Charles's EME6414 Web 2.0 BLog

On Twitter a lot of our classmates are commenting that they are feeling more connected to their peers, more than in previous classes. For me, I think I’ve been getting more knowledge about the heavy Twitter and Instagram users, but I’m not so sure about the rest of the class. I’m also having trouble with the Blogging-discussion format of the class. While there is a discussion board, we are able to fulfill our participation requirement by commenting on blogs. The blogs have been wonderful, and I have enjoyed reading them very much. I do get a big sense of my classmate’s thoughts when they have been free to post about whatever they want, and not necessarily to answer a posted discussion board question. On the oher hand, I am missing the conversational aspect that arises from restricing the discussion to one discussion board. While I see some activity on certain blog posts, many of them do not get more than 1 or 2 comments. So far, I haven’t seen lots of the back and forth a...

The main theme of this week’s readings have been digital natives, and the differences between growing up or not with the Internet. Though I have posted my objections to Plensky’s conception of digital natives vs. digital immigrants, the idea that there is a sort of sea change occurring between people who grew up in a mainstream computerized world vs. those that didn’t is compelling.  I just dispute that the ones who didn’t are somehow at a disadvantage, or that the disparity in their behaviors is really so major.  When I read articles like this, I can’t help but think about someone yelling about getting off their lawn and walking through 10 feet of snow back in their day. What I find more optimistic is not that the digital “immigrants” (again, a term I hate to describe this group) are at a disadvantage for growing up before the rise of a computerized world, but that they have been forced to acclimate, and are succeeding.  Indeed, I think the behaviors and skills they de...

Slack for Education I thought it was unfortunate that part 2 of Networked didn’t have a section devoted to Networked Education (or if it was discussed in one of the other sections, I missed it since it wasn’t reflected in the titles). So I read Networked Work instead, since after education using the information I get in this class (and this degree really) is meant to help me in my career.   The book focuses mostly on the telecommuting work that social media technologies have enabled.  I really want a work from home job.  I love my current job, but as I sit all day typing in a computer, I really can’t see any justification for why I can’t do this from the comfort of my home.  Maybe one day. Because all the benefits that Networked spells out are so true.  But beyond that, social media technologies have basically replaced the main methods of communication already.  I see it all around- most of my coworkers are typing away at their desk, and only r...

Plenksy: “The importance of the distinction is this: As Digital Immigrants learn – like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their "accent," that is, their foot in the past. The “digital immigrant accent” can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first, or in reading the manual for a program rather than assuming that the program itself will teach us to use it. Today’s older folk were "socialized" differently from their kids, and are now in the process of learning a new language. And a language learned later in life, scientists tell us, goes into a different part of the brain. “ ----Apparently I’m a Digital Native. It’s helpful to me while reading this to remember that it is written in 2001, so it’s very clearly talking about experiences I went through growing up. I had already graduated college by then, and while I was increasingly using the...

So I’ve been watching and really enjoying Cobra Kai, the Karate Kid revival airing on Google.  I’m a big Karate Kid fan, but I do think the series is great regardless of any personal bias. I’m writing about it on this blog because one of the main older characters is completley clueless about computers and social media.  It’s played for laughs (how can you not know what Facebook is?), but the reality is that there are plenty of people in the world who aren’t on social media, and somehow managing their lives.  I know this especially, because I dealt with them on a daily basis while working at the library.  When I talk to some of my friends, they may have some experience with older relatives being relatively clueless about it, but I’m not sure they really understand the signficant portion who are not choosing to unplug but are just unplugged because they don’t know or never had the chance to. What’s interesting and somewhat tragic to me is that this is the way the w...

 Web Ages timeline https://flatworldbusiness.wordpress.com/flat-education/previously/web-1-0-vs-web-2-0-vs-web-3-0-a-bird-eye-on-the-definition/ I like this timeline a lot for helping me understand what we are talking about in this class, but what’s really eye opening is that 2.0 is sort of considered to have occurred around 1999.  When I think of mass internet usage becoming mainstream, I often think of it around the time it got to my house, which was 1996.  You know something hits a sort of mass market appeal when a hollywood movie starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks can be based upon it and be successful (1998’s You’ve Got Mail).  This is not some film about hackers (95’s Hackers) or cryptologists (1992’s Sneakers), who used computers but we as the audience largely understood them as not being everyday people.  At the time, if you used a computer, it was probably as a glorified typewriter.  (Ha, just thought of Mathew Broderick in 83’s WarGames.  Th...

So I worked for over 14 years as a librarian.  Somewhere in the middle there I started to first become aware of the term Web 2.0, mostly because there was the idea of Library 2.0 starting to go around, too.   I'm not sure that it meant much to me on the frontlines in a public library branch, where I had to worry more about helping sign up for email accounts and getting kids their AR books.  I figured I would become aware of it when it was time to, but that never really happened. Understanding in class this week that Web 2.0 is more of a philosophy is eye opening.   I was experiencing Web 2.0 without even knowing it, just in the different questions coming from my customers. According to this wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_2.0) library 2.0 “attempts to harness the library user in the design and implementation of library services by encouraging feedback and participation.”   That sounds great, but I’m not sure what is so 2.0 about that?   ...

This is my first post.  Did it work?