The Next New Thing

Fortunately there have been so many innovations when it comes to new media, and the more creations discovered the better life becomes! One example of a new media that I haven’t really seen would be video classes. Video classes or lectures would be similar to online class but instead of having the interaction with the professor’s via email, we would have videos where professors would present their lectures. For instance, in a math video class the students would be required to log in every time the class meets online and watch the video presentation of the professor presenting the lecture. This way all the classmates would watch it at the same time and then have time to do group chats or individual chats with the professor for the next hour.  The benefit of this would be that while students would still have to log in at the same time to watch the professor give the lecture via video, they would not have to commute all the way to their actual school. Also, instead of learning material through reading like normal online classes, they would be able to watch the professor demonstrate and show examples in the video. I think schools should maybe look into this, and see how the results turn out.

our class wiki so far...

We have all seen on the news of occasions where teens have ended their lives because their darkest secrets have been transmitted to the public through Facebook. Or instances where teens were teased so much through Facebook that ending their lives was the only escape.  The article “Phoebe Prince, 15, commits Suicide After Onslaught of Cyber-Bullying From Fellow Students written by Pete Kotz, we learn of a 15 year old Irish girl who was found hanged by her sister. She was a victim of cyber-bullying. Phoebe was bullied through text messages, Facebook messages and in person during school by other girl classmates. The superintendent at the school said “apparently the young woman had been subjected to taunting from her classmates, mostly through Facebook and text messages, but also in person on at least a couple of occasion.”  This is a common example of what Facebook has permitted us to do and how it can negatively impact our society. Even after the death of Phoebe Prince, the classmates were still posting insensitive things to her memorial page.

Advice to Baruch College on New Media

If I were hired by Baruch College to use new media the first suggestion I would make would be to create more online classes. It seems as if Baruch is not as big on online classes compared to other CUNY colleges, but since we all know that many students work and have a busy schedule online classes are a must. The second suggestion I would make is more online homeworks. Although many professors are making their students submit homeworks online, some professors still require the paper hand out. Doing homework online is both convenient for the students and the professors. The third things I would suggest are online textbooks. What students want to carry and bring to class their actual paper textbook? By having textbooks online we would be able to print out the chapter we are doing in class and bring the sheets to class instead of having the entire textbook. These are three ideas that Baruch can improve on by using new media.

privacy and confidentiality!

Privacy and confidentiality and extremely related to new media. The more we advance in new media, the less privacy and confidentiality we have. It is really hard nowadays to keep something extremely private and confidential online. For instance, even though Facebook does have privacy setting where we have the option of who can view certain things to our friends, some of the information on our page is transmitted to companies. Nothing really is totally private. Even when business clients send confidential emails, there is also the issue of hackers logging in and stealing that information. New media, where mostly everything is done on the internet is making privacy and confidentiality a big issue.

P2P File Sharing

        File sharing is the private or public sharing of a computer date or space in a network with various levels of access privilege. This term almost always means sharing on a network, even though people can share by handing or mailing someone their file on a diskette. One of the advantages of file sharing is it allows a number of people to use the same file.

     P2P File sharing is a system of sharing files between network users without interference of a central server. P2P networks can  be set up in a home or even a business, the only things required is that all computers in the network use the same or compatible programs.  Some people may not agree with this new way of sharing information. But others like the writer of “content producers should take advantages of P2P, not fear it” think it is not such a bad idea. Their new release of file sharing steal this film part one describes how we should embrace this act and not work against it. Examples of P2P file sharing is the ability to swap music, videos and other files via the internet.

creativity and new media!

So here I am creating an Avatar, which turned out to be one of the coolest things I have seen. I have always been a little curious about how this second life works, many people that I have spoken to have told me about it, but I never took the time to join it and now I finally did. I created an Avatar that looks a bit like myself, long dark hair with a bit of orange, I dressed her up the way I love to dress up which is down, with jeans and a normal shirt. She is carrying a purse, which is something I always carry. I did an avatar that represents me because I think it's cool if I play with her to try to make her look like myself and see how that turns out. Here are some pictures...

This is my Avatar, who resembles me, and she is in London City!

This is her getting into an elevator with a new friend!

New media has made it possible for me to create a second life version of myself, and visit places I never thought I could!

creativity

            New media fosters creativity in many ways. To begin with there are many digital devices offered by new media that allow users to experiment and create new makings they have not created before. Another way new media fosters creativity is by allowing groups of people to interact and participate in community creations. An example of people participating and creating together can be found in the article “Disney Tolerates a RAP Padody of It’s Critters. But Why?” where it discusses how Disney tolerates YouTube music videos that turn Bambi, Simba and Winnie the Pooh into rap stars. These Disney characters are being posted on YouTube being rappers of songs like “Crank That Soulja Boy.” It has become so popular that people are starting to do it for other cartoon characters as well. This is an example of how new media calls for creativity.