Looking at the Assignment

Hey out there,

As a part of the assessment for this course we are required to write an academic essay on a topic covered in this course. At this stage I'm torn between the first topic which is 'Mark Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both present different views of contemporary internet users. IN light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples; And the last topic which is 'What has happed to the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media? Discuss.

These two topics appeal to me as they look at how new technologies are being integrated into our daily lives and in that act, are they changing the way we view the world around us with regard to the community. Has the advent of the online communities changed the definition at all? Is it still defined as a group of like minded people getting together to share their thoughts and ideas, just because they don't do it in a face to face setting, does this make it any less of a community? I personally have friends who I've never met but I've got a open invitation to go stay with them if I'm ever in their country, does the fact that we've never seen each other detract from our friendship? These are just some of the ideas that have been rolling around inside my head as I've been going through the course readings, if you have any thoughts on the matter please don't be shy and share. :)

Well that's it for now, till tomorrow for another action packed day.

I'm using this as a dump for some web links I've been coming across so please just ignore the following :P

http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/117445/The_First_Worldwide_Culture_is_The_Internet

Internet gives bullies more power
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22840745-1702,00.html

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/
http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata99.htm
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/2007/11/social_networks_overtake_webma.html
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue2/bryant.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/17/2125206&from=rss
http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/?page_id=28
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2007/11/social_networking_continues_to_develop_o.php
http://www.llrx.com/features/goodgoogle.htm
http://www.thisisherd.com/2007/11/great-social-networking-stampede.html