FYS- digital story

Here is a link to my final FYS project: The digital divide and it's affects on education

A brief description of my experiences with the digital divide.

All throughout my life, the digital divide has greatly affected the world around me. I however, did not realize the effects of the digital divide until I was nearly an adult.

Growing up, I’ve never been too far behind technologically; although at the same time, I’m not exactly rich either. I lived in inner city East Cleveland during my early childhood so few if any of the people in my neighborhood had computers. In the year 2000, my mother bought a top of line desktop computer which was very exciting for us because, I wanted to play games online with it and because my mother had never owned a computer prior to this. At the time, we had a dial up 56k connection, so the internet connection was extremely slow and we couldn’t talk on the phone while connected to the internet. It was such a hassle I hardly ever even bothered to use the computer.  About a year later, we acquired a much better internet connection and I began to use the internet much more. By this time, I was in second grade, so I had no practical uses for a computer and at the time, I though computers were simply devices made for fun and entertainment. Late 2005, I moved to the suburb of Euclid because it was a much nicer neighborhood. It was here when I found a more practical use for my computer; to type papers in English class, which was normally an easy task. I’d never really asked any of my friends or classmates if they had computers, I just kind of assumed everyone either did or went to the library. I would get my assignments done very quickly, while it took many of my classmates much longer to complete the assignments. My friends frequently complained about the library computers, because it was difficult to reserve time to use one, and because the computers were very slow. Despite this, I was still very much blind to the issue of the digital divide.

For the longest time, the idea of people of not knowing how to use the internet still seemed ridiculous to me. While I was in high school, the amount I used my computer for assignments increased substantially; I did research, typed papers, emailed my teachers assignments and found help for complex math and science problems; I begin to realize at this point the computer was an academic necessity; however I was still unaware how few of my classmates had internet access. I once heard a teacher say “I asked the students in my class to email me their papers, but most of the students told me they didn’t know how to send an email! Most kids can use Facebook, why can’t they send a simple email? What’s wrong with kids these days!?” I thought it was ridiculous back then, but now I understand.  The reason most students knew how to use social network sites was because most of them had smart phones that allowed them to access the internet, and since social networking was so popular at the time, they would use their phone to access Facebook and Twitter. Basically, they only knew how to use things that were popular, because a lot of their friends used these sites; they never had the opportunity to sit down at their own personal computer (or Macintosh) and learn how to use a computer.

 It was my senior year when I finally understood the hardships of having limited access to a computer. I did the PSEOP (Post-secondary enrollments options program), which was a program that allowed who maintained high grades to take college courses at a participating college of their choosing. I did the program because it allowed me to take college courses early for free, however it did have a few drawbacks; I had to find my own transportation, if I were to get any lower than a C in any class I would have to pay for the class and books for that class, and the college credits counted very little as high school credits, so if I failed a class I would have also been held back and not been allowed to graduate. I chose to go to Cleveland State University (CSU) to take classes as a full time student because I thought the school looked like a very nice school after all of the new renovations made to it recently. Let’s keep in mind for future reference, that I did not own a laptop, nor could I afford one at the time.

I took the bus to go to downtown Cleveland, when I first entered the school, I was absolutely terrified. I didn’t know how hard my classes would be, I had no friends at school with me, and everyone around me seemed far more prepared than I was for classes. I noticed that just about everyone was using a laptop at the time, but that was the last of my concerns. The classes themselves weren’t nearly as difficult as I thought they were going to be however they all assigned large amount of homework weekly. Only problem was that most of the homework assigned would be completely internet based, I was usually assigned to look up journals online and type a paper, or read the documents my sociology teacher posted online.  While on campus, I had no type of internet access, other than the computer lab at Rhodes tower and the rentable laptops in the student center. The computer lab was almost always completely full, and had no type of reservation system, so if I wanted to use a computer there, I would have to get lucky and the rentable laptops were in terrible condition and were frustrating to use, not to mention they were only rentable from the student center which I was normally too far away from  to utilize In the time I had and because of this, I normally ended up waiting until I got home to do homework. The first semester was terrible; I had large gaps in-between classes but I couldn’t take advantage of them because I had no access to a usable computer. So between classes I normally would spend my time just sitting in one of the student lounges they had around campus and just staring in one direction until my next class, unless on some rare occasions when I saw one of my classmates, and I would talk to them for a while. After all my classes were done I would get on the bus and head home immediately, because of my large amount of homework, I didn’t have time to participate in any on campus events that happened later in the afternoon. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I got home at 4:00pm; on Tuesdays and Thursdays I got home at 1:00pm. I would get home, get on the computer and work to try and make up for all the wasted time on campus. It was extremely frustrating. However, the absolute worst came when it was winter; winter in Downtown Cleveland is terrible, the winds are extremely powerful, and it snows heavily. I remember days where I’d stand in a blizzard, waiting on a bus that would normally get held up in traffic. I’d be waiting until my fingers and feet became numb and piles of snow built up on my shoulders and head. I’d get home 3 hours later than I’d wanted and I would be extremely tired, despite this, I’d have to sit down at my computer and work. That all being said, the volume of online homework only grew during the second semester, however, the snow wasn’t as bad and it was at the end of the first semester. Second semester I had a math class that utilized the “Aleks” program and all of the work, homework, and quizzes were online; a history class that required a large amount of reading, however most of the document were exclusively online, a computer science course which was obviously, completely computer based, and English which also required an extensive amount of typing.

It all paid off though, I passed all of my classes and was done with school in May. I only had to settle with my advisor my college decision, financial aid, and scholarship opportunities. I was introduced to “college board” and online college search site that listed everything on would need to know about a school such as, mean ACT scores to be accepted, majors and minors available, cost, location, etc., and a variety of scholarships websites. I should also note that the entire financial aid system is online. In other words, if a student lacked access to a computer, then signing up for college would be nearly impossible.

After a month of relaxation, I graduated with honors from my high school. Over the course of the year I’d learned how important a computer and internet access were to education, and how difficult it is getting to succeed in school when you don’t have access to them. More and more, computers and internet use are being integrated into education, despite the fact that lower income families aren’t gaining more access to computers. This is when I understood that something had to change.

The myth of the closing digital divide

After reading “Digital Divide Closing as Blacks Turn to Internet” by Michel Marriot, I feel as though the issue of the Digital divide is being misinterpreted by the press and general public.  Mr. Marriot enthusiastically states that as blacks gain access to the internet, the digital divide is closing. Not only does Marriot ignore other minorities, or even whites who lack access to the internet, he also does not pay mind to the type of internet that blacks are increasing gaining access to, which is normally through a smart phone. A phone, no matter how high-tech, cannot replace a computer; you cannot type on a phone, nor can post your resume, or apply for a job, or do taxes, or a vast variety of other things. Marriot also cites the increase of computers in schools and libraries, however, these things hardly provide a solution for the digital divide as public schools computer labs are not open use to students, and libraries hardly have enough computers in their labs to facilitate amount of people who need to use a computer on a daily basis. This article highly undermines the issue of the divide; blacks gains more access to internet through smartphones, schools getting computer labs and library computer labs all contribute and are helping to close the divide, however it is not quite enough to truly solve the problem.

You can read this article here.

Web log 13

FYS group: Jeff, Mark, Tayler, Anthony

1. Lead in found mainly in the earth's crust and is also mined from the crust. Australia is the biggest producer of lead followed by China, U.S., Peru, Canada, Mexico, and Sweden.

2. The environmental impact of lead can cause a dangerous effect to bodies of humans and area which will cause lead poisoning. It has caused towns to become total wastelands. It is regulated by the government of countries.

3. The main health concerns with the use of lead is lead poisoning.

4. While demanufacturing a lot of electronics, lead is heavily used in computers, etc. and can cause lead poisoning.

Web log 12

Blog post 12

e-Waste-Action-Blog

Green computers lead to a greener future, both literally and figuratively.

As a consumer of your products, it shocks me to learn about how toxic my product is; it almost literally makes me feel dirty to think about the materials in this computer, and it sickens me even worse to find out the fate of this product once its life ends which, by design, isn’t going to be very long right? I also find it irritating that you refuse to take back your products when they are rendered obsolete; but this I can understand the product is unrecyclable and because of all the toxic chemicals used, it wouldn’t be beneficial to take the product back; it’d end up in the trash anyways.

However, I think that greener designs for your computers would be much more beneficial to current and future product sales. Greener products means that taking the product back would be beneficial to you, because you wouldn’t have to buy new materials to make new computers, making it economically profitable. Greener products also make the consumers feel better about buying your product; they don’t feel like they’re buying future trash and then it makes it easier for them to recommend your products to others; which is a good thing. Also, I would conisder upgradable products because not everyone wants to buy a new computer when a new innovation is made to make using the computer smoother. If you can't sale computers, you will still profit off of the upgrade made to the computer. Consumers also like products that last, people are also looking for the products that work the best and last the longest, so you, being some of the top computer companies should set an example for the rest of the market; a positive example the will lead to a brighter economic future.

 I stated before that greener computer literally lead to a brighter future, which is true, and can be easily proven. See, when computers are made with toxic, non-reusable chemicals, then are shipped to poor foreign countries to be physical broken down and sold as scraps. It not only makes you look bad; which discourages people from buying your products; but it also causes an insurmountable amount of pollution which is slowly but surely rotting our earth. Greener computers would help preserve our world, I mean, what’s the point of being using a scheme to get richer faster if it means you would have world to enjoy your wealth in. I encourage each of you to consider this when telling the designers what types of computers you want to market.

Thank you for your time.

Digital storyboard

This is a picture of my storyboard, the actual appilcation has notes explaining each part of it. Download and zoom to see better.

Comic project question 1

Auletta, Ken. "Tim Armstrong and the Future of AOL." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_auletta>.

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Reardon, Peter. "Political and Social Change in the Middle East? | NowPublic News Coverage." NowPublic.com | The News Is NowPublic. Now Public, 28 Jan. 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/political-and-social-change-middle-east.

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Gauss, Gregory. "Cahpter 4: Why Middle East Studies Missed the Arab Spring." Foreign Affairs. 81-90. Web

Comic project question 2

sources:
Zuckerman, Ethan. "The First Twitter Revolution? - By Ethan Zuckerman | Foreign Policy." Foreign Policy - the Global Magazine of Economics, Politics, and Ideas. The Slate Group, 14 Jan. 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. .


9, October. "Why Social Media Is Reinventing Activism." Social Media News and Web Tips – Mashable – The Social Media Guide. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. .

Comic project question 4

"Arab Spring Really Was Social Media Revolution | TG Daily." TG Daily | Technology, Science, Entertainment, and Business News. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. http://www.tgdaily.com/software-features/58426-arab-spring-really-was-social-media-revolution.

"JURIST - Forum: The Twitter Revolutions: Social Media in the Arab Spring."JURIST - Legal News and Research. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. http://jurist.org/forum/2011/10/kevin-govern-twitter-revolutions.php.

"Raymond Schillinger: Social Media and the Arab Spring: What Have We Learned?" Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-schillinger/arab-spring-social-media_b_970165.html>.

Comic project question 3

Bibliography:

Harkin, James. "James Harkin Reviews ‘Death to the Dictator!’ by Afsaneh Moqadam, ‘The Net Delusion’ by Evgeny Morozov and ‘Blogistan’ by Annabelle Sreberny and Gholam Khiabany • LRB 2 December 2010." London Review of Books • 17 November 2011. 2 Dec. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. <http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n23/james-harkin/cyber-con>.

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Gladwell, Malcolm. "Twitter, Facebook, and Social Activism." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all>.

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Montefiore, Simon S. "Every Revolution Is a Revolution." Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 26 Mar. 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/opinion/27montefiore.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1>.

Fys-swarm

These are my results from the swarm. They aren't the best though.

These are the best I've found, however, I got these results by copying the results posted by Meagan McNicholas.

Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography-

1. Fleetwood, Chris. "Digital Divide." Io Solutions. Io Solutions, 20 July 2001. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/hq69/Protected/Features/Digital%20Divide.html>.

 This website discusses the definition and reasoning behind the digital divide. This information is important in explaining the digital divide to others, and will help produce an introduction to subject at hand.

2. Wolfson, Todd. "The Internet for Everyone: Digital Philadelphia | Media Mobilizing Project." Media Mobilizing Project | Movements Begin with the Telling of Untold Stories. Media Mobilizing Project, 08 July 2009. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://mediamobilizing.org/internet-everyone-digital-philadelphia>.

This article (and video) discusses the attempt at reducing the digital divide in Philadephia by attempting to make the internet available to everyone creating what can be called “Digital Philadelphia” Having a society where everyone has full internet access could be revolutionary as everyone will be able to benefit from the internet and no one would have to be excluded from job opportunities and everyone would be able to express themselves on the internet.

3. Rozner, Elroy. "Haves, Have-Nots, and Have-to-Haves: Net Effects of the Digital Divide." Berkman Center. Apr. 1998. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/fallsem98/final_papers/Rozner.html>.

The article goes into much deep depth about the effects of the digital divide, further explaining the effect of lacking internet on low income families in society and how the effects are dividing society.

4. "The Digital Divide and Economics." College of Behavioral and Social Sciences - University of Maryland - College of Behavioral & Social Sciences. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/harwood/bsosgvpt333/digital/economics.htm>.

This article discusses the economic aspect of the digital divide and how the economy plays into the digital divide.

5. Barlow, Jim. "Digital Divide Still Impacts Prospects of College Student Success." Digital Communities: Local Government News & Articles. Digital Communites, 8 Apr. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://www.digitalcommunities.com/articles/Digital-Divide-Still-Impacts-Prospects-of.html>.

This article will help me explain and relate my subject to the supposed audience: college students (and professor). The article discusses how the digital divide affects college students. How many college students have limited access to the internet despite the growing importance of the internet in college classes (whether it be typing a paper or doing research)

Web log 10

Weblog 10                                                                                                          

                A super-organism is an organism that is built out of many organisms. Facebook is most definitely a super-organism. Facebook’s size and existence was generated by the many users who use Facebook frequently. Facebook’s entire purpose is to influence interaction between its users; if no-one used Facebook, Facebook would quickly wither and die. At the same time, like a super-organism, Facebook doesn’t a single member who is more important than all the rest, and Facebook has no brain that controls its growth; its growth is dependent on its users. Facebook may have only been built by one person, but its shape and form were influenced by its many members. In these ways, Facebook is undoubtedly a super-organism.  

            WebLog 9

Emergence; it is the occurrence of a complex result or pattern caused by generally simple actions. The best example I can recall, is MySpace. MySpace has a lot of history behind it, and due the recent increase in the popularity of social sites; many people started their social networking experience with Facebook and no idea about the progression or former popularity of MySpace. MySpace had humble beginnings, it was a new idea at the time, and purely social networking website and quickly gained a huge amount of popularity.  As time moved on, it seemed like everyone was making a MySpace page, and it only grew from there. Eventually, businesses and musicians began to make MySpace pages in order to advertise and communicate with the general public; it’s the same way businesses and musicians (among other thing) have pages on Facebook.  I only witnessed MySpace’s former glory; I never created a MySpace page due to the fact that I thought that MySpace, and at the time social sites in general were pointless. I saw no point in creating an account so I can virtually befriend and communicate with the people I see every day, however, most of my friends created accounts anyways. I began to see myself become distanced from the people who created MySpace accounts as they began to created and coordinate events and post them on MySpace, and I witnessed MySpace quickly grow into a huge virtual society.

Nearly everything that could occur socially could occur on MySpace, whether it be making new friends, or advertising a new local business. MySpace emerged from a simple social site, to an online society. At the time, I still wasn’t intrigued by the idea of MySpace so I still chose to avoid it. Globally, however, it was an advancement in digital media because, it was one of the first ways for people to communicate, and share information through the internet on an organized forum type site. No good thing can last forever though, and eventually MySpace began to fall in popularity. This came about due to the constant misuse, like sexual predators and cyber bullying. This, paired with the rise of Facebook, caused the eventual “end” of MySpace.  How is this emergent behavior? It’s because it took the simple idea of having a website based mainly on social interactivity and from there created a “cyber-society,” and while MySpace itself isn’t nearly as popular as it used to be, its ideals still live on in websites like Facebook and Twitter.

Blog 7 & 8

1.)          The US government should institute formal policy that bars overseas sales of systems that provide targeted Internet surveillance if such systems are used to violate human rights or freedom of speech (such as the current internet censorship in China).

On one side, it is very immoral for private US companies to be allowed to sell internet surveillance systems to China; because it allows companies to profit by helping the Chinese government violate the human rights that the people who work in these corporations enjoy every day.  On the other side however, this is a capitalist society and lassiez-faire; which is French for ‘let do,’ is very much in affect and thus the government is not legally allowed to interfere in the workings of private companies unless they are promoting illegal activities, which they technically are not.

While morally incorrect, the actions of these private companies are completely legal, making this subject very difficult to discuss. If the American forefathers were still alive, they would have suggested not involving ourselves with foreigners in anyway, however, had America never involved itself with foreign countries, we would be very ignorant, and we would not have much of the technology and resources that we have today.

Looking at public opinion, as discussed in Therese Poletti’s news article “Chinese censorship divides America,” the American public is divided on the issue of private US companies supporting internet surveillance. “About 47 percent of 1,056 respondents said they believed content companies should not allow such censorship, while 40 percent believed companies should comply with restrictions. Thirteen percent were undecided.”(Poletti, 2007) While the survey that Poletti took is relatively small compared to the size of the American public, it still helps explain that not even the American public is completely for or against either side of the argument.

            “Obeying Orders” an article made by an anonymous author in the Washington Post discusses that it is right for private US corporations to provide their services to China, as it helps build a better relationship with China, and make society more open, even if it doesn’t necessarily support democracy. This opinion is supported by Bill Thompson in his article “Why Google in China makes sense.” Thompson argues that despite the lack of democracy in the censored Chinese Google, it still supports the sale of free information in China. Thompson also discusses that no country has a truly free and open internet; in the US, despite the 1^st Amendment guaranteeing free speech, that all search engines use their terms and conditions to limit what people can search and view on the internet. However, this kind of censorship is much less intense than the censorship in China, where anything the government deems “inappropriate” is censored without explanation of reason.


              In the Xeni Jardin’s article “Exporting Censorship,” Jardin calls it ‘laughable’ that despite the nation’s goal to support and sale free information services that American companies still sell censor-ware and censored search engines. The article “Beating back the internet censor” discusses that the sale of censor-ware shows anti-Chinese sentiment. Politicians wanted to pass the ‘Global internet freedom act,’ which would discourage censor-ware and censored hardware, however, it did not pass due to the fear of private companies completely removing their survices from China and hurting trade relations with China. America imports a large bulk of resources from China so hurting trade relations with them would be unwise.


            Considering all these factors, there is no clear answer to the situation. Due to the importance of Chinese imports, the US should continue to allow private companies to sell censor-ware and censored software, at least until the opportunity arise to coerce China into changing their internet polices.

2.) The evolving capabilities to speak out and criticize the Chinese government using microblogs and other Internet social media will lead to more and greater freedoms for the Chinese people.

This is an interesting concept to say the least, considering that the Chinese government is communist; one must also take into account the government leaders in China are very well aware of the discontent caused among the people due to the internet censorship and despite this they continue to run the way the always have. Can criticism on the internet truly make a difference?

Since China has a communist government, the Chinese people do not share in the same rights as Americans do with democracy; free speech being a very specific example of this seeing as the Chinese government covers up every piece of media that they believe may ‘endanger’ their government. The Chinese government has shown that they can be very close minded towards the opinions of other countries as well.

Not all hope is lost, many times in the past; probably the best examples being things like the American Revolution or the French Revolution; it has been shown that with enough influence that the opinions and even the structure of the government can be altered. The Chinese public using online blogs to voice their opinions and criticisms of the government shows initiative, and plain fact that they able to shows that the “great fire wall of China” isn’t so great after all. As Chinese people find more and more ways to voice their opinions, it becomes clear that the Chinese government cannot simply control it’s people like would like to. Instead, their voices will be heard and it is quite possible that china will begin listening to its people.

In Michael Bistro’s article “Can microblog’s change China’s rulers?” We can already see a shift in the government’s approach to its people. Despite the limited free speech, microblogs have hurt the Chinese government’s ability to censor and control its people and is now forcing officials in the government to change their methods.  

In the Publication of China law publication “Voices against Discrimination: Chinese Citizens Challenge Discriminatory Regulations and Practices” It develops the increasing effects of Chinese blogging and criticisms against the government. More and more, public voices are beginning to be held against the Chinese government concerning discrimination and cover-ups. As the Chinese people become increasingly aware of their human rights, the government begins to fall under the pressure and is obligated to change their methods. It is very clear that from these results that, microblogging is helping to increase the rights of the Chinese people.

Ds initial proposal

DS initial proposal

In this day and age, digital media has become increasingly important in today’s society; however, I never could’ve imagined that despite the quickly rising importance of digital resources how few people in our country have access to them. In fact, as I learn more and more about the uses and importance of digital resources, the more and more I realize how difficult living in the modern day would be without these resources, which reveals the even harsher truth that many people do not have access to the these resources. Even though much of society and many businesses utilize the internet heavily, the internet is still a relatively expensive resource and because of this, digital resources have created a ‘digital divide’ which separates low income citizens from those with higher income. It goes beyond the things I’ve heard and seen in class as I have known many people who do not have computers or even cell phones. I never considered how difficult it was for them to find a job or do a research paper, it wasn’t until the idea of not having access to a form of computer was presented as a problem in today’s society.

I, myself am not a upperclassmen, but I have had access to computers and cellular devices since I was 9 years old, when my mom bought her first, and my first, desktop computer. We had dial-up at the time so I wasn’t on it much; it wasn’t until we got broadband when I really began to explore the features of the computer. At the time, teachers always considered that most students would not have a computer, so they were sure never to assign homework that required one, so I never considered the computer to be that important. It wasn’t until 10 years later when I saw the disadvantage of not having a computer. I was doing PSO at Cleveland state university for my senior year; so I spent all my time at college. The English classes, history class, Math class, Computer science class all required a large amount of typed papers and many assignments were online, however while at campus I had little access to any form of computers and oftentimes had to wait until I got home to do the work, despite being on campus for most of the day. Just about all of my peers had laptops and it was a bit aggravating to see them easily complete their work while I had to wait to get home. Through this experience I learned the disadvantage of not having access a computer, and it’s a feeling I won’t forget anytime soon.

I bought a laptop soon after I graduated from high school, but not everyone has this option. In fact, I’ve found that very few people have the option to just buy a computer or cell phone when they need one and so I plan to base my digital story on the lack of access to computers and how this affects people.

Annotations:

The Digital divide institute provides a large amount of information that talks about the status of the digital and even helps define the digital divide, the website has many good sources that I may be able to use.

                Jakob Nielson’s alert box digital divide discusses the causes for the divide and will be very helpful in exploring the origins of the divide.

Web log 6

Web Log 6

As time progresses, new ways to socially interact and obtain information are formed, people begin to develop new literary skills, however as of recently, digital media has become a huge factor in today’s society creating many new ways to obtain information and socially interact as many organizations and businesses utilize the internet for many informal purposes and even hiring. Despite being used for so many things, the internet is not accessible to everyone, causing people to be excluded from certain events and job opportunities in their communities. Regardless, digital media is altering the way people interact and learn. Digital media, or more specifically the internet has helped promote a participatory culture; a culture with low artistic barriers that supports civic engagements and allows people to share their creations in various online communities. An example of this is twitter, a website that allows one to post updates that may be used to inform others of upcoming events, give links to educational sources, or just to keep in contact with your friends and, while I don’t not have a twitter account personally, I can see how useful it can be. Websites like this shown a progression that has greatly affected the skills required to be literate in the 21^st century, now it requires not only physical social experience but it also requires one to understand the workings of the internet. Despite this, the internet is still relatively new compared to the normal literary mediums such as books and newspapers, and because of this, it hasn’t been adopted as a normal literary source and the skills required to use the internet are not regularly taught in schools; it is up to the individual themselves to learn how to use the internet.  Participatory communities are a welcome addition to modern society and it’s a shame that many if not most people are excluded from them, these communities allow for freedom of the imagination while also being able to provoke truly intellectual pieces of art. The medium that these communities reside is on the internet, which can be access from ones desktop computer, laptop, smart phone and even various electronic gaming consoles. It’s because of this that many people do not have access to participatory communities. Many people cannot afford to buy a type of computer and continually pay a bill for internet access, and so, a limited amount of people have limited access to the internet, despite the internet’s extensive use. 21^st century literary skills requires, to some extent, some experience with the internet and because of this many people are illiterate in the 21^st century as they miss out on many of the benefits provided by the internet. Hopefully, as time progresses, the internet will continue to grow and the more and more people will have the ability to access it.      

Web log 5

Weblog 5

I have used the internet extensively; I’ve used the internet to apply for college, to social network, for research, and many other things, however, after reading Besser’s article I realized how little I’ve contributed to the internet. I’ve never used to the internet to create sources for others, or to keep people updated on recent events; instead, I’ve only used it to absorb information from others. I’ve never even attempted to be a producer of internet content. Besser’s article describes the limited nature of the internet and how many people do not know how to contribute to the internet and how even fewer have access to it despite much of modern society functioning off of the internet. Warschauer’s article also explores the accessibility of the internet, he explores the how well ICT’s (Internet and computer technology) are used help people gain knowledge and access information. In various ways, my ICT skills have altered. Throughout my life I have increased my physical access to the internet, going from just having access through my desktop, to having access through my laptop, phone and even various electronic gaming consoles. I noticed that most of the internet is in English and the parts that aren’t are still accessible due to many translation features that have been introduced on websites like Google, however, these translation features are limited exclusively to English so non-English speaking people will still have a lot of trouble accessing content on the internet. As for human resources; my literacy and education has improved greatly over the years. When I began using the internet when I was a about 10 I had very limited literary skills and was still early in my school ‘career,’ now, 8 years later, I have improved my literary skills immensely and I graduated near the top of my class. Through all these years though, I have seen a great increase in institutions that utilize the internet; for instance I signed up for both selective service and college on the internet. I’ve even noticed an influx of community events that are maintained through the internet, like how many of the clubs at John Carroll email their members to keep in to touch with them and remind them of events. Warschauer’s article also compares ICT skills to literary skills, however, while literacy is available to just about anyone, the internet is only available to a limited amount of people, and even less know how to use it. When I compare my literary skills to my ICT skills, I find that there are a few things that I am capable of utilizing much of the content on the internet; however I am inexperienced when it comes to creating content, such as websites for organizing events. My frequent use of the internet is how I learned how to effectively utilize the internet's resources.
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Web log 4

Weblog 4

The term social justice has been around for a very long time and has been defined many different ways by many different people, however, in America during the 19^th century; it seems that social justice was not even considered during the creation of most social reforms, such is discussed in “Where race lives” website. The imbalance of social justice starts as early as 1935 with the creation of social security which guaranteed an income for workers after retirement, however, this policy excluded agricultural workers and domestic servants. Agricultural workers and domestic servants were predominantly jobs maintained by minorities and thus, many nonwhite people were excluded from this plan. Other examples include the Wagner act which allowed workers to unionize, but it allowed for unions to exclude nonwhites and did not allow minorities to challenge this law, because of this, many people of color were excluded from better paying jobs and many of the workers benefits, this law would be modified to not allow all unions over 20 years later. It seems that many other government reforms over the years would be created to benefit whites and exclude people of non-color, and the reforms made help minorities were not well enforced until much later. There is then the tale of two families, which depicts the difference between a black male and a white male from two vastly different back grounds growing up living two different lives. Throughout the story, the white male lives a life where the financial opportunities were prominent and he didn’t have to worry about financial issues, whereas the black male lived having very few job opportunities, making much less money and had to worry about the access to money his entire life. The last issue the website discusses is how a good neighborhood gets destroyed; basically starts with the movement of rich white people move out of a neighborhood when minorities begin to move in because they view the minorities a sign of financial distress in a neighborhood. The simple fact that the majority views minorities as a sign financial decline in a neighborhood is a sign of social injustice within itself, and the movement of the richer white people out of a neighborhood decreases the amount of money in a neighborhood which then leads to the increase of taxes to maintain the neighborhood, which then leads to the downfall of the neighborhood when the lower income people cannot pay the taxes. In the end the website shows us how the government has worked against minorities and how this has caused the differences in today’s society because of it; it has shown that social injustice has caused a vast imbalance in income between the minority and the majority. If only social justice had’ve been maintained over the years, maybe we would live in a more equal society.

Web log 3

Web Log 3

Social justice is a very difficult subject to explain and the reason for this is because social justice has been defined by many different philosophers and never once has the word had a concrete meaning. Like most government structures, the definition of social justice has been shaped and molded based on political beliefs and more often than not, religious beliefs. Since the definition of social justice is generally undefined, it normally boils down to personal preference. Miller’s ‘Scope of social justice’ and Dr. Hahn’s lecture help explore many of these themes better, and it will help me expand upon the social theories of capitalism vs. socialism.

Perhaps the easiest place to begin the analysis of social justice is with the oldest theory, which was formulated by Plato, the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s definition of social justice; also considered the ‘Conservative tradition;’ placed society in a hierarchy, where people were placed dependent on the will of the gods. This system was believed to allow people to live the ‘good life’ or the lives that the gods thought they deserved. The conservative view of social justice is a type of caste system where people are born into a certain social class and they cannot leave it, however, in capitalism people may be born into a social class, however, there is no guarantee that they will stay there, due the ever changing economy, and there is no religious beliefs influencing it. Regardless, in capitalism most people tend to stay within the same social class that they were born into.

The next social theory, Liberalism, was created by John Locke, who was one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers. The theory of Liberalism was focused on the rights of individuals which were life, liberty, and property, as defined by Locke. Eventually, liberalism would be tweaked and become the basis for the modern day democracy; property being replaced by the pursuit of happiness. The ideas of Liberalism are more open as opposed to being a caste system. It allows people in a society to live the lives that they work for which promotes equality. Liberalism also began the separation of church and state and thus, religion has no effect on its practice.  Capitalism is more like Liberalism; the only major difference being is that capitalism is a form of the economy.  In a much like a liberalist society, capitalism allows for people work towards their own personal goals and doesn’t limit them to a certain social class, however, it’s still like the conservative society because most of the time it is very difficult for one to work their way into a higher social class, and most people tend to stay within the social class they were born into. In capitalism it is also impossible for everyone to live glorified lives, due to the imbalance of pay, so while it is open for everyone to become rich, not everyone can.

The last topic to be discussed is socialism, a social theory created by the German philosopher, Karl Marx. Socialism is the belief that the means of production and distribution of pay should be equal among both the owner of a business and its workers. However in Marx’s theory, socialism would lead to a communist system where classes are forgotten and everything is under common ownership. Socialism presents a different type of social justice than capitalism. The differences in pay between people and their employers are not so vast, and social classes aren’t as heavily defined (I.e. There are no explicitly Rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods) as they are in capitalist societies. This also means that people who do very difficult jobs may get paid the same as people who do easier jobs, thus still creating an imbalance in pay. In these ways, socialism is different from capitalism, but they are similar in a few ways as well. There are imbalances in pay in both and they each promote equality through equal opportunity.

Weblog2

Le Guin’s  “The ones who walk away from the Omelas” is an interesting short story that questions the ideas of social justice in society. It asks the question, is it right to force the suffering of one individual into order to prolong to the well-being of society, or should everyone live equally despite the difficultly that the society will face. This question challenges the principles of capitalism; an economy where the rich flourish off of the hardships of the poor; vs. a socialist economy; which is an economy where everyone has about equal pay and share in the hardships of society. These themes are prevalent through the story, in the beginning of the story, it depicts an impossibly perfect society celebrating the ‘Festival of summer,’ the people depicted can be seen as upper classmen who live an easy, which at first seems to no consequence. These people are what you see when you first enter the town, no despair in sight and it seems that everything in the world is good, however, this is not the case as readers later learn that the Omelas keep a much darker secret; they keep one child locked in a cellar below a building. The child is the only one who feels despair in Omelas, no tourist knows about the child and almost every resident knows about the child. The child is theoretically a lower-class person, who is under represented, underprivileged, and is mistreated, in a capitalist society. The Omelas treat the child terribly because if they do not, then their society will decline and they will lose their easy lives. Eventually, the young adults who have not seen the child are taken to see it. No one ever handles the sight of the child well; oftentimes they want to help the child, however, they are not allowed. Seeing the child makes the young adults realize that they are not living in an equal society, but instead a society that flourishes off of the pain of one individual. The young adults would rather live in a society where everyone is both rich and equal; however, that simply is not possible. After this, in the middle of the night some of the young adults decide that it’s better for one to suffer than for all to suffer and they clear there conscious of it, others, unable to accept that the only way they can live an easy life is at the expense of another, leave the Omelas, never returning. It is possible that the young adults are searching for a society where all people live as equals despite the hardships that they may have to share, stating that they’d rather live in a socialist type society.

Web Log 1

WebLog 1: CLASS SURVEY
Personal information
1. Name, hometown, primary email.
2. What name do you prefer to be called, nick name, etc.?
3. Please insert a picture of yourself in the profile of your new blog.
4. What are you into; what makes you special? Share a few “unique” aspects about yourself that would help our classroom community get to know you a bit.

Learning Style and more:
5. Being as specific as you can, what must be in place for you to feel comfortable taking intellectual and creative risks in a classroom?

Technology Section
6. What do you believe was the most important technological invention in history? Why?
7. Please list a number of technologies you currently believe to be essential to your life.
8. Briefly describe your experience working with 1. computers, 2. digital media, and 3. social media and then rate your technical proficiency on a scale of 10 (I invented Facebook) to 1 (what are you talking about).

About Dr. Shutkin:
9. Write down two or three questions you would like to ask me about myself or the class.

WebLog 1: CLASS SURVEY
1. Mark Creel, Euclid, mcreel15@jcu.edu
4. I enjoy video games, martial arts (Northern Shoalin in particular), and all kinds of music.
5. Respect for my opinions.
6. The computer used the during world war 2, because after it's profound success it encouraged the continued development of computers, which in many ways has made life easier.
7. -Computers; in this new day and age. Society has become very dependant on computers. Computers allow me to manage my bank account, file my financial aid, and lets me type papers for classes.
- Automobiles; the allow me to travel to far off places much faster.
- Refridgerators, because they preserve and maintain food, allowing me to hold larger amounts of food for longer periods of time.
8. I have a pretty good understanding of computers, minor programings skills and a good understanding of how a computer works; I use digital media like youtube very extensively, however, I use social media very seldomly. If I had to rate my computer skills it would be a 8/10
9. I have no questions at the moment.