Research Proposals:

Brett, Nebojsa, Louse & Haoli

How does a digital classroom affect students and instructors?

Summary of Abstract: The intervention of computers, wireless internet has changed the traditional structure of a lecture classroom. The digital lecture has eliminated the shortcomings of overhead projector - context and, promote the quality of class notes by visual image, videos, and the ease of changing the content. There are benefits to both the students and the instructors by using "digital blackboard." Students and understand the course material better by the combination of traditional text notes and visualization of examples and graphs, while the instructors can provide more information other than course materials from the Internet to give the students a better understanding of the subject.

Mora, Arnold &; Devon;

Electronic Trading in Copyright Objects and Its Implications for Universities http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/ETCU.html In Roger Clarke's article Electronic Trading in Copyright Objects and Its Implications for Universities, he lists the main factors " underlying the dramatic changes in the process, economics and political economy of trading in copyright works". Clarke addresses the positive uses of "digital formats" but also acknowledges that for organizations "that are dependent on revenue arising from the publishing of copyright objects, these developments also have substantial implications, which are potentially highly threatening to their current patterns of behaviour, and even to their very existence."

Lee's group : 

Darrel, Nathan, Paul & Jessica: Title?

My first question concerning Digital Literacy focuses on the inequality it creates between the already unequal global south and global north regions of the world.

Why is there a global digital divide between nations of the global north and of the global south? What are the benefits and downfalls of such a disparity for either the global north and global south? Is this global divide shrinking, growing, or remaining stable?

I tried using the UBC library to find an article, but i could never get it to work so instead i used Google scholar to find an article on the Global Digital Divide

Asfaq Ishaq(On the Global Digital Divide, 2001) presents the "digital and information revolution as a historic opportunity for developing countries to take a quantum leap forward...and become integrated into the global virtual economy"; however as he proclaims, "Internet density is still much higher in industrial countries, as well as in affluent and educated communities in every country, than elsewhere". Asfaq Ishaq is concerned that the disparities that already exist are only going to be magnified "to levels unseen and untenable" therefore "urgent actions are needed at the local, national, and international levels to bridge the global digital divide".

I am interested in this abstract because it views digital technology as a goal for the developing countries that would improve their "productive and creative capacities". I am interested why that is and how the necessary changes can be made so that the global south can become more digital. However at the same time, the abstract is concerned with the possibility that these disparities are being magnified and that changes must be made to level the divide.

Lucus, Kelsy & Waylon :

Henrique, Vikrim & Tiger:

Digitalization of information: progress or retrogression?

    In societies where access to the internet and other means of digital communication are available with ease, individuals have been found to suffer from grave information overload problems. The constituents of digital divide, in this sense, could be sorted into three parts: the information rich, the information poor, and the information burdened. With this in mind, how has access to information changed since the advent of computers and digitalization? Has access to immediate information made people come closer together, or has it made us more disoriented and disconnected? With this in mind, should ways of circumventing this information overload be taught in schools so that information may be used constructively, or would a return to traditional forms of teaching literacy (without computers) - where the access to information tends to be slower and thought-through - be the only way to avoid the creation of a disoriented population?

Works Cited:

Goulding, A. (2001). Information Poverty or Overload? Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://lis.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/33/3/109

    This article by Goulding inspired me to ask the question of whether easier access to a greater variety of information makes us better citizens or more disoriented. My hunch is that yes, our generation is more disoriented and less politically engaged than in the 1960's, for instance. In attempting to answer this question, I plan to look at a variety of research which attempts to answer the impact of too much information on the population, and whether working with computers is a progress or a retrogression. In general, I will question whether what is new is necessarily good. Some of the articles I plan to use in my research are the following:

Horihula, J. L. (2003). Los 10 Paradigmas de la E-Comunicación. Retrievec March 9, 2007, from http://mccd.udc.es/orihuela/paradigmas/

Boswell, G. (1997). Non-Places and the Enfeeblement of Rhetoric. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://enculturation.gmu.edu/1_1/boswell.html

Trisha, Clara & Ricky

Now - your next step in the research process:

Once you are happy with an academic (peer reviewed) article that approaches your research question ----->

a) Make your notes for gist on your journal page.

b) Briefly summarize the article for me, on your journal page.

c) Post your summary on your Group Research Page before Tuesday March 13th.