Blogging for Grades

The Blog Post Assignment for 417/517

Here's what I'm looking for:

•  Find a recent study, controversy, or story related to the week’s topic. For example, if you are posting in the week on hacking, you could find a recent report about a hacking incident. I’ll make some suggestions about possible issues to focus on for each week.
  
•  Describe and analyze the study, controversy, or story. Show how it relates to the ideas discussed in the course. Have a clear thesis that you state at the beginning.
  
• Write around 300-500 words (but, if you make a video or other kinds of non-text
  content, you can write much less!). There is no strict word requirement, but longer is not always better. (See tips on writing blog posts below.)
  
• Ask questions or use some other technique to get the class discussing the issues you raise in your post. Not only should you be prompting discussion, but actively moderating it--e.g., by reading and selectively responding to comments in the d2l discussion.
  
• A blog post is not the same as a formal writing assignment. Be sure to look at the links I have posted below about writing blog posts. The style of a blog post is not the same as an essay for a course. 
  
  
• Cite your sources--when possible provide links to the sources of information you use. While the style is different than a standard academic essay, the need to be careful about citing your sources is not.
  
•  Grammar, spelling, etc. count.

4 tips for writing a good blog post.

There are some unique aspects to writing a blog. It is quite different from writing a class paper (though the same standards of well-informed, clear, and grammatical writing still apply.) Here are some ideas for how to write a good blog post.

1. Get Familiar with the Blogs

In order to get familiar with blog writing you should be following a blog. Ideally it should be one with multiple posts a week—a group blog is good for that. It would also be good if it focused on something you are interested in and on issues related to digital culture. It should be a blog where people share information and opinion.

I, for instance, follow these blogs, among others:

•  Opinionator http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/
•  Jezebel http://jezebel.com/
•  Everyday Feminism http://everydayfeminism.com/

But, those are just my interests. Look around, ask friends.

Reading blogs will both give you first hand experience of digital culture and will give you exposure to how blogs are written. 

2. Read online advice about how to write blog posts 

You can just look around for yourself, or here are a couple of links to some tips I thought were useful. 

·        http://www.copyblogger.com/scannable-content/

·        http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsWriteBlogPosts.htm·       

Remember, the audience here is your fellow students and myself, so it does need to have a semi-professional tone (though it need not be--indeed it should not be--formal academic prose). 

3. Make your posts engaging with links and images

• Link to other sources—news stories, opinion pieces, articles, video, audio, etc. (But, note that this material cannot be in place of your contribution—it should just add to it.)
• Include non-text based content—e.g., pictures, videos, podcasts, animations, etc.

Sample Blog Post #1

Among the concepts introduced in this week’s reading assignment, I was particularly intrigued by power-law distribution in relation to social networks. To examine this issue, I will focus on a very popular Facebook celebrity, George Takei, as an example of a network hub.

George Takei is relatively new to Facebook compared to many of us. He began his page on March 23, 2011, according to Forbes, and he already has 4,575,614 followers as of earlier today. In comparison, I started my Facebook page in 2005 and have accumulated 243 friends so far. Takei contradicts random network theory’s prediction that early nodes in networks become the biggest hubs (Barabási, p. 9), but we’ll get into that later.

Being one of Facebook’s top celebrity’s, Takei falls into the “power” spike of the long-tail power-law graph in social media. With so many people listening to his point of view (and 2,713,403 people talking about it, as of earlier today), he is in a position to influence society.

How did George Takei get to be so powerful so fast? For one, he has the support of several large and loyal online communities: Star Trek/Sci-Fi fans and the LGBT community. Boyd says, “Knowing one’s audience matters when trying to determine what is socially appropriate to say or what will be understood by those listening” (p. 50).

In Takei’s case, he knows his faithful communities well, and his invisible Facebook audience interacts successfully with him through comments, likes and shares, providing him with opportunities to observe reactions to his humorous posts and adjust his communication accordingly.

So back to hubs. Barabási explains that late-coming nodes like Takei can become hubs if they are fit. In this case, fitness refers to the ability of a node to attract links. If the fitness of a new node is significantly higher than the fitness of other nodes in the network, it can quickly become a hub in spite of the late arrival.

I think that we can all agree that George Takei is a very fit and healthy 76-year-old man, and his social media is fit as well, gaining significant popularity in such a short time. As a network power-holder, George Takei often uses his social influence to promote humanitarian issues.

“I get to decide when a message or cause matters,” Takei tells Forbes.

However, is the power-law distribution in social media healthy for society in general? What do you guys think?

Sample Blog Post #2

Most people consider “gamers” to be anyone aged 25 or younger, but don’t be fooled because many in the 50+ age group are now joining the world of “social gamers”.

According to the 2012 Pew Research Center survey, Older adults and internet use, more than half of American adults, 65 years or older, on now online. Well, most of these users primarily use email; the percentages are growing for those who are venturing into the unknown realm of the internet. Seniors, 50-64 years old, have stayed consistent with approximately 60-70% using the internet, but the number of internet users aged 65+ increased over 10% from April 2011 to April 2012.

In the 2010, PopCap Social Gaming Research, the average age of Social Game Players (SGP) in the US is 48 years, with 46% of users age 50 years or older. PopCap also profiled SGPs by Employment Status and while the largest group was Full-time workers at 41%, the Retired group came in second at 13%. In this report, approximately 70% of senior SGPs play games several times a day, while only 12% play less than once a week. The top three social games played by seniors are Farmville, Bejeweled, and Mafia Wars. Senior SGPs reported that ads on social networking sites as well as recommendations from family and friends assist in the selection of games played. They also reported that they play for fun and excitement, as well as playing to relieve stress.

Do seniors play online games just to pass the time?

Michelle Castillo of CBSNews reports that video games may be helping seniors to stay healthier. She writes that researchers from North Carolina State University found that the elderly, who played video games regularly, reported “higher levels of well-being, positive mood, social functioning, and better self-reported health than non-gamers.” Other research studies, as mentioned on WebMD, note that playing games can improve hand-eye coordination and decision-making, strategy games are best for “memory and cognitive skills”. In addition, the brain formulates new pathways when engaged in a variety of games than when only playing one game continuously.  

Seniors also find that social gaming helps them stay connected with others. Many seniors are homebound and social gaming allows them to interact with others in real-time multiplayer environments online. These online chats and conversations help with depression due to isolation from the outside world. Gail, a senior from Tennessee says, “I used to be so depressed and lonely until I discovered online game sites that let me play with real people at the same time. Social game sites have been a lifesaver for me, so many friends and so much fun!” - See more at: http://seniornet.org/blog/the-new-social-gamer/#sthash.kHP1gOrg.dpuf

In our reading, Video Games in Culture, it mentions that 59% of video game players are 6-65 years of age. The number “65” really caught my attention. I find it amazing that the older generation, those 60+ in age, is determined not to be left behind in the technological world. This is a great example of how technology can be adapted by those who use it. While many might not classify seniors as “hardcore” gamers they are definitely claiming their space in the online social gaming communities. 

Lecture #2: Oral Culture to Writing Culture to Print Culture

Below is an outline of the talk in the video

Areas of Transformations resulting from the change from oral to writing to printing culture.

1.     Memory:

•       Loss of individual capacity to remember (Goody and Watt 311, 327,  Burke, )
•        Loss of collective capacity to forget (Goody and Watt)

2.     Knowledge:

•       Less shared (Goody and Watt 338, Burke)
•       Increase in amount of information
•        Cross-referencing
•       Specialization (Goody and Watt 334)
•       Democratization

3.     Language and Information:

•       Standardization  (Eisenstein 11)
•            Also of laws, rules, etc.
•     Organization, e.g., indexing (Eisenstein 14, Burke)

4.     Communication:

•           Non-local
•       Mass (one-to-many) (Burke)
•       De-contextualized (Goody and Watt)
•       Speed (Burke)

5.     Individual relation to community

•      Greater sense of individuality (Goody and Watt 339)
•       Individual authorship (Eisenstein 22-23)
•       Separation from the immediate community
•       Connection to wider collectivity (Eistenstein 42)

Lecture #1: The Intertwining of Culture and Technology

This week introduces the key concepts of culture and technology.  This short video lecture discusses some of the main points from this week's readings.

[For some reason Quicktime lost a minute or two in the minute where I make a distinction between tangible cultural objects (e.g., books) and intangible cultural objects (e.g., a folk song). I also make a distinction between cultural objects that are part of the natural world (e.g., a tree that is considered holy) and cultural objects that are artifacts--something made by a person or persons (e.g., Cezanne painting).] 

Some Definitions

As a philosopher by training, I always like to start by defining my terms. So, the first two readings introduce the key concepts of culture and technology.

As we know from the Griswold reading, there are many definitions of culture. Each definition points out important aspects of the meaning of culture. For our purposes in this course, I like this very basic definition taken from a list of definitions by The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition:

Culture
- Culture has been defined in a number of ways but most simply as the learned and shared behavior of a community of interacting human beings (Useem and Useem 1963, 169). 

Of course, there are limitations to this definition, as it excludes objects from being part of culture. In the discussion it asks for your definition of culture, perhaps we can collectively come up with something better.

When we talk about "digital" cultures, we are talking about culture(s) created and enabled by a particular form of technology--the digital computer. Here is a helpful definition of technology:

Technology
- Broadly speaking, technology is how people modify the natural world to suit their own purposes. From the Greek word techne, meaning art or artifice or craft, technology literally means the act of making or crafting, but more generally it refers to the diverse collection of processes and knowledge that people use to extend human abilities and to satisfy human needs and wants. (Excerpt from Standards for Technological Literacy, ITEA, 2000)