Group items tagged

In this week's discussion Mary Beth brought up interesting point about Hole in the Wall studies and one laptop per child. This article criticized the program for not designing from the bottom up.

This is a short clip by Nicholas Negroponte, who is the founder of One Laptop per Child. He talks about how technology has made a way to mesh together our work and home life. It's interesting how opposite the views are for this topic.

I like how he describes this meshing of technology and daily life as an omelet. The idea behind One Laptop per Child also draws attention to the topic of the digital divide. I was trying to find some other commentary from mr negroponte and I came across a clip from the Colbert report that highlights the paradox in a funny, yet serious way http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/363111/october-25-2010/nicholas-negroponte

I've been hearing about his PA Cyberschool on NPR and it really sparked my interest, so I decided to check it out. I wonder how this use of technology is going to impact students long term educational prospects?

This is really interesting! I've been looking at e-learning, so it's interesting to see this example. I wonder how enrolled students would fare if they choose to attend higher education? Adjusting to the social aspect that the level of technology used might be difficult.

http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com/2010/11/pre-college-learning-center-nj%E2%80%99s-new-jewish-high-school-offering-customized-education-for-5000-per-year/ Just saw this today. Jewish Day Schools have been in trouble financially for a number of years; one is opening in New Brunswick this fall that will only charge $5,000 tuition because they are taking a similar approach to the PA Cyberschool (though I doubt it costs them $5K per student). I have doubts whether this model is sustainable at this cost; having experienced online classes it's more work for teachers and professors, not less.

Another article found in my search for information about the "global digital divide." According to the article, last week, the United Nations released a report that "argued that disconnecting individuals from the Internet is a violation of human rights and goes against international law" and that all States should seek to ensure there is "as little restriction to online content as possible." The Atlantic points out, following Wired's Threat Level blog, that the UN report came "the same day that a monitoring firm found two-thirds of Syria's Internet access has been shut down without notice." While access isn't the only factor in the digital divide on a global or a national scale (disparities in information or new media literacy is also a huge factor, for example), I agree that the availability of unfettered access as a matter of government policy is the bare minimum.

It confuses me that it can be considered a basic human right if, for a portion of the population, it's hard to access and at times, can be unreachable. Even though I know it's more what Tom said about it being a negative right, the phrasing just doesn't sit right. Either way, this is a great thing and I'm surprised it didn;t happen sooner.

I had come across this article as well in our group project research, Maggie, and I think that the UN is taking steps to bring the conversation on the right to freedom of opinion and expression into the digital age, as Tom mentions. Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, in place since 1948, states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." So in the context of the recent shutdown of ISPs by Syria, more generally the use of the Internet as a means of civic and political dissidence, and even the debate around net neutrality in this country, I agree with Maggie that the UN's approach seems to clarify and reiterate unfettered access to information.

Social informatics is not explicitly mentioned in this article. However, I think it gives us direct insight into crafting our own definition of the term and its application. Bates looks at the overall domain of information science, and how we, as members of that discipline, can break free of the idea (which may have changed a bit since its writing in 1999) that there's no content to LIS education and practice, just structure (i.e., the core of our profession is to organize other discipline's information). Most applicable to our discussion, at least in this point of the semester, seems this excerpt: "In comparison to other social and behavioral science fields, we are always looking for the red thread of information in the social texture of people's lives. When we study people we do so with the purpose of understanding information creation, seeking, and use. We do not just study people in general. The rest of the social sciences do various forms of that. Sometimes this can be a very fine distinction; other times it is very easy to see. In communications research, a cousin to our field, the emphasis is on the communication process and its effects on people; in information science we study that process in service of information transfer. For another example, there are social scientists today who are observing people doing collaborative work through new types of networked systems in the field of computer-supported co-operative work (CSCW) . The sociologist or social psychologist identifies and describes the network of relationships and the social hierarchy that develops under these circumstances. They may examine the impact of technology on those social relationships and on the work of the individuals involved. The information scientist, on the other hand, follows the information the way Woodward and Bernstein "followed the money" in their Watergate investigations. That's the red thread in the social tapestry. When we look at that social hierarchy, we ar

Another product of social media - insta-internet star! BTW, Rebecca's Black's video is now up to over 159 million views and the song was covered on Glee!

Now I see how people on youtube make money...I didn't know they paid per view...makes sense.

I think that this is one of the great benefits of social media. People have a chance to make something of themselves without spending millions of dollars in advertisements. It's not just about celebrity status, but more importantly, people can create businesses or help causes using these cheaper tools.

Per discussion topic 1--This article deals with the Canadian postal worker strike, which is still going on.