Final posting on JOUR289I

The Info 3.0 course was an eye opening course for someone who previously had very little use of computers/technology while in class. The majority of courses I have taken in college were taught in a more traditional type setting. The traditional setting I am speaking of is the class where the professor writes on the white board, usually information that is straight from the text book, and the students take notes. Once the class time is up, I have rarely had opportunities, past ELMS and webassign, to use technology as a learning aid.

This course revealed a completely different side of education that I believe many are not aware of. The ability to use twitter, blogs, and many of the other new media devices (especially audioboo) allowed the class to remain more in our element, rather than what seems like a return to high school when watching our professors regurgitate information that we can read. Our generation has grown up with the great expansion of technology over the last decade, and are usually more comfortable using forms of technology to complete assignments than the old fashion ways. As more and more of these courses are developed, I believe students will respond more positively to education due to the fact they will not be merely listening to the professor but will be interacting with the class and information as a whole.

After taking this course I will encourage my peers to seek these classes to take, classes that make a better use of technology in and outside of the classroom. Those who have not experienced a class that takes advantage of the various forms of media and social networking that universities offer may have catching up to do as society becomes more interconnected. My peers and I have been exposed not only to many forms of media but have used them in a productive manner.

I knew of twitter before joining the class, as everyone not living under a rock does, but I thought it was a way of following celebrities and friends. I did not think Twitter had any way of being used productively. Having to use a twitter account for this class changed my mind about twitter for life. In the three months that I have used twitter; I have found it to be one of the quickest ways of getting news and other important information on current events, as well as a social network that I believe can surpass Facebook (just because of its simplicity). The site/application audioboo.fm was another tool used in class that I previously had little knowledge of. For those reading who are not familiar with this app, it allows the user to quickly record interviews or speeches and quickly post them online on the audioboo site, twitter, or even facebook.

This course, overall, has given me a greater appreciation for how great an impact technology can have on not only education, but society as a whole. I hope more courses that take advantage of using technology are created because I believe it will help keep students intrigued and productive in the classroom.   

Future of Education

We have witnessed, over the last couple decades, the rise of the technology era.

 In just twenty years personal computers have morphed from fifty pound, multiple component monsters to laptops that weigh as much as a can of soda and can be used virtually anywhere. The advent of the personal computer has created a much more connected society that has access to any information they desire. This exponential growth of technology has infiltrated many facets of society, such as gaming and medicine, but the education system has been slow to adapt.

Having grown up in this age of unprecedented growth in technology has made myself, as well as my peers, open to the quickly changing world we are now living in. In my experience, my grade has always been among the first, in the school system, to use desktop computers in elementary school and smart boards in middle school. Now in college we are being encouraged to bring laptops to class in order to follow certain activities the professor might be presenting. Many professors, however, are not privy to the spectrum of educational tools available from            the internet.

(Above, Number Crunchers, one of the first educational computer games I remember playing in elementary school)

Jesse Wimert, a teachers assistant for multiple courses, mentioned in a recent interview that laptops are currently seen by many as distractions (interview below). This distraction, I believe, comes from classes that are taught in the traditional manner: students come to class to listen to the professor lecture and provide needed information on the blackboard. The current and future generations do not get the most fulfilling learning experience from watching a professor write information on a chalk board. These generations have become used to information coming quickly and having the ability to interact with that information. This leaves many students doing anything but paying attention to the material being taught.

There are almost as many people working on bringing the 'traditional' learning experience into the new age of technology as there are dealing with the growing pains. In the last couple years universities have begun their aim at bridging the gap between technology and education. The online service ELMS is becoming the standard for teachers to use for class. The site allows the professor to put any information and assignments online that are available to the students at any time. My freshman year at UMD, ELMS was used by less that 10% of classes, that I took at least. After four years, however, almost every class I take is on ELMS. This alone has proven the usability of technology for educational purposes.

This course, Information 3.0, is one of the groundbreaking courses that is testing other forms of media to use for educational purposes. Having students create blogs in order to post their assignments and/or relevant information to the class or topic being covered. Twitter being used to spread new information, relevant to our topic of discussion or not. And Facebook used to share experiences and another way to spread information. All of these forms of media I have never used or seen used for educational purposes in a classroom, but after a semester it has become almost second nature to use these avenues.

The future of education will rely on the ability for schools and universities to incorporate technology into the student's learning experience. There is some thought that physical schools will become obsolete in the coming decades due to growth of online courses, starting with colleges. It was determined that over 5.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2009 term, and that nearly 30 percent of higher education students are now enrolled in at least one online class. This is an increase of nearly one million students over the number reported the previous year (Allen and Seaman). The large amount of online courses is creating a more competitive online education, which will lead to the downfall of face-to-face classes.  

One upcoming form of social networking, which may take over for physical classrooms, is Second Life. Second Life is a 3D virtual world for socializing and exploring the virtual world. What is interesting, though, is that many universities have already purchased land within the virtual world and have constructed a virtual version of the university. This virtual college is waiting for online education to become the main form of education. In Second Life people can all meet in a classroom and watch the presentation, or whatever the professor will be teaching, without leaving their homes. Within the next decade, we may be sending our children to their rooms to go to class. Quite intriguing.

Allen & Seaman,   http://sloanconsortium.org/sites/default/files/class_differences.pdf

Mobile Interview Review

A large amount of the interviews I conducted and listened to referred to effectiveness of mobile applications to waste time.  Gaming and social networking applications were at the top of the list of popular apps.  A report published earlier this year even noted that gaming apps were by far the most downloaded apps, the report also comments that the Facebook app was the most downloaded application for Blackberry owners.  The majority of smartphone users that I know use their device (other than call and text) for checking weather, social networking, and gaming.

This does not seem very productive, but one person put it best, "it depends upon the person."  A student who is driven to use their smartphone for productivity will more than likely find applications that will attend to their needs.  One interview mentioned some educational apps that have helped increase her productivity:  Responseware, an app to replace those annoying clickers; UMinfo, offering UM maps, diamondback articles, and the university directory; and ELMS mobile, which offers access to UM students elms accounts.  These were good apps, but there have been many complaints on educational/productivity apps.  The ELMS mobile app, for instance, only grants access to certain tabs in a class's ELMS page.  The page for this class only shows the Announcements, Discussion, Documents, and Grades sections.  We cannot even view our assignments.  These problems will be fixed within time, but I believe the current state of mobile apps is driven toward gaming and social networking, not productivity.

Random :: Photographic Perceptions

Photography is one of the many art forms that compliment the musical experience, or even enhance the experience with new purpose or emotion to the listener.  Perception is key to creating the desired effect.  Here I will examine 2 photos that use the rule of thirds, a compositional tool used for visual art, and are then edited to give the desired effect.

This photo was taken in College Park, MD during the summer of 2010.  The horizon was set on the bottom third of the photograph.  The church and sunrise served as the points of interest and were centered on the right third of the photo.  Gimp, a photo editing program, was used to enhance the colors and give contrast to the photo.  This creates a dark, mysterious feel that I find intriguing.

The next photo was taken in Silver Spring, MD during the fall of 2010.  Walking to the parking garage from a friends apartment, I saw an empty baby stroller leaning against a parked car on the side of the road.  It was a gloomy, overcast night and this sight made me stop and take a picture.

When editing this photo I wanted to portray a desolate, deserted scene of a baby stroller no longer in use for a reason one might not want to know.

Music Industry Graphics

These graphics give great detail about the current stance of the music industry in both economic and social viewpoints.

The first visual (right) gives a glimpse into the music industry and the effect music piracy is having over the industry.  The visual breaks it down into which record label, genre, and country sells most.  I like this visual because it also looks into whether or not the music industry is loosing as much business as they say they are.  The visual then breaks down where the money paid for a new album actually goes to, showing that only $1.60 of each cd goes to the artist (who then pays income tax on that).  The visual concludes by delving into the 'rise of digital music.'  This covers the downfall of album sales to charting the growth of digital music in all aspects of the industry.  On interesting fact that I learned from this is that iTunes is stated as the largest music retailer in the US!

The next visual (left) is similar to the first but focuses more so on who/what (digital music service) holds market share in digital music.  iTunes is still stated as the largest digital music retailer, but it has a lot of competition.  This visual listed the top 6 different digital services to look at who holds the most market share, who's growing the quickest and who's on the downfall.  This visual can be very helpful to someone deciding on which service to use because it gives an overview of what the service charges and whether or not people are using it, giving a clue to its future.  It shows a couple on the rise (rhapsody and emusic) and some on the fall (CD Baby and Napster), and overall is a visual with a wealth of information.  

This last visual I found intriguing because it lists some of the best responses digital music fans have had against the RIAA when they began suing individuals for illegally sharing music.  As you can see it is a little biased towards pro-piracy, but overall gives a glimpse at the feeling towards the RIAA taking legal action on people simply downloading music.  

Final Draft :: Piracy in the Music Industry

Privacy In the Music Industry: Illegal Music Downloading

Abstract:

This study researched the world of illegal music downloading, taking information from sources of different backgrounds. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and news media outlets, along with a survey and explanation of opinions on the subject, have aided in the shaping and direction that the report has taken. We believe to find that a majority of internet-savvy population, focusing on college-aged individuals, will be more tolerant to music piracy. The results of the survey agree with our hypothesis in that our sample shows that college-aged individuals are much more likely to download music illegally.

Introduction:

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the organization that controls the finances of recordings of all of the major music companies and labels in the country. They are responsible for about eighty-five percent of all genuine music that is recorded, produced, and sold within the U.S. This means that they are also the main company working to prove that illegal downloading infringes on the rights that the First Amendment ensures to all people, including music artists.
Because the illegal downloading and piracy of music has resulted in such significant losses of revenue for the music industry as a whole, the RIAA worked with the FBI to create a new warning to place on all copyrighted music products. In addition to this seal, there are also two printed warnings that read as follows:

Extended Warning:
“The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.”
Abbreviated Warning:
“FBI Anti-Piracy Warning: Unauthorized Copying Is Punishable Under Federal Law.”
However, the fact of the matter remains: the illegal downloading and piracy of music is not slowing.

Coverage of the Issue by News/Media Outlets:

The Boston Globe:
Judge Slashes Penalty in Illegal Music Downloading Case
Written on July 9, 2010 by Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff
This article is about a graduate student at Boston University, Joel Tenebaum, who was sued for $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs. US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner ruled that the amount of money was “unconstitutionally excessive,” lowering the it to $67,500. Gertner believes that Congress did not anticipate the Digital Theft Deterrence Act of 1999 to expose people like Tenebaum to such enormous financial obligations for violating copyright law.

The Washington Post:
Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use
Written on December 30, 2007 by Marc Fisher, Staff Writer
This article is about an unusual case in which Jeffrey Howell received an RIAA letter and fought back. The RIAA then claimed that “it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.” This is a very significant claim because law only states that it is illegal to distribute copyrighted materials. In this case, however, the RIAA was arguing that transferring the music to a computer for personal use was also violating the law.

The Question:

The fact of the matter is that there are tons of websites that allow music to be downloaded and shared among users illegally. Although piracy of music is illegal because of copyright infringement, who is ultimately at fault? Should the people using these sites be punished for their actions, or are the actual sites who are promoting this behavior to blame? (should we include our target audience – college students)

The Survey :

This study conducted an online survey to gather information about the topic of music piracy and its effect on the music industry. The survey was created on www.surveymonkey.com and was then distributed through Facebook, email, and forums. The survey service automatically collected the responses for analysis.

The survey consisted of ten questions which included four demographic questions (gender, age group, education, and internet usage) followed by six questions specific to the topic at hand. These questions inspected the participant's history of downloading music online (both legally and illegally), sources/services used to download the music, and thoughts on the legality of music piracy. The target audience of this study is college age individuals who use the internet often and are active within the music culture/community. We feel that a sample from this community will produce credible results because the average college age individual has grown up within the digital age, usually has good familiarity with the internet, and is active within the music community.


Analysis :

Due to time restrictions, the survey was only available for a 36 hour time period from October 12-13, 2010. The survey started with a couple demographic questions to determine the sample we were working with. There were 72 total responses (58% male, 42% female). A majority, 63, of those were of college age (18-23) who are attending a university or have recently graduated. All of the participants, except for one, stated they visited the internet daily, half of which visit the internet every hour. Also, 69 out of the 72 participants download music online. Thus, the study sample is exactly the audience we wished to target.

The survey then began the questions that will help in answering the posed questions. The first question asked whether the participant has downloaded music legally, illegally, or both. Considering the amount of media coverage on music piracy, it was not very surprising to see that over 80% of our participants stated they download music illegally. Only 11 out of the 72 respondents who specifically download music legally. The following question sought the sources/services used for the participant's procurement of music: paid services (itunes), torrent sites (Pirate Bay), P2P services (Kazaa), media sharing sites (Mediafire), or other, leaving room for a written response. The results showed little discrepancy between the selections. This gives a glimpse in to the wide range of options there are to download music, both paid and free. The written responses even gave services that were unknown to the researchers.

The last set of questions examined the attitude of the participants toward the legality of music piracy. Exactly two-thirds of the participants believed that downloading music for free should not be illegal. When asked who should be held responsible for the music being pirated, two-thirds stated the service/program offering the music should hold responsibility, with only 20% believing the individual downloading the music is responsible. There was a third option, 'other,' with a written response, in which 6 of the 8 respondents stated “both.” These results reveal that many who are downloading may believe they are not responsible for the music downloaded from a site that makes it available to the entire online population.

The survey concluded with a optional written response about any extra thoughts the participant may have on the legality of music piracy. Thirteen responded with a variety of thoughts. Many argued that music piracy must be illegal due to economic reasons. But, one respondent had this sentiment: “Downloading the music is a means of distribution. If the artist is truly talented, s/he will earn fans and still play live concerts.” A couple of respondents agreed, arguing the fact that artists do not received a great deal of money from album sales, their income often comes from touring and merchandising.


Conclusions :

The results of the survey corresponded well with our hypothesis. A large portion of young adults, aged 18-23, download music from the internet illegally. The sample was mainly centered on students at the University of College Park, however, we believe that these results can expand to the population of college students. In further studies, it would be interesting to examine a greater audience in age and education, as well as class status and music interest.

The study was an overall success.  One error in the study that was foreseen was the possible bias the target audience would have to music piracy. Many in this age group have grown up in the time where music/file sharing was not actually illegal, it was simply sharing personal property. Thus, this group may be biased towards music sharing being legal. With more time and resources, this study could break way for further research about the culture of music piracy.


Further Resources:

Piracy Visual
http://curseofthemoon.deviantart.com/art/Music-And-Piracy-Infographic-162247383?fullview=1

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