Creativity
With new media artist all over the world are breaking
the boundaries or physical attendance and are creating access to countless
number of records and people around the world in order to create something
beautiful and unique. A song is no longer confined in a specific genre, but a collaboration
of two or more styles of music.
A great example of such a collaboration was featured
in The New Yorker magazine. “Frontin’ on Debra” is a song by Beck, Jay-Z and
Pharrell Williams that incorporated soul music and computer music to create a
mashup that is very appealing to the music audience. Reaching even further for
every new mashup a new software is created that is making possible for musicians
to create such a mashup in the comfort of their own home. And the path from
artists to audiences is getting shorter and shorter with the advance of
technology. Artists post their creations on platforms such as YouTube and their
song is instantly reaching millions of people all over the world.
New media also makes attractive for artists to
take apart old songs and remix them into new versions. It is interesting how an old song that would have never been paid attention too is suddenly very
attractive and current and all because of the creativity of the artist and the use
of new media.
Citation:
Frere-Jones, Sasha. “1 1 1 = 1.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker,
19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/01/10/1-1-1-1.
Creativity and New Media
Creativity and New Media
It is tax season! Most people are eager to know whether they owe
additional taxes or should get a refund before their visit to their Tax
Accountant. I wanted to combine the knowledge from my Tax and Spreadsheet
application classes with the power of new media, so I created this 10 minute video showing
a high-level view of how federal individual income tax is being calculated.
To record it, I used screencast-o-matic, a popular free tool that in
addition to webcam also offers screen capturing.
To safely watch the
youtube video copy/paste this link in your browser: https://youtu.be/InQ4Zs1mhR4
Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds
Modeling
Reality with Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds refer to immersive
simulated environments in which a participant uses
an avatar (a digital representation of oneself) to
interact with digital agents, artifacts, and contexts (Dawley & Dede, 2009).
This type of immersive technology became popular with Second Life, an online “social”
game that offered participants an escape from reality. In Second Life, each avatar
could be a complete opposite image ignoring the limitations of time and space.
The concept
of digital alternative reality has evolved significantly in the past decade. In
addition to entertaining, today virtual worlds/environments could be used for
education, training, applications in medical treatments and socializing. In his
article “After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?” Jacki Morie, a
senior scientist at University of Southern California and a virtual world
designer, describes how virtual worlds have been utilized for telehealthcare.
In a joint effort with the US Army she oversaw the creation of virtual village
that resembled buildings and infrastructure from Iraq but configured with pleasant
villagers and artistic atmosphere. In it, vets could simulate walking around without
experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Another wide use for virtual worlds has been
implemented in education. For example, as part of the syllabus for BPL5100 -
the capstone in Baruch College, we have to compete over GLO-BUS where each team
runs a virtual company with all of the concepts from real world business
environment.
Modeling
reality with virtual world has its advantages and disadvantages. On the pros
side there is the cost advantage. As any technology virtualization offers
economies of scale. It takes a lot of efforts to create the first model but then
it is relatively easy to reach many users.
Another positive is the availability and accessibility
of the virtual worlds. They are available 24/7 and can be accessed from
anywhere. In addition, it comes to the consumer as a complete product that has
been already structured and categorized. A study in 2003 also has found that the
intellectual and social partnership created by technology of the virtual
classroom fosters creativity and engages additional social skills and sparks leadership
(Earle, 2018).
There are cons as well.
Many instructors complain that it takes them too long to prepare the teaching
material for a digital environment. Another time constraint comes from the fact
that participants often must be trained/learn on how to interact with the
virtual content. Also, as any online experience virtual worlds lack the behavioral
and social perks that come with a physical face-to-face interaction. In addition,
it is still challenging for software engineers and network providers to develop
a product that is close to the real world.
When it comes to the future
of the virtual worlds, I think that we are still at the dawn of it. As 5G
becomes the norm (and we already hear a talk about 6G) VR, AR and Mixed Reality
will become ubiquitous. Advances in GPU and CPU technologies will make the
virtual experience seamless. We will be attending weddings, sport events, perform
military training from the comfort of our home. When it comes to school, I
think on-line education will surpass the in-class attendance. In the face of
the current health challenges it is evident how inevitable will be the
transformation from work in the office and on-campus learning to a life where
we study and meet in virtual rooms.
Works Cited
Earle, Joe (2018, Sep 14). The virtual world moves
into the classroom.
Retrieved from: https://www.reporternewspapers.net/2018/09/14/the-virtual-world-moves-into-the-classroom/
Dawley, L., & Dede. C. (2009). Situated learning
in virtual worlds and immersive
simulations. In J.M.
Spector, M.D Merrill, J. Elen, & M.J. Bishop (Eds.), The
Handbook of Research for
Educational Communications and Technology (4th ed.).
New
York: SpringerMehta, Diane. (2013, Apr 23). After Second Life, Can Virtual
Worlds Get a Reboot?
Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/
.
Blog about Twitter
Blog
about Twitter
I’m on Twitter since recently, but already I find
it pretty interesting and powerful. I knew that it has all the bells and whistles of social
media but never considered to include it in my social networking portfolio.
After reading some of the articles and tweets of my classmates it is clear that
it’s a powerful tool for interaction.
Unlike
discussion boards tweets are shorter which sort of lays the foundation for a
more frequent request/response transaction from the get-go and might not be the
best tool if you need to express yourself in a longer message at once. On the
positive side, one of the most appealing features to me is the #hashtag and the
ability to follow many users instantaneously with one click. Needless to say
that the app is frictionless to use on smart phone unlike the robust BlackBoard
App. Twitter also come with myriad of additional futures like ads, news, links
to organizations or persons of interest. In short, the experience while using
Twitter over Discussion Board is much more pleasant.
In comparison
with in-class discussion I would say that Twitter shares the pros and cons of a
technology-mediated communication. It is easier to reach a larger number of
people and they can all respond at the same time without creating a house.
Also, the availability of information at your fingertips during a tweet is
enormous. On the other hand, it is much easier to insult someone when you are
not in Face-2- Face communication.
In conclusion, although both Discussion Board and
in-class discussion have their advantages Twitter could find place within the
arsenal of teaching tools. This is especially obvious now in the corona virus
outbreak when in-class lessons might be restricted.
Social networking sites
Social networking
sites: My favorite 4 Social networks
In today’s world of the abundance of different networks for different users and different purposes,
four of them that I am using are Facebook, LinkedIn, Viber and Twitter.
Social Networking
Social Networking
Social networking has
become the mainstream by now. The term refers to the use of social media
websites and apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and the
list goes on. A common characteristic of
all social medias is the network effect which means that with the increased
numbers of people in the network the value of the goods and services, the ideas
and shared experiences increases as now there are more people in the same
network with the same interests.
The social networking is
a great tool for reaching out to a large
audience when you want to get a message across.
These techniques are available to everybody and have been used by
corporations, politicians, digital marketers, and common citizens. Being on
social media has become a very effective and low-cost way of reaching someone
who shares similar interests with you. In his article “How
Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power”, David Carr describes how social
media platforms were used by the Obama campaign and were the main
contributing factor to his reelection. And all at virtually zero cost. Compare
that to the $120 million spent by the Hillary campaign. Fast forward to 2016,
President Trump famous with his midnight Tweets is another president benefiting
from the networking possibilities of social media. In addition, it is hard to
come across a company website, or business card that does not contain a social
media logo somewhere. Some corporations even have created military like rooms
with the sole purpose of Social Media Listening (SML). And why are all
businesses there – because that is where almost every individual is nowadays. Individuals
hashtag, tag, join groups, make comments and reviews trying to exchange
information and help each other.
There is a dark side too. It starts with losing your
privacy immediately after joining a social media. You are now a subject to a
variety of algorithms that are trying to deliver insights to their owners of
how you could be targeted more successfully. An article published by University
of Pennsylvania describes how Facebook and LinkedIn have been first analyzing
the data of their members for use in their own business processes and then then
have been selling it for additional revenue to 3rd parties.
Another dark side is the fact that participants often take
an advice from their group who might not be a qualified professional. Hence,
such advice may be counterproductive and even harmful.
From my perspective, one of the most negative effects is in
the realm of review and rating sites. While an opinion expressed from
experience is a extremely valuable, the way recommendation engines work creates
a situation in which the same goods and services are always on top and it is
hard for a equally good product that is a new comer to penetrate the market. It
creates a winner-take-all system in which the few benefit by a lot.
It is hard to imagine how social networking will look like
in the future. As we remember from the materials of the first lecture, many
predictions about technology couldn’t have been further from the truth. What I
would like to see though is the government to catch up on regulations about
online privacy and for the consumer to become more educated on the
opportunities and threats of social networking.
Works Cited:
Carr, David. (2008, Nov 9). How Obama
Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power.
Retrieved
from: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/media/10carr.html?auth=login-email&login=email
Knowledge@Wharton, (2019, Jun 100 “Leaving ‘Friendprints’:
How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal.
Retrieved from: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/leaving-friendprints-how-online-social-networks-are-redefining-privacy-and-personal-security/
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