Cyberbullying

Cyber-bullying is the use of electronic communication to bully a person. This form of bullying has become increasingly more prominent with the advancement of the technological era. As a bully, social media has made it easier to torment peers from the comfort of your own home. As a child that is being bullied, it has become near impossible to escape the torment. In the article Cyber-bullying: Taking on the Tormentors, the author elands on this topic by stating "whereas years ago kids could at least retreat to their homes for escape, there is no escape for kids today. Relentless tormenting through multiple technology platforms makes it virtually impossible for kids who are victims to find a safe sanctuary or a few hours of peace away from the reach of their bullies". This leads to all sorts of problems such as an increase in depression amongst youths and even suicide. "In September 2013, 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick jumped to her death from the top of an abandoned concrete plant in Florida after being bullied". It is a shame that social media is used this way. At least in the old days you could escape the torment, if only for a short period of time each day. It is sad to see children loosing their lives so young before they realize that things will get better for them one day. 

AI and Robotics

We have reached an age of advanced robotics. Time and time again we see humans loosing jobs only to be replaced by machinery. In some instances it makes sense, in others, not so much. Robots can do many things that humans can do and some even faster however, something very valuable is lost in the process, perception. According to the article NASA Designs A Robot For Mars, If you stand a robot in a room and tell it to find thew door, it will have a difficult time with this task. Even if you programmed it to know what a door is. Unless you added this specific door into its programming, the chances are it will make an error. As for the question who is more likely to make errors, humans or robots? That question is difficult to answer. Humans make an incalculable amounts of errors everyday but I am uncertain if a robot will makes mistakes if its programmer has not. Using this logic, I would have to say that humans make more mistakes. One of them may be depending too much on technology and not enough on each other, but that is a different argument all together. Again, by utilizing this logic, if an error occurs I would have to say it is the fault of the programmer, as machines cannot act without the programs written by humans. Now if we were discussing something more like the AI in the film I robot, then I could blame the robot. My only problem with this whole thing is that computers and robotics will always malfunction. When they do why must we find someone to blame? What if it was out of every ones control? If drones are sent in to bomb specific coordinates and instead a bracket holding the bomb malfunctions causing the bomb to fall from the aircraft early, who do we blame? Do we blame the operator who put in the proper coordinates? Or do we blame the individual who inspected the aircraft before take off? What if the inspector did his job properly and there was nothing wrong before takeoff do we still blame him because someone has to take the hit? This is the problem with robotics doing human tasks when lives hang in the balance. There exist to many scenarios in which human judgment is undervalued. The article, When Robots Can Kill, It's Unclear who Will Be To Blame discusses this very topic.

Legal and Ethical Issues

Creative commons is a non-profit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. This tool provides you the freedom to allow others to use, share or expand the work you have created without worrying about copyright infringement. This is an exceptional idea, as I believe that all information should be free to those who seek it. Knowledge itself should not be sold as a commodity. Why should one have to pay to read a specific journal article while others are free? Most researchers want their information to be read and discussed as this creates new ideas and interests within their respective fields. In the article "Open access research grows in popularity", these sentiments are expressed by researchers themselves. "The coin of the research world is readership". "Often times researchers do not want to make $1 million, but they want one million readers". Studies also suggest that open access research is read and subsequently cited more frequently, this leads to more exposure for the respective works. There are also cases in which researchers want their work to be published in open access but it does not happen that way. If the researchers themselves want their work to be available to the public, why is there still a price tag attached to it? We live in uncertain times. A time in which our education system  has succumb to criticisms on just about every level. Politicians remind us that we must find ways to educate our youth so we may continue to compete on a global market with our competitors. If this is indeed the case, why are we charging students and interested individuals for knowledge? In times where families struggle to make ends meet and put food on tables, who has the extra money to pay for nonessential goods? While the limitation of open access research is not the sole reason for our countries educational decline, it is defiantly problematic. The comodification of education and knowledge in our country severely hinders our growth as a nation. So let it be free!!!!

Security and Privacy

It seems we have come full circle, again entering into an era in which our fundamental rights are questionably tampered with. In todays modern world, we enjoys the fruits of technology never before seen. Yet these fruits are not as sweet as they first seem. The vast technological boom has left us as consumers in quite a pickle. We buy into these new waves of tech advancements because on the surface, they seem to make our lives more simple. Yet we are vastly loosing something so precious. What we are handing up for theses advancements is so precious that  it is often labeled as a fundamental right. Our right to privacy is not just on the brink of being attacked, no, the war has already been waged and we currently find ourselves on the loosing side of this battle. Yet this war seems to have taken place  hidden in plain view, unbeknownst to the average citizen. According to the article The Wild west of Privacy, big internet companies such as Goggle and Facebook collect information about us which they deploy to late advertisement companies. These advertisement companies then collect as much data as they can about us before selling it to other companies desperate to utilize this information as they see fit. From the statues of our health, sexual preference, habits to our finances, nothing is held sacred. We tend to blame the larger corporations for this breach of trust, not those collecting the details and selling them. We don't hold face book and google accountable for this breech of privacy, we instead embrace them almost daily through our constant use of theses services. Is the lack of push back from societal members due to generational differences? The article Survey reveals generation gap in attitudes about security and privacy, seems to point to this conclusion. A survey conducted by Fortinet concluded that a generational gap exists between member of the Gen-X and Millenials. The gap between the two generations points towards the difference of opinion regarding what information is important and what is not. One of the most glaring differences between the two is the Millenials "caviler attitude about work place policies and protecting work data". This caviler attitude leads to the leaking of information more often than not, the recent Target disaster being but one example of this. There needs to be some kind of system instilled that insures companies are upfront about their info snatching practices, even a system that would require them to receive permission from users after the user has been informed of what specific information is being sought out. Lastly, something needs to be done to ensure the lackadaisical attitude of the few no longer effects the masses.  

World Wide Web

I think that the future of the world wide web lies within the cloud. In the article "Cloud Computing", we learn that there is a trend towards the revitalization of shared server computing. The cloud, as it is called is the shared server in question. In the cloud, software, programs and personal files exist and are stored in off site servers, essentially acting in two capacities. First, this method frees up personal computing hard drives, second, it allows for more interconnectivity between servers. I also believe that in the near future we will see more search engines popping up. With the profits being made by some of the biggest corporations in the search engine game, other companies are beginning to show interest in creating their own. This topic is discussed in the article "Yahoo wants back in the search game". Although Yahoo used to have their own search engine years ago, they decided to merge with Microsoft's Bing. It is reported that yahoo would in fact loose approximately 30% of their annual income if they decided to re-enter the market solo. The fact that they are willing to take this lose proves that there might be more to gain in the future independently than what they will loose in the present in the split.

Networks and Communication

There are may ways that asynchronous and synchronous communication may be utilized by an individual or group. Some forms of these communication tactics can expand our understandings of distant lands and the life forms which reside within, while others may assist us in taking an unexpected swim while we are fully dressed. In the article "Skype in the classroom, from York to Antarctica", We learn about an inspiring classroom and a teacher who attempts to prepare her third-grade students for their technological futures. This teacher utilizes Skype in the classroom as a medium to prepare for whats ahead. On this specific lesson, the students were able to conduct a Skype session with a scientist while she was studying penguins in the field in Antarctica. The students will then take their "field notes" and post them into a class blog. I think that this is an amazing use of technology in the classroom by the teacher. It not only provides an amazing field trip for the students but it also exposes them to the rapidly expanding technological era. By being exposed to these programs early, students will be able to maintain a level of tech-savvy as they grow, if they so choose.
While this form of synchronous communication is being utilized in a positive manner in Amy Musone's third grade classroom, there are other forms of instant communication which are being proven a little more dangerous than we initially thought. In the article "Study: Texting while walking affects your balance", researchers at Australia's University of Queensland explain how texting on a cell phone impacts "gate performance and kinematics. They are the first to scientifically measure these effects and they have received relevant results which prove the dangers of mixing the two(walking and texting). I'm sure we have all seen the YouTube video of the women in a mall texting while she walks right into an enormous water fountain. But how many of us pay attention to how many people have gotten seriously injured or even perished because they payed a little to much attention to their phones rather than what was in front of them? This study aims at pointing out the dangers of something we should already know, pay attention to what you are doing when you are in motion, not your phone.

How social media may advance the classroom

All my close friends and family know that I am not the biggest supporter of social media. In fact I can honestly say that I have never really used it. In many ways  I believe that the bad out weighs the good when it comes to social media sites however, I must say that after reading some of the articles in this weeks block I am a little more intrigued by the idea of it. I never would have thought that social media could be utilized as a tool with the educational setting. Especially after coming to feel like social media as a whole is weakening our abilities to communicate with one another. But that is just what is happening, schools are integrating social media in their class rooms and according to the readings it seems to be working. The article "60 ways to use twitter in the class room" discusses some of the most common methods utilized by students and teachers in the educational setting and I must admit, some of the listed methods seem pretty useful. By utilizing twitter as a tool some professors have been able to connect with students outside of the classroom for guidance, in a similar fashion as their office hours with out either having to leave their homes. Others professors have utilized twitter as a bulletin board, informing students of last minute changes such as class cancellations. The most interesting use from the professors standpoint at least, is utilizing twitter as a reference for topics and readings discussed on class so even parents can check in on the lessons learned for the day by their children. The students have even begun to utilize twitter as a open discussion forum in lieu of meeting fro group work. We all know how difficult it can be to get everyone on the same page for meeting times with such hectic schedules.