Evaluating the Course August 11, 2008

Evaluate your experiences with the blog assignment and the class as a whole. What experiences did you like, not like? What would you keep; what would you change?

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This is my last assignment for this course.  It is so strange that it is already over, it went by so very quickly.  I have been in school for a long time, and I have taken a lot of online courses over the last few years.  This course has truly been one of the better ones.

One of the things that often frustrates me about higher learning is the lack of follow through for the emphasis that is placed on critical thinking.  I love learning. I get a kick out of delving in to new topics, concepts, and ideas.  A lot of courses, despite the facade of wanting a student to think critically, often seem to “really” just want the student to think just as the professor does. There does not always seem to be room to question and ponder personal thought.  I did not find this to be true of this course.   

What I loved most about this course was the blog activities. I loved taking the concepts we were learning about in the texts by Postman and Wood & Smith, and applying them to our real lives.  I loved getting the opportunity to use my brain to think outside of the box.  I also really liked the time and thought that each person put in to their own blogs. They were each unique and it was fun to go through the different blogs and see what each student was up to and how they chose to present themselves to the world/or just their class peers. 

My favorite blog activity was the interviewing of the the different generations.  I loved that I got to communicate with people about a topic related to their communication to others. I was intriguing reading other people’s blogs to see the similarities and differences in the findings for each age group.

I also really enjoyed the Discussion Boards. It was rather fun to write out a thread and then check each day to see if someone had responded to my thoughts about the given subject-matter. I loved digging in to our society and I found the texts, particularly Postman’s Technopoly to be quite fascinating.  I have to admit, it was my favorite out of the two texts assigned.

One of the things that I might change would be that I think it would be good to comment on both texts each week on the discussion board and have to write a response to both texts.  I think this would have kept from getting confused about which week I was doing which book.  This is only a minor change and it has more to do with preference than anything else. 

Also, the one blog that was a bit difficult to do was the one where we had to share about  writing an email versus writing a letter.  If we had to write a letter earlier in the course and then blog about the response at the end it would have been more helpful to me.  It took too long to get a response so I was not really able to fully share my findings on the given assignment.  Again though, this is just personal preference.

Overall, this was an excellent course. I would recommend it to anyone. I felt as though it was refreshing to get to roll all of that new information in my mind and be able to apply in almost instantaneously.

WILD CARD!!!!! –Stolen Identity August 5, 2008

Assignment 7  Write about one experience you’ve had with communication on the internet that happened outside of this course. Explain what happened, why the situation was exacerbated or eased because the situation occurred in the realm of cyberspace. How would the situation have been different had it happened outside of cyberspace? This situation could be a mis-communication because the words written were misinterpreted, something didn’t happen because of the technology, etc. .

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The “wild card” situation that I have chosen to write about is my recent situation with cyberspace hackers.  About a month ago, despite my triple firewall/virus/spyware protection, my computer was hacked into.  I am an online student, so I do a lot of things on the internet. One of those things is shopping around and purchasing school books and supplies.  I try not to store my personal data in cyberspace, but sometimes it cannot be helped.  Ultimately, all of my credit card information was stolen.

The hackers used my credit cards to purchase 900 dollars worth of I-tunes. They also routed other their in the amounts of 700 and 342 dollars respectively, through various other job hunting sites. These, as far as I know, are just fronts for transferring money to far away places.

In this case, technology both exacerbated and eased my problem.  The purchases made in cyberspace caused me a lot of problems but because they were also out of the norm for my spending habits, my credit card company notified me immediately when it happened and were able to take care of crediting me back my “funds.”  I can only thank technology for this quick response. Also, I was able to monitor my bank account online, and I do so every day….this also helped to ease my frustrations. 

If this situation had been done to me outside of cyberspace, I am not sure how easy it would have been to track all of the illegal dispersements of money.  The credit card company was able to pinpoint the users “identities” so they could be flagged in case they made any other attempts at illegal purchases and I do not know, but maybe they will ultimately be caught. It was because the credit card company had cyberspace on their end, that they were able to do this.

In the end it was the criminals who used technology for their advantage that helped perpetuate this issue. They are incredibly intelligent and use it for unfair gains.  It feels very violating to know that someone can be spying on me through my PC over the internet.  But as Postman asks, even with all of the pain and frustration I went through, “what really is the solution to my problem,” (181).  According to him it begins with the, “individuals response” to “the world around them,” (182).  And how will I respond…

I will continue purchasing books on line, because more often than not it is cheaper when I research the costs through many different venues.  I will also still use cyberspace despite the risk.  I can protect myself and my property to a point, but I cannot fear those who use a great tool for horrible means.  Hopefully this never happens again, but I am sure not betting my life on the idea that it will not.  I also hope that this blog helps you to understand how important it is to have firewalls/virus scanners/spyware trackers. Even though these people got through my defenses, it has only be once in eleven years…so something has to be working pretty darn well for them to be deterred for such a long period of time.

Generational Gap August 1, 2008

6) Interview three people from three different generations, 18-35, 36-60, 61 and up. Discuss with them how they use the internet. What are their primary uses of the internet? How comfortable are they with communicating on the internet? Has technology changed the way they live their lives, for the better or worse? In general, what do they think of the internet? Summarize your interviews on your blog. These may be posted as one blog or three separate blogs (though this still only counts as one week’s worth of entries). What do you learn from comparing the three generations.

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18-35 :  7/28/08 (Over the Phone), Ashley Read –

For this age range I interviewed my friend Ashley Read.  Her primary use of the internet was for school.  She does a lot of research for her papers she writes for all of her classes as she pursues her Biology Undergraduate degree.  As a side note, I chose Ashley because her desire is to be a scientist. In Chapter 9 of Technopoly, Postman goes into great depth about how technology and science can be “misapplied and falsely trusted in,” (161,162). 

When I shared with her about my readings, she was very interested. She agreed that in a lot of ways science with all of its theories and hypotheses is a hope…a faith. She said that being a Christian allowed her to navigate around some of these issues, particularly the moral ones, but at the end of the day she too struggled with how science and technology often produce false hope and shaky ground for humans to stand on. She also leads a group of college-aged people for her church group Remedy. She said that she uses social-networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook a lot to keep in touch with her group during the days when they do not meet.  She also uses the sites to get in touch with friends she has not seen in a while. When I asked her whether or not techonology has changed her life for better or worse she said both.  She is a people person so she hates that she has to primarily keep in contact with people over the computer, but she loves the fact that she can use it as a tool, because otherwise she would never talk to some of her friends.  Ashley said she is pretty comfortable using the computer and the internet, though she keeps in her circle of influence who are much better at it so she does not have to become an “expert.” She likes that she can use the social sites to send out mass invitations to events, this is a very useful tool for her.  In general she thinks that the Internet is scary, mostly because she knows very little about it and is afraid that if it in not kept in check some how that it could easily become something that is, “too intrusive with long-lasting negative effects.”

36-60: 7/30/08, My mom (Terry Armstrong) –

For this age range I interviewed my mom, Terry Armstrong.  Currently she is not working, so the internet is primarily used to search for jobs, email regarding job interviews, and for shopping online.  Mostly she shops for things like concert tickets and the occasional piece of clothing.  She likes that she can view the Register Guard online, this makes it easier than thumbing through all of the job placements in the Sunday paper.  She likes that she can specify the type of job she is looking for and all of the available listings “pop-up” immediately.  My mom said she was not that comfortable with using the internet.  She just discovered that there is a thing called AdWare and SpyWare and dealing with that on her computer has been hectic.  She is only comfortable using her email account with MSN and does not know how to get an account elsewhere.  I imagine she will be the type of person who will keep this account for the rest of her life unless something horribly drastic happens.  In general, she thinks that the internet is “far beyond her mental capabilities.” She said that she rarely gets on because she does not like the hassle of trying to “figure things out.”  Overall this technology has made her life better.  She is able to communicate with people who live long distances from her and she is glad that she does not have to rack up a horrendous phone charge to “speak” to them. She thinks the internet needs to be monitored more and she mentioned she was really saddened by the case where the young girl took her life because of people acting “foolish” on the MySpace. 

61 and up – 7/27/08 (Rod Haney-My husband’s stepdad –79 years old)

For this age group I interviewed Rod Haney, my husband’s stepdad.  He knows about the internet, but that is about it. He does not own a computer.  The only interest he has in the internet is Ebay, because he is an avid antique dealer/collector.  He asked me if I could help him out, but showed no interest in learning how to do it himself.  He also was interested in having me email a missionary in the Philippines whom he is donating money to.  He gave me the missionary’s email address and now it is my job to be their liason.  Again, he showed no interest in learning how to do it himself.  =)  When I asked him what he thought about the internet he said it is like, “the television these days, full of a lot of garbage.” He clearly is not comfortable with or knowlegable about the internet.  He thinks we should go back to the 50’s, he recollected with me about his life in the 50’s and how it was so nice back then.  I think he is comfortable with limited technology, ie the television and the land-line phone…as he stated, “no cell phone for me…no way on God’s green earth!” Evidently, Rod is not nor will he ever be a follower of what Postman refers to as scientism, “a comprehensive belief system based on faith in science,” (147).