Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual world is a simulated environment powered by internet where an avatar is created to represent the user. Its applications includes gaming and virtual learning. In the virtual world, people can communicate with others and explore different roles. 

Virtual world allows users to socialize with other people who shares a common interest as well as to allow people to express their imagination. According to the article "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" Minecraft is a virtual world that allows kids to exercise their imagination and to connect with others who also want to build and create things. It allows people to explore their creativity and share it with others. However, virtual worlds may take more of users's time that would have been used for other productive activities. Other concerns are the possibility of money laundering and children's well-beings in online worlds (The Washington Post).

Virtual worlds help foster creativity by encouraging users to explore. According to the article "Avatar II: The Hospital" Dozens of hospital, medical schools and health foundations have stake out space in the online community Second Life, where participants can build their own virtual clinics and stage just about any training drill. With the creativity of virtual clinical, Nurses and doctors can explore different scenarios that they may face in real life. 

As of today, we have seen increasing use of virtual learning websites that help medical students to apply their knowledge to examine the assigned virtual patients. More variations of its application will just be derived from the demanding needs in different aspects of life. 

Sources
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/01/ST2008040103032.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703909804575124470868041204

Blog about Twitter

Twitter only allows simple discussions. And because it only allows up to 140 characters in a tweet, it has to be mainly relevant to the topic, otherwise, one has to post more than one tweet. However, it is more convenient in terms of getting notice about replies and updates of others than a blackboard discussion, in other words, it is more interactive and fun, because one can participate in a topic discussion by typing a # ahead his tweet, others can also leave comments to a specific person by typing a @ in front of a user name.

A blackboard discussion is similar to a twitter discussion except it has no character limits. It takes some amount of skills and time to navigate its less user-friendly interface. Compared to a twitter discussion, it encourage user to express idea without having to trim it down to 140 characters and in a detailed manner. One major disadvantage is that users do not get notices about others' comments on their posts such that it is much less interactive.

There is nothing comparable to an in-class discussion in that it is more interactive than any other social networking sites. In-class discussions do create the most natural and engaging environment because it requires the most attention. Discussing about a controversial topic in-class vs. online will always differ. In-class discussion provides a more intimate environment.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook

I created my  Facebook account back in 2008. I am using it more often than I used to.  I mainly use it to stay connected with friends and entertain myself with interesting videos. Facebook is a social networking site that allows you to posts statuses, post your location, and post pictures. You can privately message people or publicly post on their wall. You can also tag people in pictures and videos.

Twitter

I signed up for an twitter account just two days ago solely for the purpose of this class.  Twitter is a social networking site that is faster paced than Facebook. It enables people to send and receive messages up to 140 characters.  I feel it is harder to use because of the number of characters allowed. If you want to know trending topics from all around the world you can find hashtag and read what other people think about the topic. What I find very appealing is that you can actually communicate with celebrities.

Myspace

I had stopped using Myspace for a long period of time. My impression about Myspace is that allows users to share interests in music and creativity by uploading music and customizing your page with html coding. It is more of a blog to share stories about yourself than to connect with friends. 

Pinterest

I just found out there is a social networking site called Pinterest. By clicking here and there I kind of get an idea that Pinterest is a social networking site that allows you to pick topics you are interested in. It then generates picture icons based on your interests. You can also search things you are interested in, favorite them, and organize them into your own categories.

Social Networking

Social networking technology is a novel way for people to socialize with one another. Friends and families share their aspects of life using various kinds of technology. On the other hand, corporations use these social networking technologies to generate revenue by posting advertisments about the services they provide and promotional sales. Often, corporations reward users who complete surveys or polls so as to improve their products and services.

One of the benefits social networking technologies offers society is bridging job recruiters to potential applications. In his article Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting, Langfitt states that “social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting ever.” Job recruiters are now using social network site such as Linkedin, Monster, indeed to find candidates that fit the profile. Recruiters nowadays do not have to read throught numerous resumes in order to find potential candidates. Typing keywords in the search engine leads recruiters to the resumes with the skillsets they are looking for. However, there is a dark side to social networking technologies. The loss of privacy is the most concerning disadvantage about social networking technology. Credit card and e-commerce companies often trade client information collected from social networking sites in order to target their products and services to them. Another safety concern is identity theft. Users are often face the threat of losing their identites to interested parties no matter how well protected the information is. Cyber bullying is another risk of social networking technology. In Young' s article They’re Back, and They’re Bad: Campus-Gossip Web Sites,” he states that “Students have more ways than ever to post anonymous attacks on classmates.” Back in the days, students were bullied at school, but with the emergence of social networking technology they get bullied even when they are offline and the damage could be more serious. In my opinion, social networking technologies are going to evolve to fit more people’s needs. Nowadays, more peoples are using Instagram and Twitter because they require less personal information making them less vulnerable to identity thefts.     

Sources

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

http://chronicle.com/article/Theyre-BackTheyre-B/48220/

Blog v Wiki

Blogs and Wikis both enable communication of information by a person or a group. Both blog and wiki are an example of new media. Blog and wiki provide a platform for feedback. Difference is, viewers can post comments on a blog post. Whereas, Wiki enables users to edit the page collaboratively. 

According to Grill, “some analysts suggest that blogs are poised to be the next generation opinion/editorial page.” Blog are usually created by a single author who shares their opinion on a topic or subject. Whereas, wiki are created by multiple authors who are sharing their knowledge on a topic of the subject. In his article Wikipedia: No Longer the Wild West?, Sutter states that Wikipedia will assign editors to approve public edits for some of its entries, such that the information on the Wikipedia is becoming more reliable.  Blogs are usually updated intermittently. But wikis are updated all hours in a day since multiple authors can edit the page. Moreover, Blogs are meant for one-to-many communications, Wikis on the other hand are intended for many-to-many communication. 

The word convergence suggests providing a platform for people to share their knowledge and opinions with other people. In today’s networked world convergence plays an important role because people often can find an answer to a question by searching the topic through search engines. According to the article A Rorschach Cheat Sheet on Wikipedia?Rorschach pictures and common responses for each picture can be found on Wikipedia. Blogs can be used for collaboration between bloggers, where bloggers help each other to promote their blogs. Bloggers can collaborate by writing a post together by sharing their opinions on a topic. Just like how YouTubers collaborate with one another by showing up in other YouTubers' video.

A new use for the wiki is to collaborate with other social media. Wikipedia can collaborate with YouTube so as to display YouTube video on their pages.

Sources:
http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/www2004_blogosphere_gill.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/technology/internet/29inkblot.html?ref=business