Unit 4Computer, People, and

Social Participation

Jim Goble, Nathan Laveck, John McMillen, Sara Rice, Kevin Bailey

E-Mail Is for Old PeopleBy: Dan Carnevale

Jim Goble

E-Mail Is for Old People• Some students rarely check school

e-mail accounts• Students prefer text messaging for

talking to friends and e-mail for communicating with professors

• At the University of Illinois at Chicago, 86% still use campus e-mail, but tend to treat messages from school as spam

E-Mail Is for Old People

• Schools are finding new ways to communicate with students.– Myspace, Facebook, Text Messages– “It’s not that they don’t read email. It’s that they

have their own world, and you need to know how to reach them in that world.”

– Brian Niles, C.E.O. of TargetX

E-Mail Is for Old People• Harcum College uses MySpace for:• Event Calendars• Blogs• Photos • Notifications

• Pennsylvania State uses:• Podcasts• RSS feeds• Text messages

E-Mail Is for Old People• “Just because students use new means of

communication does not mean that colleges should.”– Dan Carnevale

• Some students feel that school and personal life should be separate.– “It would be weird if all your professors had

Facebook.”

Questions:– According to a survey conducted at the University of

Illinois, what percentage of students still use campus e-mail?• A. 12 • B. 48 • C. 86 • D. 92

– Which social networking site did Harcum College choose to use?• A. Facebook • B. LinkedIn • C. Buddybook • D. MySpace

The Nike Experiment: How the Shoe Giant Unleashed the Power of Personal Metrics

By: Mark McClusky

Nathan Laveck

Nike+• Nike+ is a system that involves an iPod or

wristband and a Nike+ accelerometer that Nike now includes with certain models of their running shoes.

• The accelerometer measures the amount of time a person’s foot is in contact with the ground and uses this information in a formula to measure the current speed and distance traveled that is 95% accurate.

Distance Logging• The information that is collected can be

uploaded online to the Nike+ website to keep track of runs and compare with other friends.

• More than 1.2 million runners have ran a total of 130 million miles.

• The use of online logging allowed Nike to learn running statistics that they didn’t know before.– The average duration of a run worldwide

is 35 minutes.– More people in the US run in the winter

than those in Europe and Africa, but for shorter distances.

Motivation• The use of distance logging and goal

setting through Nike+ has caused an increase in success people have with running since people can easily keep track of their numbers.

• Compared to the Hawthorne effect where the runner is both the subject and the observer.

• Nike has a magic number that after 5 runs people are hooked on Nike+.

Future Development• Nike plans to release an open source

software kit for Nike+.• Nike has developed the Nike+ GPS App

which is available from the iTunes store for $1.99.

Questions:• More than 1.2 million runners have ran a total

of ______ million miles using Nike+– A. 65 – B. 110 – C. 130– D. 330

• Nike has a magic number that after 3 runs people are hooked on Nike+.– True– False

It’s Not Easy to Stand up to Cyberbullies, but We Must

By: Robert M. O’Neil

John McMillen

Cyber Bullying• Cyber Bullying:

DEFINITION:“Cyber bullying is the use of modern communication technologies to embarrass, humiliate, threaten, or intimidate an individual in the attempt to gain power and control over them.” (Glenn R. Stutzky)Bullying is all about power, the imbalance and abuse of power.

Cyber Bullying• Signs of Cyberbullying:

– None of these by themselves are a sure indication of being bullied, but several taken together are cause to open a discussion.• 1. Unusually long hours on the computer• 2. Closes windows when you enter the

room• 3. Secretive about internet activity• 4. Getting behind in schoolwork• 5. Lack of appetite• 6. Stomachache• 7. Fear

Cyber Bullying• Ways to prevent:

– The only real prevention of cyber bullying is to stop it early. A parent, teacher, or authority figure cannot stop the bully from initiating the bullying, but they can help the child who is being bullied.

• How does this affect people of the age of 20(+)?– We are not he poster children of cyber, or any

other type of bullying, although it does occur. However, in the near future many of us will be in a position of responsibility for young people who may be the targets and victims of cyber bullying.

Cyber Bullying• Ways to help prevent and become aware of cyber

bullying:– 1. Make this topic a talk-able subject.– 2. Place and keep the computer in an open,

common space.– 3. Inform Internet Service Provider (ISP) or cell

phone service provide of abuse.– 4. Do not erase messages; keep them for

evidence.– 5. Software help – McAfee Parental Controls filter

both IM and Chat Rooms. Tracker Programs.

Questions:• Questions: Cyber bullying is not a big deal, and

should be brushed off as kids having fun with a computer– True– False– Answer: False

• Victims of cyber bullying can feel embarassed and alienated from everyone, including parents.– True– False– Answer: True

Girl PowerBy: Chuck Salter

Sara Rice

Girl Power• Ashley Qualls, 17, built a million dollar website.

– She created the website Whateverlife.com by accident late in 2004 when she was only 14.• She was creating a site as a way to show off her

design work. – She dropped out of high school at 16.

• Whateverlife.com– The website contains a steady supply of designs for

MySpace pages.– Attracts more than 7 million individuals and 60 million

page views a month.• Whateverlife.com has a larger audience than

Seventeen, Teen Vogue, and CosmoGirl! Magazines combined.

Girl Power• In July, Whateverlife.com was ranked at

#349 out of more than 20 million sites.• Ashley runs Whateverlife.com out of her

office, which is located in her basement of a house she purchased on her own.

• She started out using Google Adsease, which is a service that supplies ads to a site and shares the revenue.– It brings in $70,000(+) a month.

Girl Power• The website is now compatible with other social

networking sites.– Also available are wallpapers/backgrounds

and ringtones for cell phones• Whateverlife.com has become one of the primary

vehicles for Nabbr’s viral campaigns for artists and movies.– Nabbr is a company that developed a viral

widget, which is a small desktop application that plays videos and is easily shared with other sites.

Questions:• How old was Ashley when she created Whateverlife.com?

– A. 15– B. 16– C. 14– D. 17– Answer: C – 14

• In July, Whateverlife.com was ranked what number out of more than 20 million sites?– A. 476– B. 349– C. 250– D. 120– Answer: B – 349

Kevin Bailey

Are we relying on the internet too much to read and gain information.

• Some scholars like Scott Karp, Bruce Friedman, and Nicholas Carr seem to think so.

• Some scholars say they can’t read hardback book as well as they could in years past. (War and peace)

Psychologist Maryanne Wolfe

the style of reading promoted by the internet may be weakening our capacity to read and understand and comprehend articles and books in the same way society did before the internet.

we tend to become decoders of information and lose our ability to mentally connect to the information we read.

• Everything is being changed by the way society receives information through the internet, our mental capacity to read and comprehend long articles and books is diminishing.

• Our lives could become disassociated and computer dependable the more we gather and comprehend information from the internet.

• The internet is becoming our radio, calculator, telephone and out t.v.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page• Founded Google• Their new project is to turn Google into

the perfect search engine.• They want to make Google a separate

Artificial Intelligent entity that can ultimately connect to peoples brains and make them smarter by having information readily available at a blink of an eye.

• They want minds to operate at high speeds like data processors.

Questions• Who is the founder of Google

a. Sergey Brin and Larry Page

b. Nicholas Carr

c. Bruce Friedman• Google wants to make a intellectual

search engine that connects to the human brain.

True or False