Eportfolio #3

Artifact #8: 3/30/11 at 3:36 pm

http://cerutti102.blogspot.com/2011/03/artifact-8.html

Artifact #9: 4/7/11 at 9:26 pm

http://cerutti102.blogspot.com/2011/04/artifact-9.html

Artifact #10: 4/13/11 at 9:53 pm

http://cerutti102.blogspot.com/2011/04/artifact-10.html

Artifact 10

This particular article talks about the internet and how it can be very addictive.  Dr. Young, a professor at St. Bonaventure University, states that the internet is addictive because it allows us to create new personalities and use them to meet our psychological needs.  Dr. Young created a test to see how much people are addicted to the internet.   Some questions from the test ask if you ever neglect household chores to use the internet and how often you ignore stressful situations and think about soothing thoughts about the internet?  I have never personally done that, but I believe if you think about the internet that much, you might have a bit of a problem.  Later in the article, it talks about a 20 year old college student from New York who is absolutely hooked to the internet.  She sleeps with her laptop in her bed and listens to her music to put her to sleep.  She took Dr. Young’s test and she too believes that she has a problem.  Signs that she is a true “internet addict” is that she is constantly surfing the web.  She goes from Facebook, to Twitter, to looking at pictures.  It is constant action on the web.  I agree that there needs to be a balance between reality and virtual life.  I personally am on the internet a lot, but do not believe I am an addict.  I know my limits and know the difference between what is real and what is on the computer.  The internet is a powerful tool and can be an addictive one as well.

Artifact 9

When you think of an art museum, what do you usually think of?  I always picture people walking around, examining every piece of art very closely.  Back before technology was introduced to the art scene, this is what would happen.  No one ever thought of it ever being so interactive.  Nowadays, this is the norm.  Shelley Bernstein, chief technology officer at the Brooklyn Museum, gets hits everyday on either Facebook Twitter about the museum.  Her goal is to keep people visiting the museum and the website.  The article explains how a decade ago, museum websites were no more than online advertisements.  They displayed the hours,  admission, and directions.  Today, people like Shelley Bernstein are changing that.  Not only are museums fun to visit, but social networks are turning them into virtual communities.  On Facebook and Twitter, everyone has a voice to speak about them.  Some however think art online isn't really art because the people may not really be seeing the artwork.  Shelley’s goal is for people to be able to have a voice so that if they think the museum needs improvements, their voice can be heard.  As technology advances, the museums also have to.  Their wireless internet must stay updated, demands of social media must be met, and what goes on the walls of Facebook must be handled.  The idea of museums all around the world being more technologically advanced is brilliant, and Shelley Bernstein is really the motivator for it.  I would not be surprised if one day, all art museums become interactive.

Artifact 8

After watching this video, I was quite shocked straight from the beginning.  Out of the three statistics that were given about online health, the one that was most shocking was that almost 60% of people go online for a health problem.  Who needs to ask a doctor in person when you have the internet?  WebMD was one of the first sites visited for online health was very useful for getting information, and still is.  However, as society becomes more advanced, there are now interactive sites where not only can the expert teach the user, but the user can teach the expert.  As they describe it, a two-way interaction.  With the iPhone being so popular, there are over 6,000 mobile health apps.  One very popular app that is talked about is an app created by MentalWorkout.com.  Their mission is to change the world of Psychology.  There is a variety of apps this company offers which includes how to deal with stress, anxiety, insomnia, etc.  Also, their meditation app is the #1 selling app in the world!  The great thing about having this sort of application on your phone is the time in between appointments when you need a quick answer, you can go straight to your phone.  One reason why Facebook is so successful is because it brings people together as a community, and with websites like patientslikeme.com, people with chronic illnesses can go to this site to see what other patients, who have the same problem, are talking about.  What is great about this site is that the patients are the ones putting the information on there and researchers are observing and seeing what new research can be done.  The final example of helping people with health problems was gaming.  Currently, there are games out there that are specifically for cancer patients.  The game the video showed, called Remission, is very cool because it has a nanobot that shoots chemotherapy at cancer cells.  Studies show that after kids play Remission, they had a better compliance with antibiotics, chemotherapy, and overall just better outcomes.  There are over 400 of these games.  Being a personal user of the iPhone, after watching this video, it makes me want to download these health apps, just to see how they work.  People who do not have insurance could use these sorts of things to make sure they are in good health when they cannot afford a doctor appointment.  As the apps become more popular, and going online for health questions, and using gaming to treat cancer patients, I wonder what the future could be like for the overall health of people.  Will it be gradually become better and there be less of a need to go to the doctor?  Obviously doctors are needed when a person gets sick or just needs a checkup, but as technology advances, maybe there will no longer be a need for that.  This video was very interesting and it makes me happy to see that many things are being done to help people in need and improve the overall health of a person in many ways.

ePortfolio #2

Artifact 4 A & B 2/24/11 12:45 p.m.

http://cerutti102.blogspot.com/2011/02/artifact-4-and-b.html

Artifact 5: Tweets

http://twitter.com/#!/cerutti92

Artifact 6: Status Updates

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1338751780

Artifact 7 with comment to another blog:

3/16/11 9:23 a.m.
http://cerutti102.blogspot.com/2011/03/artifact-7.html

http://injcalone.blogspot.com/2011/03/article-7.html

Artifact 7

After reading this article I was very shocked.  I still can't really fathom all the ways professors are trying to crack down or eliminate the way for students to cheat.  The article talked about cheat-resistant computers, anti-plagiarism software, anti-cheating hardware, etc which are used today to prevent students from cheating.  These techniques must have helped considering the percentage of cheating has dropped 10 points since 2002.  The article does however talk about the ways the computer can allow a person to cheat. One clever example was that some students will scan the nutrition label of a bottle, replace it with notes from that class and paste the label back on to the bottle without the teacher having a clue what is going on.  I personally would never do something like that just because I would be too afraid, and simply because it would take too much effort and time.  I do agree that college classrooms allow students to cheat easier because of the fact of how big the class is and you can just pull your cell phone out right on your desk.  Every class that I am in, someone has their phone out and it is so easy to look something up on it and get the answer, while being sneaky.  Coming from high school, I'm so used to teachers just taking away students' phones and sending them to the office.  In college, that can't really happen, so it is much easier to use it as a way to cheat.  Some online classes even require students to purchase anti-cheating packages that can cost up to $150 so it can monitor the student for sights and sounds in the room and can lock down computers when taking a test.  I think this is a really good idea because it is much easier to cheat when you are not in a classroom and no one there to monitor you.  Barbara Christe, a program director at Indiana University, sets up fake webpages with out-of-date information just for her tests and homework so if a student decides to go to that site and steal that information, she will know right away.  However, rather than punishing that student, she will teach him or her how to correctly analyze a site.  This article was very interesting and shocking at the same time, knowing all of the different ways professors are trying to prevent cheating.  I hope one day, we will become a "cheat free" society and be able to depend solely on our own knowledge.

Strand 2: Units 5 and 6

I feel like I probably have two of the most exciting/controversial units to talk about: women and the internet, and cyberporn and cybersex.

Unit 5 talks about women's role on the internet.  A key term to remember is Digital Gender Divide which is the inequity of a women's access to the internet compared to men.  Years ago, women were rarely ever on the internet and had little access to media and communication.  Men were mostly the dominant inhabitants of the web.  Today, women on the internet are the norm rather than the exception.  The unit goes on to talk about gender in gaming and chat.  The majority of games embody a sort of hypermasculintiy which means sexualized women are featured.  However, Lara Croft is an exception to that.  This game is hypersexualized because she is tough and in control.  Statistics show that women are more likely to derive enjoyment from long-term gaming.  Also, they are more likely to engage in online chat and emailing.  With the internet, there are downsides such as cyber violence and online harassment.  Types of violence include cyberstalking, online contacting which leads to offline abuse, and degrading representations.  At the end of the unit, it discusses how CMC is used in poor nations.  In many regions, women are prohibited to access to media and the internet because it is controlled by men.  However, in some nations, women are working on building online communities between the Global North and South.  CMC is important for these women because it is their way to voice their concerns.

Unit 6 discusses interpersonal attraction and, cybersex and cyberporn all three which are very important issues.  Statistics show that as a result of online romance, one in ten web dates end in bed, one in ten say they are addicted to sex and the internet, and one in three view online porn.  Some reasons why people enjoy meeting others online is because of the promise of meeting the other person in the future, the idea of associating with like-minded people, and to boost his or her self-esteem and humor.  The unit then goes on to discuss cybersex, or "Vsex."  Cybersex is basically erotic messages sent through the computer.  It allows people to express them sexually.  A study showed that 52% of the respondents said they have had cybersex, 36% of whom reported having an orgasm, and 25% said they had faked it.  Online pornography is another big issue.  It revenues millions of dollars.  Cyberporn is also big business.  The book discusses how people or unaware of the effects of pornography because of how much it is lost in the moral and political maze such as the issue of the Time magazine in 1995.  Random fact: almost half of all child sex abuse is committed by parents and almost always by people known to the child.  Overall, sex and pornography is all about relationships and identity, whether it is right or wrong.