Test-o-Matic
So, I’ve been taking an online English test, just to see how it goes. Well, I had 106 at the TOEFL, but still I had to try another way.
So I took this one : the Cambridge ESOL English test
Why this one ? Because ! I wanted to do something in Queen’s English, and Cambridge is one of those places that really sounds like England.
Well, what was my result ?
15/20 !
Good, isn’t it ? What do you think ? Do I deserve a 15 ? Can you judge a man by his grades ? What is the meaning of life ?
Tricky questions, except for the last one, whose answer is obvious.
Wiki Wiki What ?
Well, I guess everyone went at least once on Wikipedia. Great stuff, isn’t it ? Everything you’ve ever wanted to know on any kind of topics. Doesn’t that ring a bell ?
The whole Alexandrian Library stuff is great, but this is the myth. But Wikipedia is also about collaborating to a global knowledge. Therefore, there’s two ways of usign Wikipedia.
I. A reader
That’s what a library is about, and that’s what most people do. You go and search for informations you can trust, although this is more complicated with Wikipedia. But the Librarian myth is also a way of strenghtening the legitimity of Wikipedia as a website.
But what interests me most today is : What happen when you want to go through the looking class ? In other words, contribute ?
II. A writer
Some researchers from the MIT (Jay Bolter and and Richard Grusin) created the notions of “Immediacy” and “Hypermediacy” applied to the field of media. You can read more here.
Well, this is the same problem here. When you’re a reader, it seems very simple and transparent. You get on Wikipedia, you research what you want, and you’re on the article.
But when you’re a writer, it all gets more complicated. I wanted to create an article about Linear grooves, nd here’s what happened
– First you got to creat an account. Once again, you’ll have to get a password and a username. One more identity you’ll spread through the Internet.
-Then you got to find an article that has not been written yet, and when you’ve found it, write the article. But it’s still complicated : you have to fit in the model created by Wikipedia, you have to respect “Wikipedia vocabulary criteria”. And still, I didn’t try to put my article in the classification established by Wikipedia.
– I’ve finished my article, great ! And then ? NOTHING. It has to be moderated and accepted, but the funny thing is that I lost the traces of my article. If I hadn’t saved it on my computer, I would have lost it.
So, transparency on one hand, hidden stuff on the other hand. Every cloud has its silver linings.
Welcome to the Jungle
We don’t call it the Web for nothing. It can be useful, it may also be a bit confusing if you’re not careful enough.
So, stick to the following rules, and everything will be alright !
I. Focus !
You can always spend hours doing nothing on the Internet. So, if you want to go straight to the point, remember to focus on your goal, and stick to it !
II. It’s not personnalized, it’s just statistics and algorithms.
Beware, on the Internet you always leaving traces. So, there’s always be an advertissement that appeals specifically to you, like on Google, but don’t be fooled !
III. Don’t be a fool of ideals
It seems that you can do great things, that everything is possible : talking with your friends in India, learning a lot of stuff. But once again, don’t be fooled, nothing is as simple as that. Reality is much more complicater, and Internet, your computer, your keyboard IS reality.
IV. It IS a kind of society
Which means : be smart, learn fast the codes, the habits, the way of using the medium, or else you’ll be used by cleverer people.
V. What you show is what you are
Remember, the information you’re sharing on Facebook or others social networks is part of your identity. In fact, it is the only point of contact with the others web users. So remember, it IS what you are, at least for those who doesn’t know you n real.
VI. Sharing is NOT a good thing by itself
People always talk about sharing, well control is ok too. Sharing is good, but as it was written on the old temple of Apollo in Delphi : “meden agan” : moderation is a vertu. Share too much, and you’ll get lost.
VII. Wikipedia is OK. But book is better.
Yes. Sounds simple but it’s true, although you don’t necessarily have the time to read the whole book. But it’ll be more rewardful.
VII. Did you know that 80% of the web is porn stuff ?
Just to remind you of rule III. When you hear about transparency, democracy, opportunites, great. But try to think of the sunken part of the iceberg.
IX. New is not good
When you’re in front of soaps in the supermarket, would you buy the one you’re used to or the same product more expensive with a “new” printed on it ?
The old one, because you’re used to be fooled by these kind of advertising. Well, it’s the same on the Internet. Newer tools can be disturbing, and / or more demanding in term of technology / money. So, stick to the old one if you think it’s better. It will save you time and money.
X. Get out of this blog !
Because I’m sure you’ll do great stuff without losing time on the Internet. Remember that Internet can be a TOOL, and a TOOL is helping you at a certain moment, during a certain period. It’s not living by itself, you do not have be its slave. So, unless you want it to be more, you can use it to serve you, and not the opposite.
Done by the (e)book
Remember when we used to bring our CD player on a trip, along with several CD. With the Ipod and USB MP3 player, it became natural to carry a whole discography.
Well, altough it may seems like an apocalypse for some people, the tide is going to hit the shores of books and reading habits. If you’re ready to change these, well, you can keep on reading. Otherwise, press the “back” button, the following article won’t interst you.
Now that we all agree on the fact that having an ebook will become the standard, the question is : which one shall we choose ?
Well, I’m quite attracted by the new Nook, from Barne and Noble :
Nook
Nice, isn’t it ?
The big deal is that it has in fact two screens, one for reading and the other for navigating through your library and buying other books.
It looks way more modern than the Kindle, although the books available are only from the Barnes & Noble catalog, which can be very restrictive for international readers like me.
But what interests me most is the possibilty to load up books from your own computer, just like MP3. I’m not a novel reader, II’m not really interested in the new books or novels. I just want to take along with me the book I’m working on, socilogy, philosophy or communication. That’s why the Nook seems good, you can connect it to your computer and load your pdf files very easily.
Here’s a little video. Although it’s a commercial (the real Nook may not be so great…), you can have a good idea of what it looks like.
What I don’t know about Internet, part I
Well, something very simple you do it all day long.
You’re searching for something ? Well, just Google it ! The upper it appears, the more you can trust it (what ? Since when ?)
It seems natural when you’re using it, but what happens when you want to go through the looking glass ? For instance, I guess WordPress do it for me, but what if I want to appear front page in Google ?
I feel a little bit like :
How do I get in Google ? Any idea ?
What about e-class ?
So, I’m here in communication class in a communication school. But what is changing for me as a student being taught by a teacher ? What is changing and what is not in this new dispositive of education ?
In order to understand thes changements, let’s check this picture :
It’s quite rudimental, and focused on how the communication and the energy goes in a tradtional classroom. The teacher is ruling his class by being able to see everyone, while others student can’t see the whole classroom. This is what we call an panoptical dispositive. The hierarchy is based on who can see and who’s is seen.
Notice how limited the interactions are. There is one offical interaction, which is the teacher talking to his students, and teacher them a lesson. In most of the situation, the interaction between students is prohibited, in order to maintain the teacher in his symbolical position. If you want to talk, you’ll need a permission from the teacher.
Notice also that this symbolical position is guaranteed both by the fact that the teacher is the only source of knowledge in the class, and by the material disposition of the classroom.Therefore, his authority is based on knowledge and point of view (literally speaking).
Now, let’s take a quick look at an e-class room
First of all, there’s much more arrows, wich means much more communication.
And this communication is not only hierarchical, but ther’s several types of communication throughout the classroom.
The first to appear is the « classical » communication between the teacher and the students. Remember what I told you : in a classical classroom, the teacher is so because he’s got a visual contact with every single student (panoptism), and he’s the only source of knowledge. Well, in an e-class room, he’s not the only source of knowledge anymore. The Web is, among with personnal experiences. So, in order to maintain his position in the communication process, he has to have a visual contact with the whole class, most commonly through a big screen. Ok, he looks like Big Brother, but (trust my own experience !), as soon as this visual contact disappears, the classroom gets much more chaotic.
The second type of interaction is, in fact, double. Students can communicate between them, by talking, but they can also communicate between them on a specific Network, like MSN Live or Skype. This double communication is not prohibited like in a traditionnal classroom, but it’s ecommended, as the teacher isn’t actually making the class. It’s us, students, who have to go and search the knowledge available on the web.
Therefore, we see that the role of the teacher is changing. He’s more of a guide, showing us the way, but not actually telling us what is to know and what is not. The teacher has no knowledge anymore, and that’s a big difference.
And the way that the teacher can communicate with his students is also different. I said that a screen is necessary, but the teacher can call each student one-by-one, and as the student’s mind is focused on the screen, the teacher is interfering directly where the student is focused. Whereas in a traditonnal classroom, the teacher’s face can get out of your sheet !
Well, e-class room is great, but there is several problems that I would like to raise.
First of all, the tehnical aspect. It is important to have effective devices, and I think a dedicated network would be great. Because it’s the only link between every members of the class, teacher included. Just like the wheels of your car, it has to be stable and effective.
Then a more social aspect. Internet is vast, and one can easily be distracted. That’s no good for a class, so I think e-class room is also aout trust and responsability. Trust from the teacher, responsability from the students. that’s why it seems to me that an e-class room on this model is quite difficult to apply in lower grades, like primary school or even high school. Unless you have a specific software and a restricted acess to the Internet, there’s too many ways to lose time and energy on the Web.
What’s up Doc ?
Everyone knows about identity theft on the internet, especially when it comes to financial steals . A hacker get your credit card number during a purchase on the internet and you’re screwed.
Well, there are other kind of identity theft, and nowadays the most growing form of financial theft is one called medical identity theft. Check that chart taken from http://www.insurancefraud.org/stats.htm
When we talk about identity theft on the Internet, we often think of financial oriented theft. But today the most common identity theft is made for medical oriented crimes. Medical identity theft occurs when someone uses a person’s name and sometimes other parts of their identity – such as insurance information — without the person’s knowledge or consent to obtain medical services or goods. Then you’re asked money for diseases you’ve never had. For instance, Joe Ryan, a Colorado pilot never had surgery before, but he had to pay $44,000 for it.
This crime is often made by well-organized health professionals, and the consequences are far more terrible than financial identity’s one. For instance, Brandon Sharp, in Springfield Texas, learned that he had been a victim of medical identity theft when he applied for a mortgage. He discovered debts for emergency rooms in a country he’d never been to. So he could’nt get the mortgage done. That’s the main problem with medical identity theft. It has consequences on every aspect of life and future prospects, especially in banks, assurances and job applications.
Besides, there’s a real gap in american and international laws on that kind of problem. People aren’t really concerned by their health files until they need to, and the access is very restricted for mere people.
Off the track, the bad side effect of breaking your habits
What do you do when you get lost ? You google your destination ? You grab your IPhone ?
Well sometimes, you just don’t have all these tools. And when you’re used to have it, it all get difficult.
That happened to me on a trip with 5 of my friends. We were all in two cars, to get to a party in a small village west of Lyon.
We all had a Mappy track, telling us where to turn exactly, how much kilometers we had etc.. We had plenty of information, much more than we could have read on a paper map.
Unfortunately, we got lost. Things happen you know. But the problem is not to be lost, the problem is that we were all young people who have the habits of making a Mappy track instead of looking at a mere map to get where we want to.
And it took us 1H to have the idea of checking a good old paper map instead of trying to understand where we failed in following Mappy’s instructions. Of course, we spotted where we were on the map, and we made our way to the party.
Mappy is a great tool, and changed my way to travel in France, but it’s very limited. When you’re off the track, you can’t get back in. Just a quick personnal experience to tell you that one media doesn’t throw the old one in a trash. Use it both in synergy, and you’ll get fantastic results.
Best place to hide…
One of the big deal on the internet is what people call “transparency”, which is often considered as “free information” at any time, on anyone and anywhere. In France we had the case of Brice Hortefeux, who got caught by a camera saying racists jokes at a young french supporter.
This idea of transparency often goes along with the idea of internet as a democratic media, where people can bring on their own thoughts, of any kind, apart from any kind of pressure from the governement and /or the police. The best exemple is the famous “Twitter revolution” in Iran.
See that blog for further information : http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/443634
And to be a revolutionarian, just follow this link : http://twitter.com/_WhereIsMyVoice
Well, I don’t think that think are that simple. Once again, a media has his own imaginary representations that has been linked to it. Internet is democratic, free, simple, user-friendly etc.
Just remember that the internet is also a place where there is great pressures and influences to hide and control information from getting spread. Not only from big organiszations, but also from states. China restrained the use of YouTube for instance. In order to have or information on that subject, check the YouTomb project from the MIT.
Heard about The Pirate Bay ? That site is the symbol of the pirate resistance to majors company, especially from the music industry. Well, a pirate is not quite about transparency. That reminds me of Descarte’s ethic motto : “Larvatus Prodeo”. “I walk hidden”
Remember just one thing. If you want to use the Internet in that way, a Pirate Bay is the best place to hide…
What's this Web for ? 
