Teaching with technology.

Sorry I’ve been MIA lately- been a little under the weather. But I’m back up and running!

I just recently read a really interesting article/study from Pew Research. The article analyzed a recent study regarding the use of technology in the classroom. I can remember all through high school and even through college, the huge emphasis that my schools made on the “no cell phone use” rule. Every day single day, someone was getting in trouble for using their cell phone.. even in college. But one of the statistics found from this survey totally caught me off guard.

Mobile technology has become central to the learning process, with 73% of AP and NWP teachers saying that they and/or their students use their cell phones in the classroom or to complete assignments

I really can’t think of one reason as to why or how a cell phone could be useful in a classroom setting, unless it’s being used for a calculator. Even then, the students are going to get much help from a cell phone if they’re in advanced math classes.

Teachers also use other technological methods to get their point across. It was said in the survey that at the very least, 45% of teachers use e-readers and tab computers to improve the lesson/lecture, or to even help the students complete the assignment. Another interesting finding was in regards to high income teachers versus the low income teachers.

• Teachers of the lowest income students are more than twice as likely as teachers of the highest income students (56% v. 21%) to say that students’ lack of access to digital technologies is a “major challenge” to incorporating more digital tools into their teaching

In 2008, the Edutopia staff wrote a compelling article as to why technology in the classroom is beneficial and extremely important. The staff writes that technology in the classroom can provide “active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts”. Hands-on learning has always been the best and proved to be highly effective. With the use of technology, learning can be at its peak.

New way of learning.

What do you guys think? Is technology really that important? Should kids be stuck learning subjects just like the way we learned? Who would learn best- the student who dissected the real frog, or the one that dissected one on an iPad? I would love your thoughts and feedback!

Hacked!

It has become apparent that no company is safe from hackers. Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr found that out the hard way just recently. The three companies were were “hacked” by someone who had access to important information, such as email addresses. All of this happened just days after Apple and Facebook found out their “employee’s computers fell victim to unauthorized access”. Read more about it here.

This brings me straight to my post regarding  privacy and security. It seems that not only our information isn’t safe within the bounds of the company, but it seems the companies can’t keep our information safe from outside intruders as well. When will this stop? When will be safe to give companies our information without having to worry about who gets a hold of it? Privacy concerns with media has been a rising trend. I think at this point, if someone wants their information to be kept private, they shouldn’t be putting anything on the internet. If we were to delete our Facebook accounts, etc., guess what? All of our information is still stored on the servers, no matter. Scary right?

What do you guys think should be done to address privacy concerns? Are you worried your information could get into the wrong hands?

We need a new fix.

Let’s just start this off the right way. Right. In. Your. Face.

Results of a new study confirm what you’ve claimed for years: checking mail and social media is more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol.

Break the cycle.

No joke guys. You can find the article here. The study was conducted in Chicago University’s Booth Business school, where 205 people between the ages of 18 and 85 were tested on their will power in regards to social media. You can already guess the results.

Seven times a day, these people were asked how they were feeling, especially what their desires were and how strong it was at the time. Naturally, human needs were the top of the list, however, results showed that the need to check in with social media, work and email was far greater than the need to sip on a glass of “12-year single malt scotch” and puff on a “Camel light”.

This might be fine and dandy that people are more addicted to social media than alcohol and cigs. But there’s just two things I find a bit odd about this study. Did anyone notice the age ranges of the respondents? 18-85. How is that a steady research sample? And were they only researching people who had an addiction to social media, cigs and booze? I wish the article was more informative on how the research was done.

 

So what do you guys think? Do you guys think this article is ridiculous? Do you agree? Do you feel more addicted to social media than to other joys in your life? Let me know!

We’re in Apple’s world now.

Still working on the research for the post regarding our media dependency. But speaking of media dependency…

Check this out.

Are you serious Apple?

This picture is one of the handful of pictures found today on Mashable. Apple is considering a few different concepts.. for watches. W-a-t-c-h-e-s. The one item that was built to do ONE thing: tell time. But, thanks to today’s media and technology crazed society, we have to make it do more than one thing apparently. Can you tell I’m not a fan? Call me old fashioned, but a watch is supposed to tell time. That’s it.

So the first concept, would be to have a watch that has a curved glass plate, essentially, the front screen of a phone type of feel. This watch would basically mirror an iPhone- it has a home button, it locks, and it tells time. This watch would also tell you what day it is, and what the weather is outside as well- everything your iPhone, iPad, iPod, i-whatever, already does. There is another watch concept that allows the watch users to participate in FaceTime as well.

So what do you guys think about these iWatch concepts? Are they fascinating? Are you totally not impressed? Send me some feedback on your thoughts!

 

Dependent society.

Have you guys ever thought what it would be like without emerging media, or any technology at all? It might be a little easier for your grandparents to imagine than us, but go ahead and try.

How would you wake up in the morning? How would you communicate with your dear from college that now lives on the other side of the States? What would you do to kill time? How would you or your kids do homework?

This is just something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’ve noticed  that our society is completely dependent on emerging media and other technology used for communication. I know that our species has an innate need for communication and connection. But does it have to be 24/7? Why do we constantly have to check our phones through dinner with a friend you haven’t seen in years? Why do we spend so much time on Facebook, even though we try not to. I plan on doing some research on this through the week. I’ll update with another post on my findings.

In today’s day and age…

 

Give me privacy, or give me death!

They see everything!

Lately, major concerns about our privacy online has been the talk of the town. And it’s completely understandable.

Recently, Mashable released an article stating that Google swears up and down that they will not release our private online information unless they absolutely have to. Wait, what? Unless they have to? What does that mean? And what kind of information are they giving away or storing even?

It turns out, Google knows just about everything there is to know about us. Every search you have ever searched for on Google, Google has that information stored on their severs. Everything from medical symptoms, to people searches and much more. The following paragraph written by Frida Ghitis in the article titles Google Knows Too Much About You can give a disturbing insight to just what exactly Google has on you:

Google has every e-mail you ever sent or received on Gmail. It has every search you ever made, the contents of every chat you ever had over Google Talk. It holds a record of every telephone conversation you had using Google Voice, it knows every Google Alert you’ve set up. It has your Google Calendar with all content going back as far as you’ve used it, including everything you’ve done every day since then. It knows your contact list with all the information you may have included about yourself and the people you know. It has your Picasa pictures, your news page configuration, indicating what topics you’re most interested in. And so on.

Talk about crazy right? That’s not even the half of it. If we were to take a look at other emerging media technology, such as Facebook, we would see that Facebook saves all the information regarding our friends, likes, photos, and even un-friends. So who does this information go to?

According to the Mashable article, “Google gets dozens of requests for user’s information from governments, courts and police forces from around the world every day”. If Google received a request from an authority, say for a police investigation, Google takes the first step in seeing if the request complies with the laws as well as Google’s policies. If the request passes that step, then Google will then try narrow that request down; basically they try to give the very least amount of information necessary. So, I can guess we can sort of rest easy at night, Google will do everything  they can do to prevent the release of our private information.

What do you guys think? Should Google even have the right to store all of our information at all? Do you think they have the right to release our information to official authority figures? What would you do differently?

It’s all around us!

Hey all-

Well, this blog is dedicated to Emerging Media, so let’s get down to the nitty gritty.

What is Emerging Media?

 

It’s all around us.

Authors of the Emerging Media Report, Jennifer Bott, Ray Montagno and Judy Lane, have defined Emerging Media as this:

Emerging media technologies were defined as: Email, mobile computing, podcasts, digital/audio media player, mobile communication device, instant messaging, interactive web pages, and blogs.

Essentially, Emerging Media includes just about every piece of technology we use/interact with in this day and age. It’s safe to say if you don’t have at least one of these emerging technologies, you might just be living under a rock (sorry).

So why does Emerging Media Matter?

After reading the definition of what Emerging Media is, it’s probably pretty easy for you to understand why it matters. It’s everywhere. I do believe that the goal of Emerging Media is to be used as a means of connecting people, no matter where they are.  How would a college student in California stay connected to her friends and family in Oregon? Emerging Media. How would a Mommy Blogger keep her readers on their toes with the latest and greatest in cleaning tips/Mommy tips/relaxation tips? Emerging Media! It doesn’t matter what type of technology you’re using- Emerging Media will always keep you connected in some way or another. Another great use of Emerging Media is to act as a library of information that can be passed on from one another- but more on that in a later post.

How and when do we interact with Emerging Media?

The answer is: in any way we can, and daily! Because there are so many technologies that are categorized as Emerging Media, there’s a good chance that you, my fellow readers, have at least one of these technologies. And here’s the catch- we use at least two of the technologies daily! Phones are almost always in someone’s hand, if not very close to them in a pocket or on their desk. According to a Pew Research poll, at least: 85% of American adults have a cell phone, 45% of American adults have a smart phone, 25% of American adults have a tablet computer, 58% have a desktop computer, 61% have a lap top computer, and 18% own a book e-reader. Below is a great picture that demonstrates a little bit of what people are doing on their cell phones.

Image taken from Pew Research at http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx

This post is a great start to understand what exactly Emerging Media is all about and how we use it in our day to day lives. This is just the beginning folks, so strap your boots in!

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