Round 2

So, today we underwent the second round of presentations, and I think it went quite well.

Katie started us off talking about how low income schools need a solution to bridge the digital divide, and she presented the project which she titled “Bridge the Divide”. This plan will be life changing for the teachers and administration as well as the students and their families. The first step would be to make a chart documenting the computer usage in schools to get a starting point. Then, would be to implement phase one: bridging the knowledge divide. I think this is a good place to start. Here, the plan would be for teachers to gain knowledge about technology. After the teachers were all on the same page, it would be time to begin phase two: bridging the access divide. This would get technology in the classroom. Katie’s idea of having an open lab night for students and teachers is a great idea. Also, I think it would be important to explain to families why having the technology and knowing how to use it is beneficial or important to them. What are they missing out on if they don’t have it??

Up next was Beau who argued that technology feeds off the gaming community. He explained that gaming is not a past time, but culture has been altered due to the evolution of gaming seen in faster internet, more engaging technologies, and learning via cyberspace. Gamers are no longer just the guys in their basements. They are a part of our culture. As Beau said, we are all gamers. All of our technologies enable us to be immersed in gaming whether we consider ourselves gamers or not.

James also discussed gaming, and wanted to show how people misunderstand games as being a bad thing because they haven’t been involved with them personally. We learn so many things from gaming. His argument was a little hard for me to grasp, but I think Julie was getting to argue that because people misunderstand gaming, it is holding us back from moving forward and to be sure and include the representational competence. There is a strong symbolism with gaming and it’s what makes people care about what’s going on in their fictional worlds just as much as their real lives.

Hans put on quite a show when talking about how social networks are bridging the chasm. What we got down to was how because of social networks, Facebook, Myspace, etc., there are more creators and commentators and less people who solely ingest. I think you should focus on how/why this is happening, which you have explained with various social networking sites.

Spencer wrapped up the day arguing that the amount of simulation training that is being used in the military is depriving soldiers of physical training. Although it is not replacing physical training completely, the percentage of simulation training is increasing. It is bad for many reasons. As Spencer stated, you don’t feel the pain, adrenaline rushes, the emotion, the stress, the physical senses, and many more things. I think he is on the right track with the information he has. As long as he makes clear that there is still physical training that goes along with this, this will be a great paper. He could also think about where this is going. Is the percentage of simulation training going to keep increasing?

Great job presenters!