Module 5 Video on Demand vs. DVD Increasing Returns or Red Queens

The competition between DVDs and Video on Demand is one of increasing returns. Arthur (1996) defines increasing returns as the propensity for something that is ahead to continue to progress ahead while the item that is behind loses momentum. Thornburg, D. (2013) describes increasing returns as a set of innovations that may emerge at the same time in which one drives the other to extinction.  As cellphones and portable devices become smaller and more powerful media can be viewed and reviewed anywhere. There is no longer the need to be tied down to a television or other media player. Video on Demand allows for instant gratification and does not require waiting for media to be available. The only wait may be on the media to stream or download in order to be visible. As technological infrastructure becomes more widely available to larger populations of people through high speed internet access, Wi-Fi, satellites and hotspots for example video on demand gains traction and an upward momentum.

This is not to say that DVDs are a lost cause. There are still those who despite our information technology age are without internet access or in some cases computer access. In a US Census Bureau Community survey completed in 2013 83.8 % percent of households reported that they owned a computer  with 73.4% reporting a high speed internet connection and-74.4% reporting an internet subscription of some sort. (File & Camille, 2013) . While progress has been made in making access more affordable those in lower socio-economic status groups tend to be less likely to have computer or internet access. This same study found that those with an income of less than $25,000 only 62.4% owned a computer and 48.4% had internet access. I feel as if these populations will continue to utilize public borrowing institutions such as libraries and RedBox. It is to this end that I am not sure that DVDs will be completely made extinct by Video on DEmand. DVDs also are multi-functional as they allow for data storage although flash memory sticks are smaller, more durable and potentially able to obsolete that benefit.

Science fiction is my least favorite genre so the video for the last module was borrowed from the library. I saw no need to waste money on purchasing, streaming, or renting something that I would never watch or pick up again. Over time I do feel as if my media accessing tendencies have changed. I used to rent VHS movies from places such as Blockbuster. This was due in part to the fact that public libraries didn’t have video collections for lending. Now unless the movie is something that I plan to watch multiple times or is educationally beneficial I borrow media from the library.

References

Arthur, W. (1996). Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard Business Review, 74(4), 100-109.

File, T., & Camille, R. (2013). Computer and Internet Use in the United States:. Washington, DC: American Community Survey Reports ACS-28, U.S. Census Bureau.

Laureate Eduation (Producer). (2014). David Thornburg: Increasing returns[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Thornburg, D. (2013). Emerging technologies and McLuhan's laws of media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Module 4 Assignment Disruptive Technologies

     Dr. Thornburg proposes the idea that disruptive technologies disrupt what is going on in that you are on one trajectory and and something brand new pops in a sort of wild card fashion.(Laureat Education, 2014) Utilizing this definition I am not sure that Google glass is so much a disruption as it is an intrusion. One of the most prevalent areas of concern for me that cause me to look at this from this particular perspective is the issue of privacy. For me the privacy issues created by Google Glass is a grave concern. Hong(2013) argues that privacy concerns can be minimized through the hands on use of technology by the masses will which he argues will assist people to see the value  thereby encouraging acceptance and possibly different perceptions about privacy expectations.  While I understand the draw to the geek side of this device I have serious concerns about recording and posting without someones consent. If the person does not know that they are being recorded have they been given the option to say I don't want you to do this. 
     A prime example for me is a recent free course that I took at the library. One of the librarians was taking pictures for the library Facebook page and didn't tell participants when she started what the pictures were for or where they were going. One of my co-participants in the  workshop was someone with a high level security clearance that prohibited social media posting. This may be an isolated example but due to the metropolitan area in which I live with many delegates, emissaries, politicians and of course the White House and all that this entails I have to feel like this would be even more of a concern. I have also worked with people living in shelters who may have been running from abusive spouses. Without informed consent you have put these people and if they are parents their children in danger unintentionally yes but it is still a concern. Glauser(2013) presents a current barrier to implementation in the medical field that relates to this privacy concern. There is the potential for Google Glass to be used as part of electronic medical records but HIPAA laws prohibit the processing of patient medical records through third party organizations, By using the Google Glass patient information would have to pass through Google servers causing privacy concerns.  
     The applications in the field of Special Education seem endless to me when I think about some of the non ambulatory or nonverbal students that I have worked with in the past. A device that allows them to control it with a head movement could be groundbreaking. Similar to the experiences of medical practitioners discussed by Glauser (2013) the videos could be used as a training point. Sometimes I do not feel that people who work with people with disabilities realize how condescending and overbearing they are to the patients/clients/students they are working with. A video that shows them their interactions from the perspective of the receiver may help in self reflection and possible behavior modifications. 
      Google Glass displaces personal handheld or headmounted recording devices. I do not see the technology being displaced in the near future due to all the potential uses that have been found but not yet attempted. Once the immediate usage concerns and cost are addressed it may be more widely accepted.
   
References

Glauser, W. (2013). Doctors among early adopters of Google Glass.Canadian Medical Association. Journal, 185(16), 1385.
Hong, J. (2013). Considering privacy issues in the context of Google glass.Commun. ACM, 56(11), 10-11.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014). David Thornburg: Disruptive technologies [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Module 3 Rhymes of History Social Sharing Media

• Family ties are precious threads, no matter where we roam,
  They draw us close to those we love, and pull our hearts toward home. Author Unknown

Rhymes of history are those things which rekindle something from the distant past.  For young people the rhyme that has been created is a sense of standing around the waterhole and sharing stories or catching up on the lives of those in your community.(Laureate Education, 2014)

I propose that Social Media sharing sites have a greater impact on the older generation of family members. Social media sharing sites such as FaceTime, YouTube and Instagram bring back a sense of togetherness and a time when the nuclear family lived in relatively close proximity to each other.   Family was historically very insular, localized, and connected. Families didn't unless they were pioneers creating new settlements move more than a few miles from each other.The lines of sharing and communication previously blurred by distance are now inconsequential.

 With a simple web camera and a social media account you can still share baby’s first steps with grandmom in another state or read a story to your child while on a business trip thousands of miles away. With sites such as Skype and FaceTime you can even live chat with grandpa. This allows for the sense of community that we seem to have lost. This also allows for in the case of children them to see their family members as live people. One of the running jokes when I was a little girl growing up in Philadelphia was that my grandmother lived in the telephone.   You see my grandparents lived in rural Maryland, and we didn’t have a car at the time so I spoke with my grandmother initially as a child predominantly by phone ergo the 2-3 year old kid logic my grandmother lived in the telephone. But now I watch as my great niece is able to FaceTime with my sister-in-law and get to know her in ways that a simple picture or story would not allow.

Another example of this was the family environment in which my mother grew up . She  only had to walk 100ft or so to see her aunts , cousins, or grandparents. To be perfectly honest until the day that my grandfather died his nieces, nephews, great nieces,  the great great nephews and one of his sons were simply a driveway away. This meant that if someone needed to check on him they could or when the family wanted/needed to join together there was a village. His being able to see the third and fourth generation of immediate and extended family grow up around him was something that he took pride in.

Now with all of us spread all over the country from Pennslyvania to Florida and west to Colorado social media sites allow us to continue to share the important moments in life with family and not feel like we are missing everything. Yes being there is better but now knowing at all is worse. 

Periscope
Instagram
YouTube
Skype
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014). David Thornburg: Rhymes of history [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Module 2 Assignment Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality allows each individual to interact and connect in their own personal way with more depth and breadth of content. There is also a level of proficiency developed due to the real time, real world interactions (Lee, 2012) Although there is confusion for some about the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality it a a matter of real versus simulated worlds. Virtual reality doesn't need to in any way connect with the real world and is imagined. Augmented reality operates in real time and involves superimposing an image, video , or other enhancement over a real object. Augmented Reality displays can include projections, handheld, head mounted, glasses, contacts or retinal displays. The most appropriate for an educational setting is probably projection or handheld. In a Bring Your Own Device(BYOD) educational environment handheld displays are the most logical as it will allow students to engage with the content at their own pace. For whole class instruction projections seem to be the most logical display method. 

• Obsolete
• Accountability for bullies
• There is the potential for displaying information about a victim without it being visible to anyone who doesn't have a cell phone. Information could include pictures or even a "Kick me" sign.This is a similar concern to the new After School app that allows students to anonymously post anything about their schools including disparaging information about other students with no repercussions or oversight.
• privacy when utilizing facial recognition
• Depending on the display method used by looking at someone a full profile could be viewed which has potential safety concerns especially for youth who are not always good about controlling what they put out about themselves.
• one on one job coaches for people with intellectual disabilities (Qualcomm, 2015)
•  AR technology can potentially  allow people with intellectual disabilities to access videos with steps for assignments. I see this as beneficial when I look at the students I work with who often can't remember lists beyond the second step. With an immediately accessible video they could be more independent and by extension develop a better sense of self.
• Reverse
• learners being able to only see 1 dimensional artifacts
• Augmented reality enables students or anyone in the audience to see different views of an object and experience depth that they previously would not have been able to access without physically being in a museum or holding the artifact.
• insular existence of people with disabilities 
• People with disabilities such as deafness could for example wear glasses that will project captions.(Wassom, 2012)
• wear and tear on items
• If the items do not need to be touched than they can be preserved for longer periods of time. One of the struggles of sharing historical artifacts is that they can be affected by light and the oils in our hands. This technology allows for the artifacts to be shared without those concerns. 
• Enhance
• schools and locales with limited budgets can still interact with museum objects
• As budgets are continually cut 
• ability of people with physical disabilities to be independent (Wassom, 2012)
• ARapps created by the Vodaphone Spain foundation include EasyUse, Who is Who, and Follow My Steps. EasyUse provides simple instruction manuals to run machines and equipment that Is part of their work environment. The apps can be accessed by job coaches through a web based editor to incorporate new equipment, update information about old equipment, or add more detailed graphics if necessary all aiding individuals in becoming more self sufficient. Who Is Who is a superimposes pictures of employees, names, and their titles over the work spaces that they are connected to. Follow My Steps aids in the commuting process of getting from home to work with step-by-step directions.(Qualcomm, 2015)
• Rekindle
• interactivity in education
• Future applications for education include the use of augmented reality to create interactive literary works. Through a mixed method study the researchers engaged audiences in the creation of a visual poem that imposed digital artwork onto literary works. (Lin, Hsieh, Liu, & Chuang, 2012)  Solak & Cakir, (2015) conducted a research study that supported second language learning through the imposing of sound animation, pictures.

Brown, P. (2015, November 2). How to transform your classroom with augmented reality. Retrieved December 24, 2015, from edSurge: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-11-02-how-to-transform-your-classroom-with-augmented-reality

Lee, K. (2012). The future of learning and training in Augmented Reality. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, 7, 31-42.

Lin, H.-C. K., Hsieh, M.-C., Liu, E. Z.-F., & Chuang, T.-Y. (2012). Interacting with visual poems through AR-based digital artwork. The Turkish Journal of Educational Technology, 11(1), 123-137.

Perez-Lopez, D., & Contero, M. (2013). Delivering educational multimedia contents through an augmented reality application: A case study on its impact om knowledge acquisition and retention. The Turkish Journal of Educational Technology, 12(4), 19-28.

Qualcomm. (2015, July 10). Entrepreneurship- Augmented Reality Assists Workers with Intellectual Disabilities. Retrieved December 24, 2015, from Qualcomm Web site: https://www.qualcomm.com/company/wireless-reach/projects/spain-augmented-reality

Solak, E., & Cakir, R. (2015). Exploring the effect of materials designed with augmented reality on language learners' vocabulary learning. The Journal of Educators Online, 13(2), 50-72.

Wassom, B.(2012, March 29) Will the law require Augmented Reality for the Disabled? Wassom.com. Retrieved December 24, 2015, from http://www.wassom.com/will-the-law-require-augmented-reality-for-the-disabled.html

Module 1 Assignment Identifying an Emergent Technology

16mm Filmstrip Reels to YouTube

Is Youtube a learning tool?

When many of us were in school if we needed to learn new content or even share an instructional video with a friend or family member it was a little complicated.  It tended to require expensive equipment, 16 mm filmstrips with their reels and postage. We now live in a time where content can be shared instantly.

Problems/Challenges

 YouTube's greatest challenge is also its strength. Anyone is able to create an account and post content allows for sharing literally all over the world. But this also makes it easy for radicals to proselytize and amateurs to present themselves as credible sources. If anyone can post anything it means that students are sometimes exposed to content created by people who are passionate but not always objective and not necessarily experts.

Societal Needs and Benefits 

 In our global society we benefit from being able to share content globally instantaneously. This has created a smaller world and allows people who were previously disenfranchised by location to access anything. In terms of the population of students with which I work YouTube has allowed Deaf people living in rural locations to stay in contact with family and friends all over the world. This has opened up the possibility for more community development and lessened the need for the Deaf to stay confined to one locale their entire life. 

The plethora of resources available on YouTube also allows for new information and content to be learned. Prior to the invention and implementation of YouTube the only place other than school, or a mentor to learn new ideas was the library. Now experts are able to share new ideas and new techniques instantaneously and the videos can be rewound and paused as many times as needed to get a quality understanding of the information.  Parents can now go to a teacher’s YouTube channel and learn the lesson that their child is struggling with in order to help with homework. Professionals working in remote areas have access to cutting edge information as long as they have internet access thereby providing better service to clients.

Digital natives as those students who prefer

 receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work.” (Prensky, 2001 p 2)

These digital natives are the students who we are currently teaching and the ones who are currently coming out of teacher preparation program. By studying preservice teachers in educational technology courses Dreon, Kerper, & Landis (2011) proposed that digital storytelling connects to todays generation of learners through the methods that they access information. Students are able to access, share, and comment on both their personal work and the work of others as they engage in learning tasks that correlate to them as digital natives.

Pitfalls

 One approach to dealing with the plethora of questionable content is doing serious lessons with students about reliability and accountability and what that means when using a resource. Years ago in one of my educational journals and I now can’t find the article there was reference to an elderly Auschwitz survivor who was told by the teenager living next to her that the Holocaust never happened. His argument supporting his opinion was based on an online resource posted by an English teacher who claimed that it was all a hoax. This survivor was understandably upset by being told that something for which she still carried not only the memories but the number printed on her arm didn’t happen. She lobbied for internet usage to be banned. While this is an extreme case of inappropriate content and response to it, it does highlight the need for teaching students about reliable sources. Last year middle school students were given a critical thinking assignment in which they were to argue if the Holocaust ever happened based on the beliefs of some that it was a political propaganda tool. (Yarborough & Wong, 2014) Many students completing this assignment came away denying a historical event that affected millions of Jewish people. 

An additional approach to dealing with the pitfall YouTube and easily accessible questionable content was the creation of TeacherTube. TeacherTube and an education channel on Youtube's regular site.

 YouTube Education

Works Cited

Burke, S., Snyder, S., & Rager, R. (2009). An assessment of faculty usage of YouTube as a teaching resource. The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, 7(1), 1-8.

Dreon, O., Kerper, R., & Landis, J. (2011). Digital storytelling: A tool for teaching and learning in the Youtube generation. Middle School Journal, 42(5), 4-9.

Fleck, B. K., Beckman, L., Sterns, J. L., & Hussey, H. D. (2014). YouTube in the classroom: Helpful tips and student perceptions. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 14(3), 21-37.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.