Traditional media like television is hierarchical, top-down, and randomness of content was minimized. Internet is then just the opposite and Internet has been one of the most rapidly adopted communication technologies. The Internet now brings together over 30 million people on-line worldwide, inviting an average of 150,685 new users per day, or 1.74 per second. By 2000, 250 million people will have access to the Internet (Killen & Associates, 1996) .
It is the fact that internet is the new era. From my perspectives, there are two major differences between the culture of the internet and the culture of mass media. The one is: the internet is more interactive that viewers have the right to select what to receive, but the old media like TV and radio is top-down that you have comparatively limited choices. The other is: the internet almost circles the globe, and virtual location in cyberspace depends more on information than physical geography, with its users connecting through thoughts and interests across any and all boundaries.
It is the fact that the Internet has become a revolutionary tool for communication among the computer savvy individuals of the modern world. In contrast to the traditional form of communicating face-to-face, a majority of Internet users utilize the feature of computer-mediated Communication (CMC) ways to talk to their various relations.
Today, computers users can listen and watch both live and recorded news and sports reports from sources as ABC, CBS, ESPN, and NBC. Also, there are over 2,400 radio stations around the world that are already sending there programming out by way of the Internet, allowing people to tune in with the click of a mouse. This new technology boosts their ranks of listeners and also allows them to sell more advertising. Next, unlike printed version, one positive effect that the Internet has had on journalism is the ability to get information out to audiences quicker.
However, sometimes the positive things could also be the negative things. Much of the information that is on the Internet is not as accurate as the information that can be obtained from a newspaper or a news broadcast. In the United States, it is virtually impossible for the government to regulate the Internet because of its enormous size. Besides, I think many people are still more comfortable with the traditional forms of mass media. People are more comfortable with sitting down and reading the newspaper or a magazine or turning on the television to see the news. Most people do not turn to the Internet when they want to learn about a recent news story.
As a secondary school teacher, I have found that students are eager to CMC. Not infrequently, my students enjoy chatting through ICQ or MSN, playing online games and joining online groups. It seems that participants disclose more than they do in face-to-face situations.
Actually, CMC has become a revolutionary, novel, and widely popular form of communication. As opposed to talking directly to someone, CMC allows individuals to communicate in enhanced, desired, and controlled environments. Individuals are capable of targeting not only whom they converse and socialize with, but also how they want to be perceived. On the other hand, face-to-face interaction can be perceived to be more “daunting” because there is no such wall of security in contrast to the computer mediated tool.
Not allowing students to use CMC tools is something impossible. The more practical way is to make use of it and that may help arouse students’ interests in learning. Furthermore, guiding students to conceive, analyze and judge information from the internet is a must. Most importantly, students must learn how to create their own works and communicate with others by expressing their own ideas.
A community is a group of like-minded people. You are probably part of several different communities – the town/village where you live, the place where you work or study, a group of friends with whom you play sport or other hobby activity, and your church fellowship.
A community of people usually has most of these characteristics:
shared interests
shared values
shared problems/enemies
mutually supportive
intimacy
physical face-to-face interaction at specific times
A successful online fans club, more or less, is the same as a real community, and sometimes the groupness and conformity of it is even more noticeable than you expect. Maybe one of the reason help create the group’s conformity is that time and location are no longer relevant and you can share as much or little of yourself as you wish, without being judged.
Actually, online fans club which permits visitors to contribute content is potentially building community and a high level of trust. The more or meaningful content you contribute, the more scores you obtain for getting permits to view or download bonus pictures or videos from the authorized administrators. That helps encourage you to get sticky to the community.
To have a sense of community, a website needs to be welcoming and non-condemning. It must meet people where they are, and demonstrate an understanding of their feelings and problems. They must feel that they somehow 'belong' to the site, and can also offer their own feedback and opinions as well as receive advice.
By the way, it is discovered that some psychology and sociology theories can be applied in online fans club’s community, but some cannot.
Hyperpersonality theory Chen and Gaines (1998) argued that developing a positive self-image is one motivation for participating in reciprocal Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) relationships because it allows you to publicize your expertise, position yourself in the virtual community. It is quite true that online fans club participants always contribute content towards their idols when they come across their idols’ news. It seems that they are the experts in this particular field. They are willing to share that may help them to enhance their self-identity and image.
Cues-filtered-out theory Cues-filtered-out theory assumes that CMC relationships lack social or context cues. It may easily lead to antisocial or impersonal behaviors and increase in uninhibited behavior patterns such as flaming in online interactions. However, the above-mentioned situations are not noticeable in online fans club. Maybe they have already built up the sense of belonging to the community that few of them want to ruin the orders. Or the system management team is efficient enough to delete any unwanted messages posted when found.
Social Exchange theory Social Exchange theory in CMC means that people contribute content because they want to receive a benefit (get something to exchange). Actually, the benefit is not necessary a real object. The reciprocal rewards can be some feedback messages that show people’s appreciation, praise or respect the content contributors. These interactions then make message posted cycle continue.
Para-social Interaction/relationship (PSI) theory Horton & Wohl (1956) implicated agreement between the performer and viewer that they will pretend the relationship is not mediated – as though it were a face-to-face encounter, just like a media friend. However, the situation is not noticeable in online fans club because, unlike TV, there is not a role player or actor in online fans club. But the active participant will show their sorrows after the recovery of the online fan club’s server down. The situation is just like a person who meets his buddy whom he doesn’t meet each other for a long time.
Social Identification/Deindividuation (SIDE) theory Postmes, Spears, and Lea (1998, 2000) stated that online participants will assume that other people are similar to themselves and that they share comparable norms and characteristics. SIDE theory seems more applicable to online fans club. Basically, online fans club participants have similar norms (they have the same idols). When communicators share a common social identity, they appear to be more susceptible to group influence, social attraction, stereotyping, gender typing, and discrimination in anonymous CMC.
All in all, Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) has already developed maturely. A large population of people is familiar with CMC. The phenomena of groupness, conformity and polarization are not infrequent in online fans club. In fact, the successful one has formed the sense of belonging to the virtual community, just like a community in the real society.
From my perspective, art was easier to define before Impressionism. It was the fact that so-called 'good’ art pieces, more or less, followed some traditionally accepted rules like proportion, perspective, golden section, textures and tones. Generally, if one’s painting looked real, one would probably have created a ‘good’ art piece. But soon afterwards, the invention of photography changed this perception.
Art and Photography The first photographic images (new media in this era) were taken around the year 1840, and sparked a revolution in how people dealt with images as communication. Impressionism represents a very significant break from the previous style of painting. (Before Impressionism, only realistic paintings were traditionally accepted.) Not long afterwards, abstract art also began to be painted. Images, lines, shapes, and accuracy in general were forfeited in favour of the new forms. Painters of the time might have felt that the new technology called 'photography' could do it much better, quicker and less expensively than they could. That was why they didn't bother competing.
Obviously, the new techniques and new ideas continued. Marcel Duchamp sent a ready-made enamel urinal to a 1917 juried exhibition in New York. The piece, called Fountain, was rejected by the jury but eventually went on to become the most famous of all works of conceptual art.
Within a few decades of this era, not only the type of creativity and vision found in Impressionism was evident, but also the rise of Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Abstract Art, Pop art, Conceptual art and to name a few.
Art and New Media Undoubtedly, photography brought a huge impact to artists in the era. Some artists chose not to compete with it, and some chose to adopt and make use of it. Then, what about the new era? If there is anything that distinguishes the twentieth century from all previous eras, it is our communications. The electronic storage mediums, TV, movie, Internet and so forth have changed the role of traditional accepted art.
In the past, the critics, the academics, the art historians, the museum curators, the gallery owners, the editors et al., had the authority to define art or credit an art piece a masterpiece. However, some artists started to doubt whether institutionalised museums were the only place to get recognition for their works. As technologies have improved, online museum is becoming popular. As a matter of fact, it is not necessary to get recognition from institutionalized museums or galleries. Almost anyone who has some knowledge of the Internet could upload his works to his virtual with only a small budget. Sometimes, the impact of an online gallery could be even deeper and more far-reaching. New media including mobile phones, the Internet, streaming technologies, wireless networks, and the high quality publishing and information sharing capacities of the World Wide Web make both geographical and media boundaries inconsequential.
Maybe art could be much easier to define before Impressionism. However, I would rather not define art clearly and leave room for imagination. Art should be a lot of fun and more avant-garde as challenging ideas certainly help inspire people's creativity.
Abstract: This article mainly addresses the Hong Kong new Information Technology in Education policy to have further integration of information technology into the learning and teaching process, particularly on the design of IT-supported inquiry learning in the primary General Studies. The article focuses on the collaborative effort of the teacher educators from the Institute of Education and the curriculum developers of the Hong Kong Education City in the design of a web-based learning unit on “Earth Movement” to support pupils’ inquiry learning of science. The article discusses the different modes of inquiry learning with the web-based learning unit in primary General Studies
So Wing-mui, Winnie The Hong Kong Institute of Education
Kong Siu-cheung The Hong Kong Institute of Education
Leung Wai-chi, Toby Hong Kong Education City
Posted by Chitat Chan Media Education i-World, Hkedcity
講者將會分享佛教黃允畋中學如何在正規課程內，透過數碼媒體創作進行電腦科及視覺藝術科之跨科協作教學經驗。講者將就其校內發展數碼媒體創作的理念，分享該校有關數碼媒體創作的校本課程設計及策略，並透過協助學生建立原創性的個人多媒體創作檔案(Creative Media Portfolio)，鼓勵學生善用資訊科技表達自己的意念。席間，將會展示該校學生部份數碼媒體創作成果。
Creative Media has been a school-based curriculum at SPCS since 2000. The aim of this programme is to enable students to develop critical thinking and creative expression in the new media environment. A key feature of this programme is it helps students integrate their socio-cultural concerns with their media production skills, presenting a spiralling learning cycle.
Outline of Creative Media Curriculum 2005-2006 1st Draft 2005 09 01; Last update 2006 06 22
RDN Virtual Training Suite - a set of free online tutorials designed to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Information literacy. You can work in your own time at your own pace. It may be a useful model for designing learning resources for the Liberal Studies Curriculum (esp the Independent Enquiry Study module) in Hong Kong.
Posted by Chitat Chan Media Education i-World, Hkedcity
Moving Images in the Classroom is a secondary teachers' guide developed by the British Film Institute. It uses various types of media, outlining basic techniques and practical activities for the study of media in the classroom which are mapped on to various curriculum subjects.
