Hello, and welcome to our final project,
This project will look at the way that changing communications technology has impacted our social interactions. We have chosen to represent our investigation through a variety of media. To understand our project fully, you should begin by clicking on the link to our Pinterest board, which contains all of our information. You do not need an account to view this page, but feel free to sign into your account if you have one, and follow our board.
Our project investigates the implications of communications technology in general terms and then looks at three specific pervasive technologies, the changes within them, and the effects that these changes have had on our social interactions. Chandler (1995), cautions looking at technology too broadly; keeping this in mind this project focuses on some issues with technology generally, then investigates individual forms of technology as case studies.
We chose to use a variety of tools to share our information for many reasons. Initially, we wanted to use visual means to display our findings but we decided that, to make the project more cohesive, it made the most sense to begin with a written introduction to our project. This introduction allows us to clarify and frame our work, which is indicative of our comfort level with the written word and we realized that the information we felt was integral to the presentation made the most sense in the format we have chosen. Additionally, the content in the last sections, which is visual and auditory with little text, lent itself well to that particular format, because it was more specific and tied to objects and visual behaviours. Pinterest is another example of a Rip.Mix.Feed activity, as we have taken material of different formats from online sources and organized it in one collective space, giving it new meaning. By putting these multimodal pieces together in Pinterest, it gave us the opportunity to look at the three technologies we have chosen and investigate their impacts on social interactions while still providing the initial background and research in written format, giving us the opportunity, as well, to show, “our understanding and competent control of a variety of representational forms,” (The New London Group, 1996, p. 60).
We hope you enjoy our investigation,
Lindsay, Troy and Rebecca
Lindsay, Rebecca and Troy,
I really enjoyed your presentation. The topic of fostering positive social interactions in our digital age is quite timely. It is a perfect example of Postman saying that technology a burden and a blessing. I thought the idea of hosting your presentation on Pinterest was very unique. It was a great way to incorporate social media to showcase the different modes of presentation you used in your project. Great job!
Thank you Lauren,
We really enjoyed making it! Pinterest seemed like a logical choice, and it shows the blending of social and educational purposes or uses with the same technology.
Rebecca
Very creative idea to use Pinterest as a way to gather different bits of information together. I notice you suggested an order to follow. I had a similar type dilemma when I use nonlinear type tools. I played with a timeline tool called “capzles” for this project. It allows you to post video, images, text, and they actually show up organized with much like your pinterest board. How did you come to decide to whether or not to give people direction (start here)?
Really enjoyed video essays -judicious of images and it was nice to hear two different voices.
Stacey
Hi Stacey,
Very interesting question. We felt, as a group, that the written part was a necessary piece to include as it helped to frame the rest of the work. I added the “start here” when I posted, but it would be interesting if the meaning of the different pieces would change if it had been done an alternate way.
I actually considered recommending watching the videos with and without sound, as I felt that might make for an interesting discussion, but it was outside of the scope of the project, and this way the project is easily accessible for anyone, without complicating the process of viewing the information, or confusing the points we felt were important.
Note: Group correct me if there’s anything I haven’t explained properly 😉
Thanks for your thoughtful feedback Stacey!
Rebecca