Category: Academics

Academic related posting. Usually related to readings or technology in how it relates or could relate to education, teaching or academics in general

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Academics

Virtual Addiction is REAL!

This really hit me today when I noticed a wall post from someone I know (in the real world).  They stated that they’d be gone for the weekend, but not to worry if anyone saw posts from them because they had asked someone to take care of their farm.  This is s VIRTUAL farm mind you.

So what is the importance of this? Well, I’m taking classes that are based on technology and education.  Part of those classes focus on social media and how the youth of today are more “wired” than ever.  With this wiring, comes this chance for addiction.  We are so concerned about drug and alcohol use in the youth of today, but what about internet use?

The youth of today run the very real risk of being socially dysfunctional when it come to interacting with with real people in real time.  They’ve all got lots and lots o’ friends online, but when it comes to preferences some would rather use the computer as an interface to interacting with their friends than face to face.  Of course, this is just based off of casual observations of my son and his friends.  Even when friends are over their interaction tends to be around the computer or game console.

And it’s not just the kids.  About a  year ago CNN published “Five clues that you are addicted to Facebook” http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/23/ep.facebook.addict/index.html and that’s not the only danger.  I’ve seen stories of kids being left alone while parents played online games.  Kids left alone to the point of being considered child neglect or abuse.

So, does that mean we should all become unplugged?  Nah, but if you can’t be “disconnected” for a day or two without starting to twitch, you may want to take a serious look at your usage.

–servergoon

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Academics

Welcome to TiE

I’m a Master’s student in the College of Education.  The area I’m in is Technology in Education.  Part of the requirement for several classes (or so I’m starting to gather) is having a blog.

Well, I already have a blog, I like it, I like the name, so I’m starting a separate “category” within the blog for Technology in Education.  Anytime you want to see what’s new in “Technology in Education”, at least from my viewpoint, you can visit http://blog.servergoon.com/categories/TiE.

Welcome to my musings and feel free to comment.  Please note that I have all comments on approval.  So, I’ll be looking at them for true content as opposed to some spam bot.  What this means to you is the comment has to pass my version of the Turing test which means “meaningful, constructive comments” vs “wow, great post” or “get cialis now! here’s how”.

–SG

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Academics Interests

Wikipedia

So, I was wasting some time reading this article about the Fibonacci Sequence.  Interesting enough I suppose, I’m not going to argue the validity of article.  However, as I was reading the comments I noticed that several people were referencing wikipedia as a source to validate their argument.

Now, I’m not a researcher, but I work with folks that their primary job is to help people with research.  And, I’m quite certain that every single one of them would be screaming “wikipedia is NOT a PRIMARY resource!””.

Come on folks, even the idea behind wikipedia should tell you that.  ANYONE, and by anyone, I mean anyone with internet access, can access and add to wikipedia.  Of course, there are people out there reading through perhaps checking the validity of what’s being posted, but really, there are limits to what can be checked.  Would it really be that hard to try to find an article from, oh, I don’t know, maybe an encyclopedia, that stated the origin of the Fibonacci Sequence?

I suppose the joke “of course it’s true, I saw it on TV” will soon be replaced with “of course it’s true, I read it on Wikipedia”.  And there starts the downward spiral….