Well, this is certainly an interesting look at social networking, and as a heads up, I’m not sure how much of my reflection is tongue-in-cheek or dead serious. I haven’t read the full text yet myself, but I downloaded it and I’ll definitely post again if I find anything really interesting that I agree or disagree with. I never really hear of anyone using MySpace anymore (and certainly the music educators I’ve talked to regarding using Web 2.0 and social networking have never mentioned using MySpace for their professional development) but I always assumed that that was because it was solely outdated in comparison to other social networks and didn’t have a real functionality for music educators. I can’t imagine using MySpace to actually get anything done, but maybe that’s just a hidden bias I wasn’t aware of… (more on this later)
Regarding the actual content of this article, I’m a little on the fence. I did have a MySpace for a little bit (I think someone told me to get on it?) but never actually used it. It was pre-Facebook, when I got it, and I definitely moved to Facebook when all my friends and I went off to college. Here were some of the reasons why:
It was still exclusive at the time, so being on Facebook meant that you had to be in college and for newly-graduated incoming freshmen, any signs that you were definitely in college were pretty attractive.
I never talked to anyone on MySpace that I knew personally, plus there were random people on it that would add me as a friend. I was concerned about privacy, which was (at the time, at least, in my opinion) something Facebook was really good about standing for.
Honestly, as the analysis states, MySpace got kind of tacky. Now, I suppose that the author of the work would question whether I’m expressing classist or implicitly racist views in light of the demographic makeup of the website… I definitely remember, though, not wanting to look at ugly backgrounds or lots of spam. So I guess that means I don’t do well with “digital graffiti”? I certainly do fit the racial (Asian) makeup of the individuals who fled from MySpace to Facebook…
I’ll end with the text used to end the article:
Boyd’s conclusion is that online environments are merely “a reflection of everyday life,” and that online communities are immune to the techno-optimist belief that the internet eliminates the deep divisions between people in real life.
Regardless of whether or not you’re really buying into the argument here (and again, I need to read the full text in order to make any real judgments on the analysis), if there really is such an observable shift in demographic between the two sites, what does that mean for music educators hoping to connect with students online if we mostly use other websites like Facebook and Twitter? Is it wrong of me or, again, indicative of my apparent racist or classist views that I would really like to never use MySpace again? Also, I’m curious now about the racial makeup of Twitter…
Today’s example of music technology’s pervasiveness— look at this crossword’s clue. Since when is “shuffle” so strongly associated with “iPod” that the first can induce the recall of the second? This is just one example of how a word can be given a completely different meaning when it is associated with something new and that word pairing is frequent enough in society. I mean, certainly that clue worked for me!
Now I’m curious about whether people from different generations would have difficulty with this clue, or if it is just that pervasive in today’s society!
Not that I haven’t totally primed you to think “iPod” when you read that prompt… But would you have gotten the correct answer? Let me know!
I’m really excited about the fact that the MPLN has just opened for beta! I can’t think of any better ways to utilize the power of Web 2.0 and the quickness of sharing information on the internet than this website. Here is the mission statement, as written by Dr. Joe Pisano—
The mission of the MPLN is to generate better, more accessible, information about music, education, and technology and to use technologies to bring musicians of all types together to benefit by it, discuss it, and collaborate with it for the generation of even better and even more accessible information about music, education, and technology.
I‘ve been honored to be a member of the MPLN from its alpha stage and I already really enjoy using it to share information, stories, and advice. It has killer Facebook and Twitter integration (when those sites work!), a growing list of supported embeddable media, and already a great community of people who are willing to help and answer any questions that a musician or music educator may have, no matter how stupid or trivial it may seem. I like to think of it as combining the best of Facebook/Twitter status updates with focused discussion boards/groups on a variety of topics. I’ll be posting more when it gets to the launch but I strongly encourage everyone involved in music and music education to keep this site on their radar.
Interested? Check out some introductory YouTubes here!
An interview with @jimfrankel + a general introduction to our upcoming Music Education Week 2010 coverage!
The conference certainly was a whirlwind adventure, and be sure to watch http://musiced.pressible.org as well as http://www.musicedmajor.net for our recaps of all the academies and sessions that we went to. While it was exhausting, I found the entire experience to be simultaneously really exciting and, even though I’m still a pre-service teacher, I certainly have a lot to think about now regarding the field and how I want to work in the future.
Intelligence is learnable. People can become more intelligent by living and working every day in a particular kind of environment: one that coaches them in using problem-solving skills and praises them for using the skills; one that holds them accountable for using them well because it assumes they are smart and capable.
Resnick, L. B. & Hall, M. W. (2003). Principles of Learning for Effort-Based Education (E-Book).
There is mounting evidence coming from research in cognitive science and social psychology to support this theory… we are legitimately able to behave as if anyone can learn anything. In the world outside the fast track, advanced placement, and gifted and talented programs, there are hidden capacities waiting to be unleashed — and not just in a few undiscovered geniuses.
Resnick, L. B. & Hall, M. W. (2003). Principles of Learning for Effort-Based Education (E-Book).
