PROS

• visibility of the work

Everything students publish online is visible, searchable and stored. This most often encourages students to really fully engage in the work and develop deeper understanding of the topic they are dealing with. Awareness of the fact that your work is seen to everyone, even your potential employers, works, as David Silver argues in his article, as a good motivation for students and their studying.

• collaboration

Engagement of digital media in the classroom not only enables collaboration among the students and professors in the class but also collaboration among broader and more diverse range of people (students and professors  from abroad, different cultures, backgrounds). Cross-institutional collaboration is not invention of digital media and its use in the classroom but, as David Silver concludes in his article, it surely is made much easier with tools offered in digital media.

• overcoming time and space barriers 

Digital media are making distance learning much more easy. Anne Nelson in her article gives different attempts, more or less successful, of adoption of digital media for distance learning. Engagement of digital media can make distant learning more effective and easily conducted. Beside making the mere act of conducting the lessons much easier, digital media also enable better, easier and quicker access to literature, scholarly article, etc. to students in less developed countries.

CONS

• diversion of attention 

Students using digital media in class (e.g. computers, mobile phones, etc.) usually don’t fully pay attention to what is going on in the class and what professor is saying. There are so many distractions on social media that student’s’ attention quickly gets diverse. Use of social media hereby doesn’t aid to the learning process but instead disables it.

• technical limitations

Before digital media can really be successfully incorporated to the learning process several technical requirements need to be met. But this is often difficult and expensive to assure. Adoption of digital media thus often doesn’t get fully realized.

• failing to make use of digital media really relevant

Digital media in classroom are often misused or their use isn’t really thought through and therefore inadequate and ineffective. Before social media with different related applications are used in classroom, relevant, effective and useful applications should be developed and tested to really add value to the learning process.

Probably the worst consequences is facing Private Bradley Manning, who is suspected to be the source of some of the information disclosed on Wikileaks. After initial charges the prosecution added additional and the soldier is facing life sentence. After being held in insolation, reports were released that he has been cleared to leave insolation and stay with other inmates.

Also Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is still facing charges; not on leaking confidential information but on sexual assault.  After being released from detention in British prison, he will have extradition appeal hearing in July.

Despite Wikileaks are not the first issue addressed in the news and world media the initiative is still alive. Several different documents are released on more or less regular basis. Among the latest were the documents on Guantanamo. Wikileaks also inspired others to start similar initiatives. One such initiative was created by Wall Street Journal. They created so-called SafeHouse. The site that works similarly as Wikileaks site – it enables whistleblowers to confidentially upload documents to the site – was created to enable secure sharing of the information with Wall Street Journal. The site was launched last Thursday and is already facing criticism from web security and privacy experts. The site is not even close to being as secure as is promoted and experts are even warning that it could even compromise the security of the whistleblowers.

Although we don’t hear as much about Wikileaks as when the affair was at its peak, the initiative is still very alive and even encouraged other similar attempts.

The security breach had opened sharp discussions addressing different issues. Some are dealing with the fact (e.g. What’s so special about Sony’s massive data breach?) that Sony even decided to officially disclose the information about the breach. After Sony realized that the breach is more severe than it seemed at first glance, they released official statement and FAQ list where they explained what happened and tried to answer most frequent questions their customers were seeking answers to. The surprising thing here is, for some commentators, that Sony even decided to release official statement on the matter. Many different attacks happened online and many are kept a secret. Beside that, many services attacked are not even aware of the attacks. Sony probably decided to officially release the fact that they were attacked because the attack was so wide and severe. The number of possible victims of the information theft is so huge that they probably couldn’t afford to keep this security breach a secret. I guess they followed some kind of a crisis communication plan and decided it’s better that you tell what’s going on and you tell it in your way than waiting if someone will ever find out and fear what kind of interpretation of the event will be communicated.

On the other hand, some other commentators didn’t welcome Sony’s official release on the issue with much sympathy (PlayStation Network hack: why it took Sony seven days to tell the world, Sony’s PlayStation Network Hack: When Did They Know?). The problem some commentators have with the official release is that it came seven days after Sony found out it has been hacked. There are already different theories why they decided to wait so long before they released the information. What all of them have in common is that commentators believe Sony waited too long to release the information on the hack – they should release the information immediately and not after a week into the attack and only after they realized how many accounts have been hacked and what kinds of personal information exposed and stolen.

The event of hacking into the Sony PlayStation Network and stealing of so many different personal information again opened up the question about security on Internet. Among the heavily criticised is also Sony’s way of storing the data they collect from their users. Most of the data is stored in unencrypted form and therefore even more vulnerable to different hacking attempts. Another problem, particularly on the side of the customers, is that people often use the same password for several different online accounts and therefore make it easier for the hackers to access additional personal data once they acquire our name and one password.

Some other commentators and authors of articles took different approach and haven’t focused on criticising Sony or elaborating on the problem of the hack and security issues; they focused on the customers. One of this kind is the article Sony PlayStation Network Hacked: 8 Things You Need To Do To Protect Yourself, in which author lists 8 things that potential victims of the Sony hack should do to protect themselves for experiencing even more damage. And the points listed in this article (and probably some additional) should take into account every Internet user. Because the best protection from information theft, identity theft, credit card theft, etc. is conscious use of the Internet and online services offered.

New media, especially Twitter, played an important role in his presidential campaign in 2008 presidential elections. He continues to use new media and its advantages to connect and communicate with citizens. Not only he continues to use Twitter account but he took another step ahead in (pro)active use of new media. Through the White House Facebook page Obama hosted town hall meeting.  As is stated on White House Facebook page, the even was created in order to:

President Obama will connect with Americans across the country to discuss the tough choices we must all make in order to put our economy on a more responsible fiscal path, while still investing in areas like innovation that will help our economy grow and make America more competitive.

Users/participants were able to listen to the meeting and post questions on the event’s Facebook wall. Facebook then chose questions which were presented to president Obama to answer.

Although not all participants succeeded in getting their questions through and Facebook played a role of the gatekeeper, this event made decision-making process in the realm of politics closer and accessible to broader range of USA citizens and aliens following White House and Obama actions. Online live streaming of the town hall meeting reduced the gap between official politics and citizens. This kind of action enables citizens to actively participate in decision-making process while it’s still in progress and to more easily connect with politicians. It’s probably not very likely that this kind of actions will soon become daily practice but it’s a good example on how new media can be effectively used to bring political systems and their citizens closer together.

New media with their wide range of tools and features offer great educational platform. Many students and some professors have already discovered the value of engaging them for the educational purposes. Nevertheless, many professors and also several students are still not aware of the existence of many different digital tools let alone using them. Many professors don’t really use e-mail (even though many, if not even all of them, have one), have no experience with different collaborative tools, social media etc. Most of the students, on the other hand, use these media on daily basis. Generation gap is here more than obvious. It’s unfortunate that unfamiliarity with new media and technologies precludes their efficient usage for educational purposes. I’m not saying that new media should become main educational tool but I still think they could be usefully incorporated into the existing educational practices. By incorporating new media into their teaching methods, professors could more easily reach students and thus maybe better present them study material and give them additional motivation for studying. And students could effectively use them to facilitate their study.

If we stay open for changes we can make the best out of them. Similarly we can get the best out of new media if we keep exploring them and not fearing and refusing them. Also generation gap can be enriching – older generations with their experiences, knowledge and wisdom together with younger generations with new ideas, energy and enthusiasm can result in positive outcomes for everybody and in generation synergy. And so can usage of new media for educational purposes.

• to see Global Internet Filtering Map

• to see Social Media Filtering Map

• to see YouTube Censored: A Recent History map.

I encountered several different such communities during my student years, especially during the time of my student exchange. One of my professors was very technology savvy and one of his research fields were social media. Not surprisingly, we  had to use several different social media in one of the classes he taught. We even created our own virtual community with the use of Ning platform. The site we created worked as a place where students collaborated among each other, posted assignments, blogs, events, photos, etc. Beside this site, professor created another site, dedicated to professionals, academics, students and all others interested in social media. The site works similarly as the site we used in class – its users enables to collaborate among themselves, share content, post events, etc.

I was required to join these two online communities because they were part of my academic life. So I extended my real, offline community I belonged to as a student, to online environment and community. I believe similarly works also many other communities – our offline and online worlds are so intertwined nowadays that it’s hard to make clear distinction when on starts and the other ends. So also many of our online activities, which result in joining certain online community, reflect or present just an extension of our offline world.

It’s pretty much the same as it is in the real, offline world – we try to make the best possible impression by carefully choosing the words to say what we want to say and information we plan to reveal. But at the same time our nonverbal communication gives away much more than we think and even wish to. The way we stand, gesticulate, the pitch of our voice, the way we are dressed etc. may communicate much more than the words we use. And despite all the effort we put into formulation of the sentences we may not achieve the desired effect/impression on the other side.

Similarly works also our communication within social media. Despite the opportunities it gives us for creating the self-representation that is in accordance with what we want others to think about us the ‘nonverbal’ cues can ruin our efforts. Even if we don’t explicitly give much information about who we are and what we are like, our behaviour on social media gives others hints on what we are like. The mere choice of social media we use itself gives away some information or background about us – if we use social media primarily intended for students we are most likely students etc. The way we use functions and application offered on social media is another way of getting cues of someone’s personality. The number of friends and who they are give away another part of what the user might be like. Even more revealing are photos we publish – these can reveal not only who we are but also what we are like, where we live, who we hang out with and other personal information.

No matter how hard we try to crate fake or idealised presentation of ourselves on social media the ‘nonverbal’ cues can ruin our efforts. If we are not consistent with the intended self-representation in all our actions on social media it can quickly be ruined. So also in communication on social media the role in self-representation plays both kinds of communication – ‘verbal’ and ‘nonverbal’.

As the article states, on March 11 there have been 4.5 million status updates from 3.8 million users from all around the world including words ‘Japan’, ‘earthquake’ or ‘tsunami’. On the site is also an interesting animation showing the map of the world and animation on when and where postings about Japanese natural disaster were published. Beside being the platform for sharing the most recent news and reports on the events, expressing condolence and sympathies with the affected, was Facebook also among the quickest tools to use to get in touch with people in the areas affected by the natural disaster.

Source: mashable.com

Also days after the earthquake many posts on Facebook include Japan and topic’s related to it. Beside the above-mentioned reasons people now use Facebook also for making donations for the people in devastated areas.

Similar situation was also on Twitter where reaction the earthquake was immediate and rapidly trending – not only around the world but also in Japan. There have been around 1200 tweets per minute coming from Tokio. Twitter played even more important role – in the published tweets were posted estimated times of when the tsunami was about to hit the US coast. The estimations were published even before the official government warning was released.

In the event of the Japanese earthquake social media played prominent role – not only for sharing news and reports on what is going on in Japan, but also for getting in touch with people affected by the disaster after phone system knocked down. And they may play even greater role in following what is going on these days and the following days after the consequences of the earthquake are still about to reveal. General public worldwide seems to be doubting whether official governmental reports and reports coming from the nuclear plants are true and honest therefore they might trust more postings on social media coming from people being in the middle of happening.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8