This week in class we discussed our collaborative research project in depth. For some strange reason, this week is really the first time I’m able to understand the overall assignment. Drew said that it would make more sense to us as we went along, and he’s right, but I am not sure that was the issue. I assume that I’m not the only one feeling this way because I read other groups websites about 2 weeks ago and no one was presenting their information in an argument format. I checked other groups’ websites again on Tuesday and they have not changed too much. I know that I personally spent about 20 hours reading and researching and another 20 using a word document to organize and write my piece and at least 8 hours posting and editing my stuff on our group website. I may have spent more time than that but did not keep track. Regardless, I am feeling overwhelmed and frustrated because I still feel like I could put in another 20 to 40 hours re-writing it to present more of an argument and adding all the video clips and pictures that I want to add. I am gonna have a very busy weekend.

During class we also talked about our previous assignments and the crazy part is that I remember feeling overwhelmed and stressed out over those assignments at the time. I realize that if I had to go back and redo them, I’d not only be able to complete them faster, I’d also be less stressed over them too. How are you feeling about this assignment, our previous assignments or any other points I’ve been trying to make?

Privacy issues regarding the Internet have always been a concern of mine. Well before Facebook or Twitter I had issues with AOL (so I never subscribed) and I had issues with chat rooms, so I never engaged in them. Back in the early 2000’s, I did not do anything “on-line” that was not related to doing my job. I heard horror stories about people meeting stalkers on sites like Craig’s List or one of the million dating websites. I heard about people that posted personal pictures on (back then it was) MySpace only to have unwanted people use the pictures to figure out exactly where they lived. YIKES!           (now days GPS makes it even easier!)

As time went by, the Internet seemed more and more to me like a dark, scary place. I felt like I was a country boy walking down a dark alley in the city; afraid to click on anything for fear of opening a virus or allowing someone access to my computers hard drive, what ever that is.

A few of my close friends were “computer geeks” and coached me along. They convinced me that being “online” was not such a bad thing. They helped me set up my computer with anti-spyware and answered my ridiculous questions about hackers, predators, viruses, etc… With their help, I used my computer and Google to research papers for college courses I took and communicate via e-mail. I am still slow to come around and do not like to voluntarily offer my personal information to the Internet, but I do realize that much of my personal information is easily obtained through simple search engines and can be done by anyone; not just “hackers” and “computer geeks.” Potential employers are now doing these searches.

I am working to become an elementary school teacher and have heard plenty of stories where teachers have been fired for Facebook posts, some of which they did not even post themselves. Basically, even if I do not use Facebook, I could still lose a potential interview or job because of something a friend of mine posts. All of these things are swimming around in my digital immigrant head. I think they could be a large part of my anxiety about Twitter, Facebook and blogs like this one.

I have no idea how to be sensitive to certain topics and it is a bit scary. In fact, I am going to reluctantly list a few and give no indication of my opinions because you never know whose gonna look at it in 10 years:

Gay rights, gay marriage, contraceptives, abortion, socialism, creationism, evolution, “kids having kids,” religion, senior citizens driving, and nursing homes.

Again, these are just a few issues that could hurt you or other people that you know and care about when it comes to the education profession. I wish I could create a “strategy” to avoid the topics, but honestly have no clue how to express yourself without putting others at risk. Especially when it come to medias like Twitter, since you are sending thoughts as they come to you, and Facebook, where previous victims thought they were having private conversations.

Here is another Blog I wrote for another class that is loosely related.

I figured out how to remove my earlier inserts and type this message. yippie
The URL that would take someone directly to your blog is:
http://benfogg.weebly.com/blog.html

First Alternative Summarize a current reading for the course while also responding thoughtfully and generating provocative questions for the other group members to respond to. 


I will be summarizing the Digital Immigrant and the introduction to a Catastrophic Bifurcation and attempt to generate provocative questions, but I was not very good at provoking in the other Drew Kopp class I took so here goes nothin'.


Digital Immigrants

            Prensky’s basic point is that there are people born before the “digital age” that have since learned it and there are those that were born into it that don’t know anything different. He relates people that learned it later in life to people learning a new language or immigrating from their birth country to a new one. He explains that no matter how proficient they get at speaking the language and adjusting to the culture; they will always maintain the “accent” and will have one foot in the past and one foot moving forward. Prensky talks about how natives can adjust to the ever changing digital world more easily because they do not need to “translate” the new information from “their native language.”

            He throws a bunch of studies in there where he argues that people’s brains and “thinking patterns” have changed. He even comments that “their brains may already be different.” I think of the brain scans they use to conduct these tests and imagine the brain to be like any other muscle in the body. Areas that get regular exercise are stronger (bigger) and areas that are uses less often are weaker (smaller). I think that is why the test show a difference in appearance and although I agree that their way of thinking is different, do not in anyway believe “their brains” are different.

Introduction to a Catastrophic Bifurcation

            The other reading was very interesting to me. The over all idea is that books, like hieroglyphics, scrolls and stone tablets, are being made obsolete. Similar to the tape cassette and DVD, it’s gonna take some time before they are replaced completely, but they will be replaced just the same. The internet is the reason things are changing so quickly according to the reading. The introduction, among other things, talked about the coloration between revolutionary ideas and tragic historical events. Something I had never considered.

Do you think there is any connection between how quickly things are changing and the decline of our economy? (look again at pages 13-16) – Is page 17right… Are changes coming too fast to allow recovery time? Is it causing us to be less organized and less independent? Which Indian philosophy to we fall under? Sthula or Sukshama?