account the fact that children learn in a different way now. There are two types of content in education, legacy and future. Legacy is what we have been learning for a very long time, for instance reading and writing ( which he believes may die out like Latin and Greek did) and Future is digital and technological. He helped create a computer game called “monkey wrench” which helped people to learn how to use some software called CAD. This helped prove his theory. He believes that now it is not a question of what do they have to do? It is more of how are they going to do it? For instance how are they going to transfer or the learning to digital.

week 8 question4 revealed

4) In the Harvard manner, name five different academic articles dealing with the notion of young people's facility with the new world of converged media

Prensky, M (2001) “Do They Really Think Differently” On the Horizon, Volume 9 (6) http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf [Accessed 24/03/08]

Prensky, M (2001) “Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants” On The Horizon, Volume 9 (5) http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdfteachers [Accessed 25/03/08]

Capgemini (2007) “Digital natives: How is the younger generation reshaping the telecom and media landscape” Telecom, Media and Entertainment, issue 16, http://www.de.capgemini.com/m/de/tl/Digital_Natives.pdf [Accessed 31/03/08]

Mclaren, S ( 2007) "Exploring Perseptions and attitudes towards teaching and learning manual technical drawing in a digital age" International Journal of Technology and Design Education. issue N/a, http://eprints.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/3965/01/mclaren_exploringperceptions.pdf [Accessed 01/04/08]

Week8 question 5 Revealed Abstract 1

Abstract 1

Marc Prensky wrote this article too back up his theories on digital immigration. He uses it to show that there is evidence to suggest that digital natives will learn better by learning through video games etc. His evidence is to prove that the brain does change and will shape differently when in different environments. Firstly he uses neurobiology to back up his ideas, in which experiments on animals, brain scans on musicians and looking at chemical changes in the brain when a participant is thinking intensely, have shown that your brain is different in different situations. He then goes on to talk about social psychology he states that there is evidence to suggest that people who are brought up in different cultures not only think about different things they actually think differently, but this does not come easy changing the structure of your brain does not just happen over night, participants have to do very intense hard work over a long period of time, in order for this to work. Because digital natives are surrounded by technology such as video games Marc Prensky believes that this would be the best way for them to learn. He backs this up with evidence that proves that games can help improve learning, but they have to be well made and obviously they have to appeal to the children so that they want to play them in there extra curricular time.

Week 8 question 2 revealed

2) Identify five different websites/five-pages-on-different sites dealing with digital immigration and its counterpart. Give their urls

http://henryjenkins.org/2007/12/reconsidering_digital_immigran.html

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/digitalnatives/

http://www.digitalnative.org/Main_Page

http://digitalnativesct.blogspot.com/

http://www.assortedstuff.com/?p=2

Week 8 question 1 revealed

1) Find out about 'Digital Immigration'.
What Is it? Who cares about it? What sort of general attitudes have been based upon it?

Digital immigration is the fact that people are not used to technology and were not brought up In a digital age, therefore they have to do stuff like print stuff off to edit instead of editing it online. Therefore the opposite of a digital immigrant is a digital native, because these people have been brought up in a digital age, they have been surrounded by computers, televisions and mobile phones, through most if not all there lives.

The people that might be interested in this could be teachers and the government alike, because like marc pensky says people believe that children are changing, but he states that it is surroundings that are changing. They have been brought up in a completely different way to the children of the 1950’s and so they should be taught in a different way. It is thought that there brains are now structured in a different way. As stated by Dr. Bruce D. Berry of Baylor College of Medicine. In Marc Plenskys papers. This means that teachers should be aware of these theories as it may explain why a child is having trouble learning. Although there is a counter argument to this which brings up the fact that if children are so adaptable to technology they should really be adaptable to learning through the traditional ways of teaching.

The general attitudes that are raised in the number of articles that are written on this subject are that education needs to take advantage of the fact that children are processing in different ways, due to the new media. They might benefit more if they were taught through these new media eg. Computer games or the internet. People are having problems dealing with the fact that in a few decades, traditional ways of teaching may die out, just like, Latin and Greek did.

week 8- question 6 part 4

Disagreements with article part 4

I did not do a thired section for this question because i actually agreed withthe majority of article 3 and found it very interesting. FOr article four it did not actually mention digitla immigration or natives, but i knew from what it was talking about that it was actually about this topic.

The studies in this report shows that many of the participants believed that they used the internet to solidify who they were really offline. I do not believe this is entirely true I think your online persona is always an exaggeration version of yourself to show off your good bits, you tend to miss out or talk less about the less flattering side to yourself. So I do not believe that it is always more of who you are than your actual off line self. I do not believe that I am any less technically developed than my younger sister, if anything I am less technically developed than my older brother. As I am not very good at computer games, etc, but when it come to the internet I would say that we are about equal, due to the fact that we all created our own email accounts at the same time and the fact that our dad is an engineer and very much into modern technology, he even has facebook. I do not believe that this dependency or addiction is a good thing, I already think that I rely on the internet too much and do not believe that it would be a good thing to need to rely on it even more.

Week 8- question 6 part 2

Disagreements with article Part 2

Some disagreements that I had with this article was the fact that I would be termed a digital native, because I have been brought up with new media al around me. But this is still constantly changing. It took me quite a while to get to grips with facebook for instance even though I have been using the internet since I was 11 or 12. Surely it should have been pretty easy for me to understand. Does this mean that with the constant developments being made that learning completely digital will only help in the short run, because in a couple of decades they may have to completely change the system again. In this article it states that legacy teaching may completely due out, after all latin and greek did. I disagree with this, I think that even though technology will take over, I do not think it will ever be the only source, I think reading and writing will always still be around and taught. For instance I do not think that in primary school we will eventually only be teaching 4 year olds how to type there name. I think they will still be taught how to write it as well.

week 8- question 6 part 1

Disagreements of Articles part 1

I believe that even some children of today are still digital immigrants. And to convert to teaching completely through computer games etc would be wrong. I think it would still benefit children to learn through books and other traditional sources and instead of the computer games being instead of, they would be an added bonus. The fact that he states that the programs have to appeal to the children, does this mean that they are going to create different ones for different types of children, for instance some forms of games are very much more appealing towards boys eg, football games and some are more appealing to girls ones that involve animals or fantasy characters. When learning through a game, surely there should be characters and stories and so they would either have to gender neutral, or maybe two different types of games should be created. But it is not all about gender, within the same age group there are usually different levels of learning and so will the computer games accommodate for this. Id say they probably will but it doesn’t mention this in the article.

The fact that he has received some of his research from animals, makes me wonder whether that is ethical and even whether the information received from mice, etc, is even transferable to the human brain.

week 8 question 3 part 5

Websites on digital immigration 5

This is one of my least favourite blogs that I have found because although they do have an archive down the side and a search engine. There are no links that tell you the profile of the blogger and so it is hard to tell how reliable this person is going to be for information. This website has a brief at the top that tells you why this man has opened this blog, but it doesn’t tell you who he is and why he has the qualifications to tell people about this. Also the last blog that was posted was January 2008 and so it hasn’t been updated in a very long time and so a lot in the digital immigrant field could have happened since then and nothing has been posted about it. I like the fact that a lot of his posts are interactive, for instance they have videos or sound clips on with links to other websites, so that you can follow up any comments that he makes. It is annoying when you open the page though, because music starts to play in the background and you can switch it off and this decreases its usablilty because the only way to get rid of it is to close the page and this what I did on a number of occasions because the music became to distracting when I was trying to read.

Week 8 question 3 part 4

websites on digital immigration 4

Again this another blog,but is not just about digital natives and immigrants, it does seem to want to cover more ground than that, For instance in his about section he talks about covering “he state of public education in the United States and the perpetual efforts to reform it. That, plus comments on instructional technology, blogging and the read-write web (aka Web 2.0), various forms of media, digital rights and fair use, a very small dab of politics, and the everyday oddities of life that pop up.” All of these relate to Digital nativism and Digital Immigration and so the blog will cover a lot of ground. On this blog there are navigation bars along the top and down the right hand side. The one along the top has the options of Home, about, stuff for edtech and the top 101. And down the side is divided into teaching and learning, education news and opinions and general news and opinion amongst others, there is also again the option to access and Archive, which seems to be a really good in a very active, well established and regularly used Blog. For instance there is the option to go back to may 2007 all the way up to April 3^rd 2008. So it is a well updated website. The top 101 websites, is one of the links which helps teachers (digital immigrants) to find websites that might help them teach the pupils (digital niatives) in a digital way. For instance there is a link to an interactive prehistoric time line.

week 8 question 3 part 3

Websites on digital immigration 3

There is a blog that relates to the another of the websites. This blog I don’t feel is as easy to navigate as the Henry Jenkins one because although having a search engine, they do not have amenities such as and Archive and so it might not be as easy to find blogs on information that you would like to find. It does have a good “about” section, in which it explains about who the hosts are and what there project is. It is also good that you are always able to see the recently updated comments and the most recent one was March the 19^th and so this suggests that is updated frequently. The fact that it is a blog on digital natives does suggest that is practicing what it preaches, because they are appealing to people who are able to use the technologies with ease and understand the concept of them. Digital immigrants would struggle to be able to post and maybe even struggle to understand the concept of the blog.

week 8- Question 3 part 2

Website on digital immigration 2

This website is a wiki site and so the information may not be as reliable as other sites, because anyone can post the information on these sites. They are open to every one. Although the site was set up by Berkman Centre For Internet and society At Harvard Law School and the Research Centre for information law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. These students are hosting and working on the core of this site and so it may be slightly more reliable than other wiki websites. The main page is the one with most of the information. The talk about qwhat the Digital Native pages is, why they have used a wiki for there project, an introduction to the life of digital natives, the questions for discursssion, other places they are places, eg facebook and what they are currently reading. All these sections on the homepage are valid because they explain what they are doing and why. The problem is the other navigations on the page are limited. For instance when you click on current events and donations there is no text on the page. These links are dead and so until they have information for these links maybe they should not be there. Also you have to be a member of the site inorder to read any discussions that have been created.

week 8- Question 3 part 1

website on digital immigration 1

This website is a blog and is written by a man called Henry Jenkins who is a lecturer at MIT and has written nine books on various aspects of media and popular culture Therefore I believe that what he writes is valuable and he probably has a lot to say about the subject of digital immigration because it is the field of work that he works in. The website in general is laid out in a simple way in which there are hyperlinks to different areas of the website, for instance “links” and “about me” which helped me understand that what he was going to say could be valuable. Then down the sides he has links to Amazon and Powells to read his books. The search engine is a good idea because when wanting to find out if he had written anything on Digital immigration I just typed in Digital Immigrants into the search section, and it showed me the blogs that featured this. There is also an archive which is a listed of links to all the weblogs that he has done on the many different categories that have interested him. It was last updated on march the 29^th so it very current and talks about issues that are around today.

week 7 task 3

http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol4.2/10_siaciwena.html

Journal of distance Education- University of Zambia

As this study is on the tutors and lecturers point of view, and less about the benefits to the students, it interesting to see how they feel and see how they feel it has its benefits and its negative aspects.

It is clear that the reasons for lecturers not having the same enthusiasm for distance learning as internal learning, is because they haven’t got enough teachers and so the distance learning creates more work and even more stress, than they originally signed up for. They need to maybe have more lecturers, to be able to become lecturers, so that they can ease the work load and distance learning does not become such a burden, and it becomes the advantage that t should be. Obviously this is easier said than done.

It is interesting that again in this study the issue of face to face contact or counseling as it is called in this study, is brought up again. But here the students believe that it is good and the lecturers believe it is not, though this may because the students have never known any better and so they think it is good, when in fact it could actually be considerably better!

Because this study was done in 1986 I thought it would be interesting to see how the University of Zambia was doing now, after all since 1986 they could have actually hired more staff and the work load may have been distributed more evenly and therefore tutors opinions today may be very different. http://www.unza.zm/index.php, as you can see it is defiantly still a factor of the university and one of the selling points to it. Has anybody found any recent studies on whether the system has actually improved?

week 7- task 2

http://www1.worldbank.org/disted/Technology/broadcast/tv-02.html

China: Its distance higher education learning

Because the population was so high in China, this was probably the best way of getting the education to the masses quickly and easily, I do not believe this would have been received as greatly in Britain for instance. Although I do know in 6th form in a school near me, a psychology A level was taught completely by television and this put a lot of people off doing the course, as they felt they would not feel motivated to go because there was no teacher actually physically in the same room as them.

I like the fact that they cater for all types of jobs, the four levels show that they are taking into account the different jobs that are available, for instance the classes ran by mines and large factories, may help people more skilled at there jobs and therefore there is no sign of it being completely elitist, although of course, you have to have gone to school, but you don’t have to be the brightest of the bunch, you can be a skilled workman as well as some one who has brains. For instance they do both courses in Mathematics and all sorts of Engineering. A student in Britain would probably learn through and apprenticeship or at college, it is less likely that they would go to university to do this. The fact the there is the opportunity to speak to a tutor face to face and the opportunity to take part in practical if you are doing a course that needs this, is pleasing to me because, when initially reading this I did worry that students wouldn’t necessarily benefit from this way of teaching, because without feedback they would not necessarily know whether what they were doing was correct or not. It is similar to the Australians distance learning in this way, in that all though initial there is no face to face contact, there is always the opportunity to do this and to get the help that you need from a lecturer. Although the difference here is that there are lots and lots of students around you, who you may be able to talk to, where as if you are learning on the internet alone, in Australia you do not always have this opportunity.

It is interesting the fact that they allow early school leavers to take the exams and enter the universities, I assume this means that they are under 18? If so I think this is a good thing, not every one is cut out for school, but learning skills and practices that they will be able to use when working are very useful. I suppose the equivalent of this in the UK is college, but the word “university” has very different connotations to college, especially in the UK, I wonder whether the same applies in China, do Universities have different connotations around them to colleges are they maybe respected slightly more in certain fields of work?

It is clear that this kind of education has helped the industries within china immensely, but there is obviously still some work to do to improve the system, but isn’t that the same in most educational systems around the world.

week 7- task 1

http://www.deakin.edu.au/future-students/online-offcampus-studies/#skipTo

If this type of study is no available to school leavers in there first year of tertiary study, does that mean they can do there first year and then there second and third year can be taken at home. And if I am reading this correctly is this really fair that students in there first year are unable to learn like this because they may still live in the out backs, and may find it hard to get to university at some points in the years, so would it no be better for this way of learning to be available to every one who wants it in Australia.

I like the idea that they have weekend schools, because sometimes even though you are able to talk to people through online conferencing, it would probably be nice to meet up with people from our lectures and talk to them face to face for a change. And here there opinions this way, or just talk to them about day to day mundane things, so you can get to know them on a personal level, as well as an intellectual level.

I think the fact that all of the courses have at least one online module is good because, it helps people become even more competent in navigating them selves around the internet, computers and other software that they may need to use.

I was able to search for courses on this website and there are so many opportunities to do so many different degrees, through the off campus learning, they even have a bachelors of arts, (media and communication).

The fact that international students who live within Australia are unable to do the online studies may seem slightly unfair but I believe that the international students who are in Australia, would be there to get the university experience and so it may not interest them to learn from home, because they would probably want to get out there and meet the Australians and live the Australian life.

week six- task 4

withi in our own blooging community, i believe that the experts are us the students and those that do the most reading, and have a fuller understanding of the readings are more like the experts because they can express there opinions to the other students and maybe help them understand it more. But also we have the lecturers, although maybe dont contribute as much as other students, but still have a broader knowledge and so they could also be counted as the experts. The new comers are less people who are new, but more people who are not familiarising themselves with the material and therefore they are learning from the "experts" who are helping them understand material that maybe they dont understand. These positions can switch from week to week, because some people may understand different articles better than others, so there are no fixed roles, Students may also be able to give the teachers insite into ideas that maybe they have never thought about before.

The people who are excluded are generally people who are not on our course, because to many people what we are talking about would not interest the general publice and other media students wouldnt necessairily know what we are doing to be able to access and comment on our blogs in the first place. i think that definatly people can become experts over time , the more they blog and the more they read other peoples blogs.

week 6- task 3

http://forums.techguy.org/

The tech support guy, website is a very simple website, layed out with a side tool bar with options such as welcome guide, forums, about us and how to help. This website has been around for ten years and the people who are answering questions within the forum are very knowledgable about computers, it was one of the first sites to give out free computer computer support online. It is celebrating its tenth year and has over 210,000 members and 27 forums. You have to be a member inorder to post any questions though, which may be an issue for some people.

I believe that it does have an element of communities of practice because for one, anybody that is registered is able to answer questions that people have. And so there is not just one estrablished leader, they can all post there ideas and work together to figure our the best way of going about a certain activity. i believe that this website does encourage learning by practice in an activity, because you have to actively go on to the forum, post your question and then try out the different suggestions that are posted on to the forum. It can not be done in a passive way, while using some of the ideas that are suggested you may have to go back on the forum and ask some more questions! and so it is extreaml active.

It also appears to me to be a number of communities of practice because with in the sub forums, they use alot of language that only people with knowledge of the subject could join in on, but also if new members join they can learn from other members and learn to be as knowledgable as other members. An example of this is the "Digital Photography and imaging" section, in which one of the members asks what the best software is for removing "noise" the person who posts this is still resonably knowledgable, but is still asking questions and asking for people advise who may no more.

week 6- task 2

The differenece between an organisational unit and a community of practice.

Leaders

In organisational units i believe that there is usually one boss, one that rules over everybody, where as in communities of practice there are often leaders, but the point is to learn off every body not just the one leader. Like it is said in wenger "the boundaries are flexible" it is not an institution For instance in schools there is one teacher who teaches the class. In Cheerleading evreybody has different experiences with different aspects of the sport. For instance i have a dance background and help out with that, there are a few gymnasts who help with the tumbling and there are few people who have a cheerleading background! Some of these people are better at what they do than the actual coach and so often the coach seeks there advice on how to go about things!

because my cheerleading team has a coach, does this then mean that it is not really a community of practice?

Learning that people do together

Wenger also states that it is defined by knowledge rather than task, so a organisational unit may be focused on getting the job done and finished by a certain deadline, for instance in my job at sainsburys we are told that we have to scan 19 items per minute, other wise we are not performing to the standard and could get a warning to improve. Where as in cheerleading we need to concentrate on the knowledge so that everybody knows exactly what they are doing, so there are no injuries or anything, though in the end there is a task and a goal which is to do well at competition. So i am again unsure whether this means that we are not a real community of practice?

Week 6 -Task 1

what is it about?- My Chosen communities of practice is cheerleading. The university cheerleading team is about having fun, learning new skills, bonding with your fellow cheerleaders and working towards similar goals such as competitions. When i am at cheerleading i feel that i am in a community of practice especially becasue of the fact that " Communities of practices develop around things that matter to people" and evry single cheerleader in the jets is very passionate about what we do and it matters alot to us.

How It Functions- in Wenger is states that typical engagements include engaging in joint activites, which as a team we are involved with both during and out of training, as we warm up as a team, we learn new skills as a team and we often socialize as a team. Every practice is a joint acticity for us. It also talks about creating artifacts, i am not sure whether this is what it means, but within cheerleading our coach choreographs a routine and together we create it by putting up the stunts, doing the dance routine, doing the jumps and moving around the floor in a cheer like fashion. Adapting to changing circumstances, comes into it because we often have to change a routine to improve or change to fit new rules so that we can enter it into the next competition. Also with it being a university squad, every year we hold auditions and we get an influx of new and eager cheerleaders, here we have to adapt our routines to incoorpoorate the new members. Commitment and relationships is shown in the fact that consistently every week we get the whole team showing up for practice and putting 100% effort in, relationships are formed because we spend so much time together i have made some of my best friends at uni from the cheerleading squad, we are not just friends when we cheer we meet with ach other out of this as well.

What capability it has produced- evrybody that comes to our practices is shown how to stunt, dance and jump, even tumbles are thrown in as well. As well as learning routines. They are introduced to new vocabulary, that they may have never ehard of before, for instance the names of stunts and jumps. Also when joining the jets in particular you realise that we have a certain style and a way of approching things, which is very centred around enthusiasm, sometimes being a bit silly, but genuinly being happy to be there and work hard.

website analysis- introduction

Introduction

For my analysis I am going to look at Alluc.org, I have frequently used this website for films and television programs, so I am vaguely familiar with the layout etc, though I have never used the forum or any of the other new interactive features. This website is a website in which u can access links to thousands upon thousands of music videos, films and television shows. Many of the links lead you to illegal pirate films that have been filmed in the cinema and are very bad quality, but there are also many links that take you to high quality rips of the films. Although streaming films is not illegal, many of the films that are on the website were filmed illegally in cinemas. The UK Film council recon that they loose £800 million a year due to film piracy. (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3097544.ece)

This website is very of the time in todays news, because it is also one of the reasons why the writers strike in America occurred in the first place. The WGA wanted compensation for there programs going out on to websites like this in the first place. As I use this website frequently for television programs especially, it could be said that I was not helping the situation in America, because I was backing a website which was not giving any money to the original creators of the content, but because American shows take longer to come over to the UK, it is a quick and easy way to access them and as I said before it is not actually illegal, because all the content is streamed.

This is an issue raised by Lawrence Lessig who says that he is against the idea that producers have the right to prevent other users from modifying and reusing the content, and so he may think that this website is perfectly acceptable and should not really cause any controversy, but when there is so much money involved, especially in the film and television industry should it still be the case that any one should be free to reproduce and modify content? I believe that this may be a little drastic and that maybe something should be done in order for the industries to get money out of it, but I would still like the content to be free, I suppose we can not have it both ways.

website analysis- interactivity

Interactivity

This site is also very convenient if you miss a show, you can just simply go on the internet and watch anything you have missed. The same with films, with being a student and having very limited funding, going to the cinema is a lot of money, so viewing them on the internet is quick easy and cheap. This website has gradually become more and more interactive and grown in content and size. It used to just be a list of television shows and films, but now there are applications such as “watchlist” which is for registered users, you can put “w”s next to programs that you want to watch and once you have watched them you can delete them from the list. You can now also search other members and maybe get in contact with them to ask them if they have certain films or just to generally chat to them about films you have both watched. Another interactive feature is the forum, this is where to talk about your favourite TV programs with other members, but also to request anything that you think is missing form the site. For instance one of the threads is called “Family guy?” and a member is asking whether anymore episodes of family guy are going to be uploaded because he hasn’t seen any in a while.

website analysis- Hyper text

Hypertext

The layout of this website is as follows, two navigation bars, one down the side one across the top, the homepage also has the top shows for each category that is available, for instance cartoons, movies music sport, this makes it easier to get to your link especially if it is popular. Hypertext is the way in which we navigate around a page, we no longer go about it in a linear fashion, it encourages active engagement, the user is encouraged to contribute and to become produsers, which we will talk about a bit later. Every reader who looks at this page will navigate around it in very different ways, as there are so many different ways of accessing the different pages, not one person will do it in a linear fashion, as this is not an option. Also because there are often more that one link to a show, people have the option to choose a link that suits them the best, which backs up the idea of active engagement. The design of the homepage is al light blue colour, the connotations of this light blue could be that it is neutral, this could be due to the fact that this website could appeal to anybody of any ages, due to the age of links that it has available and therefore it would not want to be to garish so that older readers get put off because it would like it was appealing to a younger audience. The picture on the top left has the website address in an orange type colour with bold writing, the picture on top of that is a television which has the same colour antennae as the writing below which anchors the text to the picture. The picture also acts as a hyperlink to bring you back to the homepage, which I believe is a good technique to use because it an easy symbol to associate with and is big enough and noticeable enough for people to realize that this is its function.

website analysis- virtual community

Virtual Community

The forum that is available has defiantly created a community between the users, there are people who are more knowledgeable about films, television programs and just alluc.org in general and so they are teaching other users the best way to navigate around the site and the best links etc to use. Within the forum there is a section called “Thread Graveyard” in which it says it contains “dead/closed/shitty threads” you can tell that this is not a corporately owned website, because of the diversity of ages that this website appeals to this type of language may not always be appropriate, but because of the sort of people that do own it, I will not be a big deal to them. I believe that the community that is created on this website is very different to the traditional sense of community, because it can appeal to any ages, any body could be on the forums, people from all ages from anywhere around the world. People that you talk to might not even have the same tastes as you, but you are connected by the fact that you are trying to find films or television shows, but maybe not the same shows or films as the people that you are talking to. Howard Rheingold suggested that communities online were very similar to communities that were face to face they were just broadened out by the use of technology, but the forum that he was talking about “The Well” requires people to use there real identities, it would not matter if on alluc.org you called yourself “ Hero Fan 4 EVA” or whether you used your real name as it is less about the people you meet and more about the information that you can get off them. So maybe here I have contradicted myself, and its not a real community?

Website analysis- produsers

Produsers and Technological Determinism

Alex Bruns coined the word produser, which is “the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement.” (Bruns, 2005 a) This is exactly what is happening on alluc.org, people can post on the forum links they have uploaded on to other online video hosting sites such as youtube.com and dailymotion.com, there links that they have produced and then other people can click on the links and become the consumers, but the people who post links can also access other peoples links and therefore become consumers. This is a good feature alluc is just simply the host and then it is the members that upload the links and generally create the content.

This leads us on to technological determinism as, is what is being produced advancing society, is technology changing the way we live. As far as I can tell this site would say that it is. A new age of technology is around that has never been developed before- even though films are released weekly and TV shows and music videos are broadcast frequently on television, people are becoming impatient. Especially when it comes to the fact that people are waiting for American shows to come over to England and the fact that the cinema is becoming more and more expensive. People like the way this site makes it easy to access these films and TV programs without having to wait, or even leave there rooms. This shows that this sort of technology has changed society because people are getting different attitudes towards what is right and what is wrong and what is convenient for them. It could be said that technological determinism has lead to laziness and it could also pose the question, are film and television going to die out completely?

Task 2 week 4

To begin with i believe that filesharing, online downloading of new material has meant that music is more liekly to be consumed through computers and MP3 players than through cd players, etc. I know for sure that whenever i listen to music i listen to it throught the computer, iot is very rare i put a cd in a cd player adn listen to it that way. I would also say that more music is being consumed and more varieties of music, people ar able to branch out more from just the basic chart music that they here on the radio, becaue through word of mouth people say "you should really listen to this song" and you dont have to actually physically buy it in ordeer to listen to it, you can just download and if you dont like it you can just delete it and if you do you casn keep it and dowload more.

A band might make it through a social networking site etc, because of what i talked about in the prevsious post, bands can just add as many people as they like and just spread the word about there band with out spending any money or physically moving from there seat. Also as said above through word of mouth, people can send you url's to myspace pages on bands that are up and coming, again with out paying for it or the hassel of actually having to physically move. Bands like Artic Monkeys, do not like to say that this is how they made it, for reasons i am unsure of, but it is certain that Myspace has definatly helped there cause and spread there muscic even further sround britain and even furtehr than that. This is also a good way for bands becasue they do not have to pay to set up these myspace pages, but they can still be designed in a way that suits the band and a way that suits there personality.

I think that this has already changed the face of popular music. Id say that popular music is alot more diverse these days, the stuff that you here on radio 1 and see on music channels, covers alot more genres, stuff such as indie that would probably not have been classed as mainstream in the past has become alot mroe forefront and i belive this is due to the internet and the way that it does promote new bands and new sounds, to people that may not have even thought about listening to that sort of music before.

i think that we will still need media companies in the future, but they may not come in the same form as they do today, maybe they will go completely online as well, and find way of benefiting from produsers in different ways, so that music still reaches the masses and they still make a profit from them. I think there will always be a place for them but maybe just not in the same way that they are needed to day.

Task 1 week 4

My experience with user generated content websits would be web sites such as wiki's, youtube and i think that websites such as alluc.org and veoh.com. I find wiki's reeally useful, if you need a quick fix to find out information, because they are usually straight to the point and are usually in simple language that is easy and quick to understand. for instance this is a wiki on user generated content. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-generated_content. Even though there are issues surrounding whether the content is real or not, if i found out an interesting fact, i would always go look it up further on another website or in a book, so wiki's is a good source of finding initial information to then go on to do further research. Another user generated website that i often use is IMBD.com, this is always useful if i am doing a bibliography and i need to dinf out the director or publisher of a certain film or televsion program. For instance i am currently doing some research on childrens media and i had to find some information out on a program called "Shoe box Zoo", the information i needed to find out included, directors, channels, company actors, all this information i was able to find on this web site, http://imdb.com/title/tt0406468/. I have used youtube to both post and look at videos, although they are trying to cut down and often take off content that isnt entirely legal to post like full tv series or new videos released, they are often useful to me to watch videos of cheerleading and dance, to help me with ideas and to see what other team are l;ike and what standard they are at. Also if i dont have a song on my computer i often listen to it on youtube, instead of paying for it or downloading it.
Alot of the idssues surrounding the WGA strike are due to the fact that people like me use sites such as alluc and veoh, but the reason i use them is because of impatience and money. One of the main series that iw atch on the internet is HEroes, this took a very long time to come to british television and even when it did it was just on the sci fi channel, it took at least another 6 months to come to terrestrial and so when the second series came around i didnt want to have to wait another year for it to come to terrestrail television. Also with the price of cinemas and ebing a poor student i can not afford to go to the cinema to see all the films that i want to see and so when they are as easy accessible as they are, i just cant resist the temptations that surround them.
I spend alot of my time on social networking sites, before i came to uni i lived on myspace, but since being at uni i have been converted facebook and ahve never look back, i love the fact that you can post pictures and look at everybody elses pictures from nights out. and they are always there never to be lost. you can always post on someones wall and message them and keep in contact with people that maybe you wouldnt always talk to text or on the phone or over msn. Often on myspace and facebook you get security issues, i have often had eople hacking into my facebook and sending out messages about ringtones and other random stuff with out me even realising as soon as this happens i change my password. It does annoy me that it is this easy to hack into my facebook, but i do not know what else to do, the good thing about it now is when you are choosing a password it does tell you how safe it is, for instance if there is a red signal next to it its not very self and the greener it gets the safer it is.
Another issue with facebook is it annoys me when people send you lots of applications, or add you when they dont know you, if i do not know who a person is i do not add them, because i think it is kind of strange if they do add you! This happened with alot of bands on myspace i used to get alot of adds from random local or amateur bands, but i didnt tend to add them because there music didnt usually interst me and i didnt understand how they got my url to add me.

week 3 task 2 part 1

Second life is a digital version of the world, that is created entirealy by its users. You create your own character, both physically and mentally and then send them places to meet new people, the people that you are talking to are actually characters, with real humans attatched to computers on the other side. it is free to sign up and the virtual world that you seem if graphically very similar to "The Sims".
I would say that the biggest thing that it is used for is escapeism, within this world you can be anything you want to be and create a life that you want to lead, without maybe the normal issues of everyday communities and normal life. For instance if you have isses with your appearance, like you are overweight, your avatar can look slim and you could make your weight so it was no longer an issue.
I saw a television programme on this the other day, and to me the man thing that appealed to e was the novelty value, i used to love to play on sims for ours and this would be similar, only " real" people to talk to, me and my friend said it was like sims but with msn.
On the documentary that i saw, the characters that people created often looked completely different to how they actually looked, they usually made them selves look more eccentric, for instance one couple that met on second life were two middle class white people, but the woman made her self have sort of a lara croft outfit with long dark hair and the man made himself black and have big muscles, with lots and lots of peircings and tatooed, which is not what they looked like in real life at all. Although there physical appearance was exaggerated, it could be said that there personalities were real, and therefore it could be a projection of real life, but when it came down to it this coupld had no chemistry in real life and they found it difficult to talk to each other, but online there relatioship was great.

week 3 task 1

i think there is a difference between not putting your full name and with holding your identity, not putting your full name could be for your own safety, hiding your identity for instance pretending to be a 15 year old boy when you are a 50 year old man is wrong. if you are on a forum, or a website in which there are people who have the same beliefs, you do feel that you are able to express yourselves in ways that maybe you can not amongst your friends and colleagues, this doesnt mean that u shouldnt with hold your identity, it just means that in some situations you can feel more at ease with you veiws and personality. The risks that are involved with online self experssion are that when people read your point a veiws, especially if they are offensive, you could be subject to bashing and flaming, but also if you express yourself on a social networking forum, future employers read these sites and can decide whether you are right for the job just by what you have written, so maybe not in every situation, is self expression the best idea.

Alot of what i have talked about in my blogs with the dangers of relatioships online, is to do with people not being who they say they are and grooming. But there are other issues surrounding, relationshipd, for instance the person that you are talking to may find it easier to speak on the internet and therefore the personal that they are portraying, is someone that you get along with and can talk to easily, but if you ever met them face to face, you may find that you actually done have anything in common with them. Also i did find the poin intereting that dave made in the lecture about relationships that are formed online are disposable, unlike that of real life. I have made a few online friends through forums etc, and i dont think thatt in a real situation that we would necessairly get on the way that we did online, also the fact that i suddenly stopped talking to some of them, didnt really have an effect on me, it was just simply because we had nothing left to say to each other, it unlikely that as "face tyo face friend" would be this easy to faze out and just stop talkijng to.

Though this is the case alot of my real friends i would also call online friends especialy when i am away from home at uni, or back at home, i speak to my friends via the internet, so i through many points in the year i have just purely online and maybe the odd texst or phone call realtionships with friends from back home.

Week 2 Task 2

The closest thing that i can realate the blogs to, that is offline, is writing letters, because it can take a few days for any one to reply, face to face conversation is instant. Maybe text could be similar because if you do not have your phone on you at the time, the reply is not going to be instance, same as if you are not signed o to the internet at the same time as someone posts on your blog, the reply is not going to be instant either. I think that there is definatly a moe relaxed way of writing when blogging, you do not feel under as much pressure to write grammatically sound sentances, and it would not be frowned upon to write "u" instead of "you". I think the relationships that are formed on our blogs are slightly different to those that are formed on blogs that are out there on the web, because for one on ours we know alot of the people who re posting on them personally, where as if you had one that wasnt for you uni course, you may not know the people that are posting on them, therefore false relatioships can be formed, and people can claime to be somebody there not. Where as on our blogs, we have at least had a few face to face conversations with everyone that is posting on your blog. When i am blogging i know that my audience consists of lecturers as well as students, therefore i believe i am writing in away that is appropriate for both, in that it is not to formal, so students dont get bored of reading what you are writing, and so that lecturers think that what i am writing is relevant. I'd say that the image i am portraying of myself on this blog, is not really who i am, but i feel that it is appropriate for the setting that this blog is in. Alot of the people who will read thsi blog will no what i am really like and know that this is maybe not how i would speak to them, over face book or msn. I hink that after a few weeks, of getting into the swing of things, i probablyk will feel part of the bloggers community, but as it stands at the moment i dont!

Task 1 week 2

To begin with, i do belive that learning on these blogs is very different to being in a seminar, for one, you have to state your opinion when using these blogs, you can not just get away with saying nothing! Where as in face to face seminars, there is always the odd person that sits there very quite and doesnt really express there opinions on what is being said. Also there is the opportunity for more people to express what they have to say in as much detail as they like, because people can not interrupt them and change the subject and also there are no time restrictions on how long you can spend on the blogs, where as you usually only have an hour to an hour and a half in a seminar. I would say that that it is not a conversation, more like a statement with the opportunity to reply and express yoru oppinion as well. The problem is because there is no "authority figure" as such, leading teh discussions, it may be easier to go off topic, or to maybe talk about the wrong thing. The fact that there is the ability for question and answer situations between two or more people, is a feature of speech, but because of the time delay involved and the non immeadiacy of the replies, it makes the "conversation" that is going on less like face to face speech. I personally have used qutie a lot of forums, but not for this tyope of work before, so even though the concept is quite familiar to me, it is strange when you have to read a blog with such a lenthy amount of writing in it, i am used to short snappy sentances, it can be quite difficult to read long paragraphs on a screen.

task 3

it could be said that technology is the prim mover in society, it is the one thing that determins how society is going to change. On the one hand i do agree with this because, with the development of new technologies, everyday activites are changing and sometimes made easier the more technology develps, A simple example of this is the fact that you can take a mobile phone almost anywhere, therefore you can get in contact with people more easily. This has changed the way society has lived, people have come to rely on there mobile phones, i know for one if i loose my mobile phone i feel lost and freak out cos it feels like i cant get in contact with any one. Al though this is the case i do not believe that tachnology can be the one thing that completely determins how our society is going to be shaped im sure there are other factors that fall into this. Technology just happens to be a very key factor in this i dont believe it to be the only one though!

TASK 2

a) our values on new media might depend on our old values, previous knowledge and attitudes, and ideologies because this is what they have developed froms, new media wouldnt be the new media if the old media hadnt have been invented first. The new ways of chatting to people all over has developed from the telephone, when on the phone it has been standard to chat to certian people in certain ways, for instance you are more formal when talking to a company, than you are when you are talking to a friend, when using new media such as msn or email, the same knowledge must be brought forward, you can not email a buissness in msn language, as this would seem inappropraite and would not be the right attitude to have.

b) there have been many things that have been said about the internet, for one there is alot of distress behind the fact that it may not be very safe, because people can create false personas, and younger children can make friends with the wrong people. This has become even more prominant witht the development of social networking sites such as facebook and my space. Also in the nedia today there is alot of panic about people joining websites that encourage, or help people to commit suicide, also there is the issue of pro anorexia sites, which are also causing people to panic.
Though this is the case there are also benefits to the internet, it is instant news, as soon as anythign ahppenes you can find out about it, just by typing it in to a search engine. websites such as BBC.co.uk update there sites as soon as anything happens. Also you can instant message people any where in the world, you can also pick and choose what emails you want to read, you dont have to read everythign you have been sent.

Task 1

A) Characteristics of Email and Email lists- Email is a way of sending, storing and recieving messages, through electronic devices, you must be connected to the internet in order to send. Email lists allow for widespread distribution of one item
B) I use Email, to send group messages to people, for instance i am the head of the dance society and instead of texting them and using lots of money, i email them all if i need to tell them something. I would say that i have had an emial address since i was 11 or 12 and have relied on it heavily if i am keeping in contact with people who dont have msn, especially before facebook and myspace became popular.

A) I found a definition for the characteristics of a Use net it says that "Users read and post public messages (called articles or posts, and collectively termed news) to one or more categories, known as newsgroups.". I would take this to mean that what we are using for this project is a usenet and not a forum. The same website states that "there is no central server, nor central system owner" if it is a usenet, where as forums have these.
B) I have quite alot of experience of forums as during my teenage years and still now sometimes, i used to go on clebrities forums and discuss with other fans about what they were up to etc.

A) IRL's Chat rooms and messenger services- i found some information that stated any technology ranging from real-time online chats over instant messenging and online forums to fully immersive graphical social environments" therefore usenet should maybe be able to fall under this category as well.
B) I have had msn since i have had a n email address so again have used this for a very long time and i would say that this is my main from of communication, whenever my computer i switched on i was signed in. What i believed to be chatrooms, which was where it would be like a mixture between msn and forums, i didnt go on because they had alot of taboo surrounding them, and so i was not allowed to use them when i was younger!

A) Moos and muds- muds are games that mix social networking with role playing hack and slash games. Moos is based around the same concept but is text base.
B) i had never even heard of these before today, i knew they existed but i didnt know that this was what they were reffered to as.

A) Websites- There are so many different typoes of websites these days, the main characteristics of them are they are accessed by the internet and are usually on a server, they consist of pictures, hyper links different pages and other digital assets.
B) again i have been using them for a long time and rely on them quite heavily for everyday use.

Does any body have a better example of what a usenet is than what we use?
Did any body else avoid chatrooms cos of the taboo surrounding them?

hi everyone, wasssuupp