REVISED: Putting Down the Phone for a Pick-Up Jam

Our class blog assignment for this week was to put down our cell phones and actually connect with a complete stranger. At first, I did not quite know what I should do for this assignment, but the way this story played out is incredible.

Ironically, my put-down the phone anecdote begins with me picking up my cell phone! I was driving home from a friend's house on Sunday evening and listening to Radio 104.5. An announcement came onto the radio that prompted listeners to text the station. The first 20 to respond would receive passes to the Radio 104.5 Studio Session with the band named Mona. I texted in, figuring “why not?” and I won!

After arriving at the studio for Clear Channel Philadelphia and waiting for a while, we were directed back through the inner workings of the studio. We watched the two guitarists from Mona as they had an awesome acoustic performance. The video isn't up yet, but when it is it will be available here.

After Mona performed their 3 songs, all of the audience was given a Mona promotional poster. The band all sat at a table and signed everyone's poster before having their picture taken. My picture with Mona and my friend Mike can be found here, once it is uploaded.

You may ask, “Where is the connection with a stranger?” Well, after meeting with the band, we went out a doorway. There, one of the Radio 104.5 DJs, Wendy, was giving directions on how to exit the building. I approached her and asked, “Is there any possibility of a tour of the studio?”

To this, she responded with a hesitant, “Well...”

My signed poster

“I only ask because I'm an Electronic Media Major at Kutztown University,” I elaborated. She gave me a surprised look and then said that she knew Kutztown well. She then gave me her e-mail and offered me a tour at some point. She also mentioned that Clear Channel offers internships, which are a program requirement for Kutztown's Electronic Media degree.

Overall, I am incredibly pleased with the results of this assignment. I was able to connect with a complete stranger who works at a popular radio station. It is interesting that my story began by using computer mediated communication (CMC) via SMS and also that the follow-up is via e-mail, another form of CMC. Even so, without physically standing in front of Wendy, it would not have been possible for me to get a tour of the station.

From the perspective of theory, Goffman's ideas about dramaturgy apply most easily to my story. When I met with Wendy, I sought to present myself in a professional manner and control her impression of me as someone who should receive a tour. Even so, I was also in my back stage because I had come prepared to see a concert and I therefore wore jeans and a t-shirt. I also tried to compensate for this fact by holding myself upright and shaking Wendy's hand.

Retrospective: When I went to the studio tour, unlike the studio session, I dressed myself professionally and had more control over my front stage presentation since I was prepared to look the part of an attentive undergraduate student looking for an internship. I decided not to bring a camera or post pictures here in an effort to maintain my front stage, rather than exposing my camera-happy side.

Performers in Front of an Audience

To begin, the flash mob was a blast! While, I wasn't able to actually participate in laying down in the middle of the SUB, I was taking photographs instead. This gave me a unique vantage point to not only understand what it was like for the people or performers in the flash mob, but also to see the reactions of passersby and the reception of the performance.

As a thespian (read “theatre nerd”), flash mobs have always interested me because of the performance aspect. In high school, I was taught that all you need for theater is an actor and an audience. After taking speech 120, Oral Interpretation, I broadened my perspective to performance, specifically what makes a performance exactly that. In much the same way as theatre, for performance you need performers and an audience.

When, in this course, we briefly touched on performance studies, I took note that performance is not commercially reproducible. So how do these concepts of performance apply to the flash mob?

When everyone laid on the floor of the SUB, they were consciously performing for an audience. In this case the audience was just people who were passing through the SUB or sitting within the lobby. Our performance was one time only and it only took place for two minutes, so it was not reproducible in its original form (even though anybody could take pictures or record video).

The most interesting part of the flash mob, to me, was the reaction of the “audience” in the SUB. While some people just bustled through imagining that nothing was out of the ordinary (in spite of the sea of arms and legs swinging through the invisible snow), most people in the SUB stood and gawked. This reaction seems pretty normal, since it's quite a rarity for a group of 40 people to make snow angels on the floor of the lobby.

While our flash mob was a performance, new media played a pivotal role in organizing to make it possible. While everyone in the class had already met face to face in the classroom, I noticed many people using cell phones to text friends and I'm sure many participants went on facebook before hand to see if any of their friends could make it. Personally, I used new media to postpone the cycling club meeting that I was supposed to hold that day. I e-mailed all of the members to tell them of the change. In this way we all used new media's lack of geographic information to contact people who were not face to face with us and get them to come to the flash mob (or not go to the cycling meeting).

In summary, I'd say that our flash mob was a success. We got a group of people together to do something different that the campus population does not see often. I certainly believe that the people who passed through will remember this for some time to come and I know that I will always remember that time that we did a flash mob for a college course.

(517 words)

Putting Down the Phone for a Pick-Up Jam

Our class blog assignment for this week was to put down our cell phones and actually connect with a complete stranger. At first, I did not quite know what I should do for this assignment, but the way this story played out is incredible.

Ironically, my put-down the phone anecdote begins with me picking up my cell phone! I was driving home from a friend's house on Sunday evening and listening to Radio 104.5. An announcement came onto the radio that prompted listeners to text the station. The first 20 to respond would receive passes to the Radio 104.5 Studio Session with the band named Mona. I texted in, figuring “why not?” and I won!

After arriving at the studio for Clear Channel Philadelphia and waiting for a while, we were directed back through the inner workings of the studio. We watched the two guitarists from Mona as they had an awesome acoustic performance. The video isn't up yet, but when it is it will be available here.

After Mona performed their 3 songs, all of the audience was given a Mona promotional poster. The band all sat at a table and signed everyone's poster before having their picture taken. My picture with Mona and my friend Mike can be found here, once it is uploaded.

You may ask, “Where is the connection with a stranger?” Well, after meeting with the band, we went out a doorway. There, one of the Radio 104.5 DJs, Wendy, was giving directions on how to exit the building. I approached her and asked, “Is there any possibility of a tour of the studio?”

To this, she responded with a hesitant, “Well...”

My signed poster

“I only ask because I'm an Electronic Media Major at Kutztown University,” I elaborated. She gave me a surprised look and then explained that she was a Kutztown Alum! She then gave me her e-mail and offered me a tour at some point. She also mentioned that Clear Channel offers internships, which are a program requirement for Kutztown's Electronic Media degree.

Overall, I am incredibly pleased with the results of this assignment. I was able to connect with a complete stranger who works at a popular radio station. It is interesting that my story began by using computer mediated communication (CMC) via SMS and also that the follow-up is via e-mail, another form of CMC. Even so, without physically standing in front of Wendy, it would not have been possible for me to get a tour of the station.

Stay tuned to my blog for more about the studio tour! Hopefully I will be allowed to post pictures to the Blog of Charles Hanlon :) Wendy's blog can be found here.

(448 words)

My Favorites Bar

When, at the beginning of the semester, I discovered that we would have to sign up for a Twitter account, I couldn't help but let out a groan. Frankly, I thought that Twitter was a pointless, shortened version of Facebook for the middle aged.

However, my experience proved anything but. I enjoyed working with Twitter from the start-up page all the way through. I found it a lot more user friendly than Facebook was when I first started using it.

The premise of Twitter is simple: you have 140 characters to say something, anything. While I originally equated this with Facebook's status feature, I can see that it has a lot more potential than that. While Facebook statuses are generally about what a given person is doing, Twitter is more about headlines of what is going on or trending anywhere.

This idea has repercussions both good and bad. From a positive end, it allows thousands of "followers" instantly receive a message to help keep them informed. This is a great way to help encourage community.

However, when you only have 140 characters to say what you want to say, it makes it difficult to explain complex situations or ideas. Thus, it leads to the polarization of ideas. Even so, the inclusion of links helps to mitigate this effect.

At the end of it all, unlike Second Life, I think I will continue using my Twitter account because I find it a useful tool to give me the "highlights" of what is going on in the world. For better or worse, Twitter has been added to my favorites bar.

(268 words)

Where's the Funeral?

If privacy is dead as Mark Zuckerberg claims, I would like to know where the funeral is taking place. Generally, I tend to agree with the author of this article, which questions Zuckerberg's reasoning for making Facebook more public.

The article points out a complete 180 degree turn in Facebook's stance on privacy. Where Facebook was originally defaulted to private now the pages to which users subscribe and view is public information. That means that anyone can see that my favorite band is Death Cab for Cutie or that I go to Kutztown University and intend to graduate in 2014.

Why should this bother you?

Over the weekend, I caught a preview of a news report about insurance companies that are using Facebook to snoop on policy holders. Needless to say, this fit the genre of news quite well as it was timely and in the public's interest. These days, stories about the loss of privacy on the internet are a dime a dozen. From the worker who is fired to the student who did not get into their dream college, we are constantly faced with the idea that we have no privacy on the web.

However, if media and news outlets can attract viewers with stories similar to the one about snooping insurance companies, this must mean that this is an issue that concerns people. In fact, most of my friends consider some of the new privacy controls on Facebook to be a boon because they can control who sees their information, in spite of Facebook's stance on the privacy of pages and subscribers.

In closing, I would have to say that I agree with Marshall Kirkpatrick, the author of the Zuckerberg article. I think that Zuckerberg's comments were not factually based but were rather a business move on the part of Facebook to sell personal information to companies (that is the number one commodity of the internet isn't it?). As for privacy on the web, it may be on life support, but I don't think it's out just yet.

(341 words)

Old Brain, New Media

Our assignment this week was to visit our professor on Second Life and then to blog about the experience. In the past, I have delved into online communities and self-created avatars with my use of RuneScape in high school. Second Life took that experience to a completely new level.

To summarize, my experience consisted of logging in and typing Penn State Island into the “places” search tool. From there I transported myself there and waited for my professor to show up, since I was early. In that time, I moved around a little bit and explored my surroundings.

Moving in Second Life is similar to playing a video game, except that you can control whether you wish to walk, run, or fly. Walking and running are just as they sound. However, flying was the coolest feature, since you could see a lot of your surroundings without having to be too patient.

From there I met with my professor. We briefly chatted about Second Life and what it was like to be on it. I thought it was humorous how our avatars typed in mid-air when we were typing a response. To be honest, I didn't quite like using the microphone. I thought it was too close since in reality I was laying in bed after a Sunday nap. This idea sounds a bit like telepresence, where the things we watch and see appear real to us and we respond in real ways.

I have entitled this blog entry “Old Brain, New Media,” primarily because in the usage of avatars we, the users, still continue to follow traditional social norms. I noticed that, when talking with Dr. Bock, it was comfortable to stand at a normal distance from her, even though in the game it really didn't matter if I stood 10 feet away, or even 100 feet away.

The interactivity of Second Life allowed me to feel like I was really in another realm that I could manipulate and control. I could change my camera angle or how I look. I could make my avatar run away, sit, or jump. The combination of interactivity and the appearance of the graphic interface made my experience with Second Life hyperreal.

While I don't think I plan on continuing my use of Second Life any time soon, it was certainly an experience that I will remember in my everyday use of the internet. Many websites are trying to get creative in how they draw viewers in, and each day we move closer to a Second Life type of browsing. I think it will be interesting to see how the internet develops in the future and whether we are truly moving towards an internet made up of avatars and virtual realms.

(459 words)

Using a Hammer to Insert a Screw

Our assignment this week was to read this article about the unimpressive impact of software in the classroom. The article provided an interesting viewpoint on how the use of classroom software for math and reading study made no impact on test scores.

The article cites a study by the US Department of Education which compared test scores from classrooms using technology and those who were not. The USDE found no statistical difference between the classrooms using software and those that teach math traditionally.

I think the software might not be making a difference for several reasons. The first of which is that they are measuring results with standardized test scores. The impact of classroom technology goes beyond test scores. The test scores measure the amount of learning, but they cannot measure whether students are less frustrated because they can work at their own pace or whether students become better users of technology through the software.

Another reason that I think that the software might not be making a difference is that there may simply be design flaws in the programming. A friend of mine had to use an online math program to do her math homework. Every time she would get a question wrong she would have to do three more questions. If she got one of those questions wrong, another three questions were added. In the end, she was never able to complete her homework because there were so many problems for her to complete. While she may have understood the concept, the program failed to allow her to succeed.

Even with the USDE study's dubious results, I believe that technology should be used in the classroom. While technology may or may not have an impact on test scores and rote learning, I believe that classrooms that harness technology can be more effective. By its nature, technology is interactive and stores a lot of information. Traditionally it was the teacher's job to be interactive and store a lot of information. If technology is used in the classroom then the role of a teacher shifts from being the lecturer to assisting students in research and self-study, which is more rewarding for the student and gives the teacher more time with each student to individually help them succeed.

Expanding this idea into college, should college be a completely online experience? The answer is no. College is about much more than just classroom lecture and individual study. Student activities, clubs, and teams serve an important role in the way that college students grow. In the workplace, knowledge is only the bare minimum. Workers need to be good leaders and followers as well as socially minded with their coworkers (in other words the worker gets along with coworkers). Without these skills which are developed in college, workers would not be as productive and businesses would not excel.

In closing, I want to remind everyone that technology is only a tool. If you try to use a hammer to insert a screw, bad things will happen. Therefore, we need to constantly be evaluating for what we use technology and for what we do not use it.

(522 words)