Renninger Ch 1-3

Reingold talks about having “contact with old and new friends”. He also discusses how the online community is able to bring other countries right into our homes.You can have on line chats now with people all over the world.You can learn about any culture directly from the source.
Introduction
Some believe that the invention of online communities leads to impersonal relationships. I disagree.You can become as involved as you want to in these communities. This is the same with any social event. You tell the person you are with only what you want them to know. Everyone is under the assumption that what you are telling them is the truth. This is the same for online communities. The communities also differ from what you want to get out of the community. Are you wanting an intellectual community where you can bounce research or other professional ideas off a colleague? Do you want to have a fun community where you play mindless games or games that challenge the mind? Or are you wanting to find a love interest? Each community is unique.
Chapter 1 The mystery of the death of MediaMoo
I have to confess I have never heard of MediaMoo. In the early 90’s I only had a computer for word processing for college. I did not venture into the online domain. After reading this chapter, I could say that I wouldn’t have fit in with MediaMoo since I was a lowly student. The main demise for MediaMoo seemed to be the exclusivity that is seemed to have. If you were a grad student you still weren’t allowed access to parts of it. It was for those that were professionals. Exclusivity is not conducive to an online community. The community needs fresh new ideas or how can you prevent the community from becoming stagnant? Sometimes we also like to be a little light hearted during our discussions. The serious nature of this online community may not be what some wanted. Yes there is a time for being serious. There is also a time to joke with others that actually appreciate the jokes that family members just don’t get. An online community also needs to be able to adapt and grow as our lives change. Like the article referred to getting online as a child and still being online after graduating from college. Our interests change depending what is happening in our daily lives. If the community isn’t able to keep up with the changing technology, how can it keep our interest?
Chapter 2 – Female voices in virtual reality
This was an interesting chapter. Girls were encouraged to express themselves through an online text based environment. The girls were taught about online etiquette as well as encouraged to ask questions and make up stories. Throughout the year, these girls had “decreased technical anxiety, increased technical interest and evolving technical competence.” I have to say that this would apply to anyone who was unfamiliar with a computer at the beginning of a school year but used the computer throughout the year. Another issue I have with this study is that it encouraged girls to communicate and make up stories about stuffed animals and such. The two boys that participated in the study didn’t get much out of the class. This goes back to females say 10,000 words a day as opposed to men saying 100 (don’t quote me on the numbers but you get the gist). The same could be said here. If you took the boys and let them play war games or police games, they would get more out of it. This study steered the students towards more female oriented study instead of a male oriented study. Thoughts and feelings as opposed to action adventure.
Chapter 3 – Community building with and for teachers at the math forum
The math forum sounds like a full service site for anything math. This goes from tutoring students to helping with lesson plans to challenging others with math problems on many different levels. They don’t just give students the answers. They help students figure out how to answer the problems step by step. It is great that the site has so many different people with a wide range of experience with math. The site also evolves. It is not the site it was in the beginning just helping to come up with lesson plans. This is one of the reasons this site is still successful. In nursing, there are sites dedicated to different certifications. They offer online education as well as forums for discussions about topics relating to practice. Some of the websites are also the governing bodies of reform in that particular area. It is a great place to seek advice and information about current practice being done.

Time's person of the year: You

The world wide web has certainly made the "older" generations (35 and older) more computer savvy. Really, how many of us grew up with a home computer??? It just didn't happen. Now children in day care are learning how to operate computers. The older generation is now getting on the computer and having fun with it instead of being scared of it. A perfect example is my parents and his siblings. They are all on facebook. They keep in better touch now than they ever did before. They are playing games on the computer and interacting with their children and grandchildren like they never have before. They are communicating in a language that the children understand (not counting the abbreviations for texting....)
Also, people are becoming more self educated about everything from handy man repairs to medical diagnoses. (I am not counting online formal educations.) You just have to be a little smart about where you actually get the information. We all know that there are web sites out there that give false information. That aside, people are getting online more and more and finding information about everything.
Youtube is letting the common Joe get their 15 minutes of fame. It has even allowed some people to be discovered. It is allowing you to express yourself creatively and letting the world see just how talented you are (or aren't). It is also letting those that are hermits "get out" into the world and communicate with others.