lørdag 13. februar 2010

Information Society - bad?


When I was young, we had our daily newspaper, and only one TV channel. And nothing happened, it was a boring world. No robberies, rapes, murders, etc. Maybe because it was a boring world, maybe it was because we never knew.
After the Information Society came creeping in to our kitchen, school, living room, office, etc the world turned out to be a cruel place to be.
Nowadays you see the robberies, rapes, murders, etc every day.

Did it happened before, or is this something that came with the Information Society.
I would say; yes, it happened probably before.

Did the Information Society increase the violence?
Let’s look at two examples:

Example 1:
Let’s say there is a school massacre in USA; Can this happen again in Finland, with almost same procedures, a few years later without the Information Society?

Example 2:
Let’s say there is a school massacre in USA. The media are full of stuff, how the person did it, why he did it, and how he did it. They even find the persons diary, describe everything they find here and print it in media. There are psychologists telling their story about how people like that think, and say it will happen again.
Can this happen again in Finland, with almost same procedures, a few years later with the Information Society?

mandag 8. februar 2010

Are we the one to bring up our children?


Earlier, the parents knew how to bring up their children, they learned from their parents, or from other parents. The children knew how to behave when they met other people on the street. Most children were nice and humble. And if they weren’t, the neighbors told their parents about their behavior.

Today, the children learn on the internet from God knows who, maybe from the information society.

If they meet other people, with their nicknames, how do they act?
Are they still nice and humble, or are they worse.
How does the parents know?

Let’s say they don’t behave as they should. Maybe they are troublesome, and do illegal things on the internet, and get caught; “I saw you did that SweetLittleAngel, I will tell your parents”
The one with the nickname “SweetLittleAngel” will probably laugh, “How? Are you going to call SweetBigAngel?”

Should we only give up on this one? Let the children be assholes on the internet as long as they still behave when they’re talking with their parents IRL. I think some children feel internet is a place where they can do whatever they want, without thinking consequence. The internet has probably no consequences.
I have given up, trying to follow up how my children behave on the internet...

A little digression:
The information society isn’t only bad for the parent-children relationship. At least parents don’t have to do those embarrassing “flowers and bees” conversations anymore. The children already learned everything they need to know from the information society.

Information Society - the concept an related notions


What is the information society?
I can look it up in Wikipedia to see what it is, I can look through our classroom to see if there are some explanations, or I can do what I think is most funny, just write something and use my reflections. When I am finished I can look it up.

My mind works best when I listen too Zappa, come on Over -nite sensation:

Well it has something to do with information, and when was information invented, and used in a society?
Maybe, when the two first persons made rumors about a third person, some million years ago was the start of the information society.
Or later, when the printing press was invented by Johann Gutenberg in 1447, at least that was a big step into the information society.
When the radio and later the television were invented, we are almost there. Computer, internet was even greater step on the way, and finally when the first spam message was sent in 1978 from DEC Marketing to every Arpanet address on the west coast of USA; we are in the information society.


I look it up:
Well, I was close, Wikipedia says:
An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, uses, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity.


Guess what? It is now! just now. We are the digital citizens of the world, my friends...

Are we all participating in the information society, yes in one way or another.
My auntie, who doesn’t have her own computer and of course don’t use the internet. She is a part of the information society, because she use a cell phone. In fact she is a digital citizen.

I look it up on my old encyclopedia: whatis.techtarget.com.
This is what the G7 (now G8) recognized a few years ago:
Progress in information technologies and communication is changing the way we live: how we work and do business, how we educate our children, study and do research, train ourselves, and how we are entertained.


And this is from a 1997 IBM report also quote from whatis.techtarget.com:
A society characterized by a high level of information intensity in the everyday life of most citizens, in most organizations and workplaces; by the use of common or compatible technology for a wide range of personal, social, educational and business activities, and by the ability to transmit, receive and exchange digital data rapidly between places irrespective of distance.


Well I’ve cleared out some things now, I’ll be back!

søndag 7. februar 2010

The paperless school!

Back in old the good old days before 1995, when only nerds knew about the internet. The school consisted of boring black board and cheap books.
When you should write about “how was your holiday” or whatever you should write about. You used a pencil, writing in a book, delivered to the teacher, just to wait a week or two, to see if your grade improved or not.

Here is the point:
I was thinking about, well maybe someone already use this, but what if the students used blog as the primary tool to hand in their work, the student could get feedback from the teacher, from other students, and even from the parents.
Or the blog could be set up so only the teacher could give feedback and the parents could look into the blog, from time to time. At least we will save the Amazon rain forest :)

Well, it was just a thought; maybe the paperless toilet will come before the paperless school….

mandag 1. februar 2010

Opera, not the browser!


Today I've been watching opera, not only because I like opera but because I attend a study here in Nesna which is about creating an opera. And we are creating an opera. The one I've been watching today is called "La Boheme", yes you're right it is one of the operas that everyone has heard about.

Ok, what else did I do today, I have written and uploaded my HTML task in our "203 class".

Tomorrow I will take a walk down to a local fisherman to see if I can get some fresh, tasty, and delicious cod with liver and roe, so my wife can make my favorite meal: Mølja.