DS Proposal

Initial Proposal

Your goal: to convince your readers (Dr. Shutkin and fellow classmates) that your concept for a digital story is appropriate for our studies of digital media and social justice and that you can manage the technological challenges that you are taking on. Describe the theme and storyline for your digital story. Situate your digital story within the context of our studies of digital media and social justice. Describe efforts made to identify and learn the multimedia resources that you will be working with. Annotate 2-3 sources as described below in the Annotated bibliography.(Not to exceed 750 words / 3 pages). (Blog Credit)



Your goal (in outline form):

Situate your digital story within the context of our studies of digital media and social justice;
Describe the theme and storyline for your digital story;
Describe efforts made to identify and learn the multimedia resources that you will be working with to tell your story;
Annotate 2-3 sources as described below in the Annotated bibliography;
Not to exceed 750 words / 3 pages.


Dominic Leone
9/30/11
Dr. Shutkin


Digital Story Proposal
By using my own life experiences I have come up with my own ideas of social justice and digital media. Through my past life lessons about social justice I hope to be able to express my concerns in this area and help influence change where it is needed. In the digital media realm, as part of the technological boom generation, I am constantly having new experiences and ideas about what is going on. I will be able to use these experiences and concerns through the boundaries that we have discussed in this class. My story will involve the effects of the new technology upon the digital divide and how this effects the social justice of the divide. I will address this through speculations I have researched about what people think should be done in schools and at home to expose future generations to the internet and technology. Through reading articles these opinions about what should be done become very apparent. In an article I read the writer tells how it should be up to the schools to introduce the children to the new technology and thereby close the digital divide in the less fortunate areas of society. All children must go to school so therefore it would be a clever way to close the divide however the problem lies in the school funding to purchase the needed equipment and the staff who are trained enough to use it.
I have also began to read blogs in search of new opinions and ideas. A blog I also read called "Brownian Musings" tells about how the quickness of technological advances is closing the digital divide by itself. As things become less valuable and obsolete by a better model, it becomes more available to the less fortunate members of our society. therefore as time goes on its possible for the less fortunate to close the gap and own the new technology that originally caused the divide. At one point in time owning a calculator was considered to be a luxury and now days our phones have one built in and they are sold at stores for a dollar. The same goes with computers which were once only owned by wealthy businesses, and now are the size of a deck of cards and carried in our pockets called smart phones. The point of the post was that perhaps the problem of the digital divide will constantly be able to solve itself. The only factor is the amount of time it takes to do so being a cause for concern.
The theme of my story will be focused on the problem of the digital divide and the access people have to the internet in their lives as well as how experiences in life affect your views of social justice in technology. The storyline will follow the growing up of a boy named Dominic. Throughout his life he has seen many advances in technology come and go and it will be discussed how they have affected his life in turn. Also the experiences in school, ice hockey, and in his family creating a clearer view point on how society should function as well as what he considers to be just as he enters his first year of college. Throughout his life adventure he has been influenced by many different situations and seen many different problems and solutions that in turn affect his view point. Throughout the process of researching different viewpoints about the issues being discussed I have used online articles I have read. Also I used blog posting of people's opinions in order to discover new ideas and possible solutions to the overall problem.
Through a combination of all of this research as well as life experiences I have had, this story should express my viewpoints as to what I believe is socially just and the relations to the advances in technology. My digital story should provide good input into what was previously discussed in class over these issues in our society.













Annotated Bibliography
1) "Social Justice | Dangerously Irrelevant." Dangerously Irrelevant | Ruminations on Technology, Leadership and the Future of Our Schools. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. .
2) "Social Justice and Technology." Brownian Musings. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. .

Blog Post #6

BlogPost6:

Discuss the readings. What is your twitter literacy level? How is it evolving? How would you define 21st Century Literacy Skills? How does someone acquire these skills? Do schools teach 21st Century Literacy Skills? What are the relationships between technology, participatory cultures, and 21st Century Literacy? (the multimedia equivalent of 500+/- words)



Twitter and Literacy, I refuse to make up a twittery name for it by Howard Rheingold.



Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture. Media Education for the 21st Century. Henry Jenkins (pg 1-18).

I currently do not even have a twitter however after reading the article and looking at other readings for the week I now believe it would be in my best interest to. The internet will soon be controlling the majority of our technology. It is important as the second reading said to begin to teach people how to use and contribute to the Internet socially, academically, economically, and any other way possible. While looking through YouTube for a video to show this control the internet soon will have, I remembered a commercial I saw on TV from Google. My idea is that this will soon be the future of computers and our access to the rest of the world.

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVqe8ieqz10

Web Log #5

WebLog Post5:

Please discuss your experiences as an internet user. Consider Besser’s article, what are your experiences as a consumer versus creator of internet content? How have your ICT literacy skills evolved over your lifetime with respect to Warschauer’s model (as depicted in Figure 1), the notions of literacy and ICT access (depicted in Table 1), and Warshauer’s discussion of the six principles of literacy and the related six principles of ITC access. How have the physical, digital, human and social resources of your life journey allowed you to effectively make use of existing information on internet as well as contribute new content? (+/- 250 words, at least one graphic, one photo and a podcast +/- 30 sec. Please review the guidelines for which medium to use for which purposes).


I have been using the internet in my life since I was a kid. As a consumer my experiences can be described by one word: convenient. As I prepared for college over the summer we didn't have to travel any long distances to find the exact items we needed. All we had to do was grab the computer and go to target.com and other online stores and the items were delivered within a week. As a creator there is a sense of intelligence and power that it provides. Personally on my blog or Facebook I feel empowered by the ability to get my opinion about anything in the world out so that anyone who wants to can see it. I consider this chance to be a privilege. My literacy of the Internet has developed as I began to incorporate research more into my school work. With each research paper a bibliography was required and the citations has to be from legitimate sources. I learned to pick and choose the correct websites that are known for reliability on their facts. My access to the internet has only ever expanded as I grew up. It with the desktop our family owned, then expanded as schools began to have computer classes and libraries expanded their service to include access to the internet. My life journey has allowed me to make use of existing information for school work as well as personal interest. I have contributed new content onto the internet through personal experiences I express onto a social network I belong to.

graphic:http://marketingmerlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/MM-change-in-Internet-use-by-age-2010.jpg

photo:

podcast:

Web Log #4

WebLog4   Where Race Lives 
In class and through our readings, we've struggled to develop an understanding of social justice.  The liberal theory of social justice concerns matters of distributed justice.  However, should social justice also concern matters, as Young asserts, of power, domination and oppression?  Please explore the website Where Race Lives which concerns how United States government policies and past discrimination have made generating wealth easier for some Americans than others.

Prepare to discuss what you have learned in class.

(+/-250 words and at least one photograph).

Social justice should extend to the acts of preference and discrimination that infect the society of the past and present. Systems such as social security should not exclude any group of people because of their race. Any government program should affect every race equally. Also discrimination in jobs is unjust to the specific races the perpetrators are targeting. Throughout the entire housing system discrimination had run rampant. The property and loan value of white homes should not be any higher than that of an African American or other immigrant. The most unjust and surprising aspect of the situation is the ruling of the supreme court having no affect on how the system functioned. This just showed that he situation on the social injustice was completely out of control and no one was doing anything to stop it under the excuse that the segregation was "market given". Then after all of the ignorance of society the national housing act which destroyed minority owned property without rebuilding it leaving many immigrants homeless. Also the few homes left were soon destroyed or inconvenienced through the booming suburb construction building freeways through the communities taking out shopping stores and homes. The declaration of independence says we have a right to the pursuit of happiness. When a governing body or group of people take that chance away from you the society is nowhere close to socially just. In a just society everyone will have equal value not dependent on race or any other factor.