We all already know how prominent new technology is in our everyday lives when it comes to being social creatures, so it was nice to read about the other ways that computers have been changing lives across the world in the Digital School section.  Thompson detailed several exampled showing how computers have been used as learning tools that helped many struggling students to excel.

When I was reading the section about the Khan Academy I caught myself wishing that that system had been used during my grade school years.  In middle school I personally found myself faced with an odd balance of how I understood things when it came to math.  With certain math chapters I understood them so well that I was able to “test-out” and be exempt from homework and quizzes for the month.  Other chapters I would struggle and feel like I was holding the class up with my constant questions.  The idea of being able to learn on my own time and either push forward or hold myself back seems like the exact thing I was wishing for back in middle school.  It seemed to work well for the students Thompson mentioned and I’m sure that it would have worked for my school.

It was also mentioned that the students would watch the instructional videos at home and do their homework in class.  Although this sounds backwards, I personally think that I would have found this amazingly helpful.  I know that, especially when I reached higher math levels, I thought I understood the lesson during class until I opened my homework.  Once I tried a problem on my own I would have a more difficult time and wish the teacher was there to help me.  By being able to watch and rewind at my own pace and then spend the next day asking questions, I think that my understanding of math would have been vastly improved.  I would have been even more interested in the system because of its use of badges.  The competition alone would be enough to make sure that everyone was working their hardest both in an out of class.

The school that used blogging in New Zealand was also interesting.  Just like the badges with the Khan system, the audience that came along with the blog was a motivating factor for the students.  This one was a little harder for me to connect to because I typically find myself more hesitant to write for a larger audience than for one single professor.  But, despite my feelings, it seemed to work wonders for the students.  They not only improved their content but also their grammar.  Although I may not have enjoyed it I found it super cool that the students were able to communicate with people across the world and show such a passion for writing.

            I think that the classroom is a perfect place for technology, especially for younger students.  Do you all think that it is more of a help of a hindrance?  I think it’s clear that I personally believe that technology is an absolutely wonderful way to improve learning, but I know it has its drawbacks.  Here is a Huffington Post article about the creative ways that some teachers are using technology in their classrooms in awesome ways!

How do you feel about classroom learning? Group B

            Right off the bat I connected with this chapter because of Khan Academy.  In high school, I used his YouTube videos to help with calculus AB and BC.  I would learn the lesson in class and reiterate it with the Khan videos.  My calculus professor was my favorite and best teacher at my high school but I still used the videos anyway to solidify my knowledge.  Without the extra practice/access to these videos I don’t think I’d be as confident with calculus as I felt.  Because of the videos I think it helped me on the AP exam. 

            This site covers a wide range of math tutorial I would’ve never even thought of.  Reading about the fifth graders, I wish I had the access to online programs like they do because I think it enhances learning if you use it strictly for that purpose.  The way these students get excited to catch up with each other gives me a flash back to other learning games in high school and middle school.  It was fun to learn because you got to use the computer and compete with classmates.   The best days in sixth through eighth grade were when the teacher let us play with them.  We would spend the whole period exploring the piece of technology we’d never seen.  It made class more enjoyable.  Now that I look back, doing anything on laptops in school when I was younger made learning more fun and made it stick in my mind more.  However, in college all learning is now online and doing homework requires laptops and it has become too routine.  It took the fun out of learning because now it’s so tedious.  In middle school it was a treat/privilege to play on computers but now it’s just expected.

            I agree with Thompson when he states “In part because the site lets them learn at their own pace-allowing their teacher, Kami Thordarson, to offer much more customized instruction” (176).  The one-on-one allows you to go at your own pace.  Learning was so helpful and motivating when I was in middle school and high school.  It felt very personal.  I do feel this intimate learning environment at Ursinus because the classes are no bigger than 25.  I feel like I actually matter in the classroom and have to show up.  There is no sense of apathy and there’s actually no room for it because every student is expected to attend each class whereas my brother goes to Cornell and the professor couldn't care less if students showed up.  The professor doesn't even know my brother’s name. 

            While it may be nice to be anonymous and miss a few classes, I realized the benefit of one-on-one with professors is so much more important and essential to my education here.  I bet if I went to Penn State I’d be a lazy because I wouldn't have to go to class.  There is a many differences between a big school and a small school.  This link reiterates the difference between both.  However, Ursinus has given me an incentive and makes me want to go to class because I know we matter.  Do you guys like this part about Ursinus?

 Relating back to the text, technology in classrooms was always a new thing.  In middle school, you were lucky if you had a class with a smart board and even luckier if the teacher let you go to the board to use to the marker and write on it.  It actually made learning different and fun.  I think there needs to be more of that today.  On page 181, Thompson mentions how it’s important “to do new things that they currently can’t do.”  I agree with the point that he states about Khan Academy not reaching out to reading and writing.  Those are two tough areas to tackle in academics and can be improved through practice.  I agree with his idea on page 184 about reading books in classrooms that interest students.  I wish more teachers would consult with students about the curriculum.  What do you guys think about learning in the classroom? How has it changed?  Did you learn better in middle school and high school than now? Do you think one-on-one learning is important? What would you like to see in classrooms to help students learn better? 

Don't act like you don't creep-group b

            Like 98% of the reading that is completed in this class, what I read in Smarter Than You Think was automatically connected towhat I personally do online specifically within social media.  Clive Thompson states on page 220 “The status-update world, they say, is a parade of narcissiscism-vapid, inward looking, and idiotic.” A majority of the world views social media in this way, and I was completely over the negativity of McChesney. Naturally, I began to challenge this statement with the positives of social media that did not jump to labeling those who utilize it.

While I was reading this section, I sat near another girl who was speaking to someone via skype. She explained the graduate program she planned to pursue after graduation and was summarizing her intense honors paper process. This girl was clearly intelligent. After a few minutes of eavesdropping, she said she looked up her future adviser on Facebook and said "she looks so cool". Then I thought to myself, okay she's normal, and I'm not a failure at life. Social media is just a way of further advancing your awareness about almost anything.

Wait. This makes me think of more negativity. Sorry, guys. When does "further advancing your awareness" go too far? Hours of Facebook creeping, that's when. Thompson states on page 231 "If you escape homophily, there's another danger to ambient awareness: It can become simply too interesting or engaging." The girl that sat next to me could have scanned her future adviser's profile for three hours for all I know just because it was something new and exciting.

 We all "creep" to some extent. Addictions to such endeavors on the internet are rare, according to Thompson, but they are growing. Intermittent reinforcement is what is known as checking, re-checking, and triple checking certain feeds, and it can become a serious problem. Personally, I think it would take a lot for a person to fall into the category of an internet addict just because I see internet dependency as many different levels.

 Most of what I see is what Thompson explains: people that are social on the internet are most likely social in reality. Thompson states that the way to controlling the potential of reaching a high level of internet dependency is to be mindful, which I completely agree with. The other week I found myself becoming too emotionally invested (yes, emotionally) in twitter, so I deleted my account. That was me being mindful of my devotion to something that is not a complete reality. Half the things that people say online would not be said in face to face conversation so it is not worth getting hung up on. If that means completely unplugging yourself from something, then do what Thompson says and be mindful! Take it out of your life for a little while, and if you want it back, it'll still be there.

 So my definite viewpoint on social media in this light is uncertain as you can see. However, Thompson really makes it a point to understand those who partake in social media and what they are using it for before any conclusions are made.

US Education Reform

The state of education in America has been sub-par in comparison to other leading nations around the globe. Currently our country's standing in math has slipped to 31st; we're ranked 24th in science, and 21st in reading, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This pretty bad. Compared from 2009 to 2013 when these statistics were created, we have slipped 6 spots in maths, 4 in science, and 10 in reading. This is significant and troubling. Reading the intro to today's assigned readings from Smarter Than You Think made me recall the current standing of America in education. It's pretty appalling that we are a leading superpower yet we are slowly watching as our education system decays. We have to do something about this because education is the single-handed most important thing we need to excel at in order to continue to improve as a nation. In this reading, I thought the discussed Khan Academy, a "free online site filled with thousands of instructional videos that cover subjects in math, science, and economics" sounds like the type of revolution that our education system needs in order to revamp itself. The book talks about how students that are participating in this online service are already completing ninth grade level work whilst still being in the fifth grade. That's astonishing. I'm a 20 year old who has been through all of high school taking math courses every year yet I could never tell you how to do reverse trigonometry right now. The fact that these kids are learning this kind of stuff at such a young age shows that technology really does have the capability to be used for beneficial purposes. If this style of teaching was adopted, teachers would have the freedom to assign videos to be watched as homework at home. Each student could progress at their own pace, with their teacher available to give each one one-on-one guidance. This has been proven to be a more successful. Smarter Than You Think notes that "if you took a regular classroom kid who was performing in the middle of the pack and gave her one-on-one instruction for a few months, she'd leap to the ninety-eighth percentile." This online method allots for this type of treatment to be implimented much more easily, demonstrating it's benefits even further. I think that America's state of education needs a total revamp and this could be the future to learning.

Group B- Naughty by Nature: What is on your Facebook?

With summer quickly approaching, a number of Ursinus students are trying to figure out their summer plans. Some take the summer for intellectual reprieve, others find themselves punching their tickets abroad, and the vast majority will find themselves searching for a job or internship. Competition is fierce. Each candidate in their 'Sunday-Best' waits anxiously outside an office to interview with a person who will be a teacher, an enforcer, and a check-writer. Their 'Sunday-Best' includes not only their nicest clothes, but a meticulously written resume, that explains the immense learning experience that they underwent with their first job at Chic-fil-a, how school clubs and community service show they are well rounded and worldly, and how their GPA shows they can crush it in the classroom. This idea of who they are is their professional self that craves achievement and success. However, this priming for professionalism does not stay at the office anymore, it has infiltrated the online world, especially Facebook.

In Smarter Than You Think, Clive Thompson highlights a "free-floating anxiety" that relates to who sees an online profile(236).  He highlights how "an utterance that seems innocuous now could wind up making you look foolish years later" (236). Which is an ever growing concern for Facebook users seeking jobs especially for college students. There is always an audience and their are always critics for frequent users. While it may be true that one can gain much insight into a person's character by checking out their Facebook through ambient awareness, steps are being taken to combat future trouble. No longer can one post of his or her drinking triumphs, nor can one post jokingly without an individual taking it the wrong way. Therefore, college students put more effort into keeping their Facebook "clean" than meets the eye. I have the privacy setting on my Facebook where I have to approve anything that I am tagged in. There is also the ever popular trend of first name middle name combo instead of first and last. As well as a Facebook cleanse prior to an interview. There is a need to be presentable and to have an online self that Mom and Dad would be proud of and that Mr. CEO would want to hire. There is less of a real representation of who people are on Facebook and more of a crafted ideal self. It is a reality that people can be fired over Facebook. As explained by a Huffington Post article by Ramona Emerson, nobody is safe. From a Doctor that posted too much detail on a patient, to a teenager that posted about how boring a job is, Social Media can be a huge threat to workplace longevity. Best advice for online expression? Age old saying "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all" and maybe untag a few photos for the sake of dignity.

While being an immediate threat to today's workers, Thompson seemed to think that Facebook censoring it may not be a long term trend.  He said, "If everyone posts pictures of their youthful revels online, in twenty years the 'running for president' problem may evaporate"(239).  Maybe in 20 years it will not be a big deal that there are pictures of a presidential candidate shotgunning a beer, because his or her opponent has compromising pictures of Spring Break 2014. Even more support for this claim comes from The Scientific American article by Roni Jacobson who detailed that the compromise in privacy that is associated with employer Facebook stalking is actually driving candidates away from jobs. Potential employees felt as though they were not trusted and that they would not be trusted once they got the job. Some, even filed lawsuits because lines for social media discrimination are not very concrete. If enough legal action is taken, and enough candidates favor non social media stalking companies, maybe it will be safe again to post pictures from the bar. Though I hope that employers stay off my Facebook, I highly doubt it will ever happen completely because it is the holy grail for personal publicity whether it is positive or negative. If I were an employer I would probably want to know what I was getting myself into by hiring a person. I'd rather have a wild party starter that has the common sense to keep it off Facebook, than one who posts it all over. Facebook is useful to HR departments and I do not see that changing unlike Thompson.

What I am curious about is how much thought goes into constructing a social media site these days? Do people feel as though there are expectations on how they ought to act on these sites? What I am most curious about is hearing about what you think elections will be like when we are of age. I personally think that they will be mug slinging hate fests with each opponent searching for the worst photo, that can crumble a campaign. I disagree with Thompson who thinks things will go away. If we are the "micro-celebrities" he says we are, there is no doubt that status updates will be spun negatively, in ways that speeches are spun today for political gain because someone is always watching. The only thing that might happen, is that people will continue to meticulously craft their profiles as they do now to make it harder and harder to catch a glimpse into their real thoughts, feelings and motivations. As for now, I'll try my best to keep things clean online and hope that come interview time my profile reflects my "Sunday-Best".

Not Your Normal Jeopardy! Game- Nora Kornfeld, Blog Group B

     I really liked the example about Jeopardy! in the Epilogue.  Thompson was playing Jeopardy! against Watson, a high-profile computer sequel to IBM's chess playing computer. Watson was designed to do something even more impressive then its predecessor. IBM created Watson to play Jeopardy! against the champions of the game show, but in order to succeed it must understand "natural language" (280). Just like the human contestants, Watson had to learned the information, only knowing the information that was in it's electronic database. After being defeated by Watson, Thompson reflected on his experience. He says that the spookiest thing about Watson was its ability to "grapple with the clever, often obtuse wordplay for which Jeopardy! is famous. 

     What Watston's creators did is impressive. They gave a computer the ability to process information just as quickly or even better than a human. Thompson says that Watson's recall is more than Googling. Google finds a page based on your search, but then you have to read it in order to find the information you're looking for but Watson is not simply a search engine, but more of a question-answering machine. Thompson was particular interested in Watson and wrote a New York Times article about his experiences watching Watson compete on Jeopardy! 

    When reading about Watson and how different the computer was from Google was really interesting to me. Has anyone tried Googling something but just can't seem to find the answer you are looking for. Sometimes I try to find summaries for books (never for this class) and no matter what I type into my search engine I cannot seem to find what I'm looking for. Sometimes I get so frustrated because Google just isn't reading my mind! I also feel like once I find one or two okay sources I stop searching. The accessible information that Google has provided has made me lazy. Instead of being content with the decent articles I find I wish I was more interested in finding the information I was actually looking for and not the information I stumbled upon on a basic search. The idea of search engines also reminds me of an article that has come up in class before by Nicholas Carr. His article Is Google Making Us Stupid? talks about the exact problem I have with Google searches and much more about how the Internet is affecting the way we see and interpret information. 

    Before reading about Watson and Google, I never really thought about my searches. I think I can definitely be more thorough and thoughtful when searching Google and other academic databases in order to get the most out of my searches. I want to try to make my searches more like Watson and less like a simple google search. 

What do you guys think about IBM's Watson? Do you think your Internet searches have changed with new technologies? 

Group B Keon J. Jerry- Ambient Awareness was Kinda Already There in the First Place

In the chapter, titled “Digital School” of Clive Thompson’s Smarter than You Think, he discusses specific ways in which technology benefits us and some nuances of social interaction brought to light by the different technologies that we use.

The section on the Khan academy was pretty interesting because, actually, one of my my professors last semester recommended that people use the Khan academy if they needed more practice or a better explanation of the material and couldn’t meet with her. She also tried the method described in the chapter “Digital School” of creating videos to watch as homework and doing “homework” in class in order for us to get more practice and help. Even in college, this seems to work. Although I didn’t really have too many problems with the course, this method was beneficial when I really needed it. As was stated in the first chapter, instead of being replaced by them, we should work in conjunction with the tools that we create. And once again as in the first chapter, a heavy emphasis is placed on the need for more writing in the school systems.

In the same chapter, Thompson explains one of the reasons that we blog so much in classes focused on writing. Writing for a large audience forces one to write with a purpose and with a focus because the professor won’t be the only one reading what is written. According to Thomas, blogging teaches students how to “conduct themselves online” (Thompson 188).

For once, it’s nice to see an author writing positively about emerging technologies and the blogging example is first evidence I’ve seen in a while of real-world application of material learned in high school. They are learning at a very young age how to interact with people from different cultures, and walks of life which is what will take place once they enter the job market. One other point that Thompson made was his point about motivation. As a student, (or anyone for that matter) talking to the author of a book that you wrote a blog about is inspiring and it definitely gives a nice motivational for further writing. Although it shouldn’t be done with all types of writing, as he stated, I definitely think that it should be done in more high schools and middle schools in the U.S.

Education from un-educational video games, now that’s a hard point to prove. Although, many people would probably immediately dismiss this claim, he did weigh some of the positives and negatives of gaming which was...nice. And of course, “historical” video games can be good but the facts must be accurate, and strategy games are good too but of course a rebuttal can be made to the argument because time spent playing strategy games could be spent doing strategical-thinking with a real world application. But…at least they’re games that require thought and strategy, and I definitely agree with idea that “interest does matter” (204).

Lastly, Thompson’s idea of ambient awareness. ABC actually had a story on Thompson's article about ambient awareness which might be helpful with understanding the idea. According to him its basically knowledge of another’s thoughts, actions, or whereabouts according to a series of information snippets, and it really makes sense. If I read enough of the junk that some of my friends post online daily, I could probably guess what they’re doing, or what they might say. And the big thing that got me as mentioned by Thompson was striking a conversation with a friend and knowing what they’re talking about without them actually telling you the topic of conversation. There have been plenty of times when a friend came up to me and just by saying, “that was a cool video wasn’t it,” we were able to strike up a conversation about something posted a day ago on Facebook. And… all in all I agree with Kranzberg’s idea that tech is neutral (225) and that it’s really just bringing out the side of us that wasn’t evident in our daily lives.

Questions: Have you experienced ambient awareness? Did the internet “create” the idea of ambient awareness within us, or did it just bring it to light?

The Wealth of Knowledge on the Internet- Group C

Thompson stance on the impact of technology on our generation is clearly much more optimistic than McChesney's. While McChesney dwells on the simplification of information and big brother mentalities that the internet generates, Thompson celebrates the ever expanding library of knowledge and connectivity that new technology provides. One of Thompson's main points is that the overwhelming amount of headlines and articles that the internet shoves at us is actually beneficial, since our brains are becoming becoming more capable of remembering all of the important things we read. I am more of the position that it is better for us to get all of the information in order to store something to memory. However, this is something that is hard for our generation to do, since one scandalous headline comes right after the other on whatever site you visit. It is easy to get distracted, and overload your brain with information. Personally, when i browse the internet, I usually find myself just looking at headlines, and rarely do I read a well written article. That doesn't mean they aren't out there, I just don't have the attention span to read them. However, I find that the rare occasions that I do read a full article are the most memorable, and beneficial for me. When I know more than just the gist of something, I can have a longer, more in depth conversation with someone about the topic. However, when I just read a bunch of headlines, most of my conversations about current events basically consist of my friends and I confirming that we realize something is happening, but not actually getting in to a constructive discussion. It doesn't form the same kind of understanding.

New Technolgoy, New Thought- Group A

Clive's Thompson's, Smarter Than You Think, houses the chapter "The New Literacies," where he discusses the transformation of how people gather and share their thoughts through the use of new technologies.  Many modes of technology have shifted from their once intended purpose, to now working for the masses. Some modes include text, photography, maps, videos, video games, and 3D printing. At one point in time, all of these were used by only a select few of people, but now technology has become a tool for the general public to share their own personal thoughts and ideas.

Starting with the most basic form of communication, text, it is hard to imagine that this once was a very elite form of sharing one's ideas. Socrates was not an advocate of writing thoughts down. He believed that if knowledge was outside the mind, than the person really does not know the information. Socrates felt that text will lead to peoples' forgetfulness, because no longer do people have to memorize their ideas. While, this is true, it also allowed for many good things to come about, such as books and libraries. Books, however, were once only written by those of wealth. Paper and pen were so expensive that the average person could not write, unlike today. I watched Clive Thompson speak online about this particular chapter in his book at the World Maker Faire 2013. He equated the pen in 1945 to the iPad of today's generation. This was an insane thought to process because now a days I can just find a pen lying on the floor. Yet, back in 1945, pens were $90.

This is where the idea that communication becoming more available to the public comes up. No longer is writing only for the elite, but for the average person. The idea that people use technologies to share their thoughts is only possible because people have become savvy with technology. In the talk at the World Maker Faire, Thompson states that "as tools go from being expensive, to mass, we do things that are more unpredictable and stranger and weirder."

Thompson talks about how our generation does "thinking on the page" (99). This can not be more true. I do not know the last time where I took out a piece of paper to construct a tree chart to collect my ideas. I open up a Word document and just begin to type. I let my thoughts flow, no matter how choppy or incoherent it may sound, because I know I can edit it later. Our generation is "externalizing our thoughts first so that we can ponder them in front of us" (99). This made me think about how Chris brought up voice recognition word processors in class. Chris said that he enjoys using this tool to write creatively. He is able to share his ideas as they come to him, letting his thoughts collect on the page.

The idea of thinking through technologies is not only apparent through text, but other forms of communication as well. Thompson goes on to talk about photo manipulation. He talked about how Stalin once used this in order to erase someone from history. When Photoshop came out, a fear was that people would use it similarly to Stalin. This did not happen, however, because as it became cheaper, everyday people edited photos, making it an everyday concept. He even brought up the Iranian missile launch that happened about four years ago. Iran published a photo in order to showboat their missile launch. What was later discovered was that Iran edited the photo, adding false launches, to seem more impressive. People began to make fun of this, editing photos where there were hundreds of missiles in one picture. This is what happens when media becomes a form of communication, allowing for people to make statements, in this case, through photos.

The public begins to do this through video as well, dissecting clip after clip. TiVo allowed for this, where the public is able to break down the shot, millisecond by millisecond. All of these forms of technology are new literacies because if more people can participate, more of it occurs, and different forms of an idea are shared. No longer are the technologies used just to broadcast ideas, but a way for everyday people to think about things.The concept behind the "post it note phase" was very interesting to me. This idea applies to all technologies.Thompson believes that the post it note phase is to use the new literacy to think through something. I never thought of this before, but it is true, now that I am connecting it with my use of technology. Clearly when I am typing I am thinking about my ideas regarding a certain topic, but I even use photos and videos to think through situations and ideas. No longer do I just gather information by reading. Information is so easily available, in so many different forms, that I can look at a picture, for instance, and allow myself to think a completely different thought. Or, I can take my own photo, and share my thoughts with the rest of the world.

It is a very strange concept how we share ideas and change others' opinions through different forms of technology. While, it is scary and strange to think about, it allows for ideas to flow freely, which is something I find to be very useful and I appreciate very much in today's society. I urge you to watch this video of Clive Thompson discussion on "The New Literacies." If you did not get a chance to read the chapter, it is a great recap. Assuming you did read though, please watch the video anyway! Thompson shares more information not presented in his book. Through this video I learned new things and thought about certain topics differently.Wait a minute, that sounds like a concept I just read about!

Our Fleeting Memories, Group A

   Clive Thompson brings up a lot of interesting facts in this week’s reading from Smarter Than You Think. I found that the topic of our memories was the most interesting due to the fact that he brought up points that I had never thought of before. He discusses why we remember certain things and why we don’t. Thompson states, “Evidence suggests that when it comes to knowledge we’re interested in - anything that truly excites us and has meaning - we don’t turn off our memory” (Thompson 133).
    The idea of obsession is what really grabbed my attention in this section. He says that when we like something or are truly obsessed with it, we remember it better. As an example, Thompson writes, “When asked to later recall what they’d read, the baseball fans had ‘significantly greater’ recall than the non-fans. Because the former cared deeply about baseball, they fit the details into their schema of how the game works” (Thompson 133). I have found this to be true of myself. It is no problem for me to remember the things I’m interested in: I can easily remember the lyrics to a Lady Gaga song or what happened in a recent episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills because I enjoy those things (and yes I would say I’m also obsessed as embarrassing as that may be). However, I barely ever remember something I learned in school after that class has ended for the semester because most often, I am not interested in it.
    This section of Thompson’s book made me think of the education system immediately. I know that I am usually bored in school (more so in high school and middle school than college) because I am truly not engaged with the subjects being taught. Grant Wiggins discusses this in his article for The Huffington Post titled, “Attention, Teachers! Why Students Are Bored.” He asked teachers across the country how their students would describe school. He cites a woman named Olivia who says, “If I ever asked a large amount of students to give one word to describe school, I think that about 90 percent of them would simply say: boring” (Wiggins). He also explains how teachers can keep their classes engaging: “Use relatable examples. Show funny (not too lengthy) videos that somehow correlate with the subject material, and make the information more memorable for your students” (Wiggins).
    My boyfriend is actually doing something similar to this right now. For one of his education classes at his school, he has to create a website for his students to use so they can become more engaged with math and literacy outside of the classroom. He attends Millersville University, and since the school he will be placed in will be near Hershey’s Chocolate World, he has been using math problems that relate to Hershey’s Chocolate since he knows that most kids love candy. He has even planned a trip to Hershey’s Chocolate World to motivate the students to do well on their assignments so they can attend the trip. His idea engages the students since they are working on their math problems with things they like instead of being bored by the same old math lessons. He hopes that when they eat one of these candies, they will immediately remember the math lessons.
    What does everyone think about Thompson’s and Wiggins’s claims? Have you ever had trouble remembering things that don’t engage you? Do you think Wiggins has the right idea about school?

Show me the Dataaaa! - Blog A

                The chapter on new literacies really peaked my interests. When looking at our lives, I never realized how much of it was run off of receiving and calculating data. All of these numbers and statistics are everywhere in our lives, but why? How do they enhance our living or us as people? What do we gain by having all of this data in our social and professional lives? When did being a data run country become so overwhelming?  All of these questions are very relevant to Thompson’s Smarter than You Think.

                Thompson describes that in the 2008 “Wordles” were used in to election and were a way of looking at what each candidate’s topics of interest were by seeing how many times words were used in their speeches. This is one of the more “simpler, and even fun to use” examples of data crunching that Thompson uses (p88). I had seen these word collages before where words that are more important are in a bigger font, but everything revolves around a central, in fact I have one in my room as a poster, but I never knew that they actually had a specific name. When I read about this idea of data crunching I realized my ninth grade English teacher had using this same concept when we wrote papers. She had a rule that was “no two sentences start with the same word” so when we would have to turn in a paper we have to do multiple drafts just to make sure that we were varying our language and not stating every sentence with “then”, “I think”, “the,” etc. This was how the Spanish teacher at the Florida International University used Wordles to help her student improve their vocabulary by making it more diverse (p89). Thus, even in our writing we are trying to use data to better our skills and end result.

                Another point that Thompson makes is that not everyone will want to develop data literacy, and while I think that is true, I think that each person in our world craves data (p91). In social media today, everything is about numbers. When posting a picture to Instagram, or tweeting, or writing a status on Facebook, all the user wants is to see how many likes or re-tweets they receive. Those numbers show how accepted their post is by their peers, so these numbers are crucial to their involvement. Many people take down posts after a little while if they are not receiving any activity on them. It is as if it is a statistical outlier and to not throw off their data they need to remove that test sample to have their data come out to a better number. The idea is actually ridiculous, but to keep up a “popular image” and keep you numbers high, this idea radiates through social media users everywhere. Even trending topics on social media are chosen through numbers because of activity around them.  Thus, something that seems like the opposite of statistical data driven is in fact just as numbers based as actual business data.

                Lastly, when thinking about why our society desires to have data is because it is a concrete way of getting answers and making our lives easier. Just like the example that Thompson used in the beginning of the literacy chapter about the election districts and how using the stats on who lived where actually made them all fairer districts than ever before (p86). So even though many of us have to learn “a new literacy” with all of the applications that can be used to help simplify everything, it makes it easier in the long run. With any marketing advertisement or new product or sales pitch, the question when everything is underway is “How are the numbers?” This question is the only way to see how the campaign or product is doing. With marketing it is hard because it is extremely hard to tell if you ads were in fact the reason that your product was being purchased or if there were other outside circumstances, but having the data and being able to pinpoint specific stats aid in getting more concrete answers. As you can see in this article, businesses are now hiring “data scientists” to help with investing. I found it amazing that there is actually a profession called data scientist, but I do agree that finding, calculating, and looking at the correct data to get an answer is a science. Moreover, the data has definitely had an impact on the business world.

 Overall, with the emergence of a static driven society, our social world and professional world are both affected. People are looking to find numbers in their daily lives in every aspect of it. I mean even this blog site breaks down how many views and comments we have on each post, again another set of small data that keeps enforcing the presence of numbers in our lives. Thus the importance of the data can be small or large, but people are craving it more than ever to have access to easy and direct answers.

Group A: The search-value of memory

The chapter entitled “The Art of Finding” in Clive Thompson’s Smarter than You Think explores the rate at which technology enables us to access information from the internet, one of the most widely-accessible embodiments of our collective memory to which people can both access and contribute information. Thompson offers Harvard psychologist Daniel Wegner’s hypothesis that we participate in “transactive” memory, a phenomenon that posits that we rely on others to assist with the storage of memory, or as Thompson writes, “two heads are better than one” (125). Thompson applies this theory to support his claim that the internet is comparable to the transactive memory process that occurs between spouses, but on a tremendous scale. While I do not doubt the plausibility of transactive memory as a process, I think Thompson is ignoring the reality that modern search engines are not pure, unbiased access points to information.

            In a perfect virtual world, search engines would comb the internet to retrieve the closest match to a user’s search, regardless of how obscure the closest match may be. This is the assumption that Thompson is making in his argument; by positing that search engines are a solution to humans forgetfulness, he is denying the fact that the internet has a selective memory as well, one often dictated by corporate power and economics. Thompson suggests that when computers are responsible for searching their memories instead of humans, “it’s fine. We’re in control, so we can tolerate and even enjoy it” (130). However, as Robert McChesney points out repeatedly in Digital Disconnect, the internet just isn’t that democratic. Companies often pay their way to the top of search engine returns, controlling what we see first, or at all. It is not a coincidence that the majority of searches offer links to the websites of huge corporations and not local blogs.

            While Google has repeatedly denounced its support for “cheating” the search engine system, most large corporations are savvy in the ways of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO can range from minor site tweaks like switching to a more search-friendly name to invasively posting links to a company’s site all over the internet to force its way to the top, what Google calls “black hat strategies.” The manipulation of the search engine results that Thompson argues define our new collective memory is apparent in J.C. Penney’s 2011 domination of search results. Search for everything from “Samsonite carry-on luggage” to “evening dress” consistently revealed Penney’s as the top hit, regardless of actual relevance to the search. This case evidences the detriments of assuming that the internet has the capacity to serve as reliable storage for our memories. As Thompson states earlier in the books, memories are useless without recall and search engines are essentially selling our internet-stored memories to the highest bidder.

            Corporations and intentional SEO play a significant role in determining what we search, or in Thompson’s terms, what we remember. However, search engines are not blameless, either. Google has been known to “punish” websites that defy its search regulations. In theory, this is an attempt to deter companies from cheating their way to the top of search results. In reality, it equally disadvantages users by controlling which sites will not be retrieved first, even if a site is actually the closest match to the search. According to this article, Expedia  was involved in a “paid linking scheme” similar to that of Penney’s, resulting in Google’s push to “manually deflate” the site’s rankings.

Thompson’s argument about technology’s ability to help us remember may be true of technologies in which the content is void of economic motives and are personally operated. For example, the wearable computers discussed in the chapter are useful memory stores because they remain unimpeded by corporate interests. However, I think that there is a distinct weak point in Thompson’s assertion that the internet is a suitable replacement for traditional, interpersonal methods of transactive memory. He is disregarding the fact search engines have a tremendous amount of control over what which information we have access to because of the inherent power structure that exists within the internet, therefore determining what we remember and what lies forgotten on page 8 of our search results.