Learnin' and Bloggin'

https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/669/141272.html I'm a lurker. There, I said it.  I lurk on message boards.  I'm not proud of it. I wish I was different. But I just can't help it. It's who I am.  But wait, let me back up a bit, as I realize this class is all about exploring the world of online communities. Let me explain what a "lurker" is... A lurker is a person - like me - who visits online message boards (think Reddit, or some Facebook post) and reads the comments, but doesn't really participate. We lurkers sit in the shadows of the internet, and like the picture above, we read and judge. Do we have relevant things to say and contribute? Of course we do! Do we always share them? Of course we don't. We don't really know why we lurk like we do. Are we afraid to participate? Scared we might meet some online bully who types mean things toward us? Maybe. Are we afraid of "putting ourselves out there?" Possibly. But here's the th...

Very interesting this week reading through my classmates discussion - many who are MUCH younger than me - and hearing their thoughts on produsers and our connected experiences. I was surprised to read how many digital natives are somewhat in the same boat as me - guarded with their personal information, and somewhat hesitant to “put everything out there” as I perhaps assumed.  I was thinking this week about how we use tech at work to communicate and learn, and it’s really being used by the young and old alike. In many ways, it seems as though all of us - natives and immigrants- are sort of in this together. I’ve seen many of the immigrant generation embrace Web 2.0 experiences in a similar manner as the natives. It’s definitely a very interesting time, and makes for some interesting discussion. 

If you grew up with this thing, are you a native or immigrant? Prensky's article this week has me a little befuddled. I'm 41, and I suppose Marc (at least when this article was written) would classify me a digital immigrant. I didn't necessarily "grow up" with all things electronic. We went outside and played more, for sure. However, we did have access to some electronics. And by the time I was 16 or so cell phones were fairly commonplace. We also had computers from the time I was in middle school, albeit very different obviously than what we had today.  So, in a sense, I sort of grew up with technology. After reading this week's article I was wondering, "Am I a native, or an immigrant?" Maybe somewhere in the middle? I certainly speak the language, and feel as though it's always been a part of my life. Perhaps I'm sort of like the young immigrant child who ventures to a new land with his parents, raised in the cultures and norms of that coun...

Teamwork! But is the leaf poisonous? I remember being fascinated with ants as a child. And, truth be told I still am decades later. I always found them fascinating creatures. Somehow connected to each other without communicating, I suppose by scent. Each one knowing where to go, and what to do. They have jobs and, I always presumed, jobs like you and I. I also had an ant farm at one point. Watching them build their structure before my eyes was really cool. But then I accidentally spilled it one day, releasing my contained friends into my room for my mom/dad to deal with. And, that was the end of that... So yeah, a hive is really neat. If you go on Facebook, Reddit, or anywhere else people socially congregate you'll immediately see instances of the hive mind at work. Person A posts something, and Person B else counters the reply with a divergent thought. All of a sudden you have floods of people coming to the rescue of Person A. Knight's in shining armor, ready to defend t...

  This has been a really interesting week. I spent a good portion of this week thinking about my own experiences with all things Web 2.0, both from a personal and professional perspective. I think the thing I realized most this week - after performing a sort of "inventory" of my Web 2.0 behaviors - is that I interact with the web much more than I perhaps would have suspected. I think if someone asked me last week I likely would have mentioned that I wasn't especially plugged into this world. After all, I sort of take pride in being "anti social media" in many ways. However, I'm on Reddit. I subscribe to a sports message board, and post regularly. I watch videos on YouTube, and comment where I can to add my own knowledge. I'm not on Facebook, and while I have a Twitter account I rarely tweet. However, I am connected to this world and make contributions on a regular basis. I think this week was good perspective, and I'm excited to open myself up to lea...

I'm a user of Reddit. I stumbled upon it about 5 years or so ago after someone casually mentioned the website to me. We were having a discussion about some random topic, and he mentioned something to which I inquired where he heard whatever it was he was explaining. And he replied, "Oh, it was on Reddit? Are you not on Reddit?"  I was kind of perplexed, as I considered myself sort of an early adopter of all things internet. I was up to date with memes, and was (at the time) using Facebook, and all of the other trendy social media sites. But alas, no, I had not heard of Reddit. So down the rabbit hole I went. I remember being somewhat confused and annoyed when I first ventured to the site. It was sort of strange, and hard to navigate. There were things called subreddits, which were accessible by placing a "/" and the subreddit name in the URL bar. The search function seemed kind of wonky as well. So, first impressions were less than stellar. However, I signed up ...

Seeing the great big world of blogging laid out before me for the first time. Oh, hello there! It is me, the Blogger Dude. The blogger of all things Web 2.0. Well, not all things. The things I think I know, or want to know. So... some things.  Why the anonymity, you might ask? Well, here's the deal... I don't exactly want to reveal my identity, as this blog is for school purposes. And this stuff follows you around forever. For instance, take my Twitter account. I just learned we have to share our Tweeter accounts with our classmates and I just did a quick glance at my previous posts/comments and...wow...yeah...there's a good bit of stuff on there that's not exactly appropriate for my school peeps, if you catch my drift. Not dangerous or highly offensive but rather, well...colorful. What can I say? I guess I'm a passionate tweeter on some issues (mostly football related). But here I am. Blogging. Here to share this 12 week(ish) journey of my indoctrination of Web 2.0...