Week Two Blog

In week two we started to look at communication online in more depth. We looked at traditional communication e.g. face-to-face, written or telephone, and semi-traditional methods of communication e.g. email, online chat or mobile phones. Linked to communication online is the question of who has the control of the information communicated online and which information of trustworthy. In week two I gained an understanding of the term gatekeeper. This interested me as I too can become a gatekeeper through blogging.

By looking at communication in class it made me think about how we communicate online and the effect that that has on the individual. In another module I looked at one's presentation of self online and how it may be different to ones presentation of self in 'real life'. I saw a strong link between the two modules during the week two lecture. In lecture two we were challenged to go without social media for a day. I took this challenge. I thought that it would be a simple exercise as I see myself as strong willed. However the realization of just how much power social media has over my daily life was clear. I did not miss scrolling through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, however I had the constant thought and worry on my mind that people would be trying to contact me and I could not be reached even though I was alive and well. I found it difficult to believe that technology's such as social media had such a strong level of control over my life.

In our face-to-face tutorial I had to create an App called HelloPur. I did not realize that there were certain websites available to internet users for the creation of personal apps. We used the MIT App inventor which can be found through following this link: http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/.  I found the it difficult at first to get a grasp of the concept of app making. Although I use apps everyday the thought of creating one was daunting. However through using the MIT App Inventor in the face-to-face tutorial my team mates and I were able to tease out a few simple ideas for an app that we could work on and use as our group project. I found that the instructions available on the website were very straightforward therefore making it easy to invent the app.

An example of the work the MIT App Inventor can do can be seen by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJWIaSyV6-Q