Reading, Thinking, & Reflecting - First Person Wiki + The Filter Bubble 3/3

This week, the assignment was to read one of the Canonical Text wiki pages that we hadn't read yet, as well as the third third of the New Text we have selected.
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This week, I reviewed Mat's Wiki Page for First Person. I really like the old school Legend of Zelda theme for the wiki's images, and how you could navigate to the next subpage by clicking through the images.

I was really intrigued by the term cyberdrama, because it "describes the interface between active participation and passive reading that is a product of storytelling in computer media." This really stood out to be because digital storytelling is a hot topic in ESL pedagogy right now.  In fact, there were several sessions on it at the TESOL International Convention in Philadelphia this year. 

Here is an interesting video I found from a school in Oakland, California (2007) that discusses an intiative that utilizes digital storytelling in the classroom:

Interestingly, the instructors comment on how digital storytelling makes the content seem more "real" to the students. It emphasizes how this form of new media is more engaging and creates a collaborative environment for the students.  Since I'm not a gamer, I was happy I was able to understand the concept of cyberdrama as it relates to my career as an ESL instructor.

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This week, I read Chapters, 6, 7, and 8 in The Filter Bubble. Chapter 6 was called "Hello, World!" The main point of this chapter was that as technology becomes more integrated into our lives, the more easy it will be for the technology to alter our behaviors as individuals and as a society. Chapter 7 was called "What You Want, Whether You Want It or Not," and it talked about how personalization technology is collecting massive amounts of data about us that companies could use for marketing purposes. Chapter 8 was called "Escape from the City of Ghettos," and discuss the personal, societal, and economic implications of personal data as a commodity that can be bought, sold, regulated, and controlled.

 

Reference

 

Pariser, Eli. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. New York, New York: The Penguin Press, 2011. Print.