By Kristen Luca
Facebook may soon be coming to a classroom near you.
Or at least one of its companions in the social media market may be. Services like Facebook, Twitter, and del.icio.us are not going unnoticed on college campuses. Two University of Georgia professors have decided to work with those services in their classrooms.
Karen Russell, associate professor at Grady College, uses several social media platforms in her courses.
“Since I teach PR and social media is important ... I try to expose them all to social media,” Russell said.
She connects with her students through del.icio.us, a social bookmarking Web site. Russell assigns her course readings through the service, which is a place for Internet users to share and distribute links.
While Russell uses delicious, Scott Shamp, director of the New Media Institute at UGA, utilizes Facebook, a popular social network for college students. Facebook is another popular social networking Web site, which allows users to make profiles and create groups based on interests. Students are required to have a account to join the class Facebook group, which is used to send out readings, answer student questions, and deliver assignments. Shamp could not be reached for comment, but his teaching assistant Cindy Reynolds spoke on the use of Facebook in teaching the “Introduction to New Media” course.
“Some of them didn’t want to join,” Reynolds said, “but we made them. It’s a New Media course and they need to use new media.”
Facebook facilitates class communication for her course. For instance, according to Reynolds, she gets asked the same questions by students repeatedly, and the Facebook group cuts down on the time spent answering them by allowing her to answer the question once.
Facebook is not the only option for classrooms. In addition to del.icio.us, Karen Russell uses Twitter. “My favorite by far is Twitter. [My students] will tell you I’m addicted to it,” she said.
Twitter is a microblogging service allowing users to update their page with messages of 140 characters or less. Users can choose to receive updates, called “tweets,” from other accounts, as well as reply to tweets and hold conversations.
Russell uses Twitter to communicate with her students. “I could do the same thing by e-mail,” she said, “but doing it by Twitter forces them to use it.”
Russell said that social media allows her to connect to students on a more personal level, since her students often use their Twitter accounts to comment on their personal lives. She said that the technology gives her the ability to get to know students in a different way.
However, some are resistant to the idea. Ricky Contes, a third-year English major, said he would be uncomfortable if a professor required him to use social media for class. Even with services like Twitter, which do not offer as many potentially personal details as Facebook, he said he would object to their use in a classroom setting. Contes also said that if social media and academics were combined, “I would never get anything done.”
When Russell first started using Twitter for class, in the summer of 2008, students’ reactions were similar to Contes’s. “Let me tell you,” she said, “at first they hated it.”
This semester, however, her students have been more agreeable. The Web site’s popularity has reached the point where her students already have accounts before coming to class and she has received positive feedback about it. She also uses other Web sites like PROpenMic, an online community for PR students, educators, and professionals.
A student who has not used social media in class before seemed to reflect that attitude. Katie Wyke, a fourth-year English major, said that she would enjoy using social media for coursework.
“It’d be easy to get on it. I’m on it anyway sometimes,” said Wyke.
While social media have become more popular, convenience and a personal quality have now extended that reach to desks in UGA classrooms.
Edited by: Christopher
Showing posts with label Final Edit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final Edit. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
iTunes article (Final)
Is iTunes changing the face of music for the better?
By Thomas Patrick Hooper
ATHENS, Ga. – Conventional wisdom says not every Tom, Dick, and Harry can be a rock star. With the rise of the digital age, that may no longer be the case.
Aspiring musicians have found a number of opportunities in the likes of iTunes, a digital media player created by Apple Inc., now in its eighth phase. While best known as a source to download music, the iTunes program offers a wide variety of media to download, allowing users to watch movies, listen to audio books and even conduct their own podcasts.
The iTunes Store has sold over 5 billion songs, including tracks from lesser-known artists.
Austin Lite, a 19-year-old sophomore at Georgia State University, is one such aspiring musician. Lite, under the alias of A-Lite, has uploaded a three-song album, Thirstay Thursday, for mass consumption on the iTunes Store.
“I Googled how to do it,” Lite said, who went through the digital music distribution site TuneCore to make his iTunes debut possible. “You just upload [your songs] and they listen to it to make sure it’s music. It was really easy.”
Lite makes 99 cents for every song downloaded, which is not uncommon. The iTunes Store offers its songs at prices of 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 per track.
“I get 100% of the profit, although it’s not that much,”said Lite.
Lite isn’t alone in embracing music-sharing media like iTunes.
Elijah Cross, 28, has taken advantage of social networking and file streaming sites like Facebook and ReverbNation, respectively, for the sake of promoting his music. Cross is the lead vocalist and main promoter of Christian rock band His Reunited, which he co-founded with guitarist Jimmy Parr.
“I had dealings with booking agents and managers,” Cross said. “It isn’t always easy finding someone who has your best interests at heart.”
Cross put agents and managers aside and began promoting himself through the Internet four years ago, after leaving a previous band.
“You can spend more time creating.” Cross said of the self-promoting approach. “The more time you put into it, the more response you get. You’ve got to invite 1,000 people to a show to get 100.”
However, the digital age has not been entirely beneficial to musicians.
The relationship between the recording industry and the file sharing community grew heated in 2000 with highly publicized legal troubles of Napster, an online file sharing host that offered its services free of charge. The United States Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court ordering that Napster be shut down after legal battles with artists like Metallica, Madonna, and Dr. Dre.
“People perceive music as being free,” said Bruce Burch, director and founder of the University of Georgia’s Music Business program.
The Internet’s capacity for abuse isn’t the only thing that troubles Burch about the proliferation of online music distribution.
“With technology being what it is, it doesn’t cost as much to make a record. Anyone can make a record,” Burch said. “It’s hard to find the good stuff when you have to sift through the bad stuff.”
However, iTunes may be taking steps to move away from promoting the less notable musicians of its catalogue with offers like iTunes Originals, albums and tracks exclusive to the iTunes Store. Many of the iTunes Originals consist of live performances and interviews with some of the most popular and frequently downloaded artists.
“I think you’ve got to be able to perform live,” Burch said of anyone looking for success in the world of music. “That’s how Mozart did it.”
Editor: Sydney Slotkin
By Thomas Patrick Hooper
ATHENS, Ga. – Conventional wisdom says not every Tom, Dick, and Harry can be a rock star. With the rise of the digital age, that may no longer be the case.
Aspiring musicians have found a number of opportunities in the likes of iTunes, a digital media player created by Apple Inc., now in its eighth phase. While best known as a source to download music, the iTunes program offers a wide variety of media to download, allowing users to watch movies, listen to audio books and even conduct their own podcasts.
The iTunes Store has sold over 5 billion songs, including tracks from lesser-known artists.
Austin Lite, a 19-year-old sophomore at Georgia State University, is one such aspiring musician. Lite, under the alias of A-Lite, has uploaded a three-song album, Thirstay Thursday, for mass consumption on the iTunes Store.
“I Googled how to do it,” Lite said, who went through the digital music distribution site TuneCore to make his iTunes debut possible. “You just upload [your songs] and they listen to it to make sure it’s music. It was really easy.”
Lite makes 99 cents for every song downloaded, which is not uncommon. The iTunes Store offers its songs at prices of 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 per track.
“I get 100% of the profit, although it’s not that much,”said Lite.
Lite isn’t alone in embracing music-sharing media like iTunes.
Elijah Cross, 28, has taken advantage of social networking and file streaming sites like Facebook and ReverbNation, respectively, for the sake of promoting his music. Cross is the lead vocalist and main promoter of Christian rock band His Reunited, which he co-founded with guitarist Jimmy Parr.
“I had dealings with booking agents and managers,” Cross said. “It isn’t always easy finding someone who has your best interests at heart.”
Cross put agents and managers aside and began promoting himself through the Internet four years ago, after leaving a previous band.
“You can spend more time creating.” Cross said of the self-promoting approach. “The more time you put into it, the more response you get. You’ve got to invite 1,000 people to a show to get 100.”
However, the digital age has not been entirely beneficial to musicians.
The relationship between the recording industry and the file sharing community grew heated in 2000 with highly publicized legal troubles of Napster, an online file sharing host that offered its services free of charge. The United States Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court ordering that Napster be shut down after legal battles with artists like Metallica, Madonna, and Dr. Dre.
“People perceive music as being free,” said Bruce Burch, director and founder of the University of Georgia’s Music Business program.
The Internet’s capacity for abuse isn’t the only thing that troubles Burch about the proliferation of online music distribution.
“With technology being what it is, it doesn’t cost as much to make a record. Anyone can make a record,” Burch said. “It’s hard to find the good stuff when you have to sift through the bad stuff.”
However, iTunes may be taking steps to move away from promoting the less notable musicians of its catalogue with offers like iTunes Originals, albums and tracks exclusive to the iTunes Store. Many of the iTunes Originals consist of live performances and interviews with some of the most popular and frequently downloaded artists.
“I think you’ve got to be able to perform live,” Burch said of anyone looking for success in the world of music. “That’s how Mozart did it.”
Editor: Sydney Slotkin
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