Cyber Classroom?

The other day we tried to experiment with a cyber classroom. While I can see where this idea would be helpful for some students, I wasn't too impressed. I like to talk. I like to listen and respond. I think the cyber classroom took away from the back and forth banter that I'm used to in a classroom. The silence was awkward, everyone typing at once was hard to follow, the drawings were a little distracting, and it was just a little different for my taste. I think the cyber classroom would be a really good idea for people who didn't like to speak in class or who felt uncomforable, but I'm traditional. I'm always open to new things, but I like regular classrooms. HaHa But it was fun while it lasted at least.

So i was giving my research project some thought....and i reallly like the idea of facebook friends: are they really your friends? I know most of you that are familiar with facebook, are also familiar with facebook stalking. C'mon, show of hands? I know youre out there. I am "friends" with some people on facebook that I went to high school with and maybe talked to a few times in my life. Why am I "friends" with them on the book....because they had babies in high school and I wanna see pictures of them and see how they are doing. How creepy is that? Totally, I know. But what can I say...if it's on the book...it's fair game? Right? We're friends. Right?

Heralds of Change

"Indeed, America philanthropy now surpasses $300 billion per year, or roughly the size of the entire economy of Norway." That is astounishing. With the way our economy is operating today, it is amazing to see that helping others is still a priority to our society. Being a broke college student, I still try to do my part to help others. While I used to volunteer at the local YWCA, I had to stop because they closed the program due to lack of funding, which is truly a shame because most of the kids needed the extra help with homework and the childcare while their parents were still at work. I went shopping the other day and there were non profits lined all over the mall. I donated 5 bucks to Women in the Work Force because obviously I willbe apart of that some day. CauseWired provided a lot of examples of philanthropy still thriving, whether online or not, and it was really refreshing to see that it still exsists. While it seems that most of the donors are famous billionaries, other non money grubbers are doing their part as well. Hopefully, Americans and people all over the world can keep up with this trend.

Spare the Paperwork: (CauseWired)

This was an insightful chapter of the book. I completely agree with the author when he says it is hard for causes to grow on Facebook because people simply join the cause and never donate or move forward with action. I have clicked "join" to many causes, but have never gone back and done anything to generate for help or buzz. I also found it funny that he said its in our DNA to help people that is why Josh Ritter was so involved with the wildfires via twitter. It is actually shocking that non media people are getting news and facts out to the world quicker than reporters. It seems like anyone with a camera, phone, or computer can be a reporter today and get the facts out to the public. The pattern of this so called flash cause could potentially end up hurting a lot of worthy causes. It is up to us as a society to find which causes are going to make the biggest impact in the end and give them our full support.

class readings

Of the three books, CauseWired is probably the most interesting because it is relatable. Pretty much everyone on Earth has Facebook now, so it is nice to read a college text book that introduces Facebook as a means of global good doing. I am always getting notifications about "causes" on Facebook but I only join the ones I am interested in such as Breast Cancer Research and other womens or childrens health issues. Sometimes, I get request to join "the cause to buy so and so a plane ticket for Florida" and other nonese groups like that and I think they defeat the purpose of this application of Facebook.
The podcast book is also pretty cool. This class is only my second experience dealing with podcasts so this book is helpful. The graphics are nice because they break up some of the reading material. I don't like the building a website book because I am completely losttttt! That is not my kinda language! Overall, the books arent too bad. There is a lot of reading to do so it's hard to keep everything in order, but hopefully I'll figure out what the heck I'm doing on the internet!